International Scale Modeller

The M113 Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) is a tracked vehicle capable of travelling on roads and across country, including rough terrain and through jungle. The M113 also has limited amphibious capabilities. The vehicle has a crew of two – a driver and crew commander – and has the capacity to carry up to ten passengers. A ramp at the rear of the vehicle allows passengers and crew to enter or exit the vehicle quickly. When the ramp is closed, a door set into the ramp can be used to access the interior of the vehicle.

Designed and built in the United States in the late 1950s, the M113 was introduced into service with the US military in 1960. The improved, diesel powered M113A1 was purchased in 1964 by the Australian government and the first vehicles began to arrive in Australia in 1965. The M113A1 has been employed by a variety of units, including armoured and infantry. This vehicle type has been used operationally in South Vietnam, Somalia, Rwanda, and East Timor.





The first Australian APCs to arrive in South Vietnam were from 1 APC Troop, a reduced troop of ten M113A1 APCs from A Squadron, 4th/19th Prince of Wales's Light Horse Regiment, which arrived at Vung Tau on 8 June 1965. Initially armed with an M2HB .50-calibre machine-gun, the M113A1 was soon fitted with a protective armour shield to provide protection for the otherwise exposed crew commander. The shields proved to be of limited value, and in the second half of 1966 some of the APCs deployed to South Vietnam were modified by fitting Model 74C command cupolas, made by Aircraft Armaments Incorporated. Only 20 Model 74C cupolas were purchased, of which 19 were sent to South Vietnam.





Permanent improvements were made with the introduction of the Cadillac Gage T-50 (Aust) turret, which could be fitted with either a .50 calibre machine-gun and .30 calibre machine-gun combination, making the vehicle an LRV, or twin .30 calibre machine-guns in the APC. Only the APC and LRV variants were fitted with the turret: all other variants within the family of vehicles retained the flex-mounted commanders machine-gun. By the end of the Vietnam commitment, or soon afterwards, the armament on the APC/LRV was standardised with a .50/.30 combination.



The Australian Army operated over 700 M113s, including variants such as light reconnaissance and armoured bridge layer vehicles which were developed using experience gained during the Vietnam War. An especially notable variant was the M113 FSV (Fire Support Vehicle). The M113 FSV was essentially an M113A1 fitted with the turret from a Saladin armoured car which was being phased out of Australian service. It was powered by the same GMC V6 diesel engine and was also equipped with the same drivetrain. Although the addition of the turret increased the vehicle turret to 12 tons and affected cross countrty peformance, its top speed was still approximately 60Km/h.

The turret's main armament was a 76mm cannon with an elevation range of -10 degrees to 20 degrees. This weopon was capable of providing covering fire for assaults and engaging armoured vehicles with HE (High Explosive) and HESH (High Explosive Squash Head) shells respectively. There were also two 7.62mm machine guns, one mounted coaxially and the other mounted on top of the turret.












Specifications

M113A1 Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC)

Armament: .50 calibre and .30 calibre machine-guns

Armour: 12–38 mm

Crew: 2 + 10 passengers

Power plant: GMC V6 diesel

Speed (max.): 66 km/h

Length: 4.87 m

Height: 2.41 m

Width: 2.69 m

Weight: 10.5 t

Oh wow!!! That's an awesome star dude!

Nice choice.

I built this kit a whilie back and I enjoyed it alot
It's a great kit

Good choice and nice start!

Nice kit.
Was looking into Australia's Vietnam involvement and found a chilling quote from an opposing member of the Aus Parliament Aurthur Calwell

"Our men will be fighting the largely indigenous Viet Cong in their own home territory. They will be fighting in the midst of a largely indifferent, if not resentful, and frightened population. They will be fighting at the request of, and in support, and, presumably, under the direction of an unstable, inefficient, partially corrupt military regime which lacks even the semblance of being, or becoming, democratically based."

[Excerpt from Mr Arthur Calwell’s speech, 4 May 1965.]

Blink and you'll miss it. There's not many parts to this kit and it builds up quite well. There's just a couple of things that need to be done in order to represent a Vietnam FSV. Here it is ready for a little modification.





First up is the Smoke Dischargers. These were removed during deployment in Vietnam, they were catching on vines and other foliage and proving problematic. In the kit the dischargers are made up of mounting brackets, discharger body (including moulded on mounting plate) and tubes. So, brackets mounted to the turret and then a mounting plate made with styrene sheet.



