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Scratchbuilt LCM6 Landing Craft

Details, details...

I made the model in a series of sub assemblies. Roughly these were the landing craft itself, the wheelhouse, the ramp, the machine guns and the funnels. The wheelhouse is pretty straightforward although I still don’t know what goes on the small shelf in font of the wheel. The ramp was more difficult and it took a couple of goes at bending thick sprue to get the right angle at both ends of the main beam. The machine guns are as close as I could get from photographic evidence and are mostly the result of my punch and die set. The funnels were by far and away the most difficult part of the model which may sound strange considering how small they are but it took me about three weeks just to figure out how to make them. First I made a skeleton of the front and side profile. Then I covered the outside with thin strips like a barrel. I then filled them from the base upwards with filler. I left them for about a week and then very carefully sanded them out from the inside with my mini drill. It was a complete nightmare and I wouldn’t do it like that again.

To air brush the LCM I mixed up a large jar of a dark bluey-grey from Humbrol and a light batch that was not quite so blue. I thoroughly covered the model with the first colour and then misted over with the lighter second. When it was completely dry I added the markings from Letraset and left it aside for a couple of weeks. I weathered it in several ways and in more than one session because of it's size and also because coming back to the project you see it differently each time. I added selected washes mixed from oils, some dark to emphasize detail and some rusty to mimic the effects of the sea. I dry brushed here and there until I thought it looked right and then added quite a lot of scuffs and scratches individually until it looked a bit battered. I was trying to achieve the look of a quite new piece of kit but one that had seen some service. Finally I added some mud, sand and stones to the interior that the tyres would bring in when loading and off loading vehicles.

Copyright ©2002 - Text and Photos by Andy Wright. All Rights Reserved.