Aussie M113A1 Fire Support Vehicle (1 Viewer)

[99markss]

Here is the Aussie Fire Support Vehicle as used in Vietnam.

 

[Northgate Woods]

Mark mate,
Outstanding model and extremely good weathering. First class job. Love it. However I have concerns with your choice of callsigns and tac signs.{sm4} The turret shows the yellow numbers of 21 which is my old callsign of Troop Leader, One Troop, 'B' Squadron but on the side of the vehicle the triangle indicates it is from "A' Squadron and with a callsign of 30, which was never used by the "The Vietnam Six" as they were called in 1971. All six FSVs that went to NAM were with "A" Squadron and had an unusual Blue triangle (instead of the normal red) and used the callsigns 41, 41A, 41B, 42, 42A and 42B..
Also the names of the vehicles were:
41 Bewitched, 41A Bothered, 41B Bewildered
42 Sandgropper, 42A Denise, 42B Camalco

Just a few minor points on a very nice vehicle. Love your work.

Cheers from the Land Down Under, Howard

 

[99markss]

Thank you Northgate Woods for your comments. I must confess that I intended to portray an actual track but the decals were missing from the donor Tamiya kit I used for this conversion. With that in mind I resorted to two things I have plenty of.....spare parts and artistic license!! I do intend to correct the markings in the future either with Tamiya decals (they said restock in 8-12 weeks and for free) or try my hand at making some actual markings. I do appreciate your knowledge on the subject. I know its not the forum for it but I have a converted scratch-built Aussie Tamiya 1/25th scale Centurion MK5 tank if you would like to see it.
Thanks again,
Mark

 

[Northgate Woods]

Mark mate,
Love to see your Centurion cobber. A scratch built 1/25th scale Centurion Mk.5/1 would be great especially if built by member of the Lone Star State.:salute:: Here is a photo of an Aussie FSV that didn't go to NAM and is on display at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Only 15 of this model FSV were produced. However, in saying that another 48 x M113s were produced with the British Scorpion Turret. This vehicle is on display at the Puckapunyal Army Base Tank Museum.

Cheers Howard

 

[Horus]

Be nice to see K&C do this variant !

Steve

 

[99markss]

Here is my Centurion. Dont be to hard on it. I know it should lose the smoke canisters and the decals are totally fictitious, but I love this model! Not sure if the Aussies used .50 cal machine guns or not but I liked the way it looks. Thanks for viewing it. Oh yeah its supposed to be without the rear hatch too but found out too late.

 

[99markss]

I really like the Scorpion turret version. Might have to be my next conversion.

 

[OzDigger]

Hi Mark, thanks for posting some pics of your Aussie based models, I've been requesting Aussie versions for many years...maybe one day.

One of the few books on this subject is: 'Mud & Dust; Australian Army Vehicles & Artillery in Vietnam' by Michael K. Cecil.

 

[99markss]

Thanks for the book suggestion. I just ordered it from Amazon.