My latest project - What do you think?
Bad Ass and The Turd
A not uncommon sight. The M114 was notoriously underpowered. Its Chevy V8 didn’t have the horsepower needed to move the thing through the miserable terrain of VietNam. M114s were often stuck in the mud, or suffered engine failures from overwork.
The M114s looked cool, like a sports car version of the bulkier M113, but they didn’t last long in the war zone.
Here, a disgusted grunt APC, named ‘Bad Ass’, has been tasked to haul a dead M114 back to the motor pool. Someone has assigned the 114 a temporary, yet appropriate, name.
I must admit, as soon as I saw that a kit of the M114 was due out, this is the diorama I imagined.
The M113 kit is from AFV, and the M114 is Takom’s
The tracks are aftermarket. FV’s rubber-band tracks were unusable (IMHO).
And even they don’t seem to look right to my eye…
The crews are mostly from Bravo6, although the TC in the M113’s hatch is an old metal casting from somewhere (Verlinden, perhaps.)
The two standing grunts (bless ‘em) are from MasterBox, with Hornet heads.
The gear and sandbags are from Value Gear
The challenge on this diorama was the jungle background. I simply built a jagged back wall, painted it, and then covered it with assorted foliage. What do you think?
The tow-bar was scratch built. We always used them for simple towing tasks.
Personal Note: After the war, stateside US Mech Infantry companies were each assigned one M114 to haul the company commander around. As a platoon leader (Bravo36), I rode an M113A1. Our Motor Sargent only succeeded in getting the M114 running, and in a green status, once (by purchasing parts out of his own pocket, from the local auto parts store). He then parked the thing in the back of the motor pool and refused to let it be driven ever again. The CO rode the HQ section’s M113A1, with extra radios installed.
Ralph
