There’s something just iconic about the Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT. Not only is it impossible to think of the Pacific War without evoking images of US Marines and soldiers under fire clambering over the sides of one on sandy tropical beaches, but the vehicle itself is uniquely American.
The LVT was originally a civilian vehicle developed by American entrepreneur and inventor Robert Roebling to fill the need for a rescue vehicle in the swampy regions of the Florida Everglades which were inaccessible to cars or boats.
After learning of the LVT from an article in Life Magazine in which it was featured, the United States Marine Corps became interested in the vehicle and convinced Roebling to design one to suit their needs. 
Originally the LVT was intended to be used solely as a logistics support vehicle for ferrying supplies to beachheads. The LVT’s value as an assault troop carrier as well as fire support vehicle was quickly recognized however and several variants were designed and put into use. The LVT-2 which I have modeled here was the second most produced variant of the LVT family of amphibians. It was an improvement of the LVT-1 featuring a new power train, suspension and tracks. 
The Italeri LVTs are the only kits (that I know of anyway) available in plastic. I had wanted to build an LVT for years and after some joy rides on modern Marine LVTs in Iraq I determined it was time. I chose the LVT-2 for several reasons; first, there is no LVT-1 kit available in plastic (again, that I know of anyway) and second, it’s more proper for the early Pacific campaigns (for which I have a weakness) than the later LVT-4. 
The kit itself has nice lines but suffers from soapy details. There are no copyright dates on the box or instructions so I don’t know how old the kit is but it definitely isn’t state of the art molding. Never the less, it’s a wonderful base for aftermarket parts and scratch building, which is just what I did. 
I used the Verlinden LVT(A)-2 Interior and Detail set for a number of parts. I was a little disappointed with the fit and level of detail I found but after a lot of sanding and grinding they filled the bill. With the open cockpit door and clear windows in front I felt like I had to put something in the driver’s compartment. 
The one glaring item missing on the kit was the floor boards. These were wooden pallet-like structures to keep cargo and the occupants’ feet from getting wet from any water shipped over the sides and sloshing around on the deck. I built these from Evergreen stock and placed them on the cargo deck. I wasn’t too worried about having all the boards dress-right-dress since most of them would be covered by boxes and other miscellaneous cargo. 
The real star of the kit is the tracks. The vinyl tracks that come with the kit were simply awful. The detail is ok for vinyl tracks I suppose but they are thick, stiff and simply defy any and all attempts to make them look like they are real metal caterpillar type tracks. I broke the front drive sprockets several times trying to get them to fit correctly. As a result, my poor LVT kit spent a good year on my shelf in a half-done state while I searched in vain for viable alternatives. Well, as the saying goes; all good things to those who wait. Lo and behold the good people at Friulmodel came to the rescue with their beautiful individual link LVT track set. They cost about as much as I spent on the model and Verlinden set combined but I can’t imagine any LVT kit without them. They are simply superb and worth every penny. Once constructed they are pretty heavy tracks though. As a result I had a hard time getting the tension right. There is a little more sag in the upper track run than I would have liked. Period photos of LVTs usually show a nice taught track run but occasionally there is a photo that shows something more loose so, I guess I’m still in the ballpark. 
I decided to paint and mark the LTV in Army markings because, well, let’s face it... the Marines seem to get all the good press for the Pacific theater. For whatever reason Marine LTVs never seem to have been marked with the white star while Army amtracks did which (besides my bias toward the Army – 21 years in the service will do that to you) made the Army markings more attractive since the vehicle would otherwise be decidedly drab. Initially, most LTVs were painted in a Navy blue/gray color which quickly faded to a more gray shade. Later in the war OD green and camouflage paint schemes became more common. I used a mixture of Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey and small amounts of XF-17 Sea Blue to give it a nice faded blue gray shade. Since sea water and tropical sun work quickly to weather a vehicle I followed this with some particularly heavy post shading. I used the XF-19 + XF-17 mixture with 10% XF-2 Flat White thinned with about 90% alcohol. I followed this with the same heavily thinned blue/gray mixture but with 10% XF-1 Flat Black. This gave the lifeless gray color a nice three dimensional feel. I also glazed the sides of the vehicle very lightly in an irregular up and down pattern with the diluted mixtures. I followed this up with a wash of black Grumbacher artist oils thinned with odorless turpeniod. I paid particular attention to the vertical sides of the amtrack giving pronounced up and down streaks.
