M-113A1 Medium Recon Vehicle - Australian Army 1980s - build

[ronnie42]

The turret is a marvel , i think most of use would say its impossible to get all the functions in so small space.

[lmcq11]

Thank you very much Ronnie42, Mitch and Barry for your encouragements. The build is progressing well. Its a unique build, something I have not seen before so its a fascinating experience for me to experiment ideas I have and see the results.

This post is for the turret basket with a YouTube Video of the turret rotation in action.

It is difficult to find pictures of the MRV interior. Most shots are from the same angle, seen from the rear ramp and always showing the back of the turret basket, which created some grey area that I needed to bridge with some assumptions.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

This set of 1/35 graphs from the book Australian Fire Support Vehicles were highly useful, but not much detailed and with many grey areas.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

The base for the turret inside the hull is created.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

The turret basket was built in a telescopic fashion, one item at a time, through extrapolation of fragment of interior pictures and the simple graphs available.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

A beam was added at the front based on assumptions. The basket needs to be solidly fixed under the turret. It does not show but the positioning of the basket is one of the most critical step of the build. In order for the turret basket to turn correctly, it needs to be perfectly centered at a precision using tenth of millimeter. It was achieve through trials and adjustments using small drop of superglue. Once the optimal position is found (meaning the best I could), then it was solidly glued in place.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

Seats for commander and gunner. Ince the wire for turret rotation servo is shown. The others are temporality store inside the turret while I am building the basket. They will be positioned later.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

Close up of the spent shell bin and guard protecting the commander.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

The box under the spent shell bin is the battery.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

Rear view of the basket, with the ammo bins.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

Continuing on following post

[lmcq11]

Left side

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

The MRV model will be given a full load of ammo. Seen here is the 76mm HE round.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

A lot of twenty four 75mm PAK resin ammo rounds were ordered from Dioramaparts. I have modified one as a prototype of the required 76mm HE round, which is much smaller than the PAK shell.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

I used it for basic calculations for the ammo bins. Looks like it is still a bit too long though.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

The turret is installed inside the hull for final turret rotation testing.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

Capture13.JPG (77.8 KiB) Viewed 3283 times

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

Capture14.JPG (84.9 KiB) Viewed 3283 times

Next step is to build the interior.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

Here is a YouTube video of the turret and basket rotation in action.

https://youtu.be/VKUTTTtgWWA

Regards, Louis

[HERMAN BIX]

That’s an insane level of achievement.
It’s like your mind is two pages ahead of the build stage at all times .
I assume the noise of the servo is only accentuated by the camera being so close.

[lmcq11]

thank you !

Continuing with the interior, this post is for the fuel tank.

Dimensions and shapes for the fuel tank were taken from a Verlinden kit. It is assumed here that the MRV had a standard size M-113 fuel tank, but its always possible that the real one received a bigger one, hard to tell from the few available pictures and angles.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

As real estate is a luxury on this build, this is where a small Heng Long speaker need to fit after having been taken out of its cage. There is no room elsewhere for it.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

Perfect fit

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

The detailing of the fuel tank is finished using references and Verlinden kit.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

The fuel tank is temporarily positioned and loose because I will need room to install the tail lights and pull the wiring under the fuel tank.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

The interior will have a good level of details. The idea is to have something interesting to look at when the rear ramp opens, and turret is in action. In any cases, 90% of the fun is in building it.

M-113 M113 M-113A1 MRV 1/16 RC Scorpion Turret Australian Army build

Regards, Louis

[BarryC]

Season's Greetings Louis,

Nice solution!

Barry

[Jimster]

Very impressive scratch building. Will there be any holes drilled for the sound to escape?

[HERMAN BIX]

Very impressive scratch building. Will there be any holes drilled for the sound to escape?

Nope, the fuel will leak out
Knowing the way Aussies add long range fuel tanks to utes(pick ups) when being used in remote areas, they may also add volume to military vehicles

[Jimster]

But wouldn’t they be upside down in Australia and not leak out?

[HERMAN BIX]

But wouldn’t they be upside down in Australia and not leak out?

True, but they leak upwards !!