IWO JIMA LVTA

[krow113]

AFV Clubs 1/35 LVTA 4.

For an Iwo Jima dio.

Nothing original , beached 'Gator , guys jumping out of it, gunners gunning , driver cursing. I read some of these bottomed out on Iwo's black volcanic sand . The LVTA 4 had back gate , this being one of their first deployments I figured the troops would still be used to jumping out of it.

So , Verlinden , Warriors , Hobby Fan figs and Tamiya weapons and flame-thrower dude.

Beginning years ago with components and players:

Assy begins:

AFV Club accessory track set:

The silicone block is a plunge casting of an assembled track segment. This was used to speed the assembly of the 4 piece track links, ya that's 4 pieces each!.

The last few days assy:

Kit goes together well. You need to clear all glue surface as tolerances are tight on the plate work that is the majority of the major components and make sure all is tight.

Fiddly wheels but in the end go together ok.

Fig progression:

A little too long under the sunlamp  for first shadow:

lol

We'll lighten those boys up . but I'll be looking for a tanned Pacific Marine .

Thanks for lookin"!

 

 

 

[Etienne]

Hello,

 

very nice project ... if I may give you some advice, the fatigues and webgear colors are way off, the USMC combat clothing was some kind of grey green, often faded by sun, salt and wear, and the webgear was some light beige, nearly sand colored.

 

Here is an exemple ...

 

 

Regards, E

[krow113]

Thanks Etienne.

The colors are fine.  I always start with an enamel base to begin what is usually at least three applications or treatments of wash's ,drybrush and color work.

They are the first of many applications to come.

Last night I was fooling around with grey filter/wash's to begin the toning down.

If you look at the first pics of the box tops there are at least three different renditions of the Pacific marine green shown.

And research has already been done as always!

Base work begins with a shape cut and some palm trees stacked for a retaining wall, to build up the beach work to come.

And yes , I am well aware there are no palm trees on Iwo Jima. The retaining wall idea was in play prior to that info coming to light.

[clive_t]

Wow, this promises to be a cool project - following!

[krow113]

Always welcome clive!

...and thank you...

Some work on the figs , I figured that some glaze' or filters or whatever you wanna call them, thin translucent applications , woukld bring out the shades and colors of the Marine uniforms. 

Here the wounded guy has been treated on his lower parts, you can see the greying out beginning:

** Work is ongoing**

Edited February 26, 2018 by krow113

[Kingsman]

Is that the Verlinden (A)4 driver's cabin set or are they kit parts?  The Verlinden set is certainly missing the vehicle radio, which sits on top of the stowage unit to the right of the co-driver.  If those are kit parts, it's missing from them too.

 

IIRC the "stowage unit" should be a rack for 8 30cal ammunition cans stowed flat, i.e with the tops of the lids visible.  Difficult to correct now perhaps, but if you can shave off the lumps and get hold of an etched brass ammo can set from ET or Aber you should be able to apply the can tops and handles as an overlay.  But it may not really be seen through the small hatch, and certainly won't if you have a crewman in place.  However, the early LVT-4 had no hull MG so that area may have been different.  The Verlinden set is for the (A)4 with the hull gun.

 

Do Dragon give clear parts for the periscope domes?  I have the Italeri (A)1 and (A)4 in my stash and they're just solid lumps, which I've been struggling to replace.  Best I've found so far is googly eyes for toys from a craft shop.  These have vac-formed domes, if a little flat.

[krow113]

DA thanks!

Your questions and the a/m you are referring to are made for the Italeri kits if I am thinking correctly. Certainly the Verlinden interior items.

My Verlinden notation is referring to the figs , specifically the driver who will be in one of the hatch's. You can see his head and torso with life jacket in the fig pics. After that and close up of the main body , none of the interior will be seen.

All of the mechanical equipment is from the kit ; - AFV Clubs LVTA 4  kit # F35205 , and yes the driver hatch's are well done with a number of parts , clear parts for the periscopes and the domes , very nice. I would look for clear vacformed product packaging if you can find something useable , or drop form them... I have an Eduard set for the Italeri kit and cant see much of it being used...

I can recommend this kit whole heartedly.

It has p/e , clear acetate and excellent detail. Get the track set as well as the rubber bands are the only let down.

Here the grey glaze application brings more mainstream acceptable results:

[corsaircorp]

Hello Krow!

Aï caramba ! This is exactly the kind of thread that induce me in some ideas !

Very good job, I'll follow on if you don't mind.

Must find one for my stash !

Sincerely.

corsaircorp

[Etienne]

Hi krow113,

 

your method is quite interesting  ... do you used enamel or oil filters / washes ?

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the next steps, I really like PTO dios !!

 

E

[krow113]

cc, Etienne ; Thank you.

 The glaze is Vallejo glaze medium with grey-green mixed in. Acrylics.

I epoxied in the Verlinden resin driver, although I think this is the co-drivers position , so he's looking out for the driver:

I'll have to liquid  mask him when I go  to paint the main body.

[krow113]

Marine progression:

Edited February 27, 2018 by krow113

[krow113]

End of the day.