I followed this with a wash of ground pastel chalk (beige) mixed with the same turpenoid I used with the artist oils. I only used this wash on the tracks and sides where sand and dirt would be churned up and dumped by the tracks. 
Since LVTs were originally intended to be used as logistic support vehicles I thought I’d build my LTV loaded as if on a resupply run to the beach rather than carrying troops. The fact that I stink at painting figures had nothing to do with it (really). For the “beans and bullets” cargo I used several different sets of ration cartons and some resin ammo cans from the spares box. The wooden crates are 37mm ammo crates from the outstanding line of laser cut wood products from GC Laser. They are fiddly to put together but the look they give just can’t be beat. The tarpaulins are facial tissue stiffened with diluted white glue then painted. 
The machine guns are from two different Tasca sets which are simply stunning. They are hands down the best aftermarket M1919 and M2 that I have ever seen. They are pricey though. Between the two sets I ended up spending about $35. I figured that the guns would be eye catching though so I splurged. Besides, the M2 set came with the early style ammo can and I couldn’t resist. 
By the time I got to this point the model was still a bit drab. It needed color. So, I added an orange aircraft recognition panel. This was made from Tamiya epoxy putty rolled thin, cut and set to dry with the proper folds. The tie downs are lead foil. I also added a beach marker sign. These were used to guide the amtracks and landing craft to the correct beaches during landing operations. They were used most prominently during the Marianas campaign but were in used early in the Southwest Pacific campaigns as well, mostly by Army units. This sign is Evergreen stock with a balsa wood post. I drilled through both and put pegs of stretched sprue through to hold them together. I tried hand painting the number but it came out looking more rustic than I wanted. So, I used a waterslide decal that I printed on Testors decal paper with an inkjet printer.
Besides that, I added electric wires to the headlights using lead solder as well as MV lenses. The antenna is stretched sprue as is the tiedown cord. The hook on the tiedown is a bent piece of photoetch brass. 
This would be the end of the story... were it not for my good friend Murphy. I was in the process of photographing my finished LTV when said Murphy implemented his Law and caused me to find out what will happen to a model when it slips off a table and is left to allow the force of gravity to work on it for the approximately 29 inch drop from table to floor. Of course it landed upside down. I warn you, the following images are not for the faint of heart...
Yes, it's enough to make the strongest of us break down and weep.
Both tracks were sprung and the driver’s compartment cracked open like a hollow egg. Luckily those expensive aftermerket machine guns were still intact. Don’t ask me how they survived. The beach marker sign cracked and some of the cargo came loose too. To my eternal relief most things broke cleanly and were relatively straight forward to fix. The tracks were the biggest problem but an afternoon of cutting out and replacing broken track links saved the day. Thank you Friulmodel for providing extra links! So, after another day or two of work patching up what my clumsiness and gravity combined to achieve everything was back to good as new:
The ship was the USS Halford (DD-480), a Fletcher-class destroyer named for Acting Gunner William Halford (1841–1919), a recipient of the Medal of Honor and my friend’s great-grandfather.
I used two Eduard photoetch sets for the kit and both were invaluable. The Mk 32 gun director alone was worth the price. 
The 5” gun barrels are turned brass from Burkhardt Masch Kleinserien (BMK). They were dimensionally accurate (unlike the kit barrels) added a lot to the 5” mounts. The blast bags were made with Apoxie Sculpt. 
The Halford had two distinctive markings that were a challenge. The first was a cartoon logo of a dog holding a torpedo in it’s mouth on the protective housing for the after 21” torpedo mount. This housing protected the torpedo crew from the blast of the number three 5” mount. Veterans of the Halford say they referred to this as “The Doghouse”, hence the dog logo. Luckily I had a nice color photo of The Doghouse to use. I simply printed as high a quality copy as possible of this photo and did a reverse tracing on the back side of the sheet. I then scanned this mirror image, flipped the JPEG image then printed it. I was then able to color the black and white drawing with colored pencils and scan the completed image. After that it was a simple matter to shrink the image down to 1/144 scale and print it on Testor’s waterslide decal paper. Please forgive me if I congratulate myself. I think it turned out quite nicely.
