My latest project drawing to a close. I've always wanted to build the M113A1 TOW CAP like the one's we had in Germany in the late 70's.

Just a little more weathering and a base and it will be complete.









Dave

As an old "dino-tanker" I can really appreciate the job you did on that. What unit? I see what look like bumper numbers, but at least in the pics they are covered by the mud.

CS Company, 1st Bn, 16th In, 1st Div FWD. I was in the Bn from 77 thru 80.

You are bringing the TOW CAP to AMPS in Auburn to compete, right???

Nice work. I always wishewd that I had those vehicles in my scout platoon vice the M901 ITVs... Oh well, it is water under the bridge.

John

Sorry John. Probably not going to make the Auburn show this year, but I will have it at the Atlanta show next month.

I never liked the ITV either. It seemed like a maintenance nightmare.

Nice job on the build. Is it a conversion or did you scratch the mount and cover?
-Seth

Love it, great job. I regret not getting the HobbyFan conversion when Sprue Bros still had it...



Erik

Nice and interesting variant. Was is a unit mod or a standard one?
How did the M2 support fold?

If I can add a point, you should paint the roundels that secure the spare track links.

Olivier

Olivier, it was a standard version (not sure what the exact nomenclature is though...) Canada had them as well. The MG mount is quite different so it can fold out of the way. Really wish I had taken more photos of the camo one, but that was back in print film days!






Cheers,
Jim

Very cool conversion!! I spent many many days out in the field with those things! I had forgotten how the M2 mount folds down. Nice!
That was such a lovely time practicing crew drills with that kevlar TOW cover. SQUAD!!!
J

Seth - It's a semi-conversion/scratch project. I used the HobbyFan kit that Erik mentions as a base, but there was a lot of scratchbuilt add-ons because the HobbyFan kit is not complete or accurate in some ways.

Olivier - It was a standard vehicle. The designation was the "M220 TOW Vehicle," or with the ballistic protection cover "M220 TOW CAP." The M2 mount was a special mount that allowed the M2 to be folded forward out of the way of the TOW missile firing.

I plan to submit an article on the build to the AMPS Boresight. Hopefully it will get published.

Dave

A couple of interior shots.







Okay, got to finish the base.

Dave

ITV's were a maintenance nightmare! I was the BMO in a tank battalion and we had 3 in the scout platoon. Seemed the darned things were always on the deadline report.

When I was am ITV platoon leader, we acquired the caps to use in the dismount role at the NTC to save on filling sand bags. I also had the "privilege" of setting one up in the impact area at FT HOOD to prove that they would stop shrapnel.







This is one of our draws for REFORGER.

The finished product.







Dave

Dave-- outstanding workmanship! Thank God we never had to use that or the hammer head in combat...I would truly fear for any brave Soldier who employed that worthless piece of equipment in battle against the Russian hordes. It was tough enough to use in training. I always considered it a moral victory when we even got the hammer head or the blade tanks out of the motor pool. John Charvat's D, 10th CAV being the exception. I was in a state of euphoria each time they managed to show up in their motor pool They were a challenge. But, I digress!
Great job as always.
DJ

Thanks DJ.

As Mech Infantry, we had them, but we never used the CAP. We always felt like using it immediately identified us as anti-tank and made us a big target. Of course we were never shelled or shot at, so I'm sure if we had used them in real combat we might have thought better and put up the CAP.

It was nice when we got the Bradleys and the TOW CAP went away.

Dave

This looks really good. What scale? 1/35 or 1/72?

Is the interior, specifically the missile rack, scratch built or from a kit.

I am modeling my M901 (Fort Polk 1988) in 1/35 and am having a hard time finding Turret/TOW components for the interior. Any suggestions?

Unfortunately you will not find much for the interior apart from standard M113 parts. I scratched a full interior for my M981A2 FIST-V a few years ago (17, wow it has been that long). I used various engine and other mechanical parts on an M106 mortar base for the turntable of the targeting station. The post was a piece of tubing with wire supporting it, etc. , etc... I made the radio rack on the right side out of angle iron plastic from Plastruct, radios from sheet plastic and bolts for the knobs, etc. I think it came out pretty nicely

(sorry, old, crappy digicam photo).

Sorry for the late answer

Thank you Dave and Jim for the explanation.
Olivier