LCVP Boat 4 from USS Geneva
by David Waples

1/35 LCVP (Italeri)

This was a tribute build for my wife's uncle but unfortunately he passed just as I started building her. Bob Bashline was a Motor Machinist Mate 2nd Class on LCVP Boat 4 of the USS Geneva APA-86 which was a Gilliam Class Attack Transport. His experience on the USS Geneva was one of the most important things in Bob's life and why I decided to go over the top on this build.

This is the Italeri 1/35 LCVP which is a wonderful kit OOB. I had no problems with assembly. There were some wonderful opportunities to upgrade this build which I couldn't resist. I used the following after market parts and products to complete this project...

• U-Models (Available from Blast Models) resin set which includes hand pumps, machine guns, wheel, rope, etc. I only used the wheel, pumps (manual bilge pumps), and exhaust from this set.
• Eduard PE set for the LCVP which provides some terrific upgrades to the look of the hardware.
• Academy 1/35 .30 cal machine gun bodies
• Aber .30 cal machined gun barrels.
• Archer Fine Transfers produced the boat markings. They were amazing and well worth the effort.
• Gator Mask provided the lettering for stand.
• Paint used was White Ensign Model 5-N Navy Gray which was an exact match to the photos I've seen of the real boat and ship. Alclad II was used for the propeller.

The build was pretty straight forward. I used a black oil wash over the entire boat and detailed with artist chalk. New experiences for me on this build were the dry transfers mask for the stand. What made it for me was the laser engraved base. In my mind everything I did with this project was important to the final outcome of the boat. Here are the photos of the finished build...

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