Monday 30 May 2016

October War - IDF - WIP - M113 command and TRV


Back to some work for my own collection, again more "back office" vehicles for the IDF in the Sinai. I have been working on the M32 TRV and the command versions of the M113.



The TRV is a basic Battlefront M51 hull with the addition of a Spare skytrex M32 superstructure/ turret. ( the remainder Skytrex M32 is destined to modified with the disc mineroller assembly, at some point.....)
As you can see there's a lot of plasticard additions, I haven't religiously copied any one reference, hopefully just enough to capture the vehicle in miniature.



Quite a bit of work required at the back end, again not up to Rivet counting standard but a good representation. I will add more detail in time, particularly the tarp covers and recognition panels, and it needs to be messier!

Not sure at the moment how to base this one, either as a standard base for game play or more of a vignette for table aesthics, either way I will need to convert some crew.



Here we have the start of two M113 command vehicles to serve as battalion and brigade commanders vehicles. The idf modified these quite heavily so there's still lots of work to do but my reference library is growing. I am finding it difficult in general to establish vehicle timelines with IDF modifications, the inevitable result of a adapting to continual war footing, so hopefully there's no '82 mods here.


I am building these with the top decks free as these will be a two part paint, interior and exterior so they are just placed on for the time being.

An interesting little detail is the commanders cupola rotated so that the hatch opens to the side. Opening to the rear will cause it to clash with the map board assembly. 

This does mean cutting the 50cal mount off, repositioning and adding a missing visor, detail that will inevitably lost!  also note the removed aerial guards another IDF mod.


I've started on the rear stowage boxes and as you can see some rudimentary benches and interior. These have been fabricated using the unused track guards! I'm not going too heavy on the interior detail, mainly what's visible through the hatches. 

These will be modelled, one as battalion command moving ( ramp up) with the top map board in use and the brigade one will be modelled stationary with two map board boxes deployed at the side, ramp down, again a dilemma on basing:
  • the Battalion command will be a standard base, in keeping with rest of the battalion;
  • the Brigade command will be a slightly larger ensemble, probably alongside a jeep, and at some stage a Revel Bell Huey will be painted up to represent a command "runner".  My current read ( On the Banks of the Suez :Adan) highlights the significant employment of helicopters to move officers between the various command groups.
As with all this work I will need to modify some figures but am keen to add a Peter Pig dog sculpt on brigade base !

As always, comments welcome especially to correct any build errors.

Neil



2 comments:

Braxen said...

Looking forward to seeing the models!

These'd be company command vehicles. For battalion and brigade levels, shouldn't the Israeli use the M577A1 instead?

Troop of Shewe said...

It's my understanding that the M557 were only used with the artillery, this may have different in '82 onwards, certainly have pictures ( attributed to '73) of these 113 command in use. I have made a M577 IDF version in an earlier post.

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