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Academy M113 "Fitter" Part II
Well, I've started and finished four models and got halfway through another since I got the Fitter last January. It's about time to get this thing done. After moving back to the US, I finished assembling everything. I closed all but the commander's hatch, so all that work I did on the interior and the engine amounted to nothing but experience -- and it's probably better that way.
About the only modifications I made was to leave off the .50 cal. and use fishing wire instead of the supplied string on the crane. Funny thing about the fishing wire: It looks like braided cable, but when I painted it, I discovered that it has a clear plastic coating so now it looks like a big wire instead of a cable. Aiyaaaah!
As I mentioned in Part I, the top hull assembly was pretty complex. Despite some fit problems (my fault, I'm sure) I finally got it looking pretty good. I chose to use the vinyl tracks because I just couldn't bring myself to clean up all the individual track links. The "rubber bands" turned out to be a bit short and frankly look pretty bad, but after a year of screwing around with this thing I'm more interested in just finishing it, so I let it go. I primed the vehicle with Tamiya gray primer and it was ready for paint.
As I mentioned, I'm building the Australian Army Fitter that served in Rwanda as part of the UN peacekeeping force in 1994. I picked up some UN decals in Singapore as part of the Echelon Fine Details' Dutch Leopard 2s, YPR-765s & other AFVs decal set. They're not accurate according to photos of the actual vehicle, but I look at this build as more of a comment on the political situation rather than the vehicle or crew.
I sprayed the Fitter with Tamiya Flat White acrylics, trying to use the slightly darker gray primer as a pre-shade rather than the black I'd used on the Marder 1A2. It didn't work out that great. The air pressure was too high, I think. I've been spraying at about 20-25 psi and it's hard to control. Also, it was hard to tell if I was getting good coverage with the white over gray. Next time I'll use a darker pre-shade color.
So the paint job's not great, but it's not bad for a beginner, I think. One note on the Echelon decals: they're good. So good, that I didn't need to use a setter (Mr Mark Softer), but I did -- and it pretty much destroyed the two decals I tried it on. You can see on the front UN logo where I had to repaint it by hand.
Seriously, the next time I find myself wondering, "What if I..." I need to test it on scrap first. So then, when I sprayed some Testors Dull Cote to seal everything and tone down the gloss, the repainted UN ran. Aiyaaah! If I was any good, I'd fix that before I move on...
I painted the details and added decals using the Australian M113's in Rwanda as a guide. As I said, it's not accurate, but it looks the part. The next step will be to apply a pin wash (I don't think a general wash would be appropriate), a few scratches and some weathering powders for dust.