First Build - M113 APC

Sounds like a great idea!! I'll be watching that one closely!!  At least the hull top has a good separation line on it to allow you to build the kit while keeping the roof loose to 'show and tell' your interior work.  Cool!!

Jetmaker,

I am thinking of how to make the roof removable on my M577 to show how crowded they became during fire missions. Space was a real premium, and not quite a hotel. Have fun with your build and duck your head while walking inside.

Mike, I remember seeing that build. It's awesome!

Dave, that's really cool that your legs got along with the tankers. The unit I was in was light, then mech, then they did like a combat team thing where they integrated tankers into the battalion. That didn't go over too well, there was a lot of rivalry and the officers kind of fueled it. One of my best buddies was a tanker. We thought the rivalry was dumb, lol. I was a nasty girl though, so I don't really have the same unit pride, or even the same level of blue pride, as the regular army infantry units do. I do have some blue pride, especially in earning the CIB, but my experience with the politics of war in a unit with part-time leadership left a bad taste in my mouth. The guys I had the honor of serving with are lifelong friends though. It was an experience that has shaped my life

Alpha, I got to ride in a M113 a long time ago, before I even enlisted, and I remember the interior being the light green color that most everyone says it is. The same color as the interior of the Bradleys my guard unit had. I'm going to give Humbrol Beige Green a shot. I think it will be close. I'm going to have the TC, driver, and troop hatches open, but I'm going to have the engine compartment and the ramp closed, so there's not going to be lot of visibility on the interior. I also plan to pain the interior first

Speaking of that, I decided to break one of my philosophies on not building areas that won't be seen, as I plan to build the engine and transmission assemblies. I'm not going to do any detail, just assemble and paint. I'm not really going to do any extra detail on the troop compartment or the interior in general though, no radios or anything like that. I probably won't even mount the crew-serve since there's not going to be any radios installed. I decided to build the engine compartment purely for practice, since this is my first build. So far, it's working as planned too. I'm really starting to get a feel for the material (plastic). I wanted to get more done this weekend and get some pics, but with being sick last month, I had too many other things to catch up on still. I did get all of the road wheels prepped for assembly though. I was hoping to have them all assembled tonight, but I have some other work to do first, so that might have to wait til tomorrow or Friday. I love having a job, but it sure does take up a lot of time, haha

Ok, I may as well describe the modified M113's I used while in Germany in '67 - '68. They were kind of  a M113 El Camino ... top chopped M113 with a pickup type rear that hauled the Pershing Missile System. Here's one I did ...

The only thing "standard" with the paint on these was "OD", and even that varied if we could get hold of something "different". When a unit needed repainting we'd spend weeks hunting down paint that was a different shade of green from neighboring motor pools.

As far as markings, we had NONE! There was a colored 1" dot on the bumpers along with white one or two digit numbers designating the battery and battery number. We didn't even have US Army or a star, not to mention numbers designating who or what we were. We carried Nuclear Missiles after all.

This is a great thread on the subject with all the first hand info being posted!

Good times in the field!! I was a 'crunchie' (a tanker name for the infantry) platoon leader in Korea in the late '80s; my guys were always well treated by the tankers we were attached to. They really appreciated the grunts doing the 'dirty work' of clearing road obstructions, minefields, and protecting them from infantry attacks,  

Our interior crew hatches were painted olive drab so that they did not show the light green interior color to potential enemies.  This would include the entire rear ramp, the driver's hatch, the TC's (track commander's) hatch, and the large, rectangular cargo hatch in the rear.  the walls and bench frames were a very light green.  There's a Krylon spray paint color out there that matches it perfectly.  Our floor plates were a worn, dull aluminum color; I'm not sure if they were ever painted.

Rob, The M60's were awesome! We fired numerous times at Graf and had opportunities times to witness them on their ranges. We were an 8" M110 SP battalion and the M60's protected our flanks during manuevers with NATO.

Jetmaker, During my time the interior was a flat green. However, during my time 50 years ago, ours had seen a lot of wear and tear. So, it is difficult to know what original finish it was. I'm getting ready to do mine and I intend on painting the interior first.

Jet maker, I spent 2 years in Germany during the cold war in an M577 in an 8" self propelled battalion. Most of the time was on border patrol with an M60 tank unit guarding our flanks. Of all of the heavy equipment, camouflage was pretty much handled with netting, blacked out stars on the sides and all of our firing battery designations. I'm sure there were other units that had their units painted in camouflage colors. That's what I am enjoying about getting back into this hobby, is the diversity with which a mudel can be built and painted.

Glad that you are feeling better jetmaker, that sounds pretty serious. Your new build should cheer you up. Have a fun build!

