1/24 scale M1A2 Abrams

Bobby, that is an impressive model you've got there! At the right scale too to crush model cars! LOL

Amazing work, Bobby!
And welcome to FSM!
That's an amazing website, too. Very comprehensive and enlightening. Glad to hear Major Gronovious helped you out! The man does now M1s, for sure.

Coincidently, I just posted some pix of my ol' Tokyo Marui 1/24 Type 90.
I didn't put in anywhere near the work you did on your excellent Abrams, but it was a hoot to detail up a bit.
I have the Marui M1A2 as well, and now I have a great tutorial to help me detail that puppy up to spec!

One question: the first thing I noticed when I pulled the Abrams from the box was that the hull is much deeper than on the actual vehicle, to accomodate the mechanisms, I'm sure. I didn't see this problem addressed in your writings (or just missed 'em!), but what are your thoughts on this? I thought about trying to hide it with dark shading effects, but I'm not sure how that will work. I can't imagine undertaking that much surgery on the chassis, that's for sure!

Again, great work, Bobby!

QUOTE: Originally posted by BOBBY WONG I've created a webpage on repainting and detailing my 1/24 scale Tokyo Marui M1A2 Abrams: http://miniature-art.tripod.com/m1a2abrams/ Enjoy! BOBBY

Wow. Love it, just love it. I've always enjoyed your Games Workshop buildups too, some of which I have seen at the Compleat Strategist. How about a 1/24th scale Land Raider build-up?

Thanks for sharing your excellent work with us.

Great Abrams, Bobby! Huge Abrams! Very impressive work you did, and the paint job is A-1. Thanks for sharing that.

JHulk,

Did you post pics of your Type 90 here? Would really like to see it.

Yup, they're in the Armor forum somewhere!

First, welcome to FSM. Second, excellent work Bobby! The site is great too.

Good job on the M1 Bobby and welcome to the forum!

Eric

very nice looking tank there!!!!!

Okay, so Bobby, welcome to the forum! I only had a chance to take a quick glance this morning at your web page and got the wrong idea on what you're doing! Sorry. Anyway, NICE job on that M1!

Ron.

Amazing details!

Welcome Bobby to the forums. Excellent work, the only thing better is 1/1. LOL

Excellent work Bobby!

Fantastic Job!

Thanks everyone for the warm reception!

DJMODELS1999, What me and my friends do is take old 1/24 scale car models, make tiny cust in the spspension and roof pillars, then drive the Marui tanks over them. Eventually we ran out of car models to destroy

Larry-Dunn, Thanks, didn't expect to find someone who was aware of my miniatures work. I plan to stop by the Strat, and display some other figures in the future, when I have time from work to stop by...
Would you happen to be one of the Warmongers Club members?

J-Hulk, I didn't notice a proble regarding the hull height. So I took measurements of the Marui Abrams against Concord's 1/35 plans (assuming they are correct) and the hull appears only 6 scale inches too tall. My biggest gripe with the dimesions is that the turret is too short, looks almost like the less armored original M1tanks! I don't think there's much to be done without affecting the "integrity" of the hull, plust it would be just too much work
I can't wait for Tamiya to come out with a 1/16 R/C Abrams. You know it will be accurate!

BTW the gun garrel is too thick in diameter to accomodate the 6mm bbs. It looks as if the abrams is armed with a 140 mm cannon! I've heard that the upcoming 1/24 Marui Tiger will have a turned metal barrel that tapers, but at 6mm, the gun aperature would still be a bit big

Regards,
BOBBY

QUOTE: Originally posted by BOBBY WONG[ J-Hulk, I didn't notice a proble regarding the hull height. So I took measurements of the Marui Abrams against Concord's 1/35 plans (assuming they are correct) and the hull appears only 6 scale inches too tall. I've heard that the upcoming 1/24 Marui Tiger will have a turned metal barrel that tapers, but at 6mm, the gun aperature would still be a bit big

Bobby, It's not the height of the hull I'm referring too, but the depth. Looking at the tank from the front or rear, the floor pan seems to be much too low (too close to the ground) than that of the actual vehicle, making the hull look way too "thick" from the front or rear. I think the actual height of the top of the hull is fine, and from the side or other angles, the problem is not evident at all. Check it out and see if you agree.

I saw the Tiger at the Shizuoka Hobby Show last year, and it looked great! Nice tracks, the barrel didn't seem out of scale, and it was in my favorite color for a Tiger I: gray!!

I've been back to your site several more times since you posted it, and I'm amazed every time!
Simply said, excellent work, Bobby!

Have you done a Type 90 by any chance?

QUOTE: Originally posted by BOBBY WONG Larry-Dunn, Thanks, didn't expect to find someone who was aware of my miniatures work. I plan to stop by the Strat, and display some other figures in the future, when I have time from work to stop by... Would you happen to be one of the Warmongers Club members?

