Vehicle History:
The M114 Command and Reconnaissance Carrier was designed and manufactured by General Motors in the early 1960s. It was used extensively during the Vietnam War and up until the mid-1970s in various configurations.
It was designed to be fast and stealthy. It was swim capable and deployable by parachute. But it quickly proved unsuited to use in the Vietnam War, and was later replaced in the reconnaissance role by the M551 Sheridan tank. It proved to be mechanically unreliable, underpowered, had extreme difficulty conducting cross country operations, and its lack of resistance to land mines was often fatal to vehicle and crew. The M114 was issued to all reconnaissance units in Europe, Korea, and the United States. In 1973, Gen. Creighton Abrams branded the M114 a failure and ordered it retired from the US Army. Use of the M-114 continued for several years after 1973 until it was replaced and retired by the US Army.
The M114 looked like a smaller, lower M113. The M114 commander's cupola, which rotates 360 degrees, required that the hatch be opened to fire the .50 cal machine gun. The M114A1 allowed the firing of a .50 cal machine gun from the inside utilizing manual traverse and elevating mechanisms. The M114A1E1 had a hydraulically powered cupola and mounted the 20mm cannon. The observer in the rear had an M60 7.62mm machine gun mounted on a pedestal. There was stowage on the rear door for three M72A1 "LAW" anti-tank rockets.
The M114 was constructed of aluminum and weighed 13,100 lb empty, with a combat weight of 15,093 lb. It was powered by a Chevrolet V-8 motor with a 283 cubic inch displacement. The engine was rated at 160 horsepower. It had a three-man crew, and a top speed of 36 mph.
Kit Description:
Accurate Armour has two M114 kits available, the M114 “Vietnam Version” and the M114A1/A1E1 “NATO Version.” Both kits have most parts in common. The difference is the Commander’s cupola and armament. The kit I got was the NATO Version, K030E.
The kit consists of upper and lower hull sections, decal sheet, etched brass sheet, two brass rods and two plastic pouches containing all of the various parts.
The instruction sheet is good but not great. It consists of eight pages with black and white pictures of the completed model. Part numbers are labeled, but the pictures make it hard to see the location of some parts. The use of reference photos is a necessity.
The decal sheet provides decals for both Vietnam and Europe, but no reference is provided for decal locations.
Construction:
The kit goes together fairly well. There are some warpage issues as there are in any resin kit.
The first problem encountered was that there was excess resin in the groves where the top and bottom of the hull went together. That had to be cleaned out and test fitted several times. The top part of the hull was also warped and had to be stretched and straightened.
The interior placement of the fire suppression system bottle is wrong for the M114A1. It is the configuration for the M114. The instruction sheet has the drivers and commanders seats reversed.
My kit was missing some parts (trim vain and air vent cover.) I’m sure Accurate Armour would have gladly replaced them, but in my case it was just easier to scratch build them.
The 50 cal machine gun mount is molded in one piece. This method causes the piece to lack a lot of detail, plus there are inaccuracies in the molding. I opted to grind out the machine gun with a Dremel tool and replace it with a 50 Cal from the Academy Machine Gun set. I also added the correct ammunition feeder and support spring configuration to the right side.
The running gear was the next challenge. Be sure that when you attach the sprocket and idler wheels that you make sure they match up with the road wheels. If you don’t, they will end up fitting closer to the hull than the road wheels. The track comes in eight pieces of equal length. The instructions say to gently heat and bend these to fit. Good luck. I found that they tended to break instead of bend, no matter how much they were heated. I ended up cutting them to the length needed and fitting them. This required fitting individual links around the sprockets and idlers.
I replaced several parts with parts from the spares box, because the detail was poor quality. Those items were the M16 rifles, OVM tools and the M60 and mount.
The camouflage pack on the trim vain was scrounged from a Legends M113 accessory aftermarket set.
The figures are from different sets. The driver is from the Dragon US Tank Crew. I switched his head and adjusted it so he is looking left instead of straight ahead. The Commander is from the spare parts box with added head and arms. The observer, standing figure, is from an old Jaguar set (U.S Truckers, Highway One) with a new head and steel pot. Since the Commander and Observer figures were Vietnam era figures, I had to modify both by cutting down their Jungle fatigues to better represent the fatigues worn in Europe in the 70’s.
Paint and Finish:
The interior of the vehicle was painted prior to assembling the top and bottom. It was sprayed with Model Master RAF Sky Type S, #4840. This closely approximates the interior green/blue used in vehicles. Then individual details were painted with various colors from Vallejo and Tamiya.
The exterior was painted Model Master Dark Green #4726. It was weathered using a homemade black wash and AK Interactive Filter for NATO vehicles. AK Interactive Fuel Stains was also used. The rims of the road wheels are painted using Floquil Weathered Black #F110017. Additional overall weathering was done by dusting the entire vehicle with MIG European Dust Pigment.
The Mud is made from a combination of Liquitex Resin Sand and Blended Fibers Texture Gels, Static grass, Coconut fibers (cut very small), fine sand and Vallejo Black Grey and Green Grey. All of these items were mixed until I got the consistency and color I wanted.
The base is pink insulating foam cut to size, shaped and glued to a piece of wood that had been shaped with a router. This was covered with Aves Shayclay, and then painted a medium grey color. I applied a wash of Sepia watercolor to finish the painting. Rocks are from the gutter in my community parking lot. Static grass and scrub grass was added, and then more mud mixture was added. Finally the vehicle and figure were attached and more mud was applied to integrate them with the base.
Decals are from the kit (modified) and Archer Dry Transfers.
Conclusion:
The M114A1 was a fun kit to build. I learned that there are inherent problems with all resin kits, but most are easily overcome with some patience and cussing. I would not recommend this kit for someone with little or no kit building experience.
Questions and comments are always welcome. I have additional pictures, but didn't want this to get too long.
Dave
