Uhhh.... Erm, which piece is that IR light exactly?

I confused the issue slightly. I was actually referring to the blackout drive light which is the inner most light and the one with the little hood in the picture below:


Paul

Thanks for the heads-up!

Hi folks, how are you progressing with your buckets?

Cheers

I have assembled my tracks on my Turkish bucket. I have finally found reference pictures from waaaay back: from an original Turkish Army bulletin from 1968 which announces the "New M-113 A1 in use" with two pictures, one during a fording exercise and one (very grainy) one standing alone. I am in great debt to a fellow local modeler who came up with it.

I finally got everything prepared, but the "overtime mania" at work has started and I can't find proper time to spare for my models...

Good to hear your progressing Emre, in time you´ll finish it. Easy on your health with all the overtime at work, ok?

And the rest of you guys? We have a big bunch of enlisted people in the campaign, only some have showed up around

Cheers to all

Call me mad, but i am going to go for a second entry, a Dutch M-113 that saw service in the Balkans, just waiting for the kit to arrive and then i have to decide how detailed i am goign ot make it. For a change i ordered the Tamiya M-113 and cannot decide whether to add an interior or not. Anyone have any photos of Dutch M-113's from the Balkans? The one i am doing is the one from the Echelon decal pack, painted in a rather fetching shade of blue.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

Balkans meaning action in Kosovo or Bosnia? If so, I might be able to find something.... maaaybe (I have friends who served in the peacekeeping forces).

Hawkeye,

Hate to rain on your parade but I think the only M113 based vehicle that might have been in the Balkans would be the YPR-806:
http://www.armouredengineer.force9.co.uk/bucket/neth806.htm

The only thing similar would be the YPR-765:
http://www.nato.int/sfor/misc/duypr765/t981013a.htm

And the vehicle on the Echelon set is a military police YPR-765:
http://www.twenot.nl/ypr.htm

Paul

I have to agree with Paul on this one as far as I know the dutch army hasn't been using M-113's some time now, there almost al YPR's (eccept for the M-577's).

Apologies gents. I scanned the decal pics and mistook the blue painted YPR for a M-113...oh well have to think of something else for a second vehicle. Thanks for the replies

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

Shouldn't the YPR be eligible for this campaign? As I know, it is based on the M-113 chassis and I do remember seeing a white YPR (Turkish with UN markings) built for this campaign.

Everyone, I have a question about the tracks. Italeri instructions show the middle portion (rubber pads) of the tracks black, while the rest is gunmetal. Now, I want to build an aged vehicle (Turkish M-113s were used American vehicles) and the tracks should be a little worn. Scourging through the net looking for built models, I have realized that some people even used orange(?!?) on the tracks (simulating rust?). Does these tracks have a particular "oxide" color or is it good ole' rust? Am I free to weather it to my wishes?

All vehicles based on the M-113 are included is the campaign so the YPR to (there are two YPR's alraedy entered)

I know that YPRs were included but Hawkeye had mentioned that he had bought a Tamiya M113 to use with the decals.

Here's two examples of rusted track but it would take a lot of inactivity to cause this rust on the track in use:



Paul

Greetings again!

Here's more progress on my Turkish-bucket-to-be.

I have assembled the tracks, unfortunately just in the middle where the rubber pads should be, italeri has HUGE injection marks... on every single link... I swore really bad and used putty and then sanded them. Minus points for italeri...

Then I painted the road wheels and the tracks, as the side-guards will partially cover them and make airbrushing really difficult.

Then I proceed on with the construction. Couple of other places that require bad slang and patience, but overall the kit goes together well. Maybe, of course, that dumb blackout light that is molded UPSIDE DOWN(!?!?), which was already pointed out here previously.

What I haven't really decided yet is whether I should close the driver and turret hatches or not. I think I will leave them open, with the interior and all.

Minus points for the holes and injection marks on the rear hatch. If you think of modelling it open, you have lots of puttying and sanding to do. However, seeing the shape of the piece, I guess italeri did not have any other choices in the matter.

Well, let's leave the rest to the pics:

With flash (this is the real color, otherwise colors are offset by the white light I use)









Things to do:
- .50 cal MG for the turret construction
- Side-guards construction
- Overall paint, decals, weathering

I can say I am 60% done. However, I will complete the model by the end of October (have time and paint issues).

Cheers,

So after identifying the YPR as a M-113 i have now bought the correct kit and this is the result so far. I have to say this is the worst AFV Club kit i have built, by far. The hull sides were so badly warped it was almost impossible to correct them, As it was i think the corrective work i did do resulted in the gaps at the rear. Really though there was nothing else that i could realistically do, the warloing wasthat bad. I also added teh Eduard PE Set and the Armoured Cavalry parts come from the Academy M-113 kit.

I am going to paint this one blue, with the lower hull being NATO Green...as per the Echelon Decal sheet, hope you like it so far?

















I still have to sand down some of the Mr Surfacer, but other than this i think this is ready for a primer coat.

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

Hi bucket-o-holics :-)

Emre, good progress you have made, now the paint and you´re done

Ethelian, looks very impressive the correction work yoou´ve been doing there, I´m sure it will be finished in a great way. Sad to hear about those problems, I heve the AIFV kit in the stash and sure will have the same issues....

Cheers

Hi Ethelian, Youre YPR is comming along great.
One question, Is it a post 1990 version?
If so you need to add some extra bit to reardeck
Like this


Keep up the goog work

Thanks for the kind words Klaus, i hope your YPR is not as bad as this one has been. Put some primer on it today and it is surprising how a coat of primer can help to improve the look of a model.

Jan, this is a link to the decal sheet if got the idea from. As you can make out in the middle group of pictures there are no mesh sides on that vehicle or the one on the right hand side sheet.

http://www.modelpoint.us/s.nl/it.A/id.989/.f?sc=2&category=144

Hopefully you will not now have a picture showing these screens fitted to one of the blue YPR's?

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

No, no pic's of the blue ( Koninklijke Marechaussee a.k.a KMar ) with the screen, but I do have two little things.
1 There shouldn't be tie-downs on the side
2 you shouldn't install the bow plate (I mean the "thing" on top of the engin acces door)
Like this


I hoop I'm not putting you off thats not my intension.

Jan-Willem

Hey Jan,

no you are not putting me off at all, i value any input that helps me improve. A question for you about the bow plate, was it removed from all of the KMar's? As for the tie downs, i did not realise they had been removed from the side armour, thanks for that i will remove them next time.

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

As far as I know (and thats not saying a lot) the Kmar versions do not have them. atleast I have never seen one with it on

Hi fellows, how are all of you progressing in your Buckets?

Cheers

I'm waiting for a fellow local modeler to give me a pre-shading, post-shading workshop when he has some time. I would like to learn and apply his methods on my bucket, so my model is all ready for the painting and waiting for me.

After that it should be a week's work to finish it properly. So I'm nearly done. But only "nearly"

Try here
http://www.scaleworkshop.com/workshop/video4bg_2.htm

It's a on-line tutarol. I learned pre-shading from this.

Hoop it helps
Jan-Willem