I ordered AA's resin M114A1 kit yesterday. While I wait for it to arrive, I try to find some photos of these vehicles in US Army service, but they seem to be very hard to find... Most photos show restored examples. I would like to paint mine in MERDC camouflage, but I have found only a single photo (not very good) of it in such camo so far. Most are in plain OD and some are in some odd camouflage, like the one below. Generally I find mostly photos from '60s, while I'm looking for pics from late '70s, i.e. shortly before these vehicles were retired...

Does anyone of you have any photos, which could be useful?



Pawel

Pawel, I used to work at the 3 ACR musuem and they have thousands upon thousnads of pictures. I'll ask there and see if they have any pics of them in service with the Regiment. They also have two that are sitting in their little motor pool out back. I can grab some pics of those if you'd like. Just let me know. "Q"

Did the M114 survive in US Army service long enough to get a MERDC scheme? Not that I'm an expert, but I was interested in the US Army in the early 80s for wargaming purposes.

The only other pattern-painted M114s I can remember seeing pictures of were painted in the 1970s MASSTER scheme (also known as 7th Army scheme). They were in an old Ian Allen book called Armour of the West IIRC.

Probably not many of them, but still... I have MERDC camouflage pattern drawings for M114 from official Army technical bulletin and as I mentioned I have one photo of such painted M114A1. MERDC was introduced in 1976 and although retirement of M114s begun in 1973, at that time many M114 were still used with last examples retired in early '80s.

Pawel

I have some too - perhaps useful to supplement the ones Epi provides you. If you want them - PM me on where to forward them to you.

Gunnie

Vodnik,

Try this link:

http://tired-iron.mounet.com/tirediron/m114A1.htm

I have it stored in my favorites for the day in the future when I breakdown and buy the AA M114. :-)

Dave

Jim,

If you could email them to me at [email protected], that would be great!

Thanks!




Thanks Dave, but I've already found this souce earlier Good detail photos, but no pics of vehicle in US Army service...

Pawel

Great topic guys, I am in the process of building the Accurate Armour M114 with the 20mm. Pawel, check the outter roadwhees part R1 the inner hub looks like it was a seperate piece that they added to the mold, all mine were broken or missing. I emailed AA and they replaced the roadwheels with in a week. The instructions also call for the suspension to hang 10 mm from the bottom of the hull but it doesn't explain if that's with the roadwheels on or off. Just my 2 cents.

SF
Andy

That's the one I ordered, but I haven't decided yet if I'm going to build it with 20mm or with M2. Thanks for heads up on these missing parts. I will carefully examine all parts once the kit arrives. I always do that anyway, as in the past I had got some AA sets with missing parts. Luckilly they have excellent service and always quickly send replacements.

awel

You've got two large-sized e-mails on the way! Apologies in advance for their size - I sent you my raw digital images so that you could have the biggest images I had. I had a terrible time this morning wrestling with my file compression utility - it wouldn't cooperate. Probably has my head-cold...

Gunnie

No need to apologize! My mailbox accepts mails up to 10MB and total mailbox capacity is over 200MB and I really like huge photos! Both e-mails arrived with no problems and photos look great.

By the way, where were these photos taken? It is a nice collection judging from what can be seen in the background!

Thanks a lot!
Pawel

This one is a part of the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation collection owned by Jacques Littlefield. He allows Chris Hughes (toadman1) and myself to regularly perform assistant Docent duties during tours at his collection - and we tend to go nuts snapping photos and watching vehicle restorations. He really does have a broad collection and likely has modern-era vehicles that you are interested in. No one leaves that place without a huge grin plastered on their face...

If I can shoot something in greater detail - just let me know. Chris might already have, and I/we can get the photo(s) to you.

Gunnie

I actually expected that it is an MVTF! And here things get more interesting: I will be in San Francisco this April! Do you think that something could be arranged to visit Jacques' collection? I just found some info about Jacques - I see that he was working for HP in 1970s before starting the foundation. And I work for HP now

Pawel

Sure! let me know when you'll be out here and I'll check the Tour Calendar to see what's going on at that time. I believe we can work something out.

Gunnie

I received my kit today. Trully excellent service - I placed the order on Tuesday and received it in Poland on Friday, same week!!!

In my kit only one wheel hub is missing, but three others have large air bubbles underneath and will probably brake off at slightest touch... But this is not the biggest problem - there is a few parts missing, including trim vane and a few other parts are damaged, including photoetched gun reticle. I've already sent an email to AA and I'm sure they will quickly send me replacement parts, but it still is a bit annoying considering the price of the kit...

But other than that - it looks great!

Pawel

Delta42,
I was trying to remember that url you posted regarding the M114 restoration, now I see you beat me to the punch. I used those photos for my AA M114A1E1 with the 20mm turret, and it became a contest winner. Great interior detail!

I had the idea to have the turret cast in a clear resin, as the vision blocks go almost all around the cupola. I sent it off to AA, but they responded saying they would not incorporate such a change. What a difference the clear piece would have made, with clear vision blocks allowing light into the interior!

Someone was questioning the 10 mm measurement to align the roadwheel arms. That was accurate-- 10 mm between the hull bottom and the lower portion of the roadwheel arms without the wheels.

I also encountered the missing road wheel hubs, but did not think to contact AA for replacements,, I made do with some parts box specials.

As for painting, use the MERDC pattern from Pawel, as the four color scheme was used at Ft Hood from 73-78, as I can attest to (1/50 Mech Inf, 2AD), and both the desert and woodland schemes were used.

Jim Peterson

We can all go to the Alpine Inn afterwards for a nice greasy lunch or dinner!

BTW, the MVTF's website is back on line:
MVTF

Chris "toadman" Hughes

i trained on the m114 at ft knox in 1969. the track had the m2 in the tc cupola, and the m60 on the right rear of the track.

it was your basic od green in color with the sea foam green for the interior, and some had the white interior.

if you go to alltheweb.com and make a search you will find quite a few of the m114 tracks there, some camo, some not.

while stationed in germany the m114 was used as a scout command track during recons, and the m577 was the toc back at the ndp we had set up.

while with the 11acr in vietnam we didn't use the m114 at all, just the m113's and the m577's.

hope this helps

reb

http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=VE2163

http://www.amphibiousvehicle.net/amphi/M_O.html

http://www.tnjmurray.com/customer_photos/m114-a.jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://eaglehorse.org/4_ftx_gunnery/equipment/m114/m114_i3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://eaglehorse.org/4_ftx_gunnery/equipment/m114/m114_intro.htm&h=266&w=397&sz=22&tbnid=d6Ky9vocbjsJ:&tbnh=80&tbnw=119&start=159&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dm114%26start%3D140%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

hope this helps ya some, the last link gives a complete history as possible that i could find for ya, and hopefully i can find some with camo on it for ya...

reb

There is an M114 in front of the National Guard unit here. If you need any detail shots, let me know.

Patrick