Dragons

Once again my old buddy Wayne Wanner has sent a few photos of his magnificent collection. Attached are a couple pictures of a simplified Dragon Anti-Tank Missile Launcher mounted to an old Roco M113.






















Wayne has been using the small cylindrical part on the M1 sprue as a weapon mount for years, it's small, has the right diameter hole and is easily used. Anyway, the M175 Dragon mount is more complicated than he is making, but it is very convincing.
























He took some old carriers and "up-graded" them some. The Dragon from the M2 Bradley really came in handy for a 1970's ATGM mount on M113's. He shaved off a little plastic and glued a mg mount to the bottom of the Dragon. It will fit right into the small round part glued just to the right of the periscope ring, at just the right height. The actual M175 mount was bolted to the TC's ring mount, just to the right of the "A" shaped MG mount and consisted of a angular shield too. Note also, for real accuracy the foam protective end piece on the muzzle end was removed, but for these he is going to leave them on, because that's what most people know as a Dragon shape.





















Spare missiles should have the SU-36 tracker removed; the little do-dad on top of the missile. This was issued individually and attached to each missile fired, then removed afterwards.

M-113 So Many Versions, So Little Time

The M-113 armored personnel carrier has done great service with the US Army since the early 1960's. It is a good, sturdy, reliable vehicle and every post WWII US Army wargame army needs at least a few, if not a lot. Roco Minitanks makes several versions of this old trooper, in mortar, troop carrier, command version, and ACAV. Many US Allies use this fine old gal, and even some of our enemies, too. After the fall of Saigon, the Communist Vietnamese had incorporated them into their army.

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!