Secondly, Trim vane extension. ??? Tamiya seems to have missed a trick here. This extension was present from the prototype of this vehicle to operational. Tamiya went the soft option, and stuck with the trim vane from their original kit. It was 1979, no internet or near immediate information sharing so I guess I can forgive them.

Step 1, remove existing detail from the upper kit part.



Step 2, create extension with styrene. Measure, cut, trim, remeasure, sand. Hinges were made from styrene. Rivet detail etc still to be added.



Lastly, the Vietnam FSVs had an extra armour plate added under the sponson, above the first three road wheels, and the side skirts were removed. The extra armour is easy enough, just add a bit of styrene, the choice to not add the skirts just means some extra detail needs to be added.





As can be seen in the above photo, bolt detail was added where the skirts would normally attach. Using the skirt as a template, bolt positions were marked in pencil. Some kits provide bolt/rivet detail on the edge of selected sprues. Like an idiot, I've never kept these when I've come across them, so I went out and bought some aftermarket.



That's all for now.

Russ.

Great work so far Russ

Coen wrote:Oh wow!!! That's an awesome star dude!

snappercity wrote:Nice choice.

brickfan8 wrote:I built this kit a whilie back and I enjoyed it alot
It's a great kit

felisbarcinonensis wrote:Good choice and nice start!

Cheers fellas, sorry for the late reply.

Twokidsnosleep wrote:Nice kit.
Was looking into Australia's Vietnam involvement and found a chilling quote from an opposing member of the Aus Parliament Aurthur Calwell

"Our men will be fighting the largely indigenous Viet Cong in their own home territory. They will be fighting in the midst of a largely indifferent, if not resentful, and frightened population. They will be fighting at the request of, and in support, and, presumably, under the direction of an unstable, inefficient, partially corrupt military regime which lacks even the semblance of being, or becoming, democratically based."

[Excerpt from Mr Arthur Calwell’s speech, 4 May 1965.]

Without getting to far into politics. How often could that have been said (switch "Viet Cong" for selected indigenous peoples) about conflicts fought in the last 50 years. Mr Calwell was probably investigated under suspicion of being a Communist following that statement.

Nige201980 wrote:Great work so far Russ

Cheers Nige.

Great work there Russ - I did blink, but luckily didn't miss it, damn you're a fast builder! Love all the mods you're doing, you've a great eye for detail!

alextheblue wrote:Great work there Russ - I did blink, but luckily didn't miss it, damn you're a fast builder! Love all the mods you're doing, you've a great eye for detail!

Cheers Alex. There's not many steps in the build, I didn't even have to take my shoes off to count them.

Russ72 wrote:

Twokidsnosleep wrote:Nice kit.
Was looking into Australia's Vietnam involvement and found a chilling quote from an opposing member of the Aus Parliament Aurthur Calwell

"Our men will be fighting the largely indigenous Viet Cong in their own home territory. They will be fighting in the midst of a largely indifferent, if not resentful, and frightened population. They will be fighting at the request of, and in support, and, presumably, under the direction of an unstable, inefficient, partially corrupt military regime which lacks even the semblance of being, or becoming, democratically based."

[Excerpt from Mr Arthur Calwell’s speech, 4 May 1965.]

Without getting to far into politics. How often could that have been said (switch "Viet Cong" for selected indigenous peoples) about conflicts fought in the last 50 years. Mr Calwell was probably investigated under suspicion of being a Communist following that statement.

So true

Loving it very inspirational!

Nev wrote:Loving it very inspirational!

Cheers Nev.

Undercoats down, used "The undercoat that shall not be mentioned" (ie Vallejo). The Olive Drab on the turret and body and the Panzer Grey on the road wheels. After a couple of hours I used my circle template to respray the hubs of the wheels with the Olive Drab.







24 hours or so later, I sprayed Tamiya Olive Drab into seams, recesses and lower detail. The Tamiya Olive Drab is a couple of shades darker than the Vallejo undercoat. Allow to dry for 15mins or so and then over the whole thing with Tamiya Khaki Drab, starting the blend of the two colours. 15mins later a coat of gloss.

24 hours or so later, I used Tamiya - Panel Line Accent Colour (Black) to pick out and around some detail. A couple of days later it received another gloss coat, ready for decaling.







Cheers, Russ.

