ARMOR - M1 Abrams Group Build

I realy want to start my Abrams, but I must finish then one on my desk first. Oh well.

Glad to see you got moved into your new home Dwight, hope all goes well for you and your family.

i love abrams! I expierienced, no problems with this build, and it ranks up there with my favorites!

Hi! Guys and Galls, I'm sorry but I have to drop out of this GB, if only temporarily as I'll be moving soon and I have had to pack a sizeable part of my scale modeling gear already. I look forward to seeing your progress though! I'll be back on the abrams as soon as poss.

Sorry to hear you have to go...

I ended up giving it a raw umber wash last night. I drybrushed over all areas, and varied the intensity to show different dirt accumulations on differing areas of the tank. The non-slip surface allowed the wash to really stand out after the drybrush. After that, I mixed in some of my base colour, lightened it, and sprayed very very faintly over most panels, to show paint fading. Then I added a few drops of flat black to this, and airbrushed around the edges of the panels. The overall effect is very very pleasing. Tonight, I have to start on the initial detailing, etc. I still have to decide which accessories I will be adding to it. I will model a tank during maneuvering excercises, and thus a hoffman device will be there, but that's all I'm decided on for now.
It still has a looong way to go, but I'm hoping to get a lot done next week. For tonight, I'll start detailing, and I have to get around to painting the tracks, otherwise it'll take me forever to mount them.

BY the way, can someone point me in the right direction for the colour of the interior? I'm modelling it with hatches open (thankfully my figs will hide the empty interior), and I want to get around to painting those tonight as well.

My M1, is my test subject (sadly) but it is good, because it will be the target of a wash or two, and that might make it look better! I gotta long weekend, to hyp up for the small AFV GB, and to age my abrams. I am also gonna put the salt method to the test on my 25pdr field gun, and limber.

Just an update...
Last night I didn't get as much time as I would have liked, but still got some work done, so it's ok. I managed to finish detailing the upper hull and detailed the basic turret. I still have to mount the rack, smoke dischargers, and a few other small details. After the weekend, I will probably prime the accessories and figures.
Can someone give me some pointers as to colours of uniforms??
Oh yeah, I also finished detailing and painting the road wheels. A whopping 16 wheels. I really started to twich quite a bit near the end :)
Not gonna get anything on it done this weekend, as I'm out of town. At most, I may get to clolour a piece of tissue paper that I need to make tarps and various other things from.

Might be good to see some progress pics...

I have been wanting to see more M1's.

Im working on the pics I gotta get a digi cam from a friend but my kids had friends over and guess what they played with.....yup my M1's.. a few messing peices here and a few pieces there.... so got to do so first ever scratch bites oh well I got the base color down on both of themnato green on M1A2 and gulf sand on M1A1 HA ( converted from taimyas M1A1).I'll tell ya that dragon kit gave me a run with all the flash and parts not alining but hell its fun once in awhile keeps ya on your toes.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was completely, 100% modelling-free, which is not really a good thing, since I desparately wanted to do some, but what can you do. Tonight, I'll probably get around to at least starting to paint the tracks. Maybe...there is still a lot of construction and basecoating to do for the accessories.
Wish I had a digicam, but unfortunately, I have a few more things that are above it on the priorities list, so that probably won't happen for a little bit of time yet.

I picked up a Walker Bulldog a week ago that got me side tracked!lol
I'm doing it in desert sand and I'm redoing my m-20 in sand.
As for the M,1i do have my coat of gloss white on my m1a1. The mine plows and wheels are done but still need mounting. I've done a black wash over the tank with a sable brown wash to soon follow . I did a couple of raod wheels in green and another couple in sand for that used look. I had heard on the forum of spraying a base of metallic grey, with white out over selected spots , and then the true base coat. You then "scratch off" the white out spots and reveal the metal. Didn't work for me but I prob should have given my metalic coat longer to dry. Also my tank will be U.N. white but I odted to do the mine plows and mountings in olive drab, so that it will appear to be an "in the field" addition to the tank. I'm also still making the stowage. I received my M1A2 last week as well! I can't wait to start on it. It will be desert tan when I'm done.

Hey, The group build up of an Abrams is right up my alley...I've been away a while and haven't seen this. I'm re-building a Tamiya M-1 into the M-1 A1. I've already started with the 120 main gun and a few minor modifications. Can anyone tell me if Model Master Armour Sand FS 30277 would be close enough for Iraqi Freedom. I've got a M-1 A2 also...this one I will start for the group build.

There is an other color called us army/marines sand in testors. It also maybe called desert marine gulf sand . I have 2 bottles of these and they are same color but different names both of which are testors.

