My first Tank

It looks really good to me. I'm dreading my first serious Armor build. Congrats on this one.        Bob

First tank?!  Wow!  Hope mine comes out as good!  Great job.  The weathering is really nice!

Eagle90

It looks pretty good.  I don't like preshading myself.  It looks too dark and I have never seen an actual Abrams with each panel highlighted with a darker shade of the base color.  It doesn't look realsitic to me.

JohanT

Would you say that the Academy offering is to be recomended...

Not really.

Academy's USMC Baghdad 2003 Abrams kit is a rebox of their prior M1A1 (which was a slightly updated copy of Tamiya's M1 kit).  It has a new sprue (J) that has a bunch of updated and new parts that bring it up to speed as a modern kit.  However, the kit is still off in two main areas. 

First is the turret is too short by about 5mm in front of the sponson boxes.  It is based on the smaller M1 turret.  This makes the turret look crowded and squished around the smoke launchers. 

The other issue is the tracks.  They are the old, chevron-blocked T156 tracks that were replaced about 1990 with the square block T158 tracks.  The hull also has all the open motorization holes underneath that need to be filled as well.

If you want a great Abrams, the Dragon M1A1 AIM and M1A2 SEP are the best ones on the market.  The Academy one is really only good for the new part on the J sprue to update some earlier Dragon and Tamiya Abrams kits.

Job well done. Can' believe it's your first.

Thanks everyone for nice comments

well this is my first year sinse i was a kid but i have built ships and just finished the bride and monster from moebius.I liked the model good fit nice detail but skirts were tricky for me

thanks i will remember that

i actually used badgers rotten tooth tan for basecoat.and i swear its my first !:)

Hi Joe,

That is one mean looking machine!

Very cool - what did you model before you got into armor?

Would you say that the Academy offering is to be recomended - I mean you sure have represented it very well!

I thought I have seen quite a few Abrams with the tip of the gun painted black?

Best Regards

Johan

Wow! Fine build!

welcome to the forum,thanks for posting,very nice first effort,keep up the good work.

Nice work!  In future builds, know that 20th and 21st century cannon did not get the muzzle darkening due to improvements in powder formulation.  It's a common modelers' stumble.

Sir. Lying is not permitted here. That's surely not your first tank;)

Very nice indeed. What paint did you use for the base colour?

I think it looks dang awesome!