RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi everyone and thank you for your interest.

This is a progress report on the interior.


There are the communication switch boxes and the periscope that has an instrument panel attached. We need 3 of the small ones so i built 4 and selected the best 3. The decals were mostly easy to install but some on the bigger box were not used as i determine they would not look good with the space allocated.


Example of one of those decals on the tip of a hobby blade, and its not the smallest one.

As a lessons learned, I would have equipped myself with better optics before starting the interior decal installation. I was given by my sister years ago one of those hobby magnifier with lights that you put on top of your head, with various lenses. I thought it was the perfect setup for using it for the first time. I must report that it ended up in the garbage after 5 minutes, just not powerful enough.


I regret having left the molded in wires on the right wall. As expected, they were very difficult to paint, with lot of paint bleeding and counter bleeding from the other direction in a vain attempt to make a clean separation between the wire and the wall. It looked terrible. I am no paintbrush virtuoso. I ended up having to insert black pigments in the separation line, and deal with it as part of weathering. Looks ok now. Lessons learned; on a future M-113 build, the removal of all the molded in wires is the first task i will do on such project, especially before assembling the walls.


Black electrical wire shown in a previous post was used to build all the wires on the left wall. What a joy it was, and it looks good and very realistic. I still need to install the anchor points.

Small holes the size of the wire must be drilled in the switch box connectors for a solid joint between the wire and the box. It must be done prior to fixing the boxes on the walls.


For the wiring, i did quite a lot of analysis to find a realistic result. It is difficult to find wiring information, most interior pictures available only show a narrow view without the end to end view, and for different vehicles. What i found is that every M-113 seems to be different, wires going everywhere, some with more than others. I am not a radio or M-113 expert but i could at least determine that a wire between the ANT port on the radio and the Antenna should be realistic. I need to install a few more smaller wires.

I took a few minutes to apply some basic weathering for the picture. I like to have my models displayed with simple light weathering. Mainly because it is simple to do, risks are low, and I am not good at doing anything more complicated. I have ruined enough models in the past to know my limitations. In the end, it is a question of personal taste.

These are my first test shots of the incompleted interior, in order to analyse and find defects to fix.
It is through close up pictures that all these little painting issues and mistakes just pop up like alarm bells.

The interior decal sheet is great. The decals are very thin, solid and slide well without any breakage happening. There are a lot of interior decals, taking hours. Floor treadplates were painted aluminum. I have no clue where the "Pamphlet bag" should be.


Various improvements needed here, but it give a good idea of the finished model.


Need to give the wire a smoother rounded curve. Wires from T56 helmets or some headsets can be plugged to the ports under the control switch.

I am very happy with the radio and the results of the re-wiring. If Takom wants to improve its kit, it should eliminate the molded on wires on the walls and provide a string of soft electrical wire like I used, along with wiring instructions. It is also a lot more fun to do than painting molded-on wires, with various results.


Continuing on following post

I need to work on the driver's compartment, quite a few things left to do.



First test shot of the painted interior with lighting. Looking ok.


For the guys building a static kit, adding two LEDs in the rear compartment from a cheap dollhouse LED kit sold on Amazon would add a lot to the model display of the detailed interior. The battery and switch would easily fit inside the engine compartment. Otherwise, not much can be seen of the interior because it is quite dark in there without any lights.


Continuing on following post

It would be nice to be able to walk inside the vehicle. The rear ramp and top cargo hatches are large enough for the Iphone to sneak in.


Inside view of the underside of the radio shelf.


As i mentioned before, the decals for the M-113 exterior is the big let down of this model for two main reasons.

First, it is extremely boring. Only basic unit decals are provided, no Vietnam graffiti at all. We know that many M-113 in Vietnam were covered with those and can provide the most exciting models.

Secondly, the sheet has a design problem
and has been discarded.


The instructions show the placement of the decals, with markings having the right size.


