Israeli Military Vehicle Model Gallery

IDF M113 Armoured Personnel Carriers

Paulus van Wijk's IDF M577A2 under construction.
The resin bits are from a number of Verlinden conversions as well as Eduard photo etch sets.  The large basket on the left side and other items are scratchbuilt.

Gary Cummings

         
Model of a Zelda Command Vehicle by Fabio Turchetto. 

Many improvements where necessary on the original Academy model.  Changes in position of the front lights,internal superdetailing photoetched mesh over the engine airfan, modified with scratchbuilt parts,  Mk 40 grenade launcher (Verlinden part), rebuilt antennas mounts and FN Mag holders and some others.  What can you say "Great!"

Model by Al LeFleche
One f the Israeli methods of defending against shaped charge projectiles such as rocket propelled grenades was to add spaced armor to its vehicles. This "Toga" armor consisted of perforated sheet metal added to the M-113 APC. The spaced armor and its mounting hardware also allowed for additional external stowage space.

Verlinden provided an etched brass version of this some years ago. I found a set a good price in a clearance bin. Unfortunately, it did not fit the Tamiya M-113 as I had hoped. When I was working on this project, Academy released its "two in one" kit of a communication modification and a "Toga" armored version.

I built the communication vehicle per instruction and saved the armor for the Tamiya kit. It looked as it would mate perfectly. I retained some of the more scale appearing Verlinden hardware to mount the armor. Academy's armor represented the perforation by half sunk holes and this would not do for me. I mounted an appropriately sized bit in a power screwdriver and proceeded to drill out every hole in the armor plate. As can be imagined, this was a rather tedious operation. Upon completion of the drilling project, the back was sanded to remove the resulting burrs and any holes that needed additional clean up were addressed. During this process, the sides warped slightly and had to be dipped in very hot water while being clamped with wooded clothespins. After a few seconds, they were put under cold water and came out flat.

The figure uses a Verlinden resin head with parts from a couple other figure kits. The .50 cal. Browning is a metal casting from a now defunct company. Various bits of stowage were added to the top and sides of the vehicle. Weathering consisted of washes, drybrushing and pastels over the base Model Master Israeli Sinai Gray.

This model was built buy Sampo Mikkola of Finland

He scratchbuilt the commander's cupola and side shields.  This was a combination of viewing images from this site and talking to people who actually have direct access (and the all important actual measurements) to this type of vehicle.

Models by Shane Davis of Canberra.

IDF M163	IDF Communications M113
IDF M113 with Toga armour	IDF M113 with 120mm mortar
M113 Fitters track (M579)

                                    The models above have been built using the kits available on the market plus the addition of Verlinden Resin conversion sets.  The Mortar carrier is based on photos seen in Concord Publications plus research in artillery books for details of the 120mm Soltam mortar.

The M579 fitters track is used by the IDF, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Switzerland and New Zealand (info by Jack Hovman).

  This is the Academy M113A2 kit straight from the box with only the main armament changed to a 40mm Mk.19 grenade launcher from the Dragon Quartermaster series. (John Myszka)