Gijs, which reminds me, where is your Abrams dio? You were so close to finishing it seemed - and that was magazine-worthy. I was hoping to see it done by now!

Bob, your right It's realy time to finish that one.
I need to finish these figures wich is definality not my favorite part
Of modelling, so other project took over, but i will get back to that one soon.

Lookin good Bro. I have a few 113 varients I'm presently working on. Need to post some photos and such of the builds... GROG

Working on stowage now. Which long box should I use? Can I use either or is only one appropriae? The cream colored one is from a Verlinden stowage kit. The green/grey one is from the AFV Club Stryker engineer variant.

It would appear I would need to remove the antenna base on the right side of the roof to place the pioneer box. The fuel cap also needs to be removed since on he A3 there was no fuel container inside the vehicle.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.













Bob

Progress.
Blood and wet dirt on the floor. Three soldiers were injured by a mortar that landed on the open driver's hatch cover. They were evacuated out the back after being attended to. As a result many items were strewn around the floor. I am depicting some MRE packets on the floor, a DCU blouse, and another item of clothing falling out of the spall liner door. There will also be some crates on the floor along with two bags and a couple of water bottles. I still have to put clear gloss on the MRE packets to make them look more like plastic.

The seat pad on the bench is still wet after painting. The crew added two humvee seat pads to try and soften the ride.

I decided to add the large thigh pockets on the driver and the small pocket on the upper left arm of the MOPP suit.

Hi Bob..

The bigger box looks like the boxes that different Engineer tool kits are carried in. You should use that one.

Bob,

one suggestion, might want to make the blood a bit darker..it looks too "bright" to me...

Looking great Bob. I concur with teh box comment; most Engineer tracks carried a 'long pioneer box' on top. That box was wood with metal trim and handles.
Keep up the good work.

Some box variants carried on Engineer M113s (54th Eng Bat):






HTH

Frenchy

Thanks guys. I think I will make up a wood box for the roof when I get to that. Still fooling with the interior. A couple of wood boxes, ammo cans, and some postings on the spall liner doors to do - not centerfolds, but load plans. I will show at least one handset connected to the radio and clipped to one of the ceiling handholds which will be visible through the troop hatch. Two CVCs on the floor. And I have to paint the driver figure at least. Then I get to finally close it all up.

Amazing amount of detail you've added, looking forward to further updates!

Jeff

Hello

Great work i´m also a M113 Fan.

Regards Dominik

The Sgt Smith head:

I used some scrap PE for the NVG mount, and found some PE buckles lying around for the chin straps. Friend or Foe ID on the front side of the helmet too.

Excellent build, Robert.

A very appropriate subject and I've bookmarked this post to follow your progress.

SFC Smith lived the NCO Creed; "No one is more professional than I".

For those that have not seen Dom's work... he builds his OWN periscopes! http://cold-war-modelling.blogspot.com/
They appear to work too...
Impressive Dom, really impressive! GROG

Progress:

First, thanks everybody for looking and the encouragement.

While I am waiting for some other interior items to be finished, I started on the figures and their accessories. The poor lighting washes out the green/grey that is on the DCUs.

The Sgt Smith figure that will be in the TC hatch.






The driver figure.

I am trying to wrap up the interior. Mike Del Vecchio helped with the spall liner decals after I got a load plan diagram from Jeff DeRosa. Thanks guys!

Here are many of the interior details/stowage that will be included. Some exterior stuff at the bottom.


Duffle bags were hung off the side. I need to touch this up a little. Not sure I will use these packs since most were covered up by the desert camo bags.


Eduard .50 cans. I have not sealed the corners yet. Not sure I am going to use them as is. I am advised the tops were removed when the cans were attached to the MG. I may have these lying nearby the track with the lids off, and the lids on the roof of the track.


Spall liner doors with load plan and TACSOP decals. These were taped on in real life. I also added the pins that secure the doors closed. The mounts for the pins will likely not be seen once the roof is on, but I decided to take the few minutes to add them from scrap PE.


CVCs with comm wires. Just thin wire wrapped around a needle. I added the connection point by molding Squadron putty around the wire and then cutting tbe edges to length once dry, then painted it w/ black and silver 50/50 while the wire is black and highlighted in grey. CVC boom mic is from Royal Models. Very nice PE option and enough for 12 CVCs. Two CVCs are from Verlinden while the third is from Blast Models (Stryker detail set). MRE packets will be strewn on the floor.

It is coming along great Bob. The details are really nice. The scaled down load plan and other paper items came out nicely.

You may want to redo the rucksacks in the below pic though. The large ALICE ruck sack (as these are) came in medium green. Only the small ALICE ruck sack (radio pack) came in woodland camo and green. The small ones were smaller around and shorter, without the 3 small ammo pockets on the upper front below the top flap.



Large ALICE ruck sack


Small ALICE (Radio) ruck sack

Looks great Robert, glad I could help.

Ughh. I hate painting camo and now it turns out I did not even have to do this one!

Interior almost done. I still have to finish the faces of the two figures then I can close up the track.



You can just see the Javelin hanging on the right side of the ceiling/roof looking through the troop hatch. I hung a gas mask bag from the Javelin too.


The driver hatch had a head cushion around the rim. I used my business card as that seemed about the right thickness and provided some tiny folds in the surface just like the real thing.


The jumbled mess. Lots of activity occurred after the mortar struck the track roof.








Bob

Outstanding interior....it is almost a shame to put the roof on. Glad the decals worked out. Look good. I see Gino kept you straight on the pack color. Like we say in the Army....just think of it as good training

Rounds Complete!!

Almost done w/ the figures. I will be adding some web gear to the standing figure and I think I will be sculpting some arms as the few that I have with bulky MOPP suit arms won't work for this.

The standing figure's head is not glued on. I will be shortening the neck once I figure out the arms.

The interior is looking really nice, Robert.

Is the driver going to fill his hatch enough that you don't need to add any weathering to the floorboard of the drivers area?

Spent cases and links?

Bandage wrappers and used bandages?

This is great, so keep 'em coming!

Hi Jeff. I did weather the floor of the driver area - you just can't see the floor clearly in the photos, but you can see the ledge and I weathered that. But I do think the driver figure will cover up most everything anyway.

There will be spent shells and links on the roof. I have interior photos that I can not post here, and there are no bandages lying around or casings/links inside. However, Sgt Evans has suggested I put an M4 inside, so that will be one more thing for me to do.

On the roof, in addition to the links and shells, will be an M16 w/ 203, pioneer box, stack of orange cones, picket posts, MRE box, water can, and gas mask bag.

Bob

When I get to the exterior there will be