Mike, I am pretty sure that it is the same basic mold for the turret as on the old Saladin kit. But I do suspect that Tamiya cleaned it up a little bit. I only built that kit once way back in the mid 70's and have no  recollections about it at all. That is one that I wish that they would re issue.

Phil, most of the mods are all your doing! Except for the engine grill mesh, the thread "cable/wire" on the spool on the back of the turret, and that ammo can- that .30 has gotta eat. You mentioned them on another thread, so I had to go back and do all of them except the trim vane. But that got me looking at those in photos and on the various M113 models out there. Tamiya's trim vane appears to be an earliest type, while Academy and Italeri both have the extended lip seen on the FSVs.

When I was starting this build in 2008 (I plead the 5th on the rest of that story), I asked on here about the color used on Aussie AFVs. At that time I was told that originally the stuff was in US OD, FS# 34087, and later in the war the lighter shade was used.  But under all that weathering you really can not pick out the the original shade of OD anymore

And YES, I do need the M113 LRV (is that the turret with the twin .30's?) and a Centurion Mk.5 for display alongside.

For anyone else planning on building this kit, these links have some great photos of FSVs in Vietnam

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zippo132/page7/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zippo132/5977649647/in/photostream/

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/zippo132/tags/fsv/

Is that turret the same Saladin turret that came with Tamiya's older Saladin armoured car kit?

Mike T.

Nice work on the mods Stik, you wouldn't know they weren't included in the kit. I like the ammo box on the .30cal too.  

Aussie OD is an odd critter, it's lighter and greyer than the US version, The official designation is a mouthful too - Olive Drab Lustreless. Reference 7650/ADE(M) 146-1/1

Check out the pic here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Puckapunyal-M113-FSV-3-1.jpg

Now you need an Aussie M113A1 with a T50 turret (this vehicle is also referred to as an LRV - Light Reconnaissance Vehicle) to display beside it..

Bill, completing a "shelf queen" feels extra good.

Nothing to add except congrats on getting a shelf queen done and off the bench!

Thanks for the critique points. A dark wash on those barrels should tone them down properly. I probably will be adding some fuel and oil spills to the fuel filler cap and oil cans on the rear anyways, so one more wash wont be any bother. I went with a SWAG on antenna length using the 3.1 M length of  current FM antennas. I have no idea what radios the Aussies (US, UK, or their own, HF or FM) used in these, so 8' sounds quite reasonable as well.

It looks really nice.  The dust is great and captures the red-brown dust of Vietnam well.  Great job overall.

A couple pointers though.  The antenni look too long to me.  A standard antenna was 8' long.  In 1/35 that equals 2 3/4".  Also, the silver in the barrel and the smoke launchers looks too stark to me.  I would do both areas flat black so they don't draw too much attention, yet give the impression of depth.

Thank you guys... I am glad that you like it.

Looks good Stik,the dust effect is just right

Nice work there SP, the mud looks very convincing!