Italeri

1/35 U.S. Navy LCVP

Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel

Kit Number 6441

Reviewed By Bob LaBouy, #3064

For those of us interested in “different” subjects, the modeling arena has been further enriched, with Italeri’s recent release of this very important naval small craft.

The LCVP is not unlike the LCM craft models recently released both Italeri and Trumpeter, except for it’s dimensions and usage.  This model probably represents the more common of the two craft and while it was unable to do the “heavy lifting” attributed to the “Mike Boat” it was seen when and where ever the United States asserted it’s armed presence throughout the Pacific and European theaters of WW II, the Korean conflict, Lebanon and Viet Nam.

The Landing Craft – Background & History

A brief history may help you place the use of landing craft into your knowledge of WW II and allow an increased appreciation of the overall importance of these small craft.

Although the United States had discovered the usefulness and necessity of such small boats almost a ninety years earlier during our Army’s invasion of Vera Cruz in the Mexican American War of 1847, their usefulness had largely been forgotten until the early 30’s when a few far sighted Marine Corps and even fewer Army officers had witnessed the value of such shallow draft boats in delivering goods in the Gulf Coast areas of Florida and Louisiana.  An even fewer of them foresaw that we might have to use such craft on a larger scale to ferry men and supplies to Marines coming ashore in areas such as they had recently fought in Central America and possibly in the Far East.  They quietly oversaw the development and improvement of these small craft.  Marines were especially concerned about their anticipated need to put both men and supplies ashore from larger draft naval vessels, which because of both size and value could not be brought close to shore and in locations where there was no ready access to the coast or beaches.

The key to solving this problem was a man named Andrew Higgins, who built several small inter-coastal boats or barges in the New Orleans area.  The most successful of these was the “Eureka,” which featured a very shallow draft hull, which sat higher in the front and could carry a reasonably heavy cargo right up to, and onto a beach, where materials could off or on loaded and the boat simply backed off into the water again with ease.  These boats were also almost impervious to the normal destructive hurdles encountered by a small boat when “beaching” it against the shore and their propeller and rudder design were well protected as well due to a then ingenious “tunnel” design along the base of the stern.

The D-Day Museum’s description illustrates the design strengths:

“A deep vee hull forward led to a reverse-curve section amidships and two flat planning sections aft, flanking a semi-tunnel that protected the propeller and shaft.  Aerated water flowing under the forefoot of the boat created less friction when the boat was moving and allowed for faster speeds and maneuverability.  Because of the reverse curve, objects in the water would be pushed away from the boat at a point between the bow and amidships (including the aerated water - only solid water reached the propeller).  This allowed continuous high-speed running and cut down on damage to the propeller, as floating objects seldom came near it.  The flat sections aft, on either side of the shaft tunnel, actually had a catamaran/planning effect which added to the hull speed.”

These boats were adapted to the needs of the USMC and Navy during a serious of trials and tests and ultimately the very recognizable feature we all see today (or have in countless WWII and Korean war films) – the movable bow ramp – was added in early 1941.  This critical development allowed for both Marines and their light equipment or vehicles to be very quickly unloaded and as important, the landing craft to very quickly withdraw from the beach allowing for a quick recycling process of reloading the boat and again returning to the beach.  Another value very quickly learned was that when the LCVPs were unloaded they could also be loaded with wounded to be taken back to the offshore ships for extensive medical treatment not available ashore.  While not attempting to minimize the sizeable development of such craft nor the engineering and management efforts which prevailed during and following the war, the rest as they say is history.

Among the numerous designs and boats built by Andrew Higgins and his company, the LCVP, most often just called the “Higgins Boat” was the most numerous of all the landing craft built, with 23,358 boats constructed in the Louisiana bayou country around New Orleans.  At only 36’ in length, the Higgins Boat was rated to carry a full platoon of 36 troops and their immediate supplies.  As the war progressed, it was ideally suited to carry a small vehicle, the quarter ton truck or JEEP as we now know them, along with 12 combat-loaded marines or soldiers.

Specifications for the “Higgins Boat” include:

While there were certainly many landing craft used throughout WW II and our combat invasions in North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, throughout the Pacific and European theaters, it’s most significant use in the Pacific.  Thought the British saw the need for such craft to cross and breach the English Channel, for the most part the Army planner saw the land war in Europe as a repeat of the WW I experience and did not anticipate the need for such craft in large numbers.  At war’s end the USN’s use was seen as 31,123 in the Pacific campaign, while only 2,493 were requested for Europe.  In spite of this lopsided usage, General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower is often quoted as saying: “A. J. Higgins was the man who won the war for us…….if Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach.  The whole strategy of the war would have been difficult.”  Even a summary of our Allied amphibious efforts during Operation Overlord support the proposition that ultimately our ability to continue to off load troops and equipment was the real reason for our victory in Normandy.