Coming along nicely

Excellent paintwork!

Yevgeny wrote:Coming along nicely

Twokidsnosleep wrote:Excellent paintwork!

Cheers Fellas.

Decaling done, weathering started.

To Vietnam the FSV I got some decals from Mouse House (http://www.mheaust.com.au, most products also available from http://www.bnamodelworld.com). Mouse House specialise in Australian subjects, each decal set comes with a well laid out placement diagram. These decals cover all 8 FSVs that were sent to Vietnam.









I chose 42C.



The decal are very thin, and printed straight up. You have to cut out around each decal to be used. I had a bit of trouble. Because of their thinness, they only had to be shown the water in order for them to release, when released they were very brittle. Originally I was going to do 42B, "ALL ALUMINIUM CAN". It didn't go well. As it was the starboard side became a that'll do. The blue triangle in the call sign is very week and i'll have to try and bring it out with a bit of brushwork. I also started mucking around with vehicle scratches, as opposed to chipping.







The scratching wasn't deep enough. The post decal gloss coat disappeared it.

Next, I started weathering and dirtying the thing up. I applied some MIG mud stuff to the lower hull and then washed it out with Tamiya XF-27 (Black Green) enamel. I also stippled/dry brushed the mud product over the sides of the hull and hull deck. I did this for no other reason then that I had it on the brush. Happy with the way it broke up the colour, I sponged on some Mr Hobby H421 (Brown Violet) over the entire model. I also did the same with H80 (Khaki Green). I plan to do the same with a few other colours, but that's it for this weekend.





Cheers, Russ.

Great work mate this is looking really good and thanks for the tutorial on the correct features for a NAm build, very useful.

That's looking sweet so far mate!

Thanks for the comments fellas. Much appreciated.

Further confirming my theory that I am a weathering dyslexic.

Started doing some weathering. Started off with some light chipping and colour variation on larger panels using the sponge method. I gloss coated and then added a wash of Ultimate "Mud", cleaned up wear I didn't want mud and went into a couple of places with a black pin wash. I was treating that stage as old dirt and oil. A Satin coat was applied when all that was dry and I did a dot filter and some streaking. This left the whole thing faded out and motley, which was what I was going for but ended up toning it back with a thin wash of Tamiya XF 27 black green.

Triangle on Call Sign touched up.


After Ultimate Mud wash and such.






Dot filter and Streaking.




Toned back a bit with XF27 wash.


So next I think i'll give it another hit with the mud wash, then matt coat and then pigments. I want to do a base, probably motor pool, as I don't have any complimentary figures. I haven't really sorted out tracks at this point, it's looking like i'll go with those from the kit.

While doing some look around on You Tube for reference I came across this doco on the battle of Long Tan. If you've got a couple of hours spare its well worth a watch.

http://youtu.be/8gUSq7pxux4

Cheers, Russ.

Man I'd love to be able to do weathering like that.

Fabulous job mate!

superb job you have nailed the weathering

It looks awesome Russ!! Those washes look gooood

Great build log and some very interesting information and transformtion, all round enjoyable build
Tom

Cheers Fellas, some very kind words.

No more work on the model, or in particular the tracks, but I do have some stuff to make a start on the dio/vignette/base.



Loosely based on the "42C" picture in my previous post, and using some other pictures of Nui Dat and Vung Tau (Australian Bases in Phuoc Tuy Province).



Nui Dat is where 3 Cav were based. Nui Dat (Small Hill) began life in April 1966, tents and dugouts courtesy of 5 RAR. The base closed in November 1971. By then it had developed into a military town with buildings, roads and street signs, a field hospital, an airfield and helicopter pad.









That's it for now.

Thanks again for the comments, very motivating.

Done some work on the dio base.



Bought some figures so things would look populated.



A bit of a mock up.



A little tribute to the Australian Light Horse, to go with the Cavalry theme.

Looking very good , Mate! Great Dio , and like a lot the Light Horse tribute

Very nice all the thread and build !

rodrant wrote:Looking very good , Mate! Great Dio , and like a lot the Light Horse tribute

Very nice all the thread and build !

Thanks Antonio, its one of those topics that inspire.

This looks better and better! The roof looks superb.
Waiting for more

That's looking sweet, so far....coming together nicely

Lovely work on the vehicle there Russ, and the dio is coming on nicely too, looks like it will turn out really well.