You can google photos of APCs in Vietnam, even from a particular unit if it's identified.

It says either "US Army 12C12868" or "US Army 12B27469" Is that what you mean, or is this a serial number or something?

Although, I f I was made of money I'd pick up the old Monogram 1:35 M48 kit just for the decals...

It identifies the 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, which is part of the 25th Infantry Division.

It would depend on what the unit allowed and what the crew wanted to paint within those restrictions. Aristus may be able to give you an idea of what it was like when he was in. What do I know? I was Infantry, lol! All we had to decorate was our helmets.

Really useful in the jungle, but at least it gave them a place to stash their stuff.

-- Mal

Last edited Mon Dec 28, 2015, 05:59 AM - Edit history (1)

I can do the red diamond. All I need to do is scrounge up an old Ace of Diamonds Playing card, cut out the diamond with my xacto, and tape it on there as a mask, and paint it on!

If you don't have playing cards you can also look up the insignia online, size it and print it.

I once got a plastic replica of the Three Servicemen statue at the Wall for a buddy in CA who had been a scout dog handler in VN. After a few weeks trolling gift and knickknack shops I finally found a porcelain figurine of a German Shepherd that was the right scale.

Then I went online and found the insignia for my buddy's scout dog platoon. I sized it and printed it and made it into a bandanna for the dog figurine before attaching the dog to the replica statue.

It's one of my buddy's most prized possessions.

Or possibly more than one. Can't quite make out the name on the front, though. "Colonel's Army?" Maybe "General's Army?" Or maybe it is a proper name, like the squad leader's.

-- Mal

It looks like "Rommel's Army" but good luck finding that online. I tried.

But that would be kind of weird, wouldn't it?

But I'll bet that's the name of one of the commanders in 5th Mech, probably squadron level.

With a name like that, he must have taken all kinds of flak in school.

"Awww, Tommy, why th' heck do I have to be a German AGAIN?!"

Hitler!

Like the 101st Airborne Division officially became the "101st Airborne Division (Airmobile)" the 5th became the "5th Infantry Division (Mechanized)" and was always referred to as "the 5th Mech." In Vietnam they were assigned to the DMZ, along with the Marine units that were positioned there.

In December '69 we had intel that a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regiment had crossed the DMZ on a mission to attack Quang Tri. It wasn't in our Area of Operations, but they wanted an airmobile unit that had the mobility to find and destroy the NVA regiment, so they grabbed us (2/501 Inf. of the 101st).

They flew us up to Quang Tri on cargo planes, and then we boarded Hueys for a battalion-sized combat assault. You can imagine how imprressive it was to see an entire battalion in the air with all of its Hueys and all of its Cobra gunships.

We didn't know where the NVA were, so all of the platoons were inserted at different locations to conduct search-and-destroy patrolling. When we found them, in a bunker complex along the side of a valley, the entire battalion was inserted in engaging and surrounding positions. After an all-night battle it was over and we returned to our division AO, mission accomplished.

Assaulting a bunker position at night. I think I would have had a dental appointment that day.

Funny, though, that they didn't have any lift capacity for the 5th. Not organic transport, but there should have been chopper units around, shouldn't there? Maybe the 5th just didn't want to fight without their tracks?

-- Mal

Maxillofacial injuries, to be precise, from when AK fire blew away half my lower jaw and half of my teeth. I was medevac'd to two evac hospitals over 5 days, then to an Army ICU in Japan for a week, then to a stateside Army hospital for 18 months of inpatient treatment before being retired for disability. For a while all I wanted was to get back to my platoon and my men, but the docs told me they could fudge the records to let me stay in the Army but I couldn't stay Infantry or return to a combat zone. So I just said, "Fuck it."

My injuries happened a couple months after the op at the DMZ, but I still have my grid map from the DMZ one. That battle was fought about 2-1/2 clicks (kilometers) from the 'Z,' which is marked by a pink line on my map of the Cam Lo sector (named after a village that was abandoned, then destroyed by bombing).

My company's command post (CP) was with another platoon at the head of the valley the NVA were in, and my platoon was at the other end of the valley. When the CP took fire from one of the NVA bunkers and had one or two KIA, I radio'd that I could see from the NVA tracers precisely where the fire was coming from. So they had me load an M-60 machne gun belt with all tracers and fire on that position to pinpoint it. But even before I was done firing the fire from that NVA position was silenced.

During the battle, my platoon cached our rucks to travel lightly and moved up the valley during the night. There were a lot of steep, narrow valleys and side ravines leading out of that Valley and we could hear some of the NVA trying to get away through those. We engaged with grenades and small arms fire, but I'm sure a lot of survivors escaped that way.

Eventually the NVA bunkers were blown with 90mm recoilless rifles flown in for that purpose. In the morning they flew us in ice cream from Quang Tri as a reward for our victory. Since my platoon had cached our rucks and didn't have our mess gear, we ate soupy, sickeningly sweet ice cream out of our steel pots after not having eaten anything in 36 hours. We were all sick to our stomachs--especially after the guys had just had to dig out the blown bunkers to recover NVA arms, equipment and intel--along with the body parts.

