While there are notable exceptions such as Airfix, many manufacturers make kits of vehicles with no crew or anything to give them any life. Where vehicles are enclosed, such as tanks, that is reasonable, but we feel kits should at least have drivers or other crew if they would normally be visible. For a landing craft of course everyone would be visible, and Pegasus, to their credit, have provided a good many figures to populate their model.

The LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) had a maximum carrying capacity of 36 troops (it could also take light vehicles), and photographs of it in use on D-Day show that every boat was full, understandably. This kit from Pegasus comes with five pieces of the three men shown on the left of our picture, plus two of the second piece shown and one of the final piece, making a total of 18 figures. The LCVP had a crew of three (coxswain, engineer and crewman), so these are all present and correct. One would be steering the craft while the other two man the .30 calibre machine guns. The five strips of three men roughly half fill the hold, as you might expect, and each strip is identical apart from the weaponry. Three of the strips are of men who all hold a rifle, the fourth strip (shown above) has the middle man holding a Thompson M1 machine gun while the fifth strip has a man holding a Browning Automatic Rifle in addition to two riflemen.

The troops wear a flotation belt and the waterproof assault gasmask bag on the chest, but are otherwise quite lightly kitted, presumably to help fit as many as possible in the craft. Of course such neatly regimented lines and identical poses are not realistic in the turmoil of a landing, but Pegasus are to be applauded for providing a decent number of troops to populate their model.

The three crew wear helmets and life jackets, and are reasonable if no more lively than the troops. Again they add some life and perspective to the model, but are not nearly as good as the corresponding figures in the Dragon Landing Craft set.