Looking great Nick! Good luck with the tracks!
Joe.

Thanks Joe - will eventually finish this thing and then for the Sheridan!

OK - got to eventually do the tracks. I am not sure how to do the individual link tracks - I glued them together in runs to fit in sections. This was partially successful for me with my butter fingers. Once they were in sections, I painted and mildy weathered them before installing them over the wheels.

I have also started weathering the vehicle and look to finish this off fairly soon. I don't want to put too many items on the top or it will hide all the detail. I do want it pretty battered and dirty.

Hi Nick,
Love the paint job. What colour did you use for the base colour?
Great boxes in the back. Mec Models I presume.
Lovely looking model, my friend.
Joe.

Hi Joe

Thanks for that. The boxes are indeed Mec Models - I just beat them up a little and scuffed the edges, etc, also added a few small stains.

The base colour is a little difficult to give you a proper answer. I can only work off photographs, so try to judge what I think is right. I allow for it being lighter on top and darker lower down. I mixed up Tamiya Greens (some OD, Dark Green, bit of black, etc) and then painted slightly lighter mixtures, but still kept it pretty dark. It isn't really true OD, but there is a definite contrast between the vehicles and US uniforms as well as the vegetation, so that was what I was after. The M113's in Vietnam could be completely covered in dirt and additional supplies - the OD maybe in there someplace? I also believe that even though they are matt, the vehicles still always have a sheen. Cleaning, buffing and scraping also changes the matt paint's characteristics on a military vehicle over time.

I still need to work on the figures, but will photograph one of them with the M113 to show that difference in colours - my interpretation anyway.

Nick

Managed to find some time to move along a bit - these are progress shots. Not the best - took them outside in my garden. Hopefully will be able to finish this soon. I am still working out the best way to display kit on the vehicle - enough kit to be plausible, but also not hide too many details.

Hi Nick.

Beautiful weathering! - spot on, as I can attest from personal experience.

I served on the 1-4 track of C Co. 2/47th Inf (Mech), 9th Infantry Div in Vietnam in '67 and '68. If you are still working on this madel, I'm probably the guy to answer your questions. I was both the 106 gunner, and later the driver of this track. I even built a diorama featuring this model and scratch-built the RR out of brass. Happy to post some photos if you are interested.

BTW, we never carried all that crap behind the cargo hatch. It not only would have prevented traversing the gun, it would have prevented the hatch from latching down on the deck. Since the heavy hatch was counterbalanced bya spring, a hatch in the position you show would have slammed shut the first time the track braked, probably doing a hell of a lot of damage to the head or limbs of anyone in the way!

The scariest shot I ever made was from a position on top of a Bailey Bridge with no room to turn the track. After Itook the shot one of my buddies noticed that an empty sandbag near the fuel filler cap was smoldering, though. Since this was a gasoline fueled model, I imagine we lucked out that the backblast did not light up the gas tank!

Hi Bill

Thanks for the information - really appreciate input from those in the know. I haven't been looking at the site for a while and sorry to take so long to respond. I will post a couple more shots - I did do some more on this model (before moving on to some others) - although it still needs some work.

You are very correct about the door - maybe I'll make it held open with tie-downs or something? It is meant to go into a diorama with a Sheridan and some figures - so it is stopped, but that doesn't excuse all the clutter behind the door.

We don't ever see actual US military vehicles (other than WW2) in this part of the world, so I have to base things on photos only. Vietnam fascinated me when I was growing up.

Nick,

great work, nice weathering, looks fantastic.

paul

G'day Nick,
I have missed this thread until now. Nice work work mate.
Probably a bit late now , but this is what I have been playing around with.
Cheers Jason

Mate

You have your pivots far too long.

Total length would only be about 12". They come no further
down than where the bottom edge of the black plastic handles
are on the laterals.

Regards
Doug

G'day Doug,
Yep already rectified. That was the test shot build. More to follow if anyone else is interested.

Cheers Jason

Nice work Jason,

You know I'll be buying many.

Any plans to do a VERCS radio harness? (spelled phonetically and no doubt poorly) would love to do a post 2000ish Aust 113.

Love the collapsible driver’s footrest. Very Australian.

Cheers

W