It is easy to see that the Takom external decals are way oversized. Instead of being 1/16 scale, they are probably closer to 1/10 scale. The US ARMY should be about 15.5mm long, it is 23mm. It’s not just specific marking that is oversized, all the white letter markings are too big, including the Lift Here and the unit markings on front and rear mud guards. It's unclear about the rest. It’s a big problem for me as it does not match references, including the Takom instructions themselves.

I noticed that some vehicles in Vietnam had larger lettering, but not by that much. Something went wrong with the production of this decal sheet.


Looking through my stash of old decals, i found a sheet of ScaleMaster decals to find a "US Army" and serial number in a more correct size.


The yellow 13 is from the Takom sheet, it did not look too bad at first. But i find the whole external markings to be terrible. So, i will likely scrape them, repaint the impacted areas and look for new decals.


Not good, i will redo it all.


Next step is finishing the interior, and look for new decals. I’ll try to contact Andy’s shop who sold it to me, see what they have to say.

Regards, Louis

Do you belong to the IPMS? This model would be a show-stopper.

Thanks Doc, but at this point, it is just a model kit, but one that takes a lot of time and effort.

The interior is completed.

These are the periscopes. I much preferred the ones that came with the Sherman which were in a single piece. These ones for the M113 are made of two halves that are glued together. This created a lot of problems because the edge of the back of the periscope ends up on the back of the visor. So, if you put glue there, it's showing up when looking into the periscope. And many have fragile molded on details in clear plastic that just want to break away. Two of them were already broken on the sprue.

After the initial disaster where the joints with glue ended up showing through the glass section of the visor, i ended up having to crack open all the periscopes, clean up the interior of any glue, polish the interior of the visor and paint the interior in black before gluing the halves back together again. And above all, do not use superglue to put together the periscopes because the drying vapors will destroy the clear plastic. The visors were then masked and painted black, then dry brushed with dark steel pigments, and then put on at last.


Can't see inside the périscopes but they give a good reflective glass. Normally, a bunch of wires should be connected to the control panel switches attached to the middle periscope but because i need to keep the roof removable, it would be unmanageable to add anything.

Make sure the periscopes are only installed at the end of the build after painting, just like the real thing actually. it’s the only way to achieve clean demarcation lines like this. Never follow instruction steps that have the modeller install everything before painting, but only dry fit everything before painting.


I took the worst periscopes and installed them in the cupola where they cannot be seen much.


Reflective glass... they can provide good realistic results, if taken care of very carefully. It’s worth taking a few minutes to mask the visor area with masking tape pre cut with a blade and applied before painting. Next time, i will know better to paint the interior before gluing the periscope halves together.


Installed the fire extinguishers, flash light and the infra red periscope.

These were painful to paint and i am not satisfied with the results. They were molded in too few parts to be good looking. The fire extinguishers are in two halves only. The thick straps should have been made in photo-etched or in a way that they can be painted separately. Actually, i am thinking of doing just that and rework them both. The fire extinguisher at the rear is too large to fit in the allocated space.

The infra-red periscope is a single hollow piece without any backing, molded with the shelf it is resting on. If someone wants to install it in operation attached to the driver's hatch where it should be, it requires a lot of rework.

It is strange that some internal parts are super detailed and accurate, while others have been greatly simplified.


Completed the fuel tubing at the rear, and the electrical wire that comes down with the scratch build protection plate. These are visible details that were missed or simplified by the designers. Cushions for the seats are not included in the kit.


There is a small wire that goes from the middle of fuel tank towards the front, seen it on ref pictures. I assumed it might be connected to the fuel gauge on the driver's instrument panel so i ran it up to it at the front.


This is the official view of the completed interior. Stowage, rear ramp locking lever, hand straps, ammo and flare boxes will be added later.


With the instrument panel and periscopes. I am glad to see that the vertical supports for the radio shelf have a perfect match with the roof, i mean there are no gaps. Perfect.


View through the driver's hatch.


Continuing on following post

View from the side door.

Ramp view. Without LED lights, it would be complete darkness in there and all the detailing efforts would be lost.


