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Air Force armor conversion


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I'm looking for a conversion kit to turn the Hobby Box Vietnam Armored car (that they call a M-706 but I've always known as a V-100) into a M-706E.  I previously modified a Verlinden kit to remove that stupid molded tarp that covered the parapet armor.  I then tried converting the Vietnam kit by hand, which turned into a major project as I had to build and modify the entire interior because basically there isn't much there.

Anyway, I thought it would be easier if I picked up one of these conversion kits.  I still may have to add the hatch levers and internal gun port covers and knobs, engine housing walls, correct seats,  interior walls and padding, but at least the big headache would be done.

The Security Police only operated two types of armor during the war, the M-113 and the M-706, commonly called a "Pig" or "Duck", or in some cases "Rubber Duck".

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Here's a couple notes when doing this kit:

Pay attention to what version you are really doing.  Parts for several different versions are included.  Even the interior floor is stamped V-150.

 

If you decide to do the conversion into a A.F. vehicle, keep the dirt to a minimum.  We had to clean the vehicles before they were turned in at the armory.  People normally expect to see them looking like the Army had them in the field, but these rarely left the base and mostly drove on pavement, gravel, grass, and sometimes on dirt, depending on what part of the base they were assigned.

 

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Well that's different. I have the Hobby Boss kit and was thinking of doing something different and not sure if there is an update set out there. All I knew about was the Verlinden one as you state. Do you have more pictures? Aslo is it two greens or one for the camo?

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It's two greens and the tan.  We also had just plain green.

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Then we got in a couple vehicles from another squadron with a different paint job:

 

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You may notice that the vehicles are fairly clean.  Unlike the Army, we had to wash down every vehicle and sometimes go over it with a street broom before we turned it in to the armory at the end of our shift or the end of the alert.  It's a common misconception that these tings need to be muddy or they don't reflect a realistic appearance..  The paint may fade a bit but it would be repainted by motor pool for corrosion or repair purposes.

When you build this kit there are a few things you need to know.  First, for some reason they added a chain for the front winch system.  This should be a cable. 

The rest will be more difficult. 

Engine:  They provide some weird shape for the that can either be thrown away or used in some S.F. project.  We had large block engines.  What you need to do is build a wall around the engine compartment.  There was a access panel on the front plate and on the side lower panel was a auxiliary connection.  The only time we ever got close to the engine was to do a quick oil stick check.  I don't remember ever doing one at all. 

As I may have mentioned, there is major work involved if you want to detail the interior.  There's interior floor and area panels, crew padding, extra seats, including the second front seat, some being longer than the regular single seats which are wrong for at least this version and need support braces.  The gun ports need a second set of shields for the inside as well as release knobs., and locking  levers for the hatches.  The driver's area need a few things too, like a better seat raising system, another foot pedal, we had manual shift, drive shafts below those, and small handles under the view ports.

I would suggest getting the set of resin wheels.   Remember, the wheels have to be mounted a certain way, If I remember right, the resin wheels are marked on the runners.  If it was done wrong on the real vehicle, you wouldn't want to take it into the water.

 

We didn't use whip antennas because we all carried portable radios on our belts. 

 

The parapet armor needed to be built and include not only the complete weapon mounts front and back but there were two side mounts, one on each side that could be raised and locked into place.  Plus there would be a runner the blast door used as well as a strip of metal covering the separation of the door panels and handles necessary to pull the doors up or let them down slowly.

 

Here's some shots of what I went through during my build:

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If you want another project, there's always the other armored vehicle in our inventory:

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just got 2 of the Hobby Boss M-706 kits. One will be built as a 706, other altered as V-100. Earlier this year, Squadron had a sale on their In Detail books with it showing a lot of photos of the different versions of this vehicle along with close ups. I like the shot of the dog in the hatch...

adds a personal touch to the vehicle.

Edited by willc453
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Normally K-9 didn't ride in the armored vehicles, they had a few duce &1/2s  as well as a couple M-151 jeeps, and maybe a M-715 weapons carrier, depending on what the assignment was and what extra vehicles were available at the time.

When this shot was taken we were holding a little display of our vehicles and most of our weapons types after a base attack. I was surprised to see them actually let the public see we had a couple .50 cals.  They were usually kept hidden in the armory because they were not allowed on our base because of their range and power. I guess they thought that the base might need to see what we had to protect them because most of the base had no idea of  our capabilities, and it might help answer questions about what we were doing all the time. 

Anyway, if I remember right, one of the handlers put his dog in the duck while he helped with something to do with the display.  For some reason I think the dog's name was Tiki

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