Just a question, thinking of getting this kit, but I need to know whats inside it. The discription at Squadron says it has extra's for different varients, WHAT EXTRA'S? I really what an M113 for OIF or something I can use that has the parts and can easly bee changed to something mor current. A scan of the instructions or sprues would be helpful.

Thanks in advance!

As far as I know it is the regular Esci M113A1 that also came with ACAV parts. Those are the only extra parts you get. Before, the Esci M113A1 ACAV was only boxed with a set of Special Forces troops and the plain M113A1 was sold separately.

Thanks Rob for your quick reply. Do you know if it has the external fuel cells or not? I might just get it anyways. At 1/72 scale, unless its a bolt counter looking at it, I can put it in a little dio with the Dragon Bradley and M1A1, and Revell Hummer.

I do not think any of the Esci M113 FOV came with external fuel cells. They made the M163 Vulcan, M901 ITV, and M106 4.2" mortar track. The four-deuce was the best of the kits because it came with a little more items to dress the interior up.

Each kit differed with just a handful of parts on a small sub-sprue. Perhaps they have included these sub-sprues to make the different variants?

Here is a thread to someone in Austrailia that is making resin external fuel tanks. Just this statement alone makes me believe that there are no fuel cells in the Italeri issue.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/thread?forumid=47210&messageid=1098656185

The Italeri kit comes with way too little . . . Believe or not, the Roco (!) HO kit of the M113 comes with a lot of extras that can be stretched to fit the Italeri kit.

RE. these external fuel cells, something which has been bugging me for more than 20 years - during the first Gulf War, I saw a convoy (on CNN) including M113s carrying what looked like AIRCRAFT drop tanks - they were rounded and elongated. What were these? Sorry to hijack this thread with a dumb question, but it has been bugging me all these years...Jim