LANDING VEHICLE TRACK 4

By Moses

History
As H-hour drew near, Marines climb down rope nets slung over the sides of their transports boarding box-like landing crafts bobbing with the waves. Soon the overburdened amphibians will be taking its cargo of ammo, fuel and seasick men into the unknown.

The imagery is cliché. But it is difficult to describe the Pacific campaign of WW2 without conjuring a mental picture of the AMTRACS (Amphibious, Track). It was these vehicles that made the Pacific island hopping campaign attainable. The capture of those islands allowed American bombers and escorts to operate from airfields within striking reach of Japan; ultimately leading to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A common misconception was that the tracks were designed for operational flexibility. While LVTs were utilized inland on certain occasions, such as the Philippines, Okinawa, and Holland, it was never the designer’s true intend. The tracks were adopted as means of enabling the craft to cross very shallow waters where assault boats stand a good likelihood of becoming stranded.
 
 

The LVT-4 was one of the more successful designs in a long series of AMTRACS. Entering service in early 1944, it saw service throughout the Pacific, NW Europe and finally Southeast Asia during the immediate Post War period. Until now this venerable machine was only available in 1:72 scale. Italeri’s decision to produce a 1:35 version was highly welcomed and eagerly awaited by many.

Overall, the main components are clean and crisp requiring little clean up. However, if the kit’s instructions were followed verbatim, one would end up with a hybrid vehicle from the French Indochina conflict of the 1950s.
 
 

Backdating this model to a more generalized WWII era troop/cargo transport isn’t difficult. Best of all, all one need is a tube of putty, a few pieces of scrap sheet styrene, a selection of sandpaper, and a shape knife. The main steps were:
 
 

• Removal of the molded-on cab hatches from the kit. The cab roof was puttied and sanded flat.
• New hatches were fashion from .01” plastic card and repositioned so they sit parallel.
• New driver’s periscope was “squash cast” from the kit’s original.
• All vision ports and co-driver’s hull machine gun were omitted and filled in.
• A new driver’s forward cover was made using plastic card.
• The headlights were shortened.
• The front armour plate was chopped down so it longer wrap around the hull.
• The kit’s water channels, while accurate in shape, were too thick. It was easily remedied with sheet plastic using the kit parts as a template.
• Plexiglas domes for the driver’s hatches were made using transparent heat form sheet, which was drape cast onto a wooded dowel.

The list may appear long, but it is actually a lot of fun. It is also an excellent introduction to conversions for those who desire to try their hand at this particular aspect of model building.

Books:

AMTRACS IN ACTION. Mesko, Jim, Squadron Signal Pub., 1993.

AMTRACS: US AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT VEHICLES. Zaloga, Steve, Osprey, 1987.
 
 

Web:

UK Military Modelling - Kit review.

Track-link.net review - A very good review of the kit with additional information on how to correct the model’s shortcomings.

UK Military Modelling 2000 Home Page - Photos of a museum example.

Track-link.net article on Squash Casting - A article explaining “Squash Casting.”