The Ramp!

I did think about making this a working ramp, but at the time I didn't know enough about how to do it and now I would have to take the LCT apart to do it. So it's glued and it's staying that way.

















These are the accessways to the engine room on the real vessel.









Access hatches on the model - the radio control servos - doing good work as the motors, and the battery will go under here.







And the radio control receiver and mixer to control the two motors will go in here.



Lastly back to a bit of exact work on the ramp adding the cleats to stop vehicles slipping.

Okay so on to the model.

I got the idea to do this from a model at the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum Model Boat show, bought plans and started to build. Didn't know the first thing about RC and how it is all going to work, and am still learning.

So, the pictures.
This is with the hull already started - it was waterproof, built from sheet styrene 1.5mm and 2mm thick. No messing about here.

Length o.a. 117ft
Beam o.a. 32 ft
Displacement (unladen) 135 tons
(laden) 286 tons
Speed 8 knts
Complement 1 officer 12 enlisted men
Armament 2x 20mm Oerlikon (single)
Power 3 x Gray Marine 225 hp diesels with triple screws

Taken from Wkipedia


The LCT Mk 5 was built in America based in part on a Thorneycroft design sketched out by the Admiralty. With modifications to better suit the Bureau of the Navy the British concept of a ‘tank lander’ became the Landing Craft Tank Mk 5. Production was started in a number of yards across the States by local companies – often with no ship building experience but working to common plans.
These companies includedthe

• Manitowoc S&B yard in Manitowoc, Wisconsin (57),
• Kansas City Structural Steel Co. (15),
• the Darby Prod. of Steel Plate Corp., (13) in Kansas City
• and the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co., Leavenworth, Kansas (13),
• Quincy Barge Builders in Quincy Illinois, (60),
• Decatur Iron & Steel Co. (29),
• Bison Shipbuilding Co. Buffalo, NY (31),
• NY Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, New Jersey (101).
• Mount Vernon Bridge Co., Mount Vernon Ohio (36),
• Omaha Steel Works, Omaha, Nebraska (16),
• Pidgeon-Thomas iron Co., Memphis Tennessee (24)
  From www.ww2lct.org
  
  Typically a keel would be laid down every 3 or 4 days and completed in 35 days. The design was built in sections which were then assembled in the various yards.
  

Assembling two sections of an LCT – aft section – crews quarters, and engine room are on the left of the picture.

Five LCTs at the New York Shipping Company

This is a blog of my scratch build of a Landing Craft Mk 5 built from plans from Traplett Publications.

It started this last year about April and I'm hoping to get it in the water and sailing soon.

Pictures and details to follow soon.