The radios came from Verlinden, Aussie Armour and Legends ... this will be an Aussie carrier in Vietnam 1966-68 with open .50 cal cupola.

cool im currently building an aussie "fitter"

you know the switch board do you mean the radios ???

Ni, I mean the switch unit which may be seen next to the instrument panel in the last picture I posted.

the switch board is the same as the radios i think im sure of it =]

i did have a photo of the switch board and radios but its disappeared =/

2298 is OD green with white numerals. The long switch thingy has a thin white line running up it.

Cheers Jason

After I found all them radios laying around, I made up a couple on shelf for the T50 turret carrier. I'm not normally one to put in uselss interior detail, but these M113s have plenty pf holes in the top!

I was able to assemble the radios and shelf and then slip it in through the cargo hatch. I used two pack epoxy which allowed me to position the shelf and will set like concrete.



The interior of the Vietnam .50 cal carrier is slowly starting to clutter up ... I now have the radios on the shelves and I'm painting a driver from Firestorm.





Obviously the interior will need a good scruffing up - them sandbags would be dusty in the dry and muddy in the wet!

its looking great i cant wait to se it finished

its looking great the radio's are you going to add wiring to them?

Mick,

Nice work mate. You certainly seem to be getting the most out of that old tamya kit.

A few suggestions politely offered, feel free to ignore them and accuse me of being a rivet counter.

The right hand sponson radio shelf is too far forward. It should be back so that it is almost touching the jerry cans on top of the battery box.

Also most carriers would normally have no more than 3 radios fitted. Command net, Admin net and the Infantry net = 3 radios. Although from the looks of some of your other posts, you seem to be one for the research, so please feel free to rebut my assertion with a war memorial photograph or something.

Love the sandbag improvised belly armour. Expect to see about 20 diggers sitting on top of the finished product with SLRs, M60s and wombat guns at the ready.

W

Damn, you know when to chime in!

Just weathered the interior:





And sealed it up!





Anyway, not a big deal ... your advice does make sense considering that the starboard side aerials are set back - the liquid glue holding the hull top on was still soft (if it had hardened it would be staying where it was).

It was easy enough to shift the radios back and patch the spot where they had been, which wasn't that visible anyway.



That little bump in the road out of the way ...

The hull top's now back on, and I managed to seal all the gaps, although some glue cleanup will be needed, but that's no big deal on these "slab" vehicles.

I respect your call on the three radios, but the AWM pics of the vehicle I am modelling clearly shows four aerials although one could be a spare. It is also possible that an extra Brit radio set was installed to talk to the Centurion tanks ... once again, no big deal as there's little chance of finding deatiled shots of the interior, and what I have done is just to convincingly clutter what can be seen through the rear top hatch.

The driver is a resin figure from Firestorm.

I've started on the outside bits. A glaring innaccuracy with the Tamiya kit is the trim vane is too short, but that's easy enough fixed..

Wayne, I was looking at doing a 3 Cav "Niner" vehicle in Vietnam 1966-68 ... do you have any pointers on what the ammo stowage on the top deck would be? The Aussie vehicles were new then, and the impromptu mods such as the sandbag floor started as experience was gained. Obviously, the mod program became more formalised later on, but the early vehicles were essentially standard Yank issue buckets.

Thanks for your advice ... I was just thinking it was hard to see those radios placed forward like I had them!

Here's some stowage/gun options:

great weathering =] can you explain how you did it and what you used?

its looking great though

Mick,

Yeah sorry for coming to the party late on the radios. Glad to hear you could move the shelf without any dramers.




I have the Pony Soldiers book about 1 APC Troop and their first year in country before the Cav contingent was expanded to a full Sqn. The stowage patterns may be similar as the vehicles were pre T50 turret.

Let me dig it out of storage this weekend and take a look.

W

Bump in teh road number two: when I fitted the driver's hatch to the Rwanda T50 turret carrier, the side almost touched the turret when it was forward, and the turret could not be traversed.

I had a vague recollection about some mods needed to the driver's hatch, and how some early examples overhung the hull side when they were shifted to make way for the T50 turret's rotation.

I checked Mike Cecil's book, and sure enough, the mod was needed. I could have just ground off the hinges and made new ones, but since I had a junker hull I decided to carve off the hatch ring and periscopes and start from scratch, which would allow me to rotate the hatch ring until it was in the right spot.



Anyway, have since got the hatch lined up, theperiscopes back in place, mesh back on the engine deck and the rear jerrie stowage in place (that was a no-brainer!).



It's good to hook in an sort out these little foibles quick, because they can stall a project ... will post more pix soon.

Incidentally, here's a snap of an Aussie T50 turret carrier I took in Somalia early in 1993 - the carriers in Rwanda were in the same configuration but, duh!, painted white:

great you really detailing and making this a great m113

keep up the good work

Mike,

Nice work on the Somalia carrier. A few pointers if you want to add a little more details.

