I've made a slow start to the M113 FSV (aka "The Beast" in Australian service). I'm adding a few bits and pieces but I'm not going all out on this one - just personalising the basic kit a little. All the mods here are eyeballed from reference pics, so the dimensions aren't necessarily accurate, but they look close enough to me.
Some basic prep work:
Filling holes:
Drilling holes: All the photos I've seen of the Beasts show them without the side skirts, so the bolt holes needed to be drilled.
All Australian M113 variants have add-on armour plating under the sponsons. With the skirts off, these are visible as a thin strip above the first three road wheels.
But before this can happen, these moulded ribs, for the locating stubs on the skirts, have to go:
This is where they go (not glued in place yet)
And this is how they will appear from the side:
The trim vane on all the older Tamiya M113 variants is too shallow for anything other than the original M113, so it needs an extension using strip styrene. The shorter strip above it is an additional folding extension unique to the Beast. This is shorter because it has to clear the headlight clusters. The tiny white pieces between the two strips are the hinges.
Trim vane assembled (extension flap in place but not glued yet):
There was a sizeable gap along edges of the front hull panel. This was shimmed using a strip of Evergreen, which filled the gap nicely.
Added a small box for the external fire extinguisher handle to the upper hull.
The trim vane lever in the kit is little more than a solid stick. I scratched a replacement using Evergreen strip, stretched sprue and tiny bits of metal foil. Only the top end will be visible when the kit is completed.
Thats about all I've done for now.