Great video. Thanks I spent months in an M113A1 when I was in the US Army. And you're absolutely correct we packed the interior with every known piece of equipment and stowage. It all made life a little easier, when out in the 'boonies'. You were right placing those sandbags beneath the driver's seat. We drove around, always worried about land mines. The M113 has all aluminum armor and very little of that on the bottom! It was also a common practice to cover the floor in back with ammo cans, either full of munitions, (those guns burned through prodigious quantities), or just sand. Happy to see you add the decals to those ammo cans. Many modelers miss that aspect. I keep pointing out that ALL military boxes, cans, and much of the equipment would be marked with descriptive nomenclature; for example, as you show, ALL ammo cans would have yellow stenciled text describing the type and caliber inside. Details like that do add a lot of interest. At this scale it wouldn't even have to be legible. And, those air mattresses were standard issue, in OD green.
Yes that’s the idea really, to show the little details that really make a difference and how anyone can do that. The inflatable mattress in blue is, shall we say, a bit of artistic licence and I had wanted to mould it transparent and then make it two tone using Tamiya Clears, you can see I did a test pour with a couple of transparent resin ammo boxes - shame I never moulded the mattress that way! I figure they “procured” a civilian on their travels. Thanks for the comments and further details.
Very nice video! I served on the M113A2 back in the '80's and you captured the cramped look of this PC very well. I have the new AHHQ's 1/16 M113 ACAV on pre order and I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on it. I hope mine comes out half as well as yours does.
The floor of these was often covered in double thickness of sandbags or sand filled .50 ammo cans as a way to survive mines and the firewall was covered in quilted soundproofing material taken out of crashed Huey's as they were so loud for the driver on long haul missions. Its also why the passengers rode on the roof and rarely inside. Even with upgrades they didn't survive mines to well. Trying to get out the ramp mid ambush was also a kill zone but rolling off the roof gave you a better chance of survival. The 1980s Nam magazine series did an excellent magazine issue on these battle taxis with lots of photos and first hand accounts on field mods. Occasionally the NAM mag issues come up for sale separately on ebay.
Great video. Thanks I spent months in an M113A1 when I was in the US Army. And you're absolutely correct we packed the interior with every known piece of equipment and stowage. It all made life a little easier, when out in the 'boonies'.
You were right placing those sandbags beneath the driver's seat. We drove around, always worried about land mines. The M113 has all aluminum armor and very little of that on the bottom! It was also a common practice to cover the floor in back with ammo cans, either full of munitions, (those guns burned through prodigious quantities), or just sand.
Happy to see you add the decals to those ammo cans. Many modelers miss that aspect. I keep pointing out that ALL military boxes, cans, and much of the equipment would be marked with descriptive nomenclature; for example, as you show, ALL ammo cans would have yellow stenciled text describing the type and caliber inside. Details like that do add a lot of interest. At this scale it wouldn't even have to be legible.
And, those air mattresses were standard issue, in OD green.
Yes that’s the idea really, to show the little details that really make a difference and how anyone can do that. The inflatable mattress in blue is, shall we say, a bit of artistic licence and I had wanted to mould it transparent and then make it two tone using Tamiya Clears, you can see I did a test pour with a couple of transparent resin ammo boxes - shame I never moulded the mattress that way! I figure they “procured” a civilian on their travels. Thanks for the comments and further details.
Fabulous! Served on -113s.
Learned a lot as as well as remembered established techniques. Many thanx for the vid.👍👍
I'm looking forward to building Andy's M113 1/16 kit, perfect for interior detailing. Your 1/35 scale is amazing.
Nice video, it's great to see the whole process for adding all these details.
Very nice work. Love it. All this little details. I'm looking forward to the next video of this new series
Very nice video! I served on the M113A2 back in the '80's and you captured the cramped look of this PC very well. I have the new AHHQ's 1/16 M113 ACAV on pre order and I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on it. I hope mine comes out half as well as yours does.
Thank you for this video. Inspiring as usual.
The floor of these was often covered in double thickness of sandbags or sand filled .50 ammo cans
as a way to survive mines and the firewall was covered in quilted soundproofing material taken out of crashed Huey's as they were so loud for the driver on long haul missions.
Its also why the passengers rode on the roof and rarely inside. Even with upgrades they didn't survive mines to well.
Trying to get out the ramp mid ambush was also a kill zone but rolling off the roof gave you a better chance of survival.
The 1980s Nam magazine series did an excellent magazine issue on these battle taxis with lots of photos and first hand accounts on field mods.
Occasionally the NAM mag issues come up for sale separately on ebay.
Excellent work 👍
Great! Unbelievable!👍
Great video, and great inspiration!
Great Video!