Land-Wasser-Schlepper No. 1071

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,587
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
Lately, my modelbuilding has focused a bit on local history, mainly a Churchill AVRE and a Sherman V as they were left behind after the Second World War. Time for a slight change while sticking to the same theme, I thought.

Here’s a photograph of a Land-Wasser-Schlepper (LWS, the name translates from the German as “Land-Water-Tractor” for those who don’t speak the language):

L07115-22.jpg

Apparently, this was taken during trials in 1942, which I have no reason to doubt. More interesting to me is that the background let me know exactly where this photo was taken: on a beach in Vlissingen, the Netherlands.

IMG_1774.jpg

That’s what it looked like last Tuesday, though from a bit further from the windmill than the WWII picture was taken, and the line of the coast has changed a little since then (the skyline too). Incidentally, at the foot of the windmill is a German Regelbau 143 observation bunker that has been dug out and restored some years ago, and is open to the public on (IIRC) Wednesdays and Sundays during the summer.

For those keen on military history, here’s almost the same area about 2–2½ years after the photo of the LWS was taken:

bevrijding_vlissingen.jpg

Or if you would rather have a map of the situation during the war:

Vlissingen 1944.jpg

This is from a British map with Defence overprint of (off the top of my head) October 1944. The LWS is probably about where it says “Steep slope”, the LCAs are in the sheltered part of the beach above the “5 Rows stakes” — AKA Uncle Beach as it was known then.

As a further aside, Brits with an interest in maritime history might recognise the town from it being the place of birth of someone who visited the Chatham naval shipyards a few centuries ago.
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,587
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
So now to build this piece of local military history. Many years ago (well, it can’t have been more than ten, and probably closer to 7–8 or so) I bought the Bronco kit of the mid-production LWS:

IMG_4380.jpg

Really for no other reason than that I liked the look of it, and it was on sale for about half price (stickers on the side say I paid €40 for it instead of €78). This is quite a big box, I must say, but it needs to be:

IMG_4382.jpg

It’s not quite filled to the brim with sprues, but the contents wouldn’t have fit a box the size you might expect for a Sherman or a Panther.

Examining the instructions, I found out the kit includes exactly the decals needed to reproduce LWS 1071 as it was in Vlissingen — a minor stroke of luck, really, as I hadn’t originally bought it with that in mind at all.

In true expert modeller style, I began construction by cutting up part of the kit:

IMG_4384.jpg

There are nice etched brass screens for the air intakes on the rear deck, but the recesses they go into are moulded solid, so you’d have the screen sitting right on top of a plate. I put in the plastic surrounds, marked their internal size, and cut out the plastic — they’re the long fore-and-aft slots in the photo, on either side of the deck.

After that I took care to remove the mould lines from the main hull. There are some fairly visible ones either side of the bow, as well as running along some of the edges around the lower bow and the vertical rear corners. Nothing some careful scraping with a sharp knife couldn’t solve, though.

Next, putting the hull and deck together:

IMG_4386.jpg

This is a bit tricky, since the upper sides of the hull bend inwards a little, so you can’t easily get the downward projections underneath the deck to sit between them as they should. Start at the back, then put some rubber bands around it, and work your way forward. I had to tape down the sides of the bow to get them to sit flush, plus more rubber bands and a few clamps at the back, but it’s not exactly difficult to do. Once all this was on and the parts lined up, I ran liquid cement into the join and let it dry.
 

Jon Heptonstall

SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
1,192
Points
113
First Name
Jon
The photographs-then and now- are really interesting. Whereabouts in NL are you?
Jon.
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,587
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
I live on Walcheren (hence my interest in the fighting around here). Vlissingen is only a fairly short bicycle trip away.
 

Jon Heptonstall

SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
1,192
Points
113
First Name
Jon
I did wonder if you were on Walcheren.Some great aerial photos of the sea defences pre- and post Lancaster.
Great start with the LWS.
Jon.
 

papa 695

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
SMF Supporter
Joined
May 9, 2011
Messages
20,286
Points
113
Location
Doncaster, South Yorkshire
First Name
Ian
A great reason and idea for the build Jakko, it looks like a lot of plastic for your money. And some nice detail from what I can see.
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,587
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
I did wonder if you were on Walcheren.Some great aerial photos of the sea defences pre- and post Lancaster.
I know someone who owns original prints of some of those, and I’ve got very high-res scans of a few of them. There is also quite a good book about aerial photography of Walcheren in WWII, though only in Dutch AFAIK.
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,587
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
it looks like a lot of plastic for your money. And some nice detail from what I can see.
The kit probably has about as many parts as your average tank, but it’s rather bigger than that. Detail looks to be pretty good, with rows of very fine rivets all along the hull and superstructure for example. It certainly looks good enough for my standards, so I doubt I’ll add much that isn’t in the box.
 

grumpa

SMF Supporter
Joined
Jan 14, 2015
Messages
4,690
Points
113
First Name
Jim
Great kit! Always wanted to build one of those, I'll be watching.
Jim.
 

