RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hello and thank you for your encouragements.

The next two posts are for the decals and some other items.


The M113 is small and does not have any big gun. My thinking to make it stand out a bit more is to give it the most exciting decals i could find. It seems that Vietnam M113 of the 4th infantry division, 1/10th Cav had the more colourful markings. I have therefore decided to make my model one of them. If you just put some basic unit markings without any Vietnam graffiti, it could look drab.

Talking about drab, every book, instructions, paint producers and blogs talk about the M113 being Olive Drab. My model was painted in MIG Ammo US Post war Olive Drab in a pack designed for Vietnam vehicles. However, when you look at many color pictures of M113 in Vietnam, such as the ones below, it is obvious that many M113 (and M48) were not olive drab at all. In the picture below for an M113 of the 1/10th Cav, the vehicle seems to be of some kind of dark bluish grey. It is not the angles or the sun, we can see that the uniforms of the soldier are themselves Olive Drab and contrast with the vehicle. Yes, many M113 in Vietnam were Olive Drab, but certainly not all of them. I did some research but did not find anything about this dark bluish grey. It is too late for this build as the model is already painted Olive Drab, but i will investigate this further for any future Vietnam build.


I like the fact that many of the 1/10th Cav had white stars on the side.


Although the white lettering decals on the Takom sheet are oversized, some other decals seemed ok, like the red and white flag.


Notice the LIFT HERE on this vehicle, not present on all M113.


For graffiti, i looked around for inspiration on all Vietnam pictures i could look at. The idea was to find interesting ideas to reuse for my model. So, this model is a representation of a M113 in Vietnam, one of thousands sent there, it is not trying to be authentic to one specific vehicle. I also tried to think of stuff that would have been popular in 1969.


This is the model at this time, painted Olive Drab with decals. It has not been given a Vietnam weathering yet. The markings were faded with a light overspray of olive drab, then washed with a cloth after it had dried.

Items come from different sources. White star, 1/10th Cav flag and mud guard markings are from the Takom decal heet. The US ARMY with Serial numbers on sides and back, the skull on the shield and the LIFT HERE are from the Echelon M551 decal sheet. The white letter graffitis are from the Archer Generic Lettering (hand lettering) AR35109W dry transfer.



Gave the model a basic dry brush of dark steel pigments.


The Skull and crossbones are from the Echelon sheet, letters are Archer hand lettering.


I looked all over the sprues for the shovel that goes on the glacis, it is sadly not included in the kit.

continues on following post

Although colorful, these large decals gave me some trouble. The clear backing of the decals were showing a lot. I gave them two coats of Tamiya Enamel flat clear so far, the seam is finally fading away, and should be gone with a third application after weathering. Now still show only on close up pictures like this.

As mentioned before, all decals were given a overcoat of olive drab, then washed with a cloth after the paint was dry. The idea is to make them look faded after years of war instead of looking brand new. Vietnam vehicles spent years roaming around dusty roads, jungle trails, water and tree branches in the hardest environment possible, they are not brand new Shermans coming down the ramp in Normandy.


The uneven application of the graffiti was done on purpose. These were invented from whatever crossed my mind about 1969, CCR songs and the Easy rider movie.


In order to have a third US ARMY with serial number to put at the rear, i had to order two Echelon M551 decal sheets. These white Vietnam era markings are very rare on the market in 1/16 scale. I have enough of them now for many more Vietnam builds.


I did not give a flat clear coat on the rear ramp yet in order to help make this Takom decal backing fade away. It really shows on close up pictures.


This is it for now. Next step, Vietnam weathering.

Regards, Louis

I have two questions, oh skilled one! 1) "My model was painted in MIG Ammo US Post war Olive Drab in a pack designed for Vietnam vehicles." Might the MIG Ammo Post-War Olive Drab be the same (as "same" as any two paints ever get) as Tamiya's TS-28 Olive Drab 2? One of my Tuesday "Make Modeling Mediocre Again" gang, a USMC Vietnam Vet, says the Tamiya Olive Drab 2 is his preference.

2) I have seen that bluish-gray look in lots of published photos of OD vehicles. I also note a bit of bluish tone to the mountain vegetation in the background of the photo. I have a color photo from even ten years later, 1978, that has taken on a decidedly bluish tone.

You are 146% right!
You can't trust a photo with its color rendering!
I'm not even saying that the photographer could have used filters!
And what's more, these photos are scanned, another stage of color violation!
You won't believe it, I photographed a real plane with a real color according to the catalog..... under the appropriate lighting....
To participate in the competition.... They didn't let me tear off a piece of paint, but I really wanted to....

And the primer can even color shift the final paint color. I personally hate mixing paint to get the "correct" color.

Yes, it is not recommended to use dark primers and especially those containing red pigment in the base for light paints, it must first be covered with gray, it will give the correct base.
Also, if you apply Olive on a black base and on a white one, you will notice a huge difference.
This applies to airbrush coating without any fanaticism.
If you use a brush or roller for walls, you will not notice the difference ...

Thanks, yeah, could be many things. But when i look at the screenshot below, the vehicle is definitely darker than the olive drab flak jacket resting on the M60 shield. I have browsed the web to investigate this a bit. There was one guy that was saying that some units in Vietnam were adding black paint to the olive drab, without providing a specific reason. Adding black paint could explain it. It must have been a way to counterbalance the Olive drab fading from sun exposure and improve the concealment in shadowy jungles. However, i have not yet found anything official about that and its just assumption at this time.


I have weathered the vehicle with Vietnam earth pigments. I think it gives the vehicles some depth and much needed realism as a Vietnam vehicle. The dry pigments were applied with a large brush starting with the roadwheels, going up very carefully on the hull with decreasing level, evenly spread out. It's dust, it does not follow any camo pattern so it goes fast. Just need to avoid errors, inconsistencies, something that does not look realistic or good. It's better to go easy with the stuff. Putting too much would not look good. Areas with too much pigments can be drybrushed with a clean hard brush to remove most of it. When it looked about right, it's a question of personal taste, the whole vehicle was sprayed with pigment fixer. It is some kind of flat clear varnish that dries very fast and that seals the pigments in place. It gives a very nice and thin satin finish. Once the fixer is applied, it is no longer possible to adjust or remove pigments. Then the vehicle was dry washed with a cloth to remove any pigment that wanted to drop. Then the top and corners were dry brushed with dark steel pigments to simulate wear on the olive drab and raise some details. It took about 3 hours.

Next step, the tracks.

Regards, Louis

I found this while researching for a gun truck build.

Credit Mike’s Research.

GUN TRUCK COLOR
The regulation Olive Drab (OD) paint on many gun trucks was repainted with black paint to make the gun truck appear more sinister and threatening to further intimidate the enemy. In order for gun truck crews to circumvent this regulation, they would rub diesel fuel onto the OD paint to make it appear darker or they defiantly mix a few spoonfuls of OD paint into each gallon of black paint so they can honestly state that it did contain some OD paint. Eventually, all gun trucks were painted black. During the repainting of the gun truck, the bumper codes and other regulation markings usually had to be re-applied but not always by regulations.

Maybe this could explain the the dark colour?

Amazing work as always, fantastic attention to details, excellent…….