This photo shows Waynes collection of these durable troopers. He has built up an entire mech infantry battalion in 1/87th scale. He has painted them up and organized them just like the real thing. This collection is similar to mine, but I went for a slightly earlier version. One of the neat things about this vehicle is the large number of different things you can do to convert it into something unique.Mortar carriers, the M-113 has carried the 81mm, the 4.2 inch mortars for the US Army. You can also put just about any US Army machine gun on the top. I have seen .30 caliber, M-60 machine guns, M-2 .50 caliber machine guns, and even 7.62mm mini-guns!
If missile launchers are your thing, you can place the 90mm recoilless rifle, or the 106mm recoilless rifle on the back end of the vehicle. They also later carried the TOW, just like those mounted in jeeps. Early versions even had the SS-11 European wire guided missile on them.
The nice thing about all these weapons is, Roco Minitanks makes all of them. My friend Randy, at Fidelis Models typically maintains a large selection of these vehicles, and I get many of mine from him. Most of the machine guns come with the M-113 kits or they and the recoilless rifles come with the various jeep kits.
Other cool accessories include netting. Aquarium fish netting will work well for the wire fencing that was often erected to keep PRGs at bay. I typically roll mine up and tie them with very fine wire. Then glue them to the back of the M-113. Sometimes crews mounted helicopter seats on the roof. They were armored so the crew could sit on top and have rear armored protection. I used seats from an old torn up model kit for mine.
Squadron Signal published M-113 and it is full of good information. I tried to make every US Army combat version. It was a daunting task, but well worth it.
Thanks Wayne for the use of the very inspiring photos. Looks like I need to break out the paint brush down here in the bunker!
2 comments:
The dollar thirteen has been one o the most produced armored vehicles ever. By now probably 80000 of the various types have been built.
One source estimated that there are about 60 different variants. At one time I was going to make as many of these in 1/35th scale as possible.
One or two interesting variants or add-ons come to mind. First, the bridging variant developed for Vietnam. I always asserted that Mech units should have bridgers. Everybody always countered that the 113 could ford [at 4 feet of depth and 4 knots of current itswims rather than fords BTW]. I always maintained that you might have to cross a dry gully and can't wait for the engineers to knock down the banks for you.
The second item is the capstan that goes on the drive wheels and allows you to winch yourself out of a mudhole.
Jim.
Roco Minitanks made several versions of this important vehicle, but never the brige version. Too bad, it is an interesting vehicle. There must be at least 100 different ones in real life.
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