RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

The completed ramp is all its glory. The rear mud guards were installed, requiring a lot of finetuning.


The interior locking mechanism for the latch was put in the open position.


The kit provides tow cables in brass twisted wire with plastic end loops, remaining to be installed.



As often seen in Vietnam, when the side skirts were not put on, the bolts were still screwed into the hull in order to prevent dirt from entering the screw holes. Notice the unusual camo. Must be a vehicle associated to some Special Forces.


I have used brass M0.8 hex bolts, cut in length to maybe 2mm long and inserted into the larger holes after having drilled a channel into them, just enough so that the screw does not go though to the inside of the hull. The bolt head now fully covers the holes that were too large, just enough.


This is it for now, next step, the roof and interior lighting.

Regards, Louis

That camo is strange. What is stranger in my eyes is that the soldier is wearing camo. I was thinking that woodland camo wasn't standard for US soldiers back then. After doing some research, yeah woodland camo (what I wore in the military) was not put in place until 1981. It seems that the camo pattern is similar to woodland, but is more than likely the ERDL camo pattern. The black beret seems to have been worn by a bunch of folks from regular infantry to rangers to Navy patrol boat personnel to Navy Seals.

You all missed the major detail....................that this vehicle is the first-ever- Maccas (McDonalds) in field delivery vehicle................you can see the rudimentary Golden Arch's decal
Somebody say- Khe-Sanh Log !!
And ole mates got a 3 star rating for his delivery service so far

For anyone needing inspiration for their M-113 build, the following link is an absolute goldmine containing hundreds of wartime private pictures of M113 in action in Vietnam, not seen anywhere else. It is when you browse through these that we can realize how Takom missed the boat in terms of providing interesting decals.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/zippo132

Hi everyone,

The following two posts are for the interior lights.


This is a MS51073-1 Military Vehicles Dome Light 24Volt, standard US tank interior lighting for a very long time.


The M113 is equipped with two of them attached to the roof, one dome light is at the rear right. Notice the cabling going towards the rear, walls and bottom. I cannot do that here. In order to keep the roof removable, i need to make the wires fully attached to the roof and going towards the front instead where the control board is.


And one dome light between the driver and the radio shelf on the left.


I am very thankful for Takom for providing them both. I am used to scratch building them on previous builds.


They are done very accurately compared to the real thing.


I have selected pure white LED to light up the interior. From experience, two LEDs give a very dim interior lighting. I therefore preferred to use the brightest white instead of the warm white. The surrounding color of the painted interior will be quite dark and have limited reflection. A hole is made to run the LED wires through where the LED will sit. Someone else can made the integration more complicated if they want to. The LEDs were put on and made to soak in superglue and dry overnight.


The two LEDs are installed. I have deliberately left some looseness on the wires, it seemed to be more realistic, and attached them to the roof with some anchor points made of photo-etched sprue residue with one small Meng nut. The wires are going towards the front where they need to enter the engine compartment and where they will be connected to LED3 port.

Ensure that the dome lights are not positioned upside down. It is easy to make a mistake. The switch should be at the lowest section, facing the wall.

Once the LED is lit up, all you see is light so it is not really critical on a RC vehicle to encase the LED and make it beautiful and complicated. The LED can be encased like the real thing but it would provide much less light and the interior lighting could be a failure because of that. I prefer to have the LED head fully exposed in order to create peripherical lighting inside the vehicle.


A small dent is made to let the wires through. This dent does not show from the interior of the vehicle.


continuing on following post.

Whoever has soldered LEDs before know how small wires can be difficult to manage. On my latest batch of LEDs purchased on eBay, i selected a brand with more thick and resistant wires. It is so much easier than before.


LED wires coming into the engine compartment, given a connector and plugged into LED3 port.


Enough wire was given so that i can lift the roof and deposit it on the side without having to disconnect the wire from the port each time.


I will keep the engine grill individually removable, this will allow the battery and the on/off switch to be easily accessed because the main roof will have infantry and crew on top.


View of the interior lights. The lighting currently takes the color of the unpainted plastic, some bluish grey color. Once the model is painted with Interior Green, it will have a much more warm and realistic feel.

Even for guys that are building a static model of this M113, it would be worth the effort to create the interior lighting in order to better expose all the details and make it come alive.


Next step, the top of the vehicle.

Regards, Louis

Hi everyone,

The build is progressing well. Here are some updates for the top of the vehicle.


Both the driver's and the top cargo hatch have a very visible locking mechanism when open. As the hatch are movable, it forces the modeller to glue them in the open position. I decided to make them functional and shown in the correct position all the time. I used a M0.8 hex brass bolt and nut to replace the plastic ones.


The latch can now go up and down, and lock the hatch properly as the pinion on top slides into it when falling.


Very nice and detailed driver's hatch. The periscopes and guards will be added only at the end of the painting phase because the periscope need to be black and the lens properly covered with masking tape. The thin and fragile antenna guards will be added at the end of construction to minimize the risk of breaking them during manipulation.


Same situation for the cargo hatch at the rear top. The latch needs to be made functional. Drilling that hole perfectly centered with a micro bit is usually an issue for such small part. It's really tiny and any deviation creates problems.


Otherwise, it would need to be also glued in the open position all the time like this, which makes it look weird and unrealistic.


Locked. Take note that the cargo hatch support brackets seen at the rear are only glued to the top of the vehicle, not to the rear plate. The top needs to remain removable.


This is the exhaust for the heater located just above where the heater normally sits inside the vehicle, just behind the engine grills. As a Vietnam war M-113 should not be equipped with a heater, it should not have that exhaust either.


Takom provides both optional parts for heater exhaust and also a simple cover plate when there is no heater in place. The instructions do not mention that. The bolt heads could look better.


Overview of the engine grills, provided with photo-etched overlays. Take note of both grill pattern orientations. It is technically possible to put the middle part in either direction. I have determined from reference picture analysis that this is the way they should be.


continuing on following post

View of an M-113A1 engine exhaust.


This is a view of an M-113A2 engine exhaust, showing one of the main difference between the two versions. The M-113A2 was introduced in 1979 and featured new cooling system and suspension improvements. It is a give away when some of them are shown with Vietnam war markings in museums.


The instructions were not clear. Be aware that the exhaust plate goes on top of the photo-etches part like this.


The hinges for the engine grill deck could be made functional with brass bolts but i decided not to permanently attach it to the main deck as it would touch the cupola and machine gun.


I prefer myself to keep the engine grill deck completely removable.


View of the top cargo hatch opened, and their supports.


The tow cable has been temporarily installed. Calculating the length of the cable is complicated as it has to be perfectly the right length in order for both end loops to match their bracket on top. Takom provided a specified length but i earlier drilled the end loops deeper in order to make the cable more solid into them.


Overview of the vehicle as it stands today.


Next step, the commander's ACAV cupola and the modified M2 machine gun with gun flash.

Regards, Louis

Fantastic work Louis

Thanks for the reference link, Awesome pics

Barry

Great build, as always the level of detailing is very impressive.