Why on Earth would you scratchbuild an M113 in 1:35 scale?

[Jakko]

M113 kits abound, from the old Tamiya through to the modern AFV Club. Why on Earth would I then go to the trouble of doing this?

 

[Gary MacKenzie]

I guess because you can ..... me , not so much.

 

[Jakko]

Not because I can, no. There’s a deeper reason, which will become clear as this build goes on

 

[Jim R]

You're a masochist, you like a challenge, you've been drinking or maybe all three.
Looking forward to the real reason
Jim

 

[Jon Heptonstall]

You have a cunning plan.
Hurry up and tell us.
Jon.

 

[Mini Me]

Matron hasn't given him his meds yet and he's off his "NUT" Rick H.

 

[Gern]

I guess because you can ..... me , not so much.

And me ..... not a hope in all the seven hells!

 

[Tim Marlow]

Only reason I can think of is that plasticard has a use by date that I wasn’t aware of.....

 

[Jakko]

You're a masochist, you like a challenge, you've been drinking or maybe all three.

No; depends on what it is; never; and no

Looking forward to the real reason

I’m trying to think of ways to stretch out the reveal for as long as possible while still posting pictures of the build …

You have a cunning plan.

So cunning that after building the above, I actually wish I’d bought a very cheap (say, second-hand) M113 kit instead of the AFV Club one can you see the hull of in the first photo.

Hurry up and tell us.

See above

he's off his "NUT"

Been that for ages. There’s no cure, you know.

Only reason I can think of is that plasticard has a use by date that I wasn’t aware of.....

I didn’t see one on the label that’s on the sheets I used, so no, not it either …

 

[Jakko]

I made the cover that sits over the suspension mounts and torsion bar anchor points:



It’s just 2 mm square plastic rod with 1 by 3.2 mm plastic strip, so simple enough to make.

And I made this for the right-hand side:

 

[Jon Heptonstall]

Am I close if I said Tan Son Nhut?
Jon.

 

[Jakko]

That’s presenting me with a puzzle now, what the connection between Tan Son Nhut airbase and M113 is, that you’re referring to

 

[Jon Heptonstall]

 

[Jon Heptonstall]

Hi Jakko.I was thinking of this photo.
Jon.

 

[Jakko]

Ah, I see now I did find that photo when I went looking for what you might have meant this morning, and wondered if that’s the one you meant. But for that, a regular M113 kit would do quite nicely, with a hole cut in the front and roof plates …

 

[Jakko]

Tip: make sure you read your ruler correctly I measured up the AFV Club hull bottom and subtracted the width of the sides to arrive at 41 mm for the floor plate. After cutting it, it was obviously too narrow. Re-measuring told me the hull was 4.8 cm wide, not 4.3 as I had read off … A new floor plate was duly cut:



I then cut notches out of the front corners, and corresponding ones in the nose plate, for the covers over the final drive housings:



I’ll have to find a way to make those housings, though, as the sides are awkward shapes to cut from plastic card.

And then …



I whacked the floor with the rounded side of a ball-peen hammer

Well, to be honest it was a fairly soft blow, with the floor plate resting on polyethylene foam, but it deformed the plate nicely.

 

[Jakko]

For the final drive housings, I found some AFV Club parts, from a sprue from their M548 that’s also included in the YPR-765 kit, leaving these bits spare (among others):



However, there is a thick bit on the back that’s used to locate them in the M548 hull, but of course I didn’t make any holes in my M113 hull for these. Luckily, it was easy enough to saw those bits off:



Don’t go all the way through in one go, but saw to the middle from all sides, as that gives much less risk of ending up at an angle. All that remained was a little clean-up with a file, after which I could glue them to the lower hull sides:



The drive sprocket is Tamiya, from the spares box, which, surprisingly, fits perfectly in the AFV Club final drive housing.

I glued the cut-off bit to the inside, but had to fill the big hole in it with a Hasegawa 1:72 scale Panzer IV roadwheel, which required opening up the hole a bit more.



I then put a piece of plastic card, of the same thickness as the lower hull sides, to fit between the two sides of the final drive housing, but larger than necessary. That allowed me to mark around the outside of it with a pencil, remove the card and cut it approximately to size. I then re-inserted the pastic and filed it to fit the housing (you can see this in the photo above). Repeat three times, so I had four pieces: two to put between the two halves, and two as the sides of the bulged bits of the nose plate.

Next, the nose plate itself. I had already cut this (see above) but it looked crooked, and turned out to be: 1.5 mm different in height between left and right. As the short side was too low, the part wasn’t salvageable, so I cut a new plate for it. I then glued on the two curved pieces I’d made:



When this had dried, I re-cut the “notches” for the final drive covers to match the curved plates, attached the nose plate to the hull floor and also waited for that to dry:



Then, I took some plastic strip of the right width (cut from 1 mm plate) and curved it, then stuck it in the opening:



This way, the strip is braced against the plates, preventing it from opening and pulling away from the plates. After drying, all that remained as to cut off the excess bits.

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
Lovely work but I have no clue as to why you are scratching it. But it must have something to do with hitting it with a ball peen hammer.

 

[Jakko]

In retrospect, I’m now quite certain that buying a cheap kit, like from Italeri (rather than a good one from AFV Club, as I actually did) would have been the more sensible approach to what I’m trying to do here However, at the point I’ve gotten to by now, it’s also simpler to continue with what I have.

All will become clear as this goes on, I assure you

 

[Gary MacKenzie]

I now reckon it ran over a mine