Clearly, the Marine and Navy leadership more clearly and fully understood both the strategic and tactical advantage of these small, mobile landing craft.  Even a shallow reading and understanding of our Pacific campaigns will quickly demonstrate the value of landing craft in the Allied amphibious operations.  In several of these invasion battles, the advantage of the Marines and Navy was quickly established (even though very costly in terms of manpower and losses) allowing the U.S. to prevail only because of our ability to quickly and repeatedly reach the beachheads with troops and supplies.  There are also numerous stories by those wounded during these invasions crediting their survival with the Navy and Coast Guard’s amphibious evacuation to shipboard medical treatment.  Remember, the ultimate air mobility lessons we perfected and learned in Viet Nam were a long way off in the future at this time.

It’s not by mistake that the D-Day Museum in New Orleans features a Higgins Boat LCVP as one of it’s key pieces of history.  This boat was hand constructed in the same manner as the originals for the Museum in the 90’s and included a number of now retired employees of Higgins Industries.  While the insured value of the newly constructed LCVP is set at over $11.2 million dollars, the original cost of the Higgins boat ran from only $12,000 to $13,000 each.  This new LCVP was constructed from existing drawings, workers memories and modeling done from a salvaged old Higgins boat retrieved from the Irish Bayou south of New Orleans.

Each Higgins boat is built almost entirely of pine wood, with small amounts of metal armor installed around the front of the cargo area, bow ramp, (the actual bow bulge, called the “headlog,” is constructed from a solid block of yellow pine wood) and gunwale areas as a protective measure.  The LCM, on the other hand, is entirely made of metals, save for a few trim and finishing boards.

Higgins Industries was a major contributor to the Allied war effort; they designed and or built approximately 90% of all U.S. Navy ship resources by wars end) and approximately ten different models of landing craft.  That’s an astounding 9 of 10 of all the Navy’s vessels during WW II by a single company!

LCVP “The Model”

As for the model itself, I have nothing but praise for this neat Italeri model.  The only negative comment I’ve encountered is the price.  It’s on the high end of our current kits selling at list around $49 and from the discounters and internet sources around $37.  When compared to some of the very high quality, highly detailed pieces coming from the Far East today, it’s high for the relative amount of detail and quality in my opinion.  However, when considering the scarcity of the subject matter and its importance to a well rounded modeler’s WW II subjects, it is clearly worth both the cost and wait.  When one considers it to the previously available Monogram kit, one can build either the earlier “toy like” version or a more accurate and detailed version which Italeri has now offered us.  I’ll gladly stick with the latter.  My problem (probably more related to my often slipping memory) is that I can’t get my mind off my Revell kits which I paid only 79¢ for and the highly detailed and high cost Hasegawa kits which cost a whopping $1.98.  I only get (partially) over this aspect of my older age, when I go into a McDonalds (my gourmet restaurant of choice) and find it costs over $6.00 just for lunch!  Oh well, it all seems to be relative to today’s economy and business greed.

I found the plastic to be easy to work with and saw no awkwardly connected parts.  There are approximately 200 individual parts in the kit. There is almost no filling required, aside from a very few push or ejection marks on surfaces where they might be easily seen after construction.  They are small and easily filled and sanded.  Many of these little blemishes are on the backside of detail parts and can’t be seen anyway.  I have yet to see any aftermarket detail sets for this kit and suspect they not be necessary to most of us with the kit details quite well defined already.  I was pleased to see the engineering clearly had the modeler in mind, with none of the sprue attachment points on surface areas (except on a few pieces where it could not be avoided).  A few manufacturers don’t seem to have tumbled to this aspect of their kit and molding planning even in today’s market.

I don’t anticipate much in the way of after-market parts for this kit, since those included in the kit are well done, though knowing the propensity of the photo-etch cottage industry (who seem to feel the need to replicate any and all sort of parts and finish details in metal) will issue something to intrigue us as builders.  I do, however, fully anticipate those who build target, oops – armor that is, will begin to complete all manner of dioramas using both of these beautiful kits.

I mentioned that I had added about half dozen small brass pieces to simulate hooks or brackets along the inside of the hull.  Many photos will further illustrate that most landing craft were highly detailed by their original crews to meet their needs and wants.

