Japanese Daihatsu-Class Landing Craft – 28mm scale
When thinking of amphibious landings in World War 2, we invariably imagine the bitter battles on the beaches of Tarawa or Iwo-Jima, or the massive Allied landings involved in Operations such as Husky or Overlord. Yet one combatant nation was conducting regular amphibious operations well before the recognized “start date ” of that conflict, and that of course is the Empire of Japan. The backbone of the Japanese amphibious operations was the Daihatsu-Class landing craft. This was a shallow draft 14-meter landing craft, used to ferry troops, tanks (it was able to carry a Type 95 light tank) or as a transport for supplies. This was crucial given the dearth of other transport options– consider the primitive nature or complete absence of roads and rail systems in that theatre. The 14 meter Daihatsu-class landing craft was built in the thousands and were in use from 1932 through to the end of the conflict.
This .stl is a sizable print – the hull is 224mm long. Even at this I designed this to be 92% of the actual scale size, to ensure it will fit most FDM built plates. Due to its large size, the difference will not affect its playability, but if you are a stickler and have a large build plate, upscale the .stls to 108% for an actual 1/56th scale print.
The design comes with both a closed front ramp and an extended ramp; these fit into a bayonet slot in the hull and can be exchanged freely; the ramps hold securely in either position and thus the model can be displayed as both at sea as well as engaged in disembarking.
The test print was in FDM. Due to the size, I could not print this in resin at home. Due to the robustness of the design, you can downscale this to 1/100th and still have a successful print.
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