I used teh Model Master Modern Desert Sand on my 1/48 abrams and it worked fine. It was perfect after a wash of acrylic sable brown. i used testor's "sand" as a touch up and it was a perfect match even though the names were different.

thundergod, I used Army/Marines Gulf sand or whatever it's called. It's by model master, and is an exact match for the vehicles. I found it absolutely great.
Last night, all I had time to do was doublecheck my work so far, so that is to say, I did nothing last night. Tonight, I want to finish priming the rest of the little accessories that will be going on the thing. This weekend I'm out again, but will bring something with me to work on. Probably the tracks, as I haven't even started painting them, and it will take a day to do just that.

Yeah, started my tracks but haven't finished them yet. Put a coat of metalic grey on them.

Thanks for the input, gang. I guess this will be close enough after the weathering is done. I'll be spraying tonight so I'll let you know ! All I'll need will be the modern tracks when I'm done spraying/weathering.

Here's my entry for this GB. I made it as an M1A1of the US Army Task Force 1-64, 3ID during Operation Iraqi Freedom. This is a Tamiya 1/35 scale M1A1 built with T-158 tracks from AFV, resin helmets, ammo boxes, & stowage stuff from Verlinden & Legend productions, MRE cartons from Extra Detail, CIF panels, mud guards & other PE parts from Eduard. The tow cable & the concertina wires were scratch built from picture hanger & plastic window screen.
All comments are welcome. Happy building.

Outstanding job on the M1A1, pare. The weathering is superb. Five stars!.

Probably the best entry to the GB so far.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Dwight Ta-ala Outstanding job on the M1A1, pare. The weathering is superb. Five stars!. Probably the best entry to the GB so far.

Thanks Dwight. Couldn't do much justice to the weathering 'coz I've been a bit tied up as of late.

Good job.
What did you use to paint it..
If I may...there is a quite prominent ejection pin mark on the gunner's hatch. This seems to be common to all M1 kits that I've seen, as mine has it too :)
A light sanding eliminated mine.
Other than that, great job. The overall finish shows the non-slip surface coating very well.

Man THAT is a work of beauty! Excellent job!

QUOTE: Originally posted by zokissima Good job. What did you use to paint it.. If I may...there is a quite prominent ejection pin mark on the gunner's hatch. This seems to be common to all M1 kits that I've seen, as mine has it too :) A light sanding eliminated mine. Other than that, great job. The overall finish shows the non-slip surface coating very well.

Thanks for pointing that out. I intended to have that hatch in the closed position but decided otherwise. I used Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow applied with an airbrush. The weathering included a wash of painters' water color & finished up with oils. Actually this model doesn't have a non-slip surface molded on. I did the non-slip surface using Mr. Surfacer 500 applied with an airbrush at around 35-40 psi. I didn't expect the non-slip surface to be seen 'coz I think I sprayed it on too thin but I guess it was highlighted by the weathering.
Thanks again for the comments guys. Happy building.

Alex:
that looks fantastic !
DT:
urs too !

i'm getting a bit depressed 'cause people r finishing their projects while my own abrams sits forlornly in its box awaiting a turn on the table...
too much going on w/ full scale life rite now, not 2 mention being behind on my
sherman group build project...
i really want 2 do a project 4 this build, but time is not on my side this time...
still, i hate bailing...
what 2 do, what 2 do ?

frosty

Looking battle woarthy, nice job. Now between dwight and alex the rest of use have our work cut out.

mine plow color-for a desert storm scheme, were they tan, or OD?

hey frosty, just a suggestion: build the abrams, it will be very satisfying!!!

Hmm, ok well once again didn't get as much done as I would have liked. All my major subassemblies are finished. I test-fitted the tracks (unpainted) and found them too long. Thankfully Trumpeter seems to have thought ahead, and allowed for a variation of position to where the two ends (they're the vinyl type) can meet. I clipped and cleaned up one track lenght from each track, and they were absolutley perfect.
I clipped off all the accessories I'd be using from the Tamiya set. I'll be using the commander and gunner figures that are included with the kit, but will use the Tamiya driver figure, along with some tamiya accessories to detail the other two figs. Some spare wheels, an m16 rifle, few back-packs, tools, etc will round out the load on my M1. I have about 10 ammo boxes to paint. My stupidity last night was in deciding to brush paint them. That took a long time to get a nice finish.
Probably finish off some more painting tonight, then work on the tracks over the weekend...

QUOTE: Originally posted by M1abramsRules hey frosty, just a suggestion: build the abrams, it will be very satisfying!!!

no doubt !
thanx 4 the encouragement...
now if i can only find some time...
aw heck, sleep is over rated anyhow !
so, when's the official end of this GB again ? (i'm a space cadet, there it is rite under my post, June 15th... i think i can, i think i can, i think i can...)

frosty

Go for it frosty.
I joined more or less just to finish the damn kit, but I'm having much more fun with it than I thought.

I managed to clean up the tracks last night, and actually pack some paints and tools, so this weekend I should be able to finish painting almost everything that's left to go on the kit. That means thereafter, just a little assembly and overall dustcoat, and I'll be done. Hopefully :)