Anyone who knows GW stuff knows your work. Along with Jennifer Haley and a few other people, you are about the best the U.S. has to offer! I used to play historical miniature wargaming at the Strategist back in the late 70's and early 80's, before Warmongers, before RPG's were even all that big, [:0], but I don't live in NYC any more, and am a bit older with commitments, so I game almost exclusively close to home base, once a month tops. I do know some of the guys in Warmongers from the Dakka board though.

But enough about me. Anyway, hope to see more of your stuff here. Hey, here's a SciFi forum too -- posts of your 40k stuff would be welcome!

Great job man!

Beautiful build, Bobby!

Your paintjob and weathering on the Abrams is topnotch stuff!

Regards, Dan

Amazing, Looks Great
weathering, paintjob is awesome

Very nice Bobby. Thanks for the link, also Welcome to the FSM forums.
mark956

Welcome to FSM Bobby and an awesome job on the Abrams.

J-Hulk,

I see what you mean now. Truth be told, I've never noticed it before. I compared the Tokyo Marui 1/24 Abrams hull to a 1/35 Tamiya M1A1 hull, and they both have same ground clearance! I wonder if the other Marui tanks exhibit the same dimensional error?

QUOTE: Originally posted by J-Hulk Bobby, It's not the height of the hull I'm referring too, but the depth. Looking at the tank from the front or rear, the floor pan seems to be much too low (too close to the ground) than that of the actual vehicle, making the hull look way too "thick" from the front or rear. I think the actual height of the top of the hull is fine, and from the side or other angles, the problem is not evident at all. Check it out and see if you agree. I saw the Tiger at the Shizuoka Hobby Show last year, and it looked great! Nice tracks, the barrel didn't seem out of scale, and it was in my favorite color for a Tiger I: gray!! I've been back to your site several more times since you posted it, and I'm amazed every time! Simply said, excellent work, Bobby! Have you done a Type 90 by any chance?

No, but I've seen yours with gun barrel stripes and all. Very nice indeed, I noticed you moved the antenna to its proper locations as well. BTW you may be interested in joining the Yahoo Marui Group, link is in my webpage. Lots of friendly folks there. Some guys add laser designators, and cameras to their tanks for extra fun!

Hope to see you there!

BOBBY

QUOTE: Originally posted by Larry_Dunn [But enough about me. Anyway, hope to see more of your stuff here. Hey, here's a SciFi forum too -- posts of your 40k stuff would be welcome!

Will do, I'm looking foward to building Hasegawa's VF-1S Valkyrie, longtime favorite of mine!

BOBBY

QUOTE: Originally posted by BOBBY WONG I noticed you moved the antenna to its proper locations as well. BTW you may be interested in joining the Yahoo Marui Group, link is in my webpage. Lots of friendly folks there. Some guys add laser designators, and cameras to their tanks for extra fun! Hope to see you there! BOBBY

Hi, Bobby!

Actually, I did join quite a while ago, but I've never been able to figure out how to access it. I get a lot of mails of "posts" from various folks (not to me, but just to read), but I have no idea how to do it myself! I'll give it another go.

As for the deep hull problem, I know the Type 90 is fine, and what I've seen of the Leopard 2A5 looks OK, too. Funny about the Abrams!
By the way, it in no way detracts from your amazing work! I hope that you or anyone else reading this thread didn't think I was insinuating any such thing.

Actually, on my Type 90, I didn't really move the RC antenna, I just removed it and attached a steel tow cable in place of the plastic one, which now acts as the antenna (the cable intersects the stub of the RC antenna). Works pretty good! The antennae on the turret are just part of the detail-up.

I'm now quite motivated to tear my Marui Abrams apart and start fixin' 'er up!
Thanks for the inspiration, Bobby.

Nice job Bobby!

By the way....

Welcome to the forums!

Erock68, thanks for the welcome!

J-Hulk,

It's best to actually read the messages online as opposed to getting it via e-mail. Go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaruiTankGroup/

Sign in with your Yahoo password, and then simply select messages on the left menu bar. To stop recieving messages in your e-mail inbox, click on "Edit My Membership" on the upper right of the Yahoo Marui Group page. From there click on "No email " under Message Delivery. You should then be all set. I'd encourage you to click on the database, links and photos sections as well!

As for the Leo2A5, I purchased two; one for my best friend, and one for my uncle. I'm going to check out the hull dimensions on those tanks as well

No worries about your comments! No model is really ever finished IMHO.
I'm contemplating building another Abrams, this time as the newer SEP variant, with the non-slip texture added, TMS, GPS antenna, as well as the rubber dust flaps on the top of the skirt armor!

BOBBY