Academy M113 "Fitter" Part I

Before I started my model building lessons, I began building the M113 "Fitter" that Wiley got me for my birthday. In between lessons, I've been plugging away at the interior and I finally have something to show.

I mentioned that I used black and burnt umber watercolors for a wash of the interior, and Sifu pointed out (correctly), that the watercolors don't blend and just look like grime. He's right, but it did bring out the recessed details, and I think I'll try watercolors to bring out the recessed panel lines on my next aircraft build... Unless Sifu can convince me on Thursday that an oil wash is better.

Anyhow, the interior is painted Tamiya Sky XF-21, which is the closest match I could find for interior green. I just followed Academy's painting instructions for all the other colors -- and I wish I hadn't. The instructions call for the engine to be painted chrome silver and metallic blue. It looks like a hot rod rather than a military vehicle!

Since then, I've looked at M113 engine photos on the internet and they're typically some combination of olive drab, gray, and black. Oh well. The Australian Army version which I'm building has a big armor plate in front of the engine compartment hatch, so take a good look; this is the last you'll ever see of the engine. Other than what you can see through the driver and commander's hatches, the same goes for the rest of the interior -- but it was fun experimenting with a new weathering technique.

The interior was hand painted because I still haven't worked up the nerve to actually buy an airbrush, but I'm amazed at how a coat of gloss clear from a spray can smoothed out the paint job. Like magic. After the watercolor wash, I gave it a coat of flat clear (also from a spray can) to seal up the decals and watercolors.

Next step is to finish building the very complicated top and front of the hull. I can already tell the fit is bad (my fault, I'm sure) so I'll have to break out the gap fillers and probably sand all the detail off the engine hatch to get the Ozzie's big frontal armor plate to fit.

In order to accommodate a gazillion different variants, Academy has you build their M113s plate by armored plate. With all the extra parts for other variants on the sprues, I think I can build two M113s out of this box.

tags: armor  academy  m113  model  fitter  

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