Israeli Military Vehicle Review

60 parts, light cream resin, No warping and One small bubble on one part

ModellTrans Modellbau’s release of the IDF’s M113 Zelda II is a comprehensive kit that appears to be based on the ESCI M113 (recently re-released by Italeri in ACAV guise) with many of the inaccuracies and oversimplifications of the styrene kit having been rectified.

The kit consists of sixty parts finely moulded in a light cream coloured resin. Only the largest casting (the hull) contained a single air bubble which needed filling. All other parts in the review sample were devoid of any air bubbles and warping. All parts have casting plugs that will need to be removed as is common with resin kits.

The kit comes packaged in a sturdy post-pak style cardboard box with a colour photo of the actual vehicle on the box top, with the pars themselves contained inside a single, re-sealable zip-lok type plastic bag. Also included are a single colour A4 sheet with a numbered parts list and two views of the model in different stages of assembly. Some parts are crossed off in the instructions and are obviously for use on other versions of the vehicle but are still included in this kit.

One shot depicts an overhead view of the APC’s lower hull with all interior parts in place and numbered as per the parts list and the second shot is a rear-three-quarter view of the completed kit. This second shot also has each part numbered with lines pointing from the number to each part so as to ensure no parts are obscured by the numbers.

The combination of the parts list and the two photos are all that’s included and all that’s really needed to complete the assembly of the model. No decals or painting instructions are included.

Construction - The Lower Hull

I began construction with the lower hull. The lower hull has a much finer representation of the floor treadplate than the oversized, inaccurate pattern depicted on the Italeri kit. It also has a rather large casting lug that attaches to the hull rear in three places (to the end of each sponson and to the hull floor). Attaching in three places made it possible to detach this lug easily using some sidecutters.

Unlike the 40+ pars needed to complete the Italeri plastic offering, the ModellTrans kit comes with a the wheels and tacks already assembles as one resin piece per side, complete with a reasonable representation of the characteristic track sag of the M113 already in place. Although on the actual vehicle there is often a little space between the first roadwheel and the track, this doesn’t really prove to be a problem as he top of the tracks can’t be seen all that much once the Zelda’s armoured skirts are in place. One of the major over-simplifications of the Italeri/ESCI kit is the single roadwheels instead of the dual roadwheels of the actual vehicle, but this has been rectified in the ModellTrans kit.

The wheel and track assemblies (parts 7 and 15) were fitted up to the lower hull (part 1). You need to be careful when removing the casting lug attached to the bottom of parts 7 and 15 as it seems easy to damage the sides of the track links on the bottom run of the tracks.

The Interior:

Next I tackled the interior, which was pretty straightforward given that there’s the aforementioned colour overhead photo to use as reference. The interior parts consist of the driver’s seat and control levers, side sponson detail such as a radio, correctly sized fuel tank, stowage shelf, the commander’s seat/platform, two bench seats that sit in the middle of the vehicle and two engine compartment bulkheads. There’s also a bit of detail molded onto the lower hull sponsons. About the only obvious omissions I could see here are the locking mechanism for the door on the rear ramp, and the lack of a rear ramp pulley. Both very small items in this scale, but obvious if the rear ramp is left down. In all fairness, every injection kit of an M113 I’ve seen had the rear ramp pulley absent too.

The upper hull:

Again the parts count is reduced, with the 3 parts needed to produce the Italeri kit’s upper hull reduced to a single casting, devoid of the annoying molded on tools present on the Italeri kit but sporting a shovel molded onto the hull front (as opposed to the separate shovel in the Italeri kit!). The hull top also sports many tie downs and other prominent fixtures not present on the Italeri offering but which would be visible on the vehicle in this scale, and some accurately scaled moldings which are simplified or missing on the ESCI/Italeri kit. The detail on the upper hull casting also extends to molded on, hollow lifting rings front and rear and drivers periscopes with shrouds.

The hull top mated to the lower hull fine with light sanding required on the sponsons of the lower hull. No filler was needed which is another endorsement for the quality of this kit and the abilities of the caster.

The TOGA armour:

The toga armour was then added. It consists of three pieces, one for the front and one for each side with extremely finely cast in detail including the many holes in the armour and the hinges half way up the side of the armour. Again the skills of the caster are evident as there was not a defective hole in sight in these castings. The holes are probably a bit overscale but look very impressive when painted as they are the main distinguishing feature of this type of armour.

On the actual vehicle, there is a space between the TOGA armour and the hull armour with external stowage boxes along each hull side behind the TOGA armour and the many TOGA armour attachment points. To depict these in this scale would probably not have been possible in that the TOGA armour would have been so thin in scale it probably wouldn’t survive shipping, despite the robust packaging so each side panel of the TOGA armour has been molded with indentations at the top of the TOGA armour separated by mounting points in the correct locations with the rest of the part solid. The lower part of the TOGA armour is chamfered to a thin point to ensure that the lower edge of the armour above the roadwheels is scale thickness.

The exterior fittings:

The exterior fittings consist of a couple of stowage boxes for the hull rear, the rear ramp (detailed on both sides and with separate door), the three roof hatches, commanders cupola with .50 cal, 2 MAG 58’s on their flex mounts, the headlight assemblies (cast as one piece per side) and a couple of other fixtures for the hull roof. Again, all parts were well cast and easily identified on the placement photograph.

One thing to note is that the exhaust (part 23) needs to be cut in half, as only the top bit is used, the rest being obscured by the TOGA armour on this particular kit. This seems to be pointed out in the instructions (in German) and there’s a line on the parts diagram indicating where the part is to be cut.

Painting:

I used a 50/50 mix of Tamiya xf-20 Medium Grey and xf-57 Buff on the exterior and Tamiya xf-21 Sky for the interior, with a darker shade of each for washes.

Final detailing and Conclusion:

All I could find to do to enhance this kit was to add an aerial and add some handgrips to the .50cal (you could also add a spotlight, as per the boxtop photo), added an aerial, and added a folded up stretcher and jerrycan, both of which come with the kit. An M16 (from a 1/87 Roco Bradley) was added to the interior too.

Whilst it’s not the cheapest resin kit on the market, there’s a wealth of detail added to this kit when compared to the plastic alternatives. There’s also the exceptional quality and fit of the castings and the gorgeous representation of the distinctive TOGA armour which all combine to make this overall, an excellent kit, which in my experience is the exception rather than the norm when dealing with resin kits.