Mainly trying to get as much details right on my model but for the M113A2s used in OIF, were both rear lights red or was the left red and the right clear?

If its the latter, im guessing the motive of it was to be able to differentiate the vehicle during convoys at night?

Only the left has the red lense as a stop light. The right one has the blackout drive and blackout marker lights (narrow slits). These are not for differentiating vehicles, but to maintain intervals at night. In each light is four slits. If you can see all four, you are too close, if it looks like one, too far. For a proper interval, you should be able to see two lines on each light.

Thanks for that Gino. I guessed as much it would be a clear / silver light. Yet another mistake on the Tamiya M113A2 model.

The dilemma im facing now before finishing this model is that the right rear light only comes in the same shape as the left rear light which is not in a slit format.

Only so much accuracy i can keep up with before the manufacturer's faults start to show.

You can see the light set-up pretty well on this M113A2 with a non-standard, Aussie/Israeli style, interior layout.



The right light looks the same, but with only the slit as opposed to the red lense. It would be easy to replicate with just a thin line of gloss black. Or you could scratch the slit into the lense with an exacto blade tip. The blackout marker lights look black, not silver or clear.

Here is a photo of an M88A1 taillight, same style though. You can barely see that around the upper slit, there is an indentation identical in shape to the red brake lens found on the left taillight.

Thanks again for that. I could scratch the slit into the lens but it wouldnt look authentic because the standard light that came with the kit has the actual break light "sunk in" and not level with the rest of the light component.

I contemplated filling the entire component with putty but i wasnt sure if i could slit the putty itself accurately enough without the putty caving in on itself.

Thanks for the photo btw, would come in handy for my other M113 builds.

just to give an idea how it looks like...heres what ive done so far.

If you repaint the right rear light sand, and then just put a thin, gloss black line in the area where the red stop light was, it will look fine.

Cheers for that. Will give that a go and see how it looks.