Ian M

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
SMF Supporter
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
19,583
Points
113
Location
Falster, Denmark
First Name
Ian
Hmm dont think we have had a LWS build before. Interesting subject.
 

Si Benson

SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 27, 2018
Messages
3,310
Points
113
First Name
Si
Morning,

An interesting vehicle/ kit....don’t think I’ve seen the bronco version built before? Looks like your wrestling it into shape already :thumb2:

Si
 
  • Like
Reactions: JR

Jim R

SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 27, 2018
Messages
13,595
Points
113
Location
Shropshire
First Name
Jim
Hi Jakko
A very interesting build and also I like the personal connection. What exactly was the role of these vehicles?
Jim
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,587
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
don’t think I’ve seen the bronco version built before?

There’s a good step-by-step build/correction here (though note his English doesn’t seem to be too good, so when he says “part-line mis-match” he probably just means “mould line” :smiling3:), and if you read Estonian (I don’t), this forum thread is also about building this kit, though the builder appears to have used the suspension from another kit. Google Translate seems to do a decent job with it, though. There’s also a review on the Perth Military Modelling Site.
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,587
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
What exactly was the role of these vehicles?
Mainly transporting cargo etc. during amphibious landings — basically the role originally envisioned for the American LVT, before the US Marines began using that as an assault vehicle. The LWS apparently had a floating trailer capable of carrying 18 tonnes, plus a roomy interior with a roof hatch so it should have been possible to carry a fair amount inside the vehicle too. Accommodation was 20 troops, according to the instruction sheet, but I wonder where those would have sat — the only place available seems to have been on the floor, as the only seats are for the three-man crew.
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,587
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
The suspension is made up of a fair number of parts:

IMG_4388.jpg

(Hmm … maybe I shouldn’t have photographed my iPad’s shadow as well. Anyway …) For some reason Bronco gives two different numbers for parts that seem to be identical, or at the very least interchangeable. There are eight small roadwheel arms without axles, for example, and though they have two different numbers, I couldn’t spot the difference so I treated them as one. The pieces with the leaf springs all had a large sink mark on the front, so I filled that and filed it down before doing anything else. These also have obvious mould seams running all around that need to be scraped off.

All these parts assemble into eight bogies:

IMG_4390.jpg

I cemented the wheels to the suspension arms with axles, then put these together with the other half of the suspension arms. I also added the small pins to the square plates. Once the glue on these parts had dried, I put together the bogies, but only put cement on the pin that connects the square plate to the triangular one with the axles — nothing else was glued at this stage. As you can see, that leaves the bogies fully articulated.

When the glue had dried again, I cemented the bogie back plates to the hull, and also let that dry. This left me with:

IMG_4391.jpg

Straightening everything out is luckily not difficult. You may wonder how to determine the angle at which the roadwheel arms should sit, but that’s quite easy: on the real vehicle, the arms will be pushed up until the spring won’t let them go any further. Thus, the simplest way to get everything straight is to put the model on its wheels, and gravity will take care of pulling the hull down so far that all the roadwheel arms will be up against the springs. Using a piece of glass helps, since a work surface or cutting mat isn’t necessarily flat enough:

IMG_4393.jpg

(That came from a picture frame, by the way, for those wondering where to get a relatively small piece of glass.) Now it was just a matter of letting some liquid cement flow into all the joints that I hadn’t glued yet, and leaving the model on its wheels until that had dried.
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,587
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
The rear of the superstructure sides has slots that need to be cut out for the turn indicators (at least, I assume that’s what they are). The kit provides for two locations these can be in, and looking at photos I determined 1071 had them in the rear position. The slots to be cut are clearly marked on the inside of the parts, but I decided to fill the ones I don’t need, in case they remain visible:

IMG_4397.jpg

You don’t have to be overly neat and square in cutting the slots, as the indicators are long, narrow boxes that fit through the slots, so the cut edge won’t be visible on the finished model.

