dnl42 Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 @Dotcom, thanks! I've got the mounts painted. Counting down the remaining scratch building: bulkhead-mounted instruments and wiring in the conning station, bilge pump, lifting eyes and sling. Not sure what I'll I'll do about those vents. The HB parts are smooth, but the actual vents are developable surfaces. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nspreitler Posted April 29, 2019 Share Posted April 29, 2019 Looks great Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted April 29, 2019 Author Share Posted April 29, 2019 @nspreitler, thanks. We're on the road now in our RV. We'll be back home in 3 weeks, and will be able to focus on finishing her up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted May 8, 2019 Author Share Posted May 8, 2019 (edited) Well, the RV trip ended early. Worked on the bilge pump. Basically, a tube, a cylindrical frustum, and the pump handle. Here's a screen shot of the frustum pattern that I made in Inkscape and cut onto 5 mil aluminum sheet salvaged from the vacuum seal of a Costco coffee can. I rolled the pattern around a pencil point to form the frustum. The tube is 0.125 evergreen tubing with a 5 mil inset cut into one end so the frustum base outer diameter was flush with the tubing outer diameter. The other end of the tube was drilled out so the tubing material was thinner. The handle is 0.045 Evergreen rod with a 0.019 brass rod shaft. And here's the completed bilge pump Edited May 8, 2019 by dnl42 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted May 12, 2019 Author Share Posted May 12, 2019 The water barrel is done. Here's the prototype from an LCVP training film on youtube. I made up the barrel from 1/4, 3/16, and 1/8 Evergreen tubing and 1/16 Evergreen rod. The bands are 5 mil Al cut into 0.03 wide strips. The handle is .018 wire with Albion tubing. The legs are 1/32 Evergreen strip. The 1/4 and 3/16 tubing was cut to length and then chucked on my Dremel tool using a suitably tight machine screw. The Dremel was run at the slowest speed to prevent the plastic from melting so that I could shape the barrel using 0 cut, 2, cut, 4 cut and 6 cut equaling files. The max diameter is 1/4 while the ends are just over 3/16. Once shaped and smoothed, I cut the 1/8 tubing and 1/16 rod a wee bit shorter than the body, formed a rod, and then glued it in to form the barrel ends. The leg tops were shaped with a crossing file. I painted the barrel with Mr Color C45, Sail Color, formed the bands around the barrel, added the legs, and finally attached the handles. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted May 12, 2019 Share Posted May 12, 2019 Real craftman-ship! Great work! HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted May 12, 2019 Author Share Posted May 12, 2019 Thanks @Hajo L.! To be honest, I left this to the end because I thought it would be very hard. Well, I suppose all that fretting did some good, as once I figured out how to do make it, the job was relatively simple. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted May 23, 2019 Author Share Posted May 23, 2019 I just got Mr Color SC-14, Navy Blue 5-N. and SC11. Haze Gray 5-H, from Sprue Bros. My original plan was to use Colourcoats, but the US distributor was out of 5-N, with no mention of any restocking. I primed everything using thinned Mr Surfacer 1200 last weekend. This weekend the plan is to get to the filling and filing identified in the priming session and then get some color on the hull. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted June 1, 2019 Author Share Posted June 1, 2019 She's Navy Blue! I just placed the conning station and Mk 21-1 mounts on the hull for visualization. I meant to add the lifting eyes before I painted the hull, but, oh well. I'll add them and touch them up... I finished the conning station. I added the magnetic and gyro compass bits out of Evergreen plastic; the cables are lead wire. I also repainted the wheel with Humbrol #54, which is a brass color v. the copper color of Game Color's "Brassy Brass". Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 (edited) The conning station is truly done, now! Staring at pictures of the mast, I eventually figured out it had 4 legs and a light. One picture showed the shape at the top. I made my version from a couple of short lengths of Evergreen tube and a rod so it was solid at the top and hollow on the bottom. I then chucked it in a drill and used sanding blocks and files to shape it. The light lens is a bit of clear sprue from another kit. Another photo showed a wire wrapped around the forward-port leg running top to bottom; I used 0.2mm lead wire for that. I decided to go with an orange life preserver ring as it's clearly not the hull color in the image, and looks similar to the lower hull, which I assume is red (it's neither hull color or black). I cleaned up the kit's version of the ring by removing the molded-on hand hold ropes and then painted the ring and some paper strip with Humbrol #18. I used some tan rigging thread in my stash. To eliminate the thread's stray hairs, I rubbed the thread across beeswax and then used a heat gun to singe off the hairs and melt the beeswax into the thread. Some CA attached the paper bands and thread to the life ring. I made the life preserver rack with strips from PE fret and 5 mil Al sheet. A training film showed the fire extinguisher was shiny, so I went with Alclad White Aluminum Some color photos had a brass valve atop, so I went with Humbrol #54. I also added dial faces for the gyro repeater and magnetic compass. Edited June 10, 2019 by dnl42 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stefan buysse Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 Fantastic! With all the research and the skillful scratchbuilding that you've put into this, it is a world-class model of an LCM-3. I've seen some amazing naval models at shows and maybe some builders like that have also built LCM-3's, but there can't be many. Cheers, Stefan. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 Incredible job! Can't wait to see the finished product! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted June 10, 2019 Author Share Posted June 10, 2019 @Stefan buysse and @swbailey. thanks! I'm trying to get this done for the IPMSOC meeting this Friday. Fortunately, I'm down to the last few bits. Rigging the cables will be the most fiddly bit... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted June 14, 2019 Author Share Posted June 14, 2019 (edited) Just as I was about to put on decals and the clear coat, I realized I forgot the bow fairleads. I fashioned each of the upright parts out of strip stock by drilling a hole in in the strip a little below centerline, cutting at the right or left edge of the hole on one side and further away on the other. After gluing each upright to the bottom strip, some shaping with needle files finished the parts off. With that, it was time for decals, flat coat, rigging the ramp cables, and then final assembly. I went with a red hull based on the prototype image. It's clearly not black or hull color, so I went with red. The port bow, with ramp lock release cable above, ramp cable below, equalizing sheave and track, and the excellent hand-woven fender from Thachweave Products. One of the boat hooks, Mark 21-1 mounts, conning station, water barrel, life preserver ring, and vents. Bilge pump and a better view of the ramp cable run athwartship. The other boat hook is forward of the bilge pump, just barely in this view. And again the conning station. Just in time for the D-Day 75th Anniversary theme at IPMSOC tomorrow night. Edited June 14, 2019 by dnl42 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted June 14, 2019 Share Posted June 14, 2019 Congratulations on a phenomenal build! You can be really proud of that one! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted June 14, 2019 Author Share Posted June 14, 2019 @swbailey, thanks! I am particularly proud of this one! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nspreitler Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 Spectacular work, thanks for sharing it with us. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted July 3, 2019 Author Share Posted July 3, 2019 @nspreitler, thanks! It was a fun build with all the scratch building. I'm really happy with the result. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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