Hello and welcome back to TSMH!

Today I have a guest here in my workshop, my good friend and fellow scale modeller Eric Herbert. We often meet together to compare our finished models, share tips and techniques and share our enjoyment of this wonderful hobby.

Eric does not show or share his wonderful builds with the rest of the world but this is a special occasion! When I first started to visit internet modelling forums back in the day I used to post on FSM (Finescale Modeller) quite often. My friend Eric also posted there in the Armour section as that is his particular passion in scale modelling. He is an authority on the world famous US Army workhorse the M113 APC and its variants. In his home he has amassed a huge collection of over 200 completed APC’s, most of them M113 variants of various armies from around the world.

On the aforementioned FSM forum he was told that M113 bridge-layers did not exist and that’s why no kit or conversion would be available to build one! Not one to shrink from a challenge, Eric went away to research this project and soon realised that the only way to build this variant would be from scratch! So that is exactly what he did!

Starting with a base kit in the form of Italeri’s 1/35th M113 APC Eric drew up plans from the very few reference photographs available from the Vietnam conflict and set to work scratch building an entire bridge-layer conversion from spare kit parts and plasticard products.

The result was nothing short of stunning and Eric displayed his one off totally unique M113 US Army Bridge-Layer in a diorama built from Verlinden figures and many plants taken from his own garden to create a tiny corner of Vietnam in 1968………

Here is the real machine in action:

Here is Eric’s recreation of this now rare and little known US Army workhorse:

We hope you enjoy seeing Eric’s work! He respects all feedback given, so please share your thoughts with us on this unique work!

Take care and Happy Modelling!

Darren.