Next the winch that sits in the middle of the cabin:

IMG_4399.jpg

This is a little tricky to assemble, and as you can tell I replaced some of the parts by 0.5 mm plastic rod (11 mm long each) because I didn’t feel like cleaning up the bits provided in the kit. If you put the central axle with the middle plate onto one of the two side plates, you can fairly easily add the outer rods and line it all up, then add the second outer plate. The rest is simple enough, and results in the completed winch:

IMG_4400.jpg

For the roof plate, I cut off the four large tabs that were on it, as the rear two can easily be seen through the large roof hatch, and the front ones through the windows:

IMG_4404.jpg

Inside the hull, I had to scratchbuild one of the rifle rests because it went “pling” from my tweezers, and despite spending 15–20 minutes on my knees under my workbench looking for it with a flashlight, I couldn’t find it anymore :sad: I put it in the middle so it’ll be out of sight as much as possible.

IMG_4408.jpg

Then the three walls and the floor around the rear entrance:

IMG_4410.jpg

These fit very well, but the seams are also very obvious through the roof hatch, so needed filling. The same goes for the ejector marks on the inside face of the front wall, but I left those on the side walls alone because they’ll be almost impossible to see on the completed model.
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,587
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
Almost four years on, and a “shelf queen” group build on another forum has finally got me to want to finish this model :smiling3:

It had stalled mainly because of a couple of pipes that are missing on the chimney, inside the cab, and because I want to leave the roof hatches open, they would be very visible so need to be added. I had already bent one from 1.6 mm brass rod, but for some reason hadn’t felt like tackling the other one. When figuring out how to do this, I soon decided that the chimney would need to be glued in first, because the pipes would otherwise be hard to align and probably pretty delicate. So, I put the chimney in place with glue, and added the cab (without glue) quickly before it dried so I could ensure it lined up correctly with the hole in the roof:

FEB3D370-CD0D-41B6-A46F-93386022CF50.jpeg

Once that had dried, I bent the second pipe and added both, plus the brackets for the taller one (the other seems to not have had any):

22747CD0-2F50-4111-B90D-3DC03F04A943.jpeg

It still needs some bolts as well as a cable coming out the top of the tall pipe, also fixed with brackets, but my superglue has gone thick, and I don’t think I can fix those smaller bits with it, so I’ll need to buy some new first. As you can see in the photo, though, I also made a start with masking off the floor, so I can spray the interior walls later on:

4D65EBB5-A422-4600-93FD-CBD359CA4548.jpeg

Somewhat stupidly, I had already glued the levers etc. to the floor, so I’m now having to mask around them, which is a fiddly job requiring pointed tweezers and dental picks/sculpting tools.

Also in the works are the tracks:

45EE4DA9-D808-4CCA-8E86-5C98A0156633.jpeg

A fair amount of work to cut all the links loose, but it’s only three points per link and if you cut them right, you don’t need to do any more cleaning up on them, so not too bad. Oddly, they come in left and fight:

7C6A07C2-F83D-4421-9B42-E096D5CF6E0B.jpeg
 

adt70hk

I know its a bit sad but I like quickbuild kits!!!
SMF Supporter
Joined
Sep 4, 2019
Messages
9,438
Points
113
First Name
Andrew
Interesting vehicle Jakko.

Those tracks looks identical to the ones I used on my Pz II I used for the SimonT tribute build - they were handed too

They were my first (and only) individual link tracks I've used. I don't know if you've used them before but I found them very easy to work with, not too hard to clean up and generally clipped together well.

The problem I ran into was when it came to putting them on the vehicle. because of the nature of the fixing points - the pins are quite short and the receiving hollows equally shallow to match - as soon as you put them under any tension, they pulled apart very easily.

I'm probably telling you something you already know but I got around the problem by laying out a length of Tamiya tape and laying the tracks on top of that, making sure it was stuck down the length. I then dribbled TET into each join, left it a couple of minutes and then bent it round the tracks, leaving one end open so I could remove them for painting.

Will try to follow this one.

ATB.

Andrew
 

Tim Marlow

Little blokes aficionado
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 27, 2018
Messages
16,543
Points
113
Location
Somerset
First Name
Tim
Don’t remember this at all Jakko. Looks like you made good progress before shelving it though. Interesting vehicle :thumb2:
 
Top