Amphibious Warfare

[klingsor]

While considering an island hopping campaign I started thinking about building some more futuristic looking landing craft and after a flash of inspiration this morning I now have a design that I think will work.

Having a landing craft that will not allow tanks to fit inside it is of course quite embarrassing so before I do anything more than rough sketches I hadst better find out how big the tanks that are in the pipeline for BE are. So, Mongoose, what scale are your tanks going to be made to or is it going to be the slightly woolly, good enough, scale beloved of wargamers that sends scale modellers climbing the walls?

Failing that I should just assume 1/48th, which is the largest probable scale ands work with that. Of course if I make it wide enough for another companies retro-futuristic AFVs then fit will not be a problem.

 

[Col. Hammer]

Judging from the few pics I've seen the tanks seem to be about 20mm scale while the infantry is 28mm (or 30mm?). So the tanks/vehicles will be quite small when compared to the infantry.

 

[Mac V]

Matt says the tanks just look small in the pictures. They are SUPPOSED to be all the same scale, 28-30mm (depending who you ask). BUT, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Hiromoon]

It's all 28mm Col Hammer (the PLA tank is short for a tank, really).

 

[Rick]

Landing craft are good, fun things for going over water. And thats it.

What you need are hovercraft. Armed hovercraft. Royal Marines used 4 Griffon 2000TD(M) hovercraft in Iraq, and a lot of other countries use them for all sorts of uses, including Amphibious assault.

 

[klingsor]

Hovercraft are, for me at least, a little harder to make than displacement hulls and I like landing craft. I have the new Tempus Publishing book 'Coastal forces of the Royal Navy from 1865' by Maurice Cocker which has some interesting ACVs. I was recently given an old part work that has some very interesting pictures in it, some I have seem before in other reference books, but others are new, a two page spread on Vietnam era brown water monitors looks interesting. More usefully I think it has some good pictures of some of the huge Russian ACVs. An old Blandford book I have on Hovercraft and Hydrofoils has more good stuff so even without the need I have quite a lot of reference material for ACVs.

A few months back one of my local model shops had a cheap Chinese made toy hovercraft. I was tempted at the time as the skirt looked useable and I was happy enough that I could rebuild the rest. Now I wish I had bought it. Once again that lesson is banged home – if it looks even remotely useful grab it when you see it.

My brother has a good eye for design even if he not an expert on warships so I will run the LCM sketches past him tonight. Unfortunately his ideas, while looking great, are not always easy to buld.

 

[Tibour]

Yes to hovercraft as USMC uses LCACs(landing craft air cushioned) 8)

 

[Mr Evil]

check this out

http://www.diseno-art.com/encyclopedia/archive/extreme_sea.html

http://www.hovercraft-museum.org/russpormornik.html for more details

 

[klingsor]

Yup, those are the Russian monsters. Nice link. Big enough to be terrain in their own right.

I suppose you could router the skirts from a sheet of 20mm MDF and build up from that. The ribbing would be a little tricky though.

My Greenhill AFV Databook lists the M1A2 as having a hull 7.92m long and 3.66m wide. In 1/48th scale this equates to 165 and 76mm respectively. The gun will add a bit on to length of course. I do remember from looking for a suitable donor for a Baneblade hull that the M1 is the longest tank in service so if the LCM or ACV can accommodate them then it can hold anything.

 

[Rick]

Actually, Challenger 2 is a bit bigger, at 8.327m, about 173mm?

Extremely pedantic post, I know. Just so you don't start wondering why some tanks fit and some don't, once you've made it! :roll:

 

[byram]

klingsor you may want to try the old GI Joe amphibious landing craft.

 

[Lane Shutt]

I would stick to 1:48 for the scale and use an ACV for heavy equipment.

IIRC the LCAC can transport 4 LAV, 1 M1A2 Abrams or a bunch of MHHWVs

To build the skirt try fine weave fabric over some 1" pipe. The reason for cloth is ease of work, rubber/ plastic sheet would be closer in texture but hard to drape and glue. You could even glue seams in the fabric to represent sections and have small gaps in the tube for the seam would go in. Give it a good coat of paint and it should look rubber like.

I'm not sure if the USMC still uses Mike Boats, an update of the WWII Higgins boats.

IIRC Norway or Sweeden have a conventional hull craft with a small front ramp and the US has several boats for riverine uses.

 

[Col. Hammer]

It's all 28mm Col Hammer (the PLA tank is short for a tank, really).

That's good to hear. The PLA tank just looked small among the infantry. But I guess the bases add to the height of the figures a little, so they seem taller than they are.

Anyway, I'm really lookin forward to January to get to see these figs in real. The pics always disort the look a little and the figs always look better in real life.

 

[Col_stone]

the type 99 General characteristics
Crew 3/4
Length 11.0 m
Width 3.4 m
Height 2.2 m
Weight 54 tonnes

I think it's the bases that makes it seem so different, i'll rebase my figs on 0,8mm bases..

btw, has anyone said anything about the "true" scale of the tanks, ie !/56 o r so,, hoping for 1/56 hoping for 1/56 hoping for 1/56 (that'll sell tanks to modern wargamers everywher, well to me at least, lots of tanks..)

 

[klingsor]

Interesting, there is a mistake in the book, the conversion for the M1A2s hull length is wrong, it is 9.5m long not 7.92m long assuming that the imperial length is correct. I would not have caught this but for the Baneblande project. For it I looked up the book and bought a Trumpeter Challenger II kit as it was listed as the longest AFV there was a easily or cheaply acquired kit of – only to find the M1 did have a longer hull. I had not bothered to check the numbers in the book though until now.

If I make it to fit those odd GW tanks then it will accommodate anything realistic!

I do not think GI Joe is available on this side of the Atlantic. I always thought it was the same thing as Action Man in any case – a little bit of Googling reveals that I am wrong again. Some of the vehicles do look very useful, I particularly like the Dragonhawk drop ship which looks perfect for Starship Troopers – rather nicer than the boxy version seen in the film.

 

[byram]

this is the one i am talking about, and i could have sworn i saw an action man variant some where (i think at harrods [rods]), so if you search some action man toys you could prolly find it:

http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/84/whale/

also if you check ebay, you have three days on this bid:
http://cgi.ebay.com/GI-Joe-Killer-Whale_W0QQitemZ320038653762QQihZ011QQcategoryZ2467QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[klingsor]

Oh nice. You could do a lot with that hull and the fans look very good.

 

[Alexb83]

GI Joe used to be released in the UK as Action Force - I had a few toys when I was a kid.

 

[Martin]

S and S Models in the UK make a British Griffon 2000 hovercraft in resin for 28mm figures in 1/60th scale lookes really good in the picture costs £30.00 sterling. The Griffon is used by the Royal Marines in the rivers in Iraq carrys a section or two of RM could be useful.

The web site is www.sandsmodels.co.uk and look in the 28mm section.