It was nearly 20 years later when I was sitting near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C. and a guy dressed in spandex and riding a bike, passing by on a path, came to a stop. Seeing my Screaming Eagle patch, he asked me who I was with, and I told him. "Second of the 501st." He asked if I was on the op at the DMZ, and I told him I was.

"Do you remember the ice cream?" he asked. And the hair stood up on my arms and tears came to my eyes. That was unexpected validation. So much of that craziness seemed like things I had just dreamt or imagined. It couldn't be real. But just the mention of the ice cream told me it was, and he had been there, too.

Some years later in a hospitality suite at a 101st reunion I met a guy from my battalion at that time and asked him if he remembered the ice cream. He said he didn't, and soon walked on. A short time later he came back and grabbed me. After he left me it suddenly hit him, he said. The ice cream! He said the hair stood up on his arms...

But once you could talk reasonably coherently again, there's a certain irony in having to be in perfect health to be in a combat zone. Since you weren't otherwise physically impeded. I can understand wanting to get back and take care of your people. You sound like you worked hard to be a good officer.

-- Mal

Made me choke up.

This is for you, glad you are back alive to bring us so much happiness here.

"Remember the Sink"!
http://m.

Garrison, or wartime, and if so, which war?

I was a tank crewman in the Army from 1989-1993. But for my first year of active duty, I was a track driver for the Battalion S-3 (Operations) shop. I drove a brand-new M-113A3. We painted the vehicle number on one of the front fenders, and the unit number on the other, as shown in the M-48 pic above.

I have no memory of any M-113-based vehicles (and there are countless variations...) being painted with a nickname. For tanks, it was a given, but I never saw an M-113 with a painted (and therefor 'official') name. Once, out on a field exercise, a member of our mortar platoon chalked a nickname on his vehicle, but it didn't last the exercise, and I never saw it done again.

This is the regular APC variant, not the ACAV.

You can also look up more info on some of the major armored cav units in Vietnam, like the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division (5th Mech) and the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Blackhorse). Good luck, and have fun with your model!

There seems to be a zillion ways to go here.

Probably got burned with lighter fluid, or blown up by cap bombs.

-- Mal

I've seen the Hawk Missile reissue in my local hobby store.

connectors. That will look realistic.

To simulate thinner layers of dirt. I'm still thinking about how I want to do thicker layers. I've got a WWII M21 Mortar Carrier and an M4A3 Sherman I might build first to practice on...

Do you have an airbrush compressor? Try painting the surface, then blowing fine dust at it with compressed air.

If I was made of money, I'd have one.

Just good old fashioned paintbrushes for me.

You want it to look like the vehicle was driving down a dusty road.

It's compressed air in an aerosol can.

I was never any good and got glue everywhere. /sigh

Last edited Sun Dec 27, 2015, 10:13 PM - Edit history (1)

They really made the positioning the parts easy. They even angle the pins and slots to make sure you don't accidentally glue in the part upside down. The even try their best to keep extractor pin markings on the inside of most parts where you can't see them to minimize filling and sanding. And as for the small parts, tweezers and blue loctite tac are your friends.

This magazine has something nearly every month about building, detailing and weathering armor of all types. Recently there was a discussion about whether or not the tracks on military vehicles should be rusty or not. If you are into armor this is a very good source for how to make your model more realistic. They cover all types of modeling but armor seems to be the most popular.

But, when I'm done, I'd have myself a vehicle I wouldn't have to worry about driving in the snow... Granted, I'd have to sell an arm and a leg every time I pulled up to the gas station, even with today's prices. Wouldn't be surprised if fuel economy on those things was measured in GPM and not MPG.

you'd be the only one on your block!

Don't think you can get tags for tracked vehicles...

But what about Shriner's M -113's. Now were on to something!

Don't ask me how he got a permit, especially as it has a .50 cal mounted. I assume he has some juice with the local power structure. There's a YT vid of him riding it down the street and stopping at a McDonald's drivethru. The clerk is completely unperturbed, so I imagine the locals are used to his shenanigans.

-- Mal

Tracked vehicles have got to be nigh on impossible...

I've been reading state motor vehicle codes recently. The states' definition of a "vehicle" excludes tracked vehicles.

You would have to bring your APC to the parade on a trailer...but I figure since they don't put license plates on floats and Shriner cars and those don't get pulled over, as long as the parade organizers accept your APC entry you should be fine.

The M577 is the command version of the M113, with a taller roofline for radio gear. We were returning from a training exercise in the German countryside and driving down a narrow twisty road in the winter. I was just along as cargo, riding in the back where I couldn't see anything, but the track was sliding pretty badly from side to side, with equipment crashing into us in the tight space. The track commander had no intercom with the driver, and was above and behind him, so he grabbed a section of camouflage pole (about a 3' hollow aluminum tube) that was stowed up top, and started beating on the driver's head to get him to slow down.

I guess my advice for detailing would be lots of equipment stowed outside. When actually on field maneuvers, most army vehicles look like the Beverly Hillbillies heading for California.

And the one you are asking about when it has been completed.


Peace

Thanks, I love it, it looks nice.

Peace

I think I overdid the chipping a little. I did it by basecoating with flat black out of a rattlecan, then dabbing on some masking fluid with a bit of cut up sponge, then peeling off the fluid after I brushed on the tan.