Equipment array:

Figs to the first sealer , a clear flat coat tomorrow to seal in the paint to date:

Thanks for lookin'!

[FrancisGL]

A nice job with vehicle for now, and figures looks very effective too...

Cheers mate 

[krow113]

Thank you Francis.

The figs are looking very bluish on here , they are less than that in reality. Grey drybrushing next.

Full on assy of the hull commenced , not being armour oriented I opted for wheels and all of the bigger pieces to be added. I'll figure out paint work as I go. I've left off the grab handles and smaller bits. You can see the exceptional fit of the kit and the small gap I created in the pics:

*******ATTENTION GAP PIC TO FOLLOW , IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH TIME TO MAKE TEA.**************

All of the joined edges will have cool Archer weld lines put in, the kit has delicate weld lines in some areas , I feel they are underrepresented , and def need to be added to these joined areas.

Real happy with the result 

Edit:

Cant leave it like that , I'm getting nauseous just looking at it.

A strip of .015" plasticard settles my stomach:

Edited March 7, 2018 by krow113

[AgentG]

Looking good!

 

G

[FrancisGL]

Very well job with "gap fills", coming along nicely... 

Cheers mate 

[Ripaman]

Brilliant job Steve, love the job you have done painting the figures 

 

Regards

Richard

[krow113]

G , m' man! How are you!

Richard thank you.

Francis , thanks  , I do think there is a .015" gap in the model that shows up in various places depending on how the model is built!

Some small details added to the front end a s I contemplate the paint procedure:

 And to address one of the , if not the major , point of contention with the model, the rear ramp raising and lowering cable. The instructions are vague as to how to go about this , holes need to be drilled in the ramp panels sides and there is no mark for them. The modeller is left to find out themselves how to do it.

Looking at the parts and imagining how the ramp works is my first step. My mechanical experience helped to figure this procedure out. 

First step is to assemble the tiny pulleys. Then 2 off .5mm holes have to be drilled at 90 degrees to each other , so that the cable can go around the pulley. The exit hole from the pulley to the main body must be drilled inside the small block molded into the pulley assy. The block is a guide for the cable , retaining it in the 90 degrees turn the cable makes in the pulley assy. Hard to describe and so tiny pics hardly help. The pulley assy would be live and able to 'hinge' on the ramp , as the ramp lowers , the pulley assy will rotate to allow free movement of the cable. There is no positive mounting for the pulley assy on the model  , it kinda just sits there , like they couldn't figure out how to do it. I f you have the ramp open , you must orient the pulley assy accordingly.

After drilling the pulley to accept the cable, you can install a small piece of cable and offer the pully up to the ramp. The small cable end will point directly to the area where the hole must be drilled in the ramp side as per the instructions. Take your time and be familiar with the action of the cable , pulley and ramp before drilling the holes. Understanding the way the ramp works is key to this.

I hope these pics help to clarify , the parts are so small:

Of course , all of this is only relevant if the ramp is open or down.

Thanks for lookin'!

 

Edited March 15, 2018 by krow113

[krow113]

Tracks are a little short:

So out comes the silicone mould-jig:

Proprietary track set so the fit is very nice:

 

And after some fudging around adding and subtracting links I got it looking really nice:

Edited March 19, 2018 by krow113

[krow113]

The base gets some attention today. 

Feet mounted:

And some high density foam glued on :

The foam will be carved into a beachy shape:

I opted out of the prior idea for casting palm log retaining walls to elevate the inland end of the beach dio .

If there's no palms on Iwo Jima them a palm retaining wall is def out! I thought about charcoal briquettes glued on , but I figured they would shed bits alla time , so this foam was left over from the work I did in my store:

 

Edited March 20, 2018 by krow113

[Ripaman]

Tracks do look good so did you have to cast any Steve

 

Regards

Richard

[krow113]

Thank you Richard.

Cast any track links?

No they are a proprietary set from AFV :

I did assemble about 4" of track , what a pita! , then plunged them into the silicone shown , after removal there is a nice moulded tool to hold the fiddly assemblies , that speeded up the assy procedure .

The small blue items on the box top are the pins to hold the links together, there were not enough of these by the time I got to final assy , I was 2 short and used Grandt Line rivits to finish the last track set. Whether I lost them or whatever happened some extras would have been nice.

I also think these should be in the kit , rather than the silly rubber bands which have some probs built into them as well!

[Ripaman]

"then plunged them into the silicone shown , after removal there is a nice moulded tool to hold the fiddly assemblies" 

 

Ok now I get it, (I thought when you were making a mold with the silicone) I will keep this in the memory bank for future, thanks Steve

 

Regards

Richard

 

 

[clive_t]

Looking forward to seeing how the base is done... Am I right in thinking that the sand on Iwo Jima was (is?) black?

[krow113]

Richard  , No worries, that is a well known trick , zero originality here.

clive thanks , yes the sand is black , I have a ton of black dio stuff waiting to go.

Saw the base , couldn't leave it alone , a serrated carving knife from the kitchen butchers it into shape. Some sanding and trimming and a test fit:

Looks pretty good:

Sculpy to follow and gain some texture and color . 

Semi realistic track marks were easily made by dragging my thumbnail across the top of the styro: