The building of the dragon wagon and the landing craft is now finished. Most was made out of the box. I only added a few things at the M26 like belts for the jerry cans or the lockers at the armoured cab's hatches. The LCM's gun mounts needed reworking. I could not find any reference wich show the mounts featured in the kit. So i decided to do the navy pedestal cal .50 mount myself. The mounting was made with evergreen sheets, tubes etc. The shields were reworked to fit the original apearence. The "tombestone" ammo boxes come from the Tamiya M16 kit.
If have uploaded some new pics wich show the current state. https://armorama.kitmaker.net/photos/showgallery.php?cat=13996&ppuser=2283


Both kits are now ready to paint.

any comments are welcome.

Very nice work, Harald. Welcome to Armorama!

Please post more pics when you get it painted.

That looks pretty amazing Harald.

Looks awesome Harald. One monster carrying another.
I like the scratch job on the .50s. Great work there. Is this vehicle combo to represent the "Crossing of the Rhine:? Just wondering, because I'm curious what color you are going to paint the LCM?

That is pretty good Harald, even on your plank size choices, they look the same size as the planks per scale, that I seen at that big naval base out in Bremerton Wa., where they told me they contracted the the wood suppliers to cut big planks like that from time to time, as the old ones wore out, or rotted, or taken in shipment.

That is all they use them for, is blocking, and bracing and he told me they had to be special ordered cause of their size, and hard to get, cause they are the size of a normal tree they cut down for lumber, but I guess some of the trees are bigger, but I think they just about stopped the cutting of the biggest red woods, I don't know for sure, but instead of many 2x4's or 2x6's, or2x 12's, they get one plank like you got.

See they got to stop all their normal operation to comply on getting them big planks, cause they are set up to cut them into smaller boards, so they got to plan ahead, and they cost a lot more for the navy department according to him.

He said they used to build ships there during WWII

Kerry

Hi Harald.
Great work so far. I wanted to mention that I have a picture of the subject you are doing. In the picture, the LVT is loaded with the back end first (toward the cab of the DW). I think this is baecause the engine and wheel house and gun mounts add a lot of weight to that end.
Keep posting, looks good.

Chuck

@Kencelot: Yes, realy . I wonder how they managed it to drive this beast from the shore to the rhine. It must be around 12-14 feet high. It should represent the "Crossing of the Rhine". I am not yet sure. I've heard that OD was used at the rhine x-ing. but I'd like to paint the LCM navy gray. Some pics show crafts wich are much darker than the dragon wagons. So i think this combination is possible too. :-)

@cfbush2000:
Hi Chuck,
both variants of loading were used. The one you are talking about is "cooler" i think. I tried it, but the rear overhang of the load is larger and i don't have so much space in my shelfs. ;-)

Harald

@straightedge:
the plank size does not match the real thing right now. I have to thin them for 2 mm each.