1/35 Scale USCG DUKW

This will be my second CG model in as many as 5 months. If you have seen my profile photo, you can tell I have more than a slightly passing interest in the organization.
Several months back I found a Royal Navy DUKW by Italeri in 1/35th scale in the clearance bin at a hobby shop while traveling in Virginia. This seemed interesting to me, as I sometimes inspect modern passenger "Duck" boats to ensure their safety and maintenance. By building the model, I wanted to see the difference between the 1945 version, and the "modern" version of the ducks.

In addition, I had seen black and white photos of the last DUKW in use by the federal government. In this case it was the USCG. Each CG District seemed to have a single DUKW to use in flood operations to conduct search and rescue as needed. Most DUKW's were phased out by the 1970's due to the increased use of helicopters by the CG, and the increasingly difficult maintenance requirements of an aging vehicle design. The last DUKW in use by the CG was stationed at Sandy Hook, NJ. It was used to great effect by towing boats off of the numerous sand bars in the area. By the mid 1980's that last DUKW was retired. My DUKW is modeled after that DUKW, circa 1965.

The CG DUKW is externally similar to the earlier military versions, with a few exceptions. Clearly the paint scheme was in line with CG small boats at the time, which the DUKW was treated as. The other difference was the omission of the .50 cal machine gun bar mount, which in a way was more similar to the UK lend lease version. Unlike that version, there were no wheel guards covering the tires. Lastly, the CG ever dutiful to rules of navigation, added port and starboard navigation lights near the driver's cab. I modeled these using styrene and spare sprue. Lastly I printed my own decals using Testors decal paper (see last blog post!)

Here are pics of how it came out.

 

 

 

You see the nav lights next to the drivers seat

 

 

 

The top of the DUKW is painted in spar, or a type of CG yellow. I used Games Workshop Sepia Ink to pull out the color and delineate the panels and add shade to recessed areas. (below)

 

 

I wanted viewers to see the underside of the DUKW, so I mounted it using magnets mounted inside the model, to flat magnets on top of the acrylic rods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The DUKW will be displayed in a football display case I got on clearance (see a trend?)

The mirror in the back of the case readily shows the interior top details of the DUKW.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mirror used to good effect

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for viewing!!