LST, Large Slow Target

In World War Two the the US Navy used a vessel called the LST, Landing Ship Tank. They used them to transfer vehicles, from ship to shore; straight onto the beach. These were highly successful ships and naturally the Navy came up with several new versions. These 1/2400 scale models from my collection show some of those. The one at the bottom of this photo is the standard LST. The one behind it has been modified into the Fighter Direction configuration. Amphibious landings were covered by hundreds, even thousands of aircraft and these vessels helped to keep them from shooting friendly targets and direct them towards the enemy.






















Once again, the standard LST and behind it a new model, the aircraft carrier version. Yes, aircraft carrier. They placed an elevated runway along the centerline and Piper Cub type airplanes could take off from the deck. They carried about 8 of them sort of stacked along the sides of the hull and runway. It was a one way trip, planes could be launched but not return to land. So they would have to land on a land runway or a real aircraft carrier. These were used in the Mediterranean Set where they could find someplace friendly not too far away. These planes were used for naval gunfire spotting.






















This time the ship in the middle is the repair ship version. These machine shop ships could fix almost anything and could make just about anything given the materials and enough time. Mostly these repaired landing craft so they could be returned to their ships, since this repair ship would be on the beach. I suspect if an Army guy showed up with a broken item and a carton of cigarettes he could get something fixed too.

These conversions are quick, easy and simple. Get a book on ships and a few bits from the spares box and in 30 minutes or less you too can have one of these little gems. This gives more variety to your fleet and more capability too.