Serving in both Pacific and European theaters of World War II, the LVT-4 was the final model of the LVT (Landing Vehicle, Tracked) family. A modification of the LVT-2, it had an added ramp and the engine was behind the driver.
AFV Club’s LVT-4 comes in dark green plastic with clear parts for the vision blocks, light lenses, and clear domes on the crew hatches. A small photoetched-metal fret, poly caps, nylon cord for the rear ramp cable, and acetate film for the gauges are included, as well as a printed copy of the box art.
Along with some flash, there are numerous ejection-pin marks to remove. The photoetched metal is soft, so take care removing parts from the fret. Options abound for the machine-gun shields, mooring cleats, additional armor, and decals, so decide on your specific vehicle early.
I ignored the instructions from the start, building the vehicle tub and working my way out. First, I assembled the driver’s compartment, using Micro Mask on the clear instrument panel to protect the lenses while I painted. After painting, the acetate sheet with the gauges can be glued to the inside of the instrument panel. The driver’s compartment is first glued to the front of the lower hull — too bad so little of it is seen through the hatches — then to the rear lower hull, which is made up of the inner floor and outer hull (D2 and D3). Make sure these two sections (D2 and D3) are put together properly: Mine ended up slightly misaligned, causing problems later.
The two large side panels of the hull (C11 and C12) are slightly warped. Once the main hull components were together I glued the sides to the lower hull, starting at the front and working my way aft. Paint the crew lockers between the engine and the hull sides before you glue Part F13 to the hull; you can’t reach it afterward.
The driver-compartment roof can now be assembled and glued to the hull, along with the rest of the smaller details. In Step 34, grab handles on the inner hull are misnumbered; they are A44, not K44.
The rear ramp can be left open or closed. Though the directions are to drill a hole on each side of Part F1 to allow the nylon cable to pass through, there is no mark or measurement to locate the holes. Parts F2 and F3 will partially hide the holes if they are not even. I used brass rod for the antenna.
I finished the drive sprockets and road wheels before gluing them to the hull for ease of painting. I left off the return-roller assemblies until after the model was painted.
The numbering of the track guides is wrong in steps 3 and 4, but a sheet with the correct directions is included. The tracks are made of a soft vinyl from which it is nearly impossible to remove attachment points and mold seams. The tracks come in two sections per side and are meant to be joined with liquid glue. I used Tamiya’s extra thin styrene cement, but too much will melt the track. The detail is the best of any vinyl tracks I’ve seen, but aftermarket tracks are still a better choice.
I painted my LVT the dark gray of a U.S. Marine vehicle at Iwo Jima. In his book Project: LVTs Amtracs (Vol. 2, No. LP009, Letterman Publications), David E. Harper says the dark gray color was really blue — his preference is Tamiya medium blue (XF-18) — but I mixed it 50/50 with dark gray (XF-24). I mixed this color with varying amounts of dark sea gray (XF-54) for highlights before a series of washes, pigments, and pastels
The decals adhered well with no silvering, but they do have excess carrier film you should trim. I used Solvaset to get the large stripes to settle over rivets and hinges. I would recommend painting the yellow stripes and using decals for the vehicle numbers.
This kit looks complicated, but if you get the floor right, the rest of the kit falls together. It took 271⁄2 hours, mostly dealing with the numerous pin marks. Anyone who has built a model before should have no problems with this one.