Glad that you're feeling better; hope "the bug" that's kicked everyone's collective butts in long gone!  I'll be watching for your pictures and your progress reports!

Dave, that doesn't surprise me at all. That seems to be how this crud going around works. It comes in two waves. Doctors are even warning people here to continue resting even after you start feeling better. I'm pretty sure I'm completely over it now, but I'll know for sure this Friday. I hope to have some pics and a progress report this weekend!

Hey Jet,

Glad to hear that you're feeling better.....I think I had what you had, crazy huh?  Got sick day after Christmas (on my days off), got feeling better and went back to work.  The cold came back with a vengeance and I just got over it shortly before Valentine's Day...Still keep cough drops handy to deal with an annoying tickle in the back of my throat......I hate being sick!!

Will be lurking here for you when you get back to the bench!  I'm a slow builder too!  Quality, not quantity!!

Thanks guys! I really appreciate the kind thoughts. I'm doing a TON better, but I'm still taking it very easy, since I can't avoid work. Whatever this thing is going around here has a nasty tendency to kick you in the butt when you think it's gone. That's kinda what happened to me. I just had what I thought was regular flu, which caused me to miss a couple days of work. I went to the doctor so I had some documentation for my employer - you know how big companies are - and she, like me, thought I'd be better after about a week tops, so I went back to work after a few days, and was feeling better. But then the whole thing started all over again and much worse. I ended up with a really bad case of bronchitis, borderlining on full-blown pneumonia - which a lot of folks around here have been getting from this. It's been over five weeks and my cough is just now finally almost completely gone. I have a follow up with my doc in a week, and I'm not taking any chances. There have been several deaths here from whatever this is, and the ER's have been packed. I don't know if the unusual cold weather has had any influence, but this is the worst cold/flu season I can remember.

As far as the M113 goes. I actually purchased another, and started re-building it. I made a few minor mistakes on the first one, and I could have salvaged it and moved on, but then I thought it might be good to use the first one as a practice/experimenting/parts kit. I'm glad I did. The new build is going much better, and I like having another one to practice new techniques on that I can use on the "official" (for lack of a better word) build. I don't have a whole lot done yet though, still, but I plan to have most of the sub-assemblies done this weekend - which I will post pics and start a WIP thread - and start getting ready for paint, which I am very excited about! Thanks again guys

I agree with everyone on their notes of support on your build. I just bought the Academy M113A1 ACAV and looking forward to building it after finishing the Titanic that I am building. Hope that you are feeling better.

While I'm also very curious about your M113 WIP, I'm with garzonh on this :

Take your time, build your vehicle at your own pace, and enjoy !

Not a problem!!

I can totally relate to being so busy.

I only build around 4 to 5 models a year due to all work, social, family, travelling I made all year.

Just be patience, I think leaving the hobby for a couple of weeks, makes you much "hungry" to continue doing it.

Get well and keep going.

Nope. Still at it. I'm not a fast person to begin with, and 2014 has gotten off to a rough start. I contracted a very harsh respiratory illness that kept me from pretty much doing anything other than laying around in total exhaustion from continuous coughing. That lasted for about a month. On top of that, I have been working long shifts and had jury duty. I'll post a progress report soon, complete with pics. I will probably start another thread, however: a WIP thread

Thanks for asking though

Did you give up already?

Great choice for a first model.  You can't go wrong with the Tamiya M113.  Also so many variants and users, you'll never run out of marking and painting options.  Good luck with the build!

Woohoo!! My first pieces of plastic model glued together since I was a little kid! I know, big deal whatever lol. I just wanted to show that I'm actually making progress haha! Unless something interesting comes up, I probably won't post anymore pics until I paint. Thanks for all the support and inspiration guys!

After reading through all this, I am now itching to see some pics. I built the ACAV version many many moons ago, a nice kit.

And what you guys have just shown is that all that stuff in the reference books about the colour of this or that often means little in the real world.

Will do, garzonh! Once I get some sub-assemblies built I'll post some pics. Not much to look at right now, just cleaned parts still on their sprues. I hear ya, I'm pretty frugal with my purchases these days, which is one of the great benefits of the internet: it's a tremendous research aid

Hi pal,

Some photos of could be great. A photo gives more than a thousand words!.

I know where you at, Im just in the hobby for the past 9 months and still have tons of tools, paints, that need to buy...it will not be cheap...

Anyway, keep the updates.

Just wanted to give an update:

This is probably going to seem like I'm extremely slow, but I just now completed my first step, which is the initial washing of the parts. I sprayed them with Simple Green, then brushed them lightly with one of those stiff-bristle toothbrushes from an army issue gun cleaning kit, then I soaked them in warm water with a splash of Ajax dish detergent, rinsed with distilled water and blew dry with a can of compressed air followed by blotting with paper towel. In the future, I'm going to use my airbrush to blow dry instead of wasting $ on cans. I told you guys I was slow and meticulous, haha!

