Just finished up an Tamiya M113 ACAV that I've been working on. I added an Eduard PE set, Legend Stowage, and Friulmodel tracks to complete it and get the look I wanted. It was painted with US Army OD Green #24087 that I had left over from one of my 1/1 scale restorations. It was weathered with acrylics and pastel powders. And the brush scratched sides effect was done by dragging the blunt end of a toothpick throught the still wet acrylic paint. The interior was finished out with a sand bag and ammo can floor covering. I had seen a pic online of some ACAV's where they had built plywood and 2x4 risers to lay across the benches to make a platform for the rear M60 gunners to stand on, so I replicated that with styrene sheet. I was going for an early war look and went with full stars and minimal personalizations, adding only the grim reaper from my spares box and the peace sign from the Tamiya sheet. I went for a look of like it had seen some reccent mud, but had also moved down a dry hard road also.

Great work! Thanks for posting photos.

Looks great!! I like the foot prints.

Terry

Looks really good. You have done a good job of capturing the look of a Vietnam M113 ACAV. I like the muddy boots hanging off the back and the footprints on the ramp too. Nice touches.

Something you might want to fix that Tamiya screwed up. The release chain on the upper roof hatch is molded 180 degrees off from where it should be. If you cut the hatch off at the hinges and turn it around, the release chin will be in the right place.

It should look like below, coming from the rear of the hatch, not the front.


Good job overall. A few tweaks and it will be even better.

Thanks, I unfortunately noticed the chain error only after I had painted and was looking at pics to compair for weathering. But that is a great idea to cut at the hinges and flip the whole lid 180. I had look at possibly trying to cut the stowage and chain back off and move them, but knew it would be messy to do, so I left it as is, but the lid 180 would work great.

This is a very nice piece. The mud and scrathes are excepitonally well done.
A few suggestions on improving an already great job:

Replace those headlights with MV lenses. I think L116 are the size you need.

The smoke grenades-get a plain white decal sheet, or even just some unused stars or whatever you can find, and cut them into very small strips. Use them instead of painting the stripes on the grenades. If you really want to go all out you can get N scale railroad data decals and add some of those as well. The straightness of the decals will make the grenades look even better. Then paint the tops of the grenades whatever color the smoke is, purple, red, yellow...

Great job Dave!
Like Gino, I love the boots & the footprints. How did you find putting the Friulmodel tracks together. I've got a set for my M113 so was just wondering.
I really like Roberts idea about applying decals to the grenades.
Well done on a great job all round!
Joe.

The tracks went together OK. I needed to run a small drill bit through each link to clean them up so that the link wire would go through them easier. It was teadious work, but I sat in front of the TV one night and got them done. I would drill a handful of links then assemble them and repeat. Once I had a few sections made, I would add them together into longer sections until I had the right lenght. I can't remember off the top of my head but I believe I used about 64 links per side. Friulmodel gives you 88 links per side so you have plenty of left overs. I used 2 spare Friulmodel links for the spare links on the hull front instead of the kit ones. When assembling them I would link several of them together with the wire, using a fine pair of wire snips to cut the wire flush and then come back and put a drop of CA glue on each of the wire heads.

Thanks for the instructions Dave. Sounds like I'm gonna be like you in front of the TV!

UPDATE:

I have made a few changes to the M113. Like Gino suggested, I cut the rear hatch off at the hindges and flipped it 180 and reglued it in the proper position with the release chain at the rear. I also drilled the headlights out and added clear lenses. I didn't have any lenses in the right size, so I used a piece of clear spruce from a spares box and cut it into thin slices and polished them before inserting them into the headlight housings.

I think you did a great job. But there are a few things. Those things are really not worth mentioning because I feel they would be nitpicking.

I used to drive them and so many little things that modelers pick up I never noticed. I can't tell you how many times I've driven or how many hours I've been in an M113.

But I never remember the tracks not bing straight. I know I replaced a few and worked on them to get them right. I had one that pulled badly, it had no grease in the tensioner. I also used to grease the individual wheels. It's bee 30 years so I forgot a lot of stuff.

The tracks in Nam looked tight, they were overloaded with sandbags and equipment and rode low too. Our tracks were a little lose and rode higher. But the links were never like that no matter how much mud was in them.

A few other little things but otherwise a very well done model. I am always amazed at what people can do considering they never drove one or were ever on one. Or not ever in the military for that matter.

I love the foot prints and the muddy boots!!!!

It gave me the idea to buy the Caliber 35 Nam jungle boots for that but great models charged as much to ship it as it cost. So I am going to take some extra legs and use some crazy glue to make some boots for just that. It's the little attention to detail that makes things look right and real.

You did a really good job.

There are a few things modelers don't pick up that were not users of different equipment. Track tension being the main thing. A lot of times I see a really nice build but it is ruined for me by simple mistakes. It is no fault of the modeler just a lack of knowledge. On a M113A1 with proper track tension the track should ride just a couple inches above the center (3rd) road wheel. Another thing on M113s, due to the torsion bar suspension, one side has 1 less track shoe. If I remember right it is 67 on the right side and 66 on the left on the real vehicle. It may not work out to that on a model but the left side should have 1 less track shoe. One thing about using Friul tracks is that if you use the supplied wire they will stretch over time. It's best to use brass rod of a slightly larger diameter than the given wire. That will keep them from stretching. Nice model for the most part but those tracks are way too loose.

Hi Dave. This is one really nice M113. Im not much into modern armor, but like the occasional Vietnam piece, and this has really captured "my idea" of a vehicle from this time. Great contrast with the mud and decals to the dark green.

Great job on the detailing.

Like everyone else, the boots are freakin' great !

Thanks, guys. I'll pull one link from each side and see how that tightens up the track.

Hi blokes!
First Post but it won't be my last post... oooh bad pun.

I drove / commanded the M113A1 between 1978 and 1987 and the track tension is the first thing I spotted - Driver's ass would be kicked with the muddy boot for that -

I'm currently building two versions of my old vehicles with the Academy kit and Aussie modifications - we had a whole load of post Vietnam vehicles in my regiment sprinkled with Veteran vehicles and there was only a few minor differences - belly armour and some still had the integral fuel cell, which leaked and caused the strapped version to be modified.

Some of our vehicles in the 4th Cavalry regiment were still battle scared with small arms pockmarks.... but were bogged up and repaired by about 1980.... after their major overhauls were all done.

One other thing -

Our vehicles never had anything hanging off the sides - stuff would get ripped off by trees and suchlike....

The two I'm currently building are in tactical mode and non tac.... I'll keep you guys posted.

Cheers Gavin W

thanks for the info Gavin!

nice looking ACAV! Comments about the tracks are spot on.

If your building an M113 variant, keep in mind that the front stowage was usually put behind the trim vane instead of directly in front of it. Reason why? breaking jungle would rip it apart! It also was not uncommon to see the trim vane ripped up and even missing! Most Acav end users switched out the standard 50 cal ammo cans with the big one used on an M48. Units in my AO often had a large container filled with transmission fluid to help cool down the 50 caliber barrel. The barrels get very hot in heavy contact.

The Tamiya kit is actually a gas engined M113, and I think there is a difference in the exhaust, but also could be wrong. I never saw a gas engined version to be sure. If you leave the engine compartment open, remember to remove the water steer gear box, as none were shipped to Vietnam. Also the Transmission that Tamiya used is the very early one that was only used a couple years. The one you want looks like a Turbo 400 Hydramtic on the outside (easy to scratch build by the way). An M113 used in Irac would probably have the late gear box, and it radicaly different.
gary

I think you did a rely great job on the kit,i like the added details,very nice work.