Exterior of hatch:
Note a sheave has been taken off the right hand of the drivers hatch – it allows room for the turret to traverse. Also note the aerial mount has to be relocated – you can see where the aerial would be mounted on an off the shelf M113A1 as it has a blanking plate on it. Finally you have to scratch build a smaller antenna guard (can’t use the kit ones they are too big and the wrong shape).



Interior of the driver's hatch.
Note the locking mechanism and the padding added on the inside of the drivers hatch. If you cant be bothered scratch building the part I think mouse house do a resin replacement part in their T50 with interior kit.



Another shot of the drivers hatch interior details and turret stuff to help you on your way.



I looked for some shots to help on your Vietnam project. Sorry mate the book I was thinking of is back in storage in Aust and I won’t see it for years….. Sorry

Cheers

W

Okay then ... a small bit of progress, which will all need some finer detailng added.

First the .50 cal Vietnam carrier with shield ... I modified the fuel filler cap to represnt an earlier one and the Tamiya shield (there seems to be endless variation in early Aussie shield, so I didn't break the calipers out!), I've fitted the trim vane, made use of a tarp from the Legends set and installed a couple of water jerries (I think they were Aussie Armour) in Armour Bits carriers on the rear of the vehicle. The .50's from the Academy accessory kits ... nicelly detailed, but it could be a bit oversized, however, considering it's going on a 35-year-old kit and it's light year's ahead of what came with it, I'm not too fussed:







I just need to finish installing the lights, aerial mounts and guards and engine screens, and I'm still nutting out how .50 cal boxes were stowed on the roof early in Vietnam. Anyway, it's a long way down the road and I should be giving it a squirt of green sometime soon.

I sorta like this PSP plate on the side:



Moving along to 134192 in Rwanda, I found a couple of more pix of the carrier:





Regards the model, well I've got the other engine screen on, the trim vane, indicators, spare tack and rear jerry stowage in place. I've also got the driver's hatch ring and periscopes back in place:









Once again, I need to finish installing the front lights, and then I'll move on to the top deck stowage, which should be easy enough. I'll need to find a towing draw bar from somewhere, but I can make the brackets in the meantime.

Just did a crop on that Rwanda pic, and from the look of those barbed wire coils hung on the side, my guess is that it is carrier 134500 ... but it is a good view of the roof stowage:



Incidentally, I found these two Aussie interiors - the first has two piece engine access panels, and the other is at the Australian War Memorial, and has the one piece panel:

Mick some superb work you've done they look smashing!

i cant wait to see them finsihed. do you have any more pictures on the rowanda carriers?

A bit more info on the drivers hatch.
When the trial T50 was fitted, Base Workshops discovered the drivers hatch would not lay back and lock down as it would hit the turret.
So the decision was made to remove the hinges and swing the hatch out over the side of the hull by about an inch and a half, reposition the hatch lock, AMU and bump stop at the same time. This worked and the turret could traverse and the hatch would then lock back. The T50 passed the trail and all M113’s had this mod done.

It didn’t take long for the hinges to start to weaken and break off as drivers have a habit of rubbing the hull against trees for tight turns in the jungle, and it was catching under the exposed lip of the hatch and forcing the hatch inwards and upwards towards the turret.

The decision was then made to relocate the hinge, hatch lock, AMU and bump stop back close to the original position and shave an edge off the hatch to clear the turret.



It is interesting to see one the photos you have there of the Trooper (or other rank) painting the turret. Have a look at the drivers hatch. No spider lock!!!! Only the combat lock. I had always been under the impression that all of the hatches were fitted with an exterior locking mechanism after a couple of blokes went off the rails and stole a carrier each in the 1980’s. But there you have it.

The two piece engine access panels started to show up in late 60’s and all M113’s were fitted with the two piece by the early 1970’s.

Cheers Jason

Jason,

What’s a 2 piece engine access panel?

W

G'day Wayne,
In Micks first photo of the inside, you can see the two peice. Top and bottom panels are seperated.


Cheers Jason

Great work on the buckets. I have reservations on 4 Radios as the 1780 only has control functions for three C (Primary TX/RX), A (TX/RX) and B (RX - typically a 125 or 160. The 524 (46/47) was usually carried as the primary radio and if only one was carried it is invariably a 524.
Wayne, the hatch locking mech you show was only introduced in 1994 as a knee jerk reaction to a stolen APC (The fact it was stolen by someone with the keys to the vehicle was irrelevant.) They were an utter lady to fit and caused all sorts of problems.
Cheers
Al

Great work on the buckets. I have reservations on 4 Radios as the 1780 only has control functions for three C (Primary TX/RX), A (TX/RX) and B (RX - typically a 125 or 160. The 524 (46/47) was usually carried as the primary radio and if only one was carried it is invariably a 524.
Wayne, the hatch locking mech you show was only introduced in 1994 as a knee jerk reaction to a stolen APC (The fact it was stolen by someone with the keys to the vehicle was irrelevant.) They were an utter lady to fit and caused all sorts of problems.
Cheers
Al

Thanks for th relevnt information jason im building a "fitter" at the moment one of many builds on the go

how is your SAS m113 coming along?