I still haven't purchased my paints yet, but I am almost 100% on colors. I've been doing a TON of research. Not to sound like I'm flattering, but I pretty much use this forum as a no-BS checker for gathered info. I have pretty much settled on using enamels for everything except the vinyl tracks, where I'll use acrylics. I've decided on Model Master Olive Drab (ANA 613) for the exterior, and Humbrol Beige Green for the interior. Whoever reminded me to paint the floor pan in the troop compartment aluminum, thanks a bunch for that! And the advice on the color of the tracks is huge too! I knew something didn't settle with me just right when I see a lot of the armor models done with extremely rusty tracks - definitely if they had been sitting somewhere for long periods, but not if they were moving regularly. I'm actually considering leaving the tracks supplied in the kit their original color, which is a gun metal kind of color, and dry-brushing steel and silver for wear, black on the pads, and an overall dusting of a light brown/tan color for a little dirt. I still haven't decided whether I'm going to prime the tracks first or not, since the base I have in mind is very similar to the color they are already. My main concern here is paint adhesion, but from what I've researched it appears I should be okay if I use acrylics, or even pigments, with acrylic thinner

My next step is to build my sub-assemblies and order my paints, and to get some practice in with my airbrush. I took it apart, cleaned, and re-assembled it the other night, but I haven't hooked it up and run anything through it yet. By the time my paints arrive, I should be ready to throw some colors down!

With modern bare metal tracks, I paint the tracks an earth brown color. I then wash them with a darker burnt umber color to bring out the shadows and finish up with a tan dry brushing to highlight. Rubber track blocks are painted a dark gray after the initial earth brown and before the burnt umber wash.

Unless the vehicle sits idle, like the ones at my maintenance school, rust doesn't last long but some of it does settle in the nooks and crannies of the tracks.

Rob- I completely forgot about those changes on the A3 series. Apologies for the erroneous information on that.

Jet I am with you there on weathering. Dirty, dusty, and muddy yes, but chipping and rust are very much overdone on AFV models nowadays. You wont see rust on the hull, hatches etc. on a 113 as they are made from an aluminum alloy armor. The only place that would rust is the the tracks and spare track shoes (if those were old and unpainted). And rust on the tracks would wear off as soon as the vehicle started moving.

Find what you like and run with it.

Wow, yeah, seeing that pic puts it into perspective. We had the ODS versions, and I never really examined the tracks up close - I always lucked out and never had to break any, only ever had to carry a few links here and there. I kind of assumed from looking at other model pics, and remembering the light reddish-brown color that it was rust, but seeing this pic made me realize it was just plain old dirt

I think I'm gonna try your method of a black or gunmetal base, followed by a wash of a light brown dirt-looking color, then dry brush a lighter metal color for wear

I'll be honest, and of course this is just my opinion, so if I'm wrong PLEASE let me know, but I see a lot of armor models that are very highly weathered, and even though in most cases the techniques are extremely impressive, a lot of times they seem overdone to me. I'm curious what a lot of you guys' takes on weathering are. I'm not trying to stir up anything with this, I think I'm just trying to form my own approach to weathering before I actually try it

Tracks on a well used vehicle to not carry a lot of rust. I use burnt umber for the track, Tamiya NATO Black for the rubber and then wash with the color of the dirt I'm using. Before I do the wash of dirt, I very lightly dry brush the high spots of the track and the side of the guide horns with steel.

In all my experience with Bradleys, I never saw rust on any of our tracks, we were in the field quite a lot.

my "ride" at the wash rack, note the tracks. hard Texas clay, no rust after two weeks in the field.

waynec

hi rob

cool. thanks i need to check the kit now as it is the old tamikya one. wish someone would make an M-114 w/ 20mm.

did you ever shoot at graf?

I did plenty of gunneries at Graf, but on M60A3TTS, M1A1 and M1A1 Heavies since I was a tanker.

Stik, the main difference between the A2 and A3 is not the external fuel tanks; those are present on non-A3 versions like the M981 FIST-V and the M1064 120 mm mortar carrier pictured in the link above. Those two vehicles are based off of the M113A2 and have external fuel tanks. To further muddy the waters, Canada added the fuel tanks to their vehicles when they went from the A1 to A2 so a Canadian M113A2 looks different from a US M113A2 because Canada's has the external fuel tanks.

The main difference between the M113A2 and M113A3 vehicles is the turbo-charged diesel engine and the improved transmission. In addition to the spall liners, the driver's controls changed from the laterals to a steering yoke. While the A2 is a decent ride, the A3 moves like a scalded dog and can haul some serious butt.