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Australian M113 Fire Support Vehicle - COMPLETED

JamesOLeary

Master at Arms
Hello All,

Today I decided that I would go ahead and start on my Australian subject for this build campaign. I chose to build a 1/76th scale M113 Fire Support Vehicle from Airfix. Not only will it be a representative of the Australian efforts in Vietnam for this build, but it will also be used by my Grandson for his wargaming. I took the initial build pictures but they did not come out very clear.

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Here is what the parts to the kit look like. They are kind of toy-looking to me, but I think with a nice paint job it will look decent and since it is going to be something that is going to be played with, it should be OK.

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Since there were very few parts, it went together quite quickly. There were some places that needed to be filled in as you can see. The details are kind of crappy. Since it is going to be played with, other than drilling out the barrel, I am not going to add any details to it.

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After the construction was completed, I sprayed the model with flat black spray paint to prime it then spray painted it with Dark Forest Green which looks pretty close to the color Australian vehicles were painted. I then drybrushed it with Ammo by MIG Post war US Olive Drab. The machine gun, tracks, tow cable, exhaust, headlights, and spare track were painted with black and gray depending on the item. The pictures look too light as the model is actually a darker green.

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Tomorrow I will apply decals and weather the vehicle. I will take the photos of it outside so the lighting is better and reflects the actual colors I used.

Cheers,
James
 
Australian M113 Fire Support Vehicle

AH yes, the old JB kit. Thanks for the memories; I built one some years back and painted it with a nice, three-tone camouflage. It does look pretty good for such a toy-like kit.

Yours is looking great! I like that green on there.

Looking forward to seeing more.
 
Thanks, Guys.

This build was a very quick one. I just finished it a few minutes ago. I had tried to get the decals on, but most of them broke apart. The one yellow triangle on the turret was the only one that made it, and even it is not complete. There were numbers on either side of the tip of the triangle that did not make it.

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Then I decided to lightly weather it since I haven't found many pictures of Australian vehicles being very dirty. They probably took really good care of their vehicles and the locale where they operated may not have been as bad in regards to dirt, mud, and dust as some other places.

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This was a pretty fun build since it went quickly. I think the model turned out pretty decent for a toy-like model that is going to be played with. I do have some other 1/72 scale M113 ACAVs that I might build later on. This was good practice for that.

Australia ribbon - check! :)

Cheers,
James
 
Looking fantastic James! Yeah, I should have mentioned the decals; truth is I forgot they were so delicate.

You did a terrific job on this tiny beastie; may it have many kills on the battlefield! :good:
 
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