The Delaware Valley Scale Modelers' 2008 Favorite Five Contest
Lou Ursino's LVT (A)-1 Alligator
The LVT (A)-1 was the first of several amphibious fire support vehicles to be used by the U.S. in World War II. It incorporated a Stuart tank turret mounting a 37mm gun and a co-axial .30 caliber machine gun on top of a modified LVT-2 hull.
This is my second crack at the Italeri series of LVT amtrac vehicles, the first being an LVT-4 troop carrier that I had built back in ’05. For this one, I used the TRAKZ update set, which included a resin replacement upper hull, an aluminum gun barrel for the main armament, and a fret of photo-etched brass.
Construction of the lower hull and running gear followed the kit instructions with one notable exception. I used a metal rod to connect the two drive sprockets together from within the hull. This served as a sturdy reinforcement for the sprockets and ensured against the possibility of them being snapped off by the somewhat snug-fitting kit tracks.
The remainder of the kit went together pretty quickly, even while taking into account the Trakz resin and p.e. parts. Most notable amongst the photo-etched stuff were the headlight guards, the machine gun mounts and shields, the steering louvers on the rear behind each track, and the engine screen on the roof of the after portion of the upper hull.
With the Alligator now built up, it was on to the painting phase. Now early amtracs were painted in several shades of battleship gray since they were procured through the Navy. Later versions were painted in either overall olive drab or a tri-color camouflage with red brown and earth yellow with the o.d. Nevertheless, bluish-gray amtracs were seen regularly until about the second half of 1944.
With this in mind, I opted to paint my model as an early vehicle, specifically during the invasion of Saipan in June of 1944. After all, how often can you paint an armored vehicle blue and still be considered accurate!?
The model was base coated with Tamiya medium blue (XF-18), followed on by several coats of the base color lightened with Tamiya medium gray (XF-20). The lighter color was used mostly for the inside portion of each panel while leaving the edges in the darker base color. Unfortunately, I don’t have a set formula for how much I lightened the base color; instead I just used the old Mark 1 eyeball until I thought everything just “looked right”.
After all of the paint had dried, I used a dry transfer for the vehicle nickname and then hand painted the tactical markings on the turret sides. The two red stripes on either side of the hull were then airbrushed on. These markings denote the beach assignment for each vehicle in the landing force. In this case, two red stripes signify that my amtrac is assigned to Red Beach 2.
For weathering, a heavy wash of raw umber oil paint was applied over the whole model with an emphasis on any deep recessions and crevices on the surface of the vehicle. This was followed by a series of pin washes to bring out more of the finer details.
Finally, a set of Warriors resin figures was used to “crew out” the Alligator.
This was a fun project overall and I am both honored and humbled for it to have been chosen as one of the “5 Favorites” in the December meeting. Thanks everyone, I am glad you all liked it!
