The Ship Model Forum

Quite a while back, I'd mentioned in another thread that I was going to build a 1/144th scale Revell LSM kit. Well, at long last after being sidetracked on other projects, I am at work on my LSM project. I’ve chosen LSM-311 as the subject ship. Through my involvement with the National USS LSM/LSMR Association, I came to meet and become friends with WW2 veteran Ray Olley and his wonderful family. LSM-311 was Ray’s ship and I was privileged to spend time with the Olleys and listen to some of Ray’s reminiscences of his wartime experiences.

LSM-311 was built by the Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois and commissioned on May 31, 1944. The ship supported wartime operations in the Philippines and Borneo. Just short of two years after commissioning, the ship was decommissioned on May 29, 1946 and later scrapped.

When LSM-311 was commissioned, she was fitted with the two bow 20mm tubs that are depicted in the Revell early LSM kit. Subsequently, her focsle was updated and she received a single 40mm Bofors in a bow tub. This is the configuration of the ship that I decided to build. Revell of Germany issued kits of two versions of LSMs; the aforementioned early LSM with twin tubs on the bow and a post-war variant of the type given to the German Navy. Revell never issued a late-war LSM, though, so if you wish to build a late-war variant, it isn’t quite as easy as building the German Navy LSM out of the box for two major reasons: the German conn superstructure was greatly modified and the German Navy armament was considerably different with a dual 40mm on the bow and no 20mm gun tubs. Therefore, you have to combine parts of both kits and purchase a single 40mm.

In my next post, I'll show you the start of the project.

Thanks for stopping by!

John

Welcome back John! Looking forward to your build!

John, and Dave, both you gents have done justice to old Amphib kits. I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

Best,
Paul

Hi everyone,

Before I get into this update, I want to send a big thanks to Dave and Paul for checking in and posting their kind words. I look forward to hearing more from you both along the way! And for those who were following my LCI projects, I promise I’ll finally get around to finishing them, too!

Now, for today’s update. I elected to build this model as a waterline display in a beached setting. I began by scoring/sawing along the waterline molded on the inside of the hull, but I didn’t remove the lower hull just yet. Then, I assembled the hull halves onto the athwartships bulkheads. I was concerned that if I removed the lower hull before assembling the remaining upper hull, the pieces would be very flimsy and it would make assembly and alignment more difficult. If anyone out there has built a waterlined Revell LSM and removed the lower hull before assembling the hull halves, let me know how that worked out. Here’s a photo:
Next, I used my Dremel to finish cutting the hull halves and the two bulkheads. Here’s a photo:
I inserted a piece of .080 inch styrene between the forward and aft bulkheads to serve as a secure spot to attach the model to the base. I also shot a coat of Ocean Green on the exposed bulkheads of the fantail. Here’s a photo:
At this point, I’d already painted the tank well Deck Green, so it got installed next. On a side note, I painted the winch and starboard locker gray based on the assumption that ship’s equipment would have been machinery gray if it wasn’t on the main deck.
Next, I started installing the tank well bulkheads and the main deck.

LSM-311 had her focsle raised and a single 40mm gun tub installed post-commissioning, so I used the parts from the post-war kit for this stage of the model. I knew there would be a lot of seams to fill around the focsle, so I waited to paint the focsle until it was assembled. Of course, this meant I had to take a step backward and re-mask the tank well. Here’s a photo of the focsle assembled with a quick coat of paint.

Thanks for stopping by!

John

Thanks Paul and John.

I finished up my build of the Revell kit earlier this year. Was hoping to take her to ScaleFest in Dallas and maybe even to the IPMS Nationals in San Marcos this summer, but alas....
I built the kit as LSM-169, a 40mm equipped LSM that struck a mine off the coast of Bataan during the return to the Philippines in 1945. I already had the twin gun tub version of the Revell kit in hand when the German post-war version came out with the 40mm mount. I found the instructions for the post-war version on line and used the parts map view of the added sprue with the bow addition pieces as a guide to make my own from sheet styrene. I also added 0.50 caliber mounts from PanzervsTanks 3D printing. The 169 was transporting an Army reconnaissance troop at the time of the mine strike, so I tried to configure the load to match information that John's brother, Ron, the former Amphibious Forces Association historian, provided from the after action report from that day. I found some M3 Half Tracks on line, swapped the kit's Shermans with a fellow board member in the UK for some additional M20 Greyhounds, and Luis with PanzervsTanks 3D printed Wilys Jeeps for the recon troop as well. Luis also provide 1/144 crew and Army troops to place around the well deck.

I am currently having issues with downloading anything at all from my digital camera, but will try to get some pictures to the Completed Works page sometime soon.

Dave

Hi everyone,

Thanks, Dave, for your update about your model of the LSM-169. I hope you get your problems with your camera corrected soon so we can see how it turned out!

In today's update, I’ll show you the recent work on the -311.

First, I need to explain that I’ll be finishing the model in the Measure 31 Design 10L camouflage scheme. The colors used for the scheme were Ocean Green, Navy Green, and Dull Black.
The -311 wore this scheme upon commissioning. For most of its service, the crew repainted the ship as necessary, roughly following the Measure 31 Design 10L pattern.

Since the last post, I’ve installed the fantail deck and painted the entire ship with Ocean Green.


I'll be starting the camouflage next and I'll show you that next time.

John

Looking good John. I did replace the ladder rungs on the welldeck with model railroad grab irons. That was a pain to do and not so visible after the well deck gets filled up with vehicles.

Hi everyone,

A quick note of thanks to David, who wrote I thought about doing that, too, but didn't, mostly because I knew it was going to be a pain! I can understand your point that they're pretty much hidden by the vehicles, also. Thanks for the comment!

Now, for today's update. I put this project aside for a while but just got started back into painting the camouflage in the past couple days. It's a slow go, plus I began painting the model per the prescribed Navy pattern, but then I looked at photos of the ship I'm modeling and noticed that the ship had actually been repainted in a slightly different pattern. So, the model is currently halfway between the official pattern and that shown in photos. Here's a look:

The primary reason I wanted to post something today is that I learned that Revell - Germany has issued another kit of the LSM. As many of you know, they'd previously issued an early war LSM and a post-war Bundesmarine LSM. Now, they've issued a late-war LSM. As you might recall from my earlier posts, this model of the 311 is a late-war LSM assembled using parts from both of the earlier Revell kits. Here's Revell's photo of their new kit:
The two earlier Revell LSM kits are now out of production and the sellers are asking ridiculous prices for those that are available online, so for anyone wanting to build a late-war LSM, this is welcome news. In addition, the later LSM kit gives one a much wider choice of ships to model. I may well pick up one or two of these kits for later projects.


John

The fact one can build ship and tank all in one makes this kit pretty fun already!

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