Hey all,

Here's my rendition of Revell's M901 ITV.



This is my first armor build. (Ok, I probably built a couple of tanks when I was a kid, but that was many decades ago. I've built a few cars and planes since, but never did any armor.) A treadhead buddy of mine and I were rummaging through the clearance pile of a closing down hobby shop- another victim of online sales. I always kinda liked the M113 series, and the M901 in particular. Rich assured me it was a decent kit. Couldn't leave empty handed, so decided I would give it a try.



Yeah, decent kit. There were some new challenges for me. I'd never attempted what you lot call "link track", and MERDC is freaking difficult. It was also a lot of research. But it was fun, and I'm satisfied with how it came out.



Some of you have probably read Harold Coyle's Team Yankee. That was my inspiration for this build. I wanted to depict this one as though it was on the verge of seeing real action. So it's loaded and ready with live rounds, and no REFORGER markings.



It was painted with Model Master Acryl. Forest green and field drab were freehand airbrushed using M113 MERDC patterns an guides, and then the sand and black were hand painted. Let me just say it took me several attempts to figure out how to do this right.



Markings were made from Archer transfers (another interesting challenge!), as best as I could guess for what would be on the bumpers of the combat support vehicles attached to the team. If it's not quite right, maybe I'll learn better for next time.

Weathering is oil washes and some Vallejo pigment (another fun experiment). I added some duffel bags, sleeping pads, and the inevitable MRE cases.

It always kinda frustrated me that as funky as the hammerhead atop this vehicle looks, you still can't really see what the missiles themselves look like. So I decided to fix that by scratchbuilding one.



Dimensions and images of the BGM-71 are pretty easy to find online. So I scaled one to 1/35 and built it out of Evergreen styrene strip and rod. A fun little mini build. It stands on a stained piece of basswood, atop brass rods for support- maybe similar to what you'd see in a museum.



Thanks for looking.

The ITV looks great! At first I wasn't seeing the bottom two images at first; but I refreshed and they came up. Very nicely done!

What color did you use on the camo net bundle on the front? I'm going to be needing do duplicate that here soon and it looks like you nailed it!

Could one of you Mod type people fix BMG-71 to say BGM-71? It is decidedly not a Browning Machine Gun. Thanks!

Also, this is the first time I'm doing images here, so I'm still figuring out hosting and posting. Do they autoscale ok? Too big?

Thanks!

That bundle up front is painted Acryl olive drab. I think I may have hit it with some semi-gloss clear to give it a weatherproof tarp kind of look.

Camo net, you say? Many pics of 113's I've seen have that thing strapped to the swim vane- but for the life of me I could never figure out what it is. A tarp wrapped around a camo net?

Hey Andy, I have the same kit I hope to tackle one day. Yours looks great! And hi to a fellow Alabamian

It's basically a rubberized canvas outer wrapping with a hexagonal piece and a diamond shaped piece of camo netting.

You nailed it. On par (or better) than some of us who have been doing armor for decades. I'd add a drop of gloss the the IR lenses. That's about it.

Man, you nailed the colors on the MERDC scheme. And the camo net bundle as well..... that pesky color was found on main gun mantlet covers, jeep tops, M60 MG spare barrel bags..... I used any German field gray with a touch of mid-range green added, then a hint of gloss for the vinyl appearance.

Great work!

That looks really good.
Suprised by how little Cold War armor we see.
Well done!

Thanks everyone!

After this one, I may have to do an early spec M1 to go with it- or at least an M113A1. More cold war.




That's enough to cover/hide the vehicle? I wouldn't have guessed that much netting could be wrapped up in that bundle.




Hmm- I'd missed that. Suppose I'm going to have to figure out how to edit my profile- I fear I'm still using whatever the default settings are. It seems we're all from Alabama, until we're from somewhere else.

Though I've heard that even Lynard Skynard wasn't really from Alabama....

Here's a photo of the camo net before it's wrapped up in the cover. Your kit looks great, although in a shooting war, the crew would have knocked off the "whoopie light" (aka Rotating Amber Warning Light System) so it didn't get turned on accidentally. They were cheap plastic and the base was a light gray plastic. We got nicer ones around the time the M1A1 was fielded.

Wow that is really good. The colours look spot on as does the pattern. Really liking the missile also.

One of my tracks in Germany during REFORGER. It was a little bit wet that year.

Great build and paint job.
Could anyone give a good match in the Tamiya range for the Field Drab?
Iknow there is a Field Drab paint but it looks more a Grey Green color than the one of the MERDC pattern.

Olivier

Thanks everyone!

Sabot, that pic certainly helps.

Yeah, I expect that beacon would have been pulled off pretty quickly as soon as hostilities were imminent. I would guess that someone also would have peeled off the orange corner marking tapes.

Steve B, great pic. Looks like I'm not far off the mark.

This forum is a terrific resource. It's great to be able to find people who were really there. Thanks for your service!

Yes, the are simply reflective tape sold in rolls and made by 3M. There are two colors, an amber one for the front and front corners and red for the rear and rear corners. Since it is just tape, it often comes loose and must be replaced.

Try XF-52 Flath earth or XF-72 Brown (JGSDF).

Here's a shot of an M60A3TTS from Reforger 1988, you can see the whoopie light and yellow reflective tape.