I got the latest AK Interactive Vietnam paint set. I will use on a future project.


See the differences in color between the two Vietnam color sets from Mig Ammo and AK Interactive, for the Interior green and Olive Drab. The AK interior green is still quite beige and the AK olive drab is darker.

They should have the same requirements but they end up with very different solutions. I have to say that when i look at old pictures on M113 in Vietnam, they all seem to be painted in different colors. Must be because of the sun and the weather with a time in the field factor. In the end, it is a question of personal taste.


Regards, Louis

Hi everyone,

I am currently in the replanning phase for the decals and weathering. I went too fast the other day with the Takom decals. I made some more research, trying to find inspiration. In general, there were no clean looking M113 in Vietnam so that's a problem for guys like me who have never been too hot at making good looking weathering. Most of the time, the "vision" i had did not translate into reality, and the model was ruined. I'll try something again this time, i'll try to keep it low risks and incremental.

Barry warned me in the past that any vehicles in Vietnam need to be red with Vietnam's red earth dust. I have my Vietnam red dust pigments, that's an obvious option. Notice that the markings on this vehicle are of limited interest. Looks like Military Police.


Other areas of Vietnam seem to have a more African yellow dust environment. Not sure that such heavy weathering dust cake would look good on a scale model. Most M-113 had scratches from tree branches all over, not sure that would look good either on a model. It's risky.


Most M-113 had a good soaking in brown water at one point. That's complicated to reproduce.


This looks like a typical Vietnam vehicle weathering that is easier to do, heavy red dust layer on the lower hull, tracks and roadwheels. It has a decreasing level of pigments applied as you go up, and no ugly tree branch scratching across the hull or water/oil spills. The dust also sticks to the uniforms of the soldiers. Vehicles with a 5 point white star are usually more interesting to look at. This is a good option.


I saw quite a few M551 Sheridans operating with M-113 Acav. Some units had both, that's interesting for guys that have the Tamiya M551. Notice the spare road wheel on the cupola. Takom did not provide a spare wheel. In fact, Takom did not provide a single accessory with the kit, i mean, not even an ammo box, leaving the modeller to buy them on the after market at much extra costs.


The death head with crossbones on some M113 caught my attention. These were operated by the 1/1 Cav, 23rd Infantry Division "Americal".


I noticed that one of the very few 1/16 aftermarket Vietnam decals, the Echelon part 2 for the M551 does carry markings for the 1/1 Cav, but the death head is of a different style, but still interesting. It has the other markings that i am looking for, such as the US ARMY, with serial below, unit markings for mud guards, and the smaller LIFT HERE. Hopefully all of the right size, it's a gamble, it's on order from Singapore for $16. There are other markings on this sheet that will be useful for other future Vietnam builds.


This is confirmed by 1/35 decals sheets that i have seen.

As most M113 markings are white, my past solutions of scanning 1/35 decal sheets, enlarging them to 1/16 and printing them at home on my inkjet is not an option. You need to have a super quality printer that can print white ink on transparent decal sheet. Most printers on the market do not print white, relying on the white paper to represent the white.


In preparation for the new decals and markings to arrive, most of the external Takom and other decals of the wrong size that i had previously installed were sanded smooth and the areas were repainted. This is easier said than done.


I am taking the opportunity to take a short break.

Regards, Louis

It is so easy to see these posts and say - "yep another masterpiece".



And then you see an image like this and stop to think, "could I ever do that?"

We are but mortals Louis.

Estnische wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 7:14 am And then you see an image like this and stop to think, "could I ever do that?"

Each successive model is a learning experience. Supposedly, it takes 10,000 hours to master a given field.

I snapped this picture of a M113 in the maintenance bay of a local tank museum. Orrrrrrr...is it a photo from Louis' last post?!
Stellar and stunning work, and it moves! Like HDP says above, this masterpiece would blow away folks at a national IPMS comp.

Layer upon never ending layer of subtle detail and functionality!

Mike.