Decals and Instructions

The kit’s instruction sheets are very good, accurate in detail and from my review, do not omit any parts or include any glaring errors.  I found them to be thorough and logical for the most part.  As usual, I leave one or two small parts (or steps) to the end of my building efforts, simply because of personal preference (and my usual habit of prematurely breaking something off my nearly/already completed model.  In this instance, I “string up” the landing gate lines, but don’t actually attaché them to the landing ramp or even attach the ramp to the hull, until I almost totally finished.  In building the earlier LCM kit, I learned the hard way that the ramp sticking way out front and being joined by a small amount of contact with the hull doesn’t fear well as I move the entire model around for finishing touches.  My native clumsiness allowed me to separate and rejoin the ramp at least 2-3 times.

I think the assembly sequence is well thought out and logical.  I do urge some careful cleaning and detail finishing to the interior full stringers, as they will be almost entirely visible as the landing craft is finally assembled.  I found more than one observer who was surprised at this detail showing, when I was first putting it together.  In this model, a great deal of the interior detail shows when fully assembled.  For this reason I took some extra time to scrape and sand the finished surface interior ribs as I removed them and assembled them.  The instruction detail clearly illustrates the sequence and numbers, which if not fully followed will lead one into a real mess as the interior hull is assembled to the outer hull.  It has taken me a while to warm up to Italeri’s instruction sheets, but I am more impressed with them each kit I build.

The decal sheet is well done and allows for a wide variety of markings for any number of USN vessels and a few British (they also used these indispensable craft at both Normandy and other Mediterranean landing beaches.  A cursory review of any WW II invasion photos will provide you with a wealth of assorted hull numbers and markings for US Navy landing.  The vast number of these are the system markings allowing each craft to be related to its mother vessel (mostly LST, LSD, AKA and AP ships).  These numbers seem at first to be a real mess, though they were invaluable to both the other landing craft coxswains and the men actually “running” the beach.  It was in the all important Beachmaster Groups that my Dad spent a good deal of his Pacific and Korean invasion experience.  Unless you do some reading about the actual combat invasion experiences, one doesn’t realize that the order, organization and actual implementation of the beachhead operations is absolutely critical to the success of any invasion.  This organization and it’s impact on the success of any amphibious invasion can clearly be witnessed in two major invasions:  Guadalcanal in 1942 and Inchon in 1950.  The long term detrimental effect of a poorly organized and managed beach operation can be seen, as well as it’s long term negative impact on the men on the beach can be seen in many respects in our WW II invasion on Guadalcanal.  The highly successful results of a well planned event were seen off the Korean port of Inchon – even with the extremely dramatic tidal effects encountered there.  Again, I digress.  The decals are very well done, set down very well and can be easily “hidden” on the LCVP model.

Painting and Finishing

I finished my LCVP as I expected it would have been seen during either the Saipan or Tinian invasion, using the associated Attack Transport (AKA) number.  Painted almost entirely with Model Master enamels, using the suggested base gray color, over-sprayed with my clear coating of choice (Duracryl Clear finish (D 468) and lacquer thinner (DTL 876)) and weathered with washes of artist oils and highlighted detail picked out using both Humbrol and Model Master enamels blends (both darker and lighter than the surrounding details), over-sprayed again with Dullcoat.  These photos may not adequately demonstrate the very dirty, weathered effect I was attempting to achieve – it’s supposed to look dirty and oily.  Unless you’ve seen an amphibious landing or look at some beachhead photos, you may not fully realize how filthy these landing craft become very quickly.  These working craft were used under very trying, dirty conditions, with the tidal areas covered with all sorts of oil, diesel and lots of obstacles in the water.  Their hulls and inside deck areas quickly became a mess.  Since they were considered highly important and expendable, they were repeatedly used unless destroyed, sunk or blown out of the water.  They were tools of war and used as such.  One aspect of my growing interest in the use of “rust” is to avoid it except in some small detailed areas (and then only around equipment which was in fact metal).  Remembering these was wooden craft and therefore not quite as subject to the various panel rust marks many military might display.  I wondered about the multiple rust marks shown on the cover art around what I think the artist may have seen as metal panel lines?

Summary

This is great kit.  Bare bones, with few frills but straight out of the box it is an accurate, highly detailed scaled model of a significant piece of military and naval history.  It is reasonably easy to construct and paint, does not requiring demanding painting skill and offers a huge potential of color schemes and finishes – every thing from new, barely used condition to the resulting oil, fuel and water washed look of craft used to ferry troops and supplies onto beaches across the Pacific.

I highly recommend this kit to any builder interested in modeling WW II history.  It lends itself to the Pacific or European Theater operations and any number of diorama scenarios.

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