Canadian M113 Platoon

 Today I was able to take some photos of the finished Canadian M113 Platoon - this time just the AFVs.  I'll jump straight into the photos.

Here's M113 No. 1.  Not exactly sure how the vehicle commander ended up looking quite so relaxed in the cupola - I hope I can fix that at some point in the future.  So No. 1 is an S-Model M113, with a variety of stowage including an old Airfix bicycle and an Elhiem .30 Cal.  The commander is from AB figures.

This M113 No. 2.  No. 2 is another S-Model M113, again with a variety of stowage, an Elhiem .30 Cal and an AB figures commander.

M113 No. 3 is a little bit different.  It is an old ESCI kit I made years ago and was going to be an American M113, but I needed just one more AFV to make up the platoon so the Canadians won out.  It to has a variety of stowage from different sources, AB Figures commander and driver and 2 Elhiem troopers riding in the back with the rear hatch opened.

M1113 No. 4 is a straight forward S-Model kit with no crew.  Nothing to exciting to add here...

Finally the obligatory group shots of the whole platoon.  I haven't totally decided which is the platoon commander's vehicle, but at the moment I'm gunning for M113 No. 2.  Each is unique enough that I will be able to note which squad is in which vehicle at the start of any game - which is always handy.

I tried a couple of different things on these vehicles.  I used Vallejo gloss and matt spray-can varnish on them.  Not 100% sold to be honest - but I'm willing to give them another go.

I also used 2 MiG Productions Oilbrushers on the vehicles.  I only have two colours - Dusty Earth (a light tan colour) and Starship Filth (a grey colour) and I tried to give the vehicles a dusty, grimy streaky look.  I'd be interested in any feedback - as I think I may have overdone it a little.  Who knows...

Anyway - I'm very happy to have these finished and to be able to move onto something else.  This will be it for the Canadians for a little while, as I wait for my 3D Printer to arrive.  Then I will jump back into this particular project with bells on!

Thanks for looking

Richard 

Canadian M113 Platoon (AFV's Only) Progress

 So onto the second post covering the Canadian M113's.  Things have progressed quite nicely and I'm pretty happy with how they are looking right now.  Obviously I should have thought of things like decals before I started this project, but alas, that's not really me - so I've just ordered Canadian 1:87 decals from Germany - from TL Modellbau  Here's the set I ordered:

I also ordered some Danish decals so I can finalise some of their vehicles as well.  I went with 1:87 mainly because I couldn't really find anything else.  Battlefront do 1:100 Canadian decals which look OK - but I don't think you can order them without buying their kits - so I didn't bother there.  I've read these fit perfectly well on 1/72 kits - so we'll see how they go.

At the same time I ordered some vehicle mounted FN MAGs for another Canadian project...  I have started work on the crew for these M113's but I don't want to mount them until after I have properly weathered the vehicles - and I can't really weather them until I've added the decals.  So they will probably remain looking like this for another 6 weeks or so - depending on how long mail from Germany to Australia takes.  Then I can also paint the lights.

So here are the pics:

The M113 is from S-Model, with a Elhiem (slightly modified) .30 Cal added and various different bits of stowage.  ESCI track links on the front.

Another S-Model M113, again with a modified Elhiem .30 Cal, various stowage and an Airfix bicycle.

A 3rd S-Model M113 - essentially straight from the box, with various bits of stowage and an ESCI road wheel mounted on the splash board.  The S-Model .50 Cal is a bit long to my eye, but is nicely detailed.

Finally this is an ESCI M113.  While I think the S-Model M113 is a great little kit, the old ESCI one is outstanding.  You can have the driver's hatch open - so why not!  Again this has various bits of stowage and the rear hatch opened.  I'm planning on putting 2 Elhiem Canadians in the rear hatch.

Here they are all together:

So that's it for now.

Thanks

Richard

Guess the project!

 Quick post today....

I've spent some time this week spraying and masking 4 M113s for the next new project.  This one is actually more progressed than what I'll be showing today, but this is where this part of the project is at.

First one to correctly identify the correct nationality of these vehicles sadly wins nothing but brief fame on this blog.  Hopefully correct identification also means I got the colours correct.

Please bear in mind these are work-in-progress shots - just the first base coats have been finished.

Here we go:

Good Luck!

Richard

Esci M981 FIST-V

Ever since I read Team Yankee many many years ago I wanted to have a model of a FIST-V.  So, when I found I had 3 M901 ITV models, rather than the 2 I thought I had (a long story), I decided to convert 1 into a FIST-V.  If you want to find out more about the M981 you can look here.