The scoreboard on the starboard bridge wing was an even bigger challenge. My printer can’t print white on decal sheets and I just didn’t know how I was going to paint those small Japanese flags and ship silhouettes. I tried about a dozen different ideas pitched to me by friends but all were failures and I had given up when I stumbled across an old decal sheet for a 1/72 scale F4U Corsair. On it were kill markings in just the right size. I was able to take microscopic bits and pieces of white numbers and letters from the same decal sheet and finesse them one part at a time into airplane and ship silhouettes. Success! I took a bit of artistic license and put a mirror image of the scoreboard on the port bridge as well, since the ship was going to display left to right. It would have been a shame to have all that work be on the “wrong” side.
The anti-aircraft armament presented a problem all its own. The Revell kit was for an early Fletcher class destroyer which only had one dual 40mm Bofors and six 20mm Orlekins. In 1944 the Halford had five dual Bofors mounts and seven single Orlekin mounts. I could manage to slap together an extra 20mm mount but I despaired of having to scratch build four new Bofors mounts. I set aside the AA armament and moved to other parts of the ship. Then after a few months passed lo and behold what do I see on the White Ensign models website but a new 1/144 scale offering... yes, you guessed it: dual 40mm Bofors. And as if that wasn’t enough BMK came out shortly after with turned brass 40mm barrels. Add to that the 20mm mounts from White Ensign and the parts really popped when finally mounted on the ship. 
The only other aftermarket parts were the motor launches, Mk 51 directors, Mk 27 torpedo directors and the peloruses on the bridge wings. The launches and Mk 51s are from Nautilus. The bridge equipment are from L’Arsenal. 
The safety railings and all of the rigging are stretched sprue. 
The camouflage scheme the Halford used in 1944 was fairly drab so I added a few signal flags for color. Try as I might, I could not find a reference with period signal flag codes so I opted to have the Halford flying its hull number, 480. I pained the flags by hand with Valejo acrylics on cigarette rolling paper.
In 1944 the Halford wore Measure 21; all vertical surfaces Navy Blue and all horizontal surfaces Deck Blue. I used Tamiya acrylics almost exclusively. I mixed the paints using the “this looks good to me” method of matching the official colors as closely as possible while lightening to scale. I painted the hull with Tamiya XF-9 Hull Red darkened with XF-1 Flat Black. I post shaded both horizontal and vertical surfaces with lightened and thinned colors to give it a three dimensional feel. Then, using a very thinned mixture of XF-19 Sky Grey I glazed the vertical surfaces paying particular attention to the hull sides using irregular vertical strokes. Period photos of the Halford show the decks being weathered and well trod so I added very light and subtile scuffing on the deck with a #9B graphite pencil. 
The final weathering was done with mostly washes of black Grumbacher artist oils heavily thinned with turpenoid. After an initial heavy wash I progressively thinned the black streaks until they became very subtle. On the decks these washes further served to blend in the scuffing done earlier with the #9B graphite pencil. After the washes dried thoroughly I brought out the fine details with a drybrush of light gray pastels. I also gave a very sparing hint of rust coming from the anchor housing. 
The base was made from oak. I added a period photo of the “Doghouse” and a short data plate and history under glass on either end of the base along with a brass name plate amidships. I added a resin White Ensign 21” torpedo on the base in honor of the winning salvo against the Yamashiro. I had originally intended to display one of the 21” torpedo mounts with the loading hatches open and the torpedoes inside. As it turned out, either the WEM torpedoes were overscale or the Revell parts were underscale or both because it just didn’t work. I ruined three of the four torpedoes that came with the set and almost ruined the torpedo tubes trying to make it work before I gave up. I hated to see the last one go to waste so I mounted it there on the base. It might have made the display a tad "busy" but overall I think it worked.
Photographing the finished model proved to be one of the biggest challenges of the entire project. My photo booth is set up for 1/35 scale armor and 1/48 scale airplanes. Not 1 yard long behemoths. But, by clearing off my entire workbench I was finally able to rig something like a workable photo booth. I wasn’t entirely happy with the results but beggars can’t be choosers and I had already knocked off and to reattach more than a few fiddly parts by moving the ship around as it was. 
I had the acrylic case custom built by Specialty Plastics in Hamilton, OH. They did a fantastic job building a case that looked good but didn’t detract from the model.