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U.S. Navy Landing Ship Medium - Revell 1:144


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U.S. Navy Landing Ship Medium (early)


REVELL 1:144


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The Landing Ship Medium (LSM) was a large landing craft capable of carrying tanks and, due to its size, was classified as a ship with dimensions of 203ft 6in (62.03m) long overall and 34ft wide. These were not insignificant ships in that the crew numbered 4 officers and as many as 133 enlisted men. This versatile landing craft was capable of carrying a typical U.S. mechanised platoon direct to the beach-head in full combat conditions. The tank deck capacity had a maximum hold area in comparison to overall displacement (the tank deck took up most the space of the ship) and could carry either: five medium tanks; 3 heavy tanks (150 tons max); six LVT's; up to nine DUKW's; or any combination therein.

Armament for the LSM initially consisted of two 40mm cannon and four 20mm anti-aircraft guns; although this fit was enhanced and modified throughout the service life of these ships.

The design was authorised in 1943 with the production being allocated to six shipbuilding yards situated around the United States. The first LSM to be built was LSM 201 which was completed 26th February 1944 and commissioned 14th April 1944. In total 558 LSM's were built, of which 64 were either completed or converted to LSM®, however none of these craft served in Europe or D-Day etc. and were all deployed to the Pacific for the advances on the Japanese forces.

Most of these ships were scrapped soon after the end of the war, with the majority being disposed in 1946. Some did continue to be kept in reserve and were re-activated for Korea with a few even being re-activated again for Vietnam. Other vessels were sold on to various allied nations such as Germany, Greece, South Korea and Taiwan etc.

 

 

The Kit

 

The box containing the kit is quite sturdy for Revell who normal pack their kits in end-fit boxes, with the art work on the lid showing quite and evocative image of tanks offloading from LSMs onto a Japanese held beach whilst under heavy fire. Around the box sides are photographs of a completed kit plus a potted history of the LSM which is written in English, German, French and Dutch languages.

Opening the box we find three pieces which form the hull and deck base. Then we have sixteen sets of sprues, some of these are duplicates, and are all produced in a nice medium grey plastic. The colouring of the parts can be a benefit for anyone who does not normally use grey primers, or even paints, as the ship could look fine if assembled as-is.

 

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The detail on the sprues is good although there should be plenty of scope for extra detailing if and when any aftermarket elements become available. As an example, although fairly crisp and clear, the ladder on the inside of the bow door would benefit from being replaced by a finer p.e. ladder in its place.

This sprue also holds two of the four components which make up the stand if making the model as a full-hull standalone display.

 

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As with the real thing, this model has quite a wide open deck area in which the structural integrity could be compromised when assembled. In other words the sides would have a tendency to collapse inwards around the top of the hull area and to over come this Revell has incorporated two fairly rigid internal cross-spars, which would fit under the tank deck and up the insides of the hull plating.

 

 

 

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This next sprue contains the ramp components, which can be assembled either raised for underway setting or lowered, with the bow doors open, for an assault setting.

The four long pieces on this sprue are the tank deck side walls and top decks. There is so much open area on this model that there should be plenty of scope to further detail these areas, either with aftermarket parts or possibly just scratchbuilt items from plastic rod etc.

 

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The next two sprues hold the main deck fittings and include the armoured bridge, gun tubs, the mast plus various ladders and boats. The gun tubs are nicely detailed and would benefit from painting in advance of adding the guns.

 

 

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There are three sets of sprue G which contains the bitts (bollards), deck vents and loads of stanchions for the deck railings. The railings which are to be fitted to these stanchions are supplied as a length of fine black cotton on a plastic holder. Personally I would replace these with fine wire or filament that has been twisted and painted steel grey to represent the cable railings

 


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The next pair of sprues have the remaining pieces for the display stand, deck side walls adjacent the bow ramp and various cleats and cable holders.

 

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Smaller items on the next few sprues contain the machinery items for the ramp lowering facility, the propellers and other deck equipments.

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There are three more sprues which hold, in total, 3 M4 Sherman main battle tanks, 3 x M8 Greyhound scout cars and 3 x 21/2 ton 6x6 GS trucks which can be used to populate the tank deck or be shown offloading from the ramp of the LSM.

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DECALS

I apologise for the quality of the scan of these decals, this is mainly down to my scanner and not the quality of the decals.

These decals are nicely produced, in house by Revell, and have minimal carrier film around the actual wording or markings. There are sufficient decals to make a set for one of four different ships; LSM-14, LSM-133, LSM-201 and LSM-210 however, with a little fine cutting I'm sure that other vessels could be represented. There are also various white stars for applying onto the combat vehicles

Finally there are two sides of a US flag plus a name decal which is applied to the display stand.

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Conclusion

This looks to be a very good and large model landing ship which should make up into a nice standalone display model on its stand or as part of an action packed beach assault diorama. These LSMs were only used in effective numbers in the Pacific Campaign and therefore somewhat limits the colours and finishes that the model can be completed in. I hope that this kit becomes a success for Revell and that they consider producing other landing craft in this scale; especially those that were utilised across all theatres, including Europe, Italy and North Africa in a future releases.

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

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