Basically this meant slightly remodeling the front face of the Hammerhead - to include the sights etc, but delete the TOW tubes.  I probably could have done more - but with my basic modelling skills I thought what I did was enough.

A warning - I also tried to write something in chalk on the Hammerhead - I'm not real happy with it and will at some point try and get rid of it and have another attempt - using a different brand white pencil though...

So onto the pics:

That's all for now

Thanks

Richard

1st M113 Platoon - Individual Vehicles

Ok - well this post took a little longer to come along than I expected.  Settle in for a story...

A couple of weeks ago I have a completely free, non-humid Saturday afternoon and decided - what the hey - I'll break out my airbrush and put a base coat on all my made, stowed and undercoated M113s.  A simple exercise - despite not using my airbrush for a couple of years!

Earlier - after much investigating - I had bought a bottle of Lifecolour UA 006 Green - which is supposedly the absolute 100% best colour to represent Forest Green - which is the base colour of all my US Vehicles.

I set up my table in the garage, set up the airbraush, collected all teh bits and bobs I need to airbrush (massive logistical exercise everytime I use it - hence not using it for several years) and then went to get the paint.  2 hours later, after searching high and low in my office - no Lifecolour paint.  I could not find it for love nor money.

In the end, desperate to do something, I grabbed a bottle of old GW Catachan Green and headed down to the garage.  This was another colour I had read did a decent job of looking like Forest Green.  years ago, some 15 yr old shop assistant had told me not to use Tamiya airbrush thinner with GW paints - instead use demineralised water.

I spent the next hour or so in a fairly frustrating attempt to airbrush GW paint, thinned with expensive water (you can't drink), onto an increasingly small number of M113.  I then decided to give up, and when cleaning my airbrush with the afore-mentioned Tamiya airbrush thinner, I decided to give the GW paint 1 more go, this time use the Tamiya product to thin it.

Needless to say it then went on like a dream - but I had run out of time, and I was starting to run out of paint... so I sprayed as much as I could in the time remaining, packed up and went inside.

Obviously I found the life colour paint (which appears to be completely different to the GW paint) several days later.

So the base coating was largely done, and I've spent the next two weeks getting to this point.  Only slight weathering has been added - now it's to humid again to spray varnish - so more weathering will be added at some stage.

Platoon Leaders M113A1

Second M113A1

Third M113A1 (My Fav)

Final M113A1

I've tried a couple of new techniques here - with the flesh of the figures and in trying to do some chalk writing on each of the vehicles.  I like how the flesh came out - more work but 100% better than what I normally do.  I'm a little underwhelmed by how the chalk turned out - a lot of hassle, but I don't really like it - so it may disappear when the weather gets better and I can do the final weathering.

All in all I'm still pretty happy with these.

Have fun

Richard

More massed M113 mob madness

Just a few quick pics updating where this little project has progressed to in the last few days:

These "specialist" vehicles have all had cam nets added.  I had some spare bits from an old ESCI M113, so have added spare track links to all the AFVs and additional wheels to a couple.

All these have had additional stowage added and cam nets.

I plan on using this one as either a standard APC, or if I need a "special" M113 - like an engineers vehicle or something like that.  I like the ladder and can imagine it being "borrowed" as someone thought it might come in handy.

This will be my command track, with a full interior.  It's an ESCI kit with a few bits and peices added on the inside.

This is my not-so-quick, but still dirty (and not 100% complete) conversion of a S&S Models M577 that I got a couple of years back from a mate.  I wasn't happy with the amount of detail on the back or front, part of the generator (and tracks) had been broken, and I wanted to see if I could make it crewed.

So I've added a number of ESCI parts - the rear ramp, the trim vane, headlights, track guards (cut-down) and driver's hatch.  To fit the 1/72 track guard to a 1/76 model, it needed to be cut down - and is still not perfect as you can see in the middle photo at the rear.  I also had to add so plastic card mud guards at the front as this was missing.

It took a while, but I drilled and dug out the drivers position, and have the hatch open, so it can now be crewed.  I need to add back the drivers periscopes.

I filed down the side of the generator and added a thin peice of plastic card, which I drilled a few holes though to represent what it really looks like.

I also added a large cam net to the roof and tent poles to the upper rear, as that's where they were stowed.

The tracks also need to be fixed, and I should add at least 1 jerry can to the rear and maybe some more stowage on the roof.

So whilst it's no where near perfect - it's good enough for me.

That's it

Richard