Trumpeter 1/144 US Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) By Chris Banyai-Riepl

Overview

The US Navy LCAC came about after extensive studies in the 1970s that stemmed from the rapid expansion of Soviet air-cushioned landing craft. By the early 1980s, the Soviet Navy had several classes of air-cushioned landing craft, including the large Aist Class (capable of carrying 250 tons) and the even larger Pomornik (Zubr) Class (capable of carrying 360 tons). To counter this Soviet capability (air-cushioned landing craft can access roughly 70-80% of the world’s beaches, compared to less than 20% for traditional landing craft), the LCAC entered full production in 1987. Capable of carrying 60 tons, the LCAC is far less capable than the large Russian types, but still significantly improved the landing capability of the Navy. By the end of 1995, 82 LCACs had been delivered to the US Navy, greatly increasing its Over the Horizon (OTH) capabilities.

The LCACs, however, were designed with a 20-year operational life, which meant that the first vessel was scheduled for retirement as early as 2004. To counter this, the Navy developed a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) that would increase that lifespan from 20 to 40 years. Separated into two phases, the SLEP modifications include upgrades to the electronics to an open architecture, and updates to the buoyancy box and corrosion protection. With the SLEP in place, the current LCAC fleet will be gone by 2027, and plans are already underway to find a replacement.

The Kit

I never thought that I would see a kit of this vessel in any scale larger than 1/350, but here it is in 1/144. Why 1/144, you ask? Most likely because that is a very popular scale for wargamers, and this would fit in beautifully with much of the existing armor in that scale. Inside the box are several trees of gray plastic, a sprue of clear parts, a small fret of photoetch parts, and a large black rubber ring for the skirt. A decal sheet provides basic markings as well as separate numbers, allowing you to build any US Navy LCAC (sort of; more on this later). The detail throughout is quite good, with delicate raised and recessed details.

Construction begins with the main hull, and this is made up of three main pieces. The plastic parts form the upper and lower hull pieces, while the black rubber skirt fits into notches around the edges. Both the fore and aft loading ramps are separate, opening up the potential of having these down and the LCAC being loaded up. However, while that potential is there, the ability to do so with this kit is not, as the skirt is only available in the inflated position. The ramps are held shut by that inflated skirt, so there is no way to build this kit with the ramps down. Also, the only way the skirt can be inflated is if the propellers are turning, so you are left with a rather difficult conundrum to deal with here. Hopefully we will see someone come out with an aftermarket deflated skirt, as the diorama potential for this kit is great.

Moving beyond the main hull, the rest of the assembly deals with the two ‘sides’ to the vessel. These are mainly the engine housings, with two cockpits at the forward edges. Most of the work in building this kit comes here, and it is here that the photoetch gets used. Much of the engine housing is open screen, and the photoetch does a beautiful job in representing that. The propeller housings are also well done, although the more detail-oriented might want to rebuild the front covering with smaller, more to-scale materials. The cockpit section includes an interior (which will be tough to see, given that the interiors were painted black and the windows are small to begin with) and photoetch windshield wipers (very prominent on this vessel).

With each side thusly completed, the LCAC is basically done. There are some small details scattered about, such as piping, walkways, anchors, and such, but overall this model really should not take long to assemble. The full-color painting diagram is absolutely wonderful, showing all the main color differences on this boat, including a couple of variations for specific LCACs. I recommend heading over to the US Navy website and checking out their photos of LCACs to find specific details for the boat you want to do. The decals are nicely printed and should have no problem in application.

In terms of accuracy, after checking this against those same USN photos I would have to say that this is quite well done for a pre-SLEP LCAC. Unfortunately, most of the photos at the Navy site show LCACs with the newer skirt, which is quite a bit larger all around, and has a different side structure. Take note of that when you build yours, and also note that it was not until the SLEP modifications took place that the LCAC could carry the Abrams tank. So if you want to display your model with an MBT on it, be prepared to either scratch up a collapsed skirt, or a SLEP-modified enlarged skirt.

Conclusion

Aside from the inflated skirt issue, this is a great little model, and one that will definitely look interesting on the shelf. For a really interesting display, you could track down some 1/144 firefighting equipment and make yours as one that carried the Los Angeles Fire Department over to Catalina Island a while back, to fight fires there. My thanks to Stevens International for the review sample.