Hi everyone. This is the first model I have built in over 25 years. I loved doing this as a kid, but really just wanted to glue things as quickly as possible and stick it on the shelf. Decided to take it up again, this time more patiently... I should mention that during the time away from modeling I entered the service, so I plan to draw on personal experience and photos for some of my models.

For the first build I decided to take it easy and go with the Academy IDF M113. It was built OOTB and I only added the antennas. The kit was missing the spare tread links that are supposed to go on the front, still need to figure out where to find these Painted with Tamyia acrylics 50% medium gray + 50% buff. Tactical marks were hand painted. Weathering was done by a wash with artists oils (burnt umber + black), and Tamiya weathering compounds (sand and soot).

Can't say I'm very happy with how the periscopes came out, but thats the best I can do for now

Thanks for looking and all constructive comments are welcome!

Joe the aerials look a little stiff but otherwise I can see no obvious faults, and is an excellent finished model on your return.

Thats really nice work Joe !

I'm fond of the weathering on the wheels and hull, well done !

Cheers

Paul

Nice job on this after 25 years better then mine was after I stopped.

If you just white glued on the sequins then all you have to do is pop them off at a latter date.

Nice job and hope to see many more builds.
Welcome also.

Your M113 looks great. How did you do the lens for the periscopes?

Thanks everyone for the comments. I agree regarding the aerials. One trick that is used on these in real life is to tie a thin rope to the aerial and to one of the hooks on the top of the hull. This allows the crew to pull the aerials down quickly. I will try and figure out a way to get this incorporated.

Regarding the periscopes, there are a few options. First, I think there are stickers sold specifically for this (can't remember who makes these). What I actually did was take a wrapper from a cereal bar (Nutrigrain mixed berry I think), cut it to size and glue onto the periscope

Welcome back to the hobby. It looks pretty good for a first effort in 25 years. Nice finish and weathering. A couple pointers from what I see: First, your headlights are pointed up in the air. Maybe see if you can remove them and refit them so they point slightly downward. The tail lights are painted wrong. Only the upper left oval should be red. The lower left and both upper and lower right should be black slits. You could also drill out the barrel on the .50 cal to make it look more realistic as well.

Rear lights should look like this:


Good job overall. A few tweaks and it will be great.

Joe,

That's a great comeback after a 25 years break and I think you pretty much nailed the IDF sand colour. A really nice clean build and paint.

Re. the optics; the bright purple 'glare' does detract somewhat from the rest of the build. I know modern MBT's / AFV's such M1A1 Abrams and Strykers etc. have optics which have a purple/red tinge to them...... but I don't know about older stuff like M-113's? Perhaps a couple of heavy washes with, say, Tamiya Smoke to subdue the bright purple and render it just suggestive of coloured optics when the light catches it would look better?

Other than that - a future M.O.T.M. Winner in the making I reckon! Welcome back to the hobby and keep them coming.

Gary

Joe, nice come back and welcome to the site. I've a few 113s about and if you lik I can send a few extra track links to you. Just P.M. me with an add, if you want them.

Being forgetfull. If you burn the paper off a section of twist ties that comes with plastic bags it makes good antenas, just add slight bend and paint. They wont snap like plastic. Have to agree with the tint of periscopes, too bright.

Your model looks fine, with the noticed exceptions already mentioned above. Your hand is still steady and attention to detail is keen.
How did you hand paint the markings?

Will do. Many thanks!

Many thanks. I did the markings by tracing the outline of the tactical markings that came with decals and then filling these in freehand with Tamiya acrylics.

Nicely done.

I was think the rear door handle should be in it's normal locked position when the door is closed but the picture Gino attached to his reply shows it nearly in the open position. Strange.

Paul

Thanks for all the comments I was able to incorporate many of the suggestions and add additional detail.

First, as mentioned, the antennas looked stiff. What I did here is added a trick often used on these APC and that is tying a rope to pull the antennas down. This can be seen below:



I also added the spare tread links that were missing from the original kit (thanks Bob for these !!!).



Based on other suggestions, I did a smoke wash on the lenses of the periscopes to tame the reflections. I think this worked well:



I also corrected the color of the back right hand side light.



I was unable to reposition the headlamps without damaging them, so I left this alone. Will keep this in mind for my next build of a M113.

Thanks again for all the comments and help with parts

Hi Joe. Welcome back to the hobby .. and congrats on the first attempt. With the little improvements you made, it looks great. Will you add some figures in the open hatches?

I would like to add some figures, but usually prefer to do this in the context of a diorama.

Fantastic job, Joe! Very nice work. I think that changes you made really make the model stand out.

Keep on building!

JB

Hey Joe, your welcome. As far a the light being bent, call it battle damage or bad driving.

I love the periscopes, they look excellent, if a little too clean. Great idea, by the way. Good job all around so far.

The periscopes are awesome Joe !

very nice Joe.Glad that you subdued the scopes as they were so bright before, that the eye keeps going to the scopes and can't appreciate the rest of the model. You fixed a little thing here and a little thing there and even had you not it is still a very nice job......Al