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1/35 M1 Abrams Tank

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  • Member since
    July 2005
  • From: The Berkshires/Western Massachusetts
1/35 M1 Abrams Tank
Posted by pittsfieldpete on Monday, November 3, 2014 2:25 PM
Hello, fellow modelers. I've decided to try my hand at building a couple of 1/35 scale U.S. tanks. I have to limit myself to just a few armor kits because I already have a huge pile of other models waiting to be built (but probably not all by me...I won't live long enough). The first kit I chose & acquired is an older Tamiya M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle. I chose this kit for three reasons. First, I grew up in a small town that had a Bradley transmission testing facility quite close to my home. Every once in a while I would see a BFV zip up the road near my house on its way to a special test course with steep hills, lots of mud, tree trunks, boulders, tight curves & other challenges to push various prototype transmissions as hard as they could to find out what worked & what didn't. Second, the Tamiya kit looks great in the box & has a nicely detailed & fairly complete interior. The hull top is held on by Tamiya's omnipresent "poly caps" so it can be lifted off to reveal the interior...nice! Third, I just think the BFV looks really cool. Because I think the M1 Abrams tank also looks really cool, I'd like to find a 1/35 kit of one of those, too. I don't really have a version preference; I'd just like a nice, complete, well-detailed kit. Can anyone tell me if Tamiya or any other manufacturer makes a 1/35 kit with a nice interior that can be revealed like the Tamiya's BFV? I'd like to find one with a fairly complete interior & maybe add some aftermarket detail parts here & there to make it better, but I don't want to invest as much as I paid for my first car to do it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to you all!
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Valrico, FL
Posted by HeavyArty on Monday, November 3, 2014 2:44 PM

There is no Tamiya Abrams kit that includes an interior.  The older Dragon M1A1 HA kits had a partial interior (upper turret and driver's area), but nothing below the turret/hull line.  They can be used as a base for a full interior though (see my USMC M1A1 AIM "Angry American).

CMK makes an engine compartment too.  I used it on an M1A2 SEP with full interior I did as well.

Verlinden did an old set that was supposed to be for the upper turret and driver's area as well.  It was pretty far off and not really usable though.

For just a decent Abrams, Tamiya's kits are OK.  They build easily and have so-so details.  If you want a top of ther line kit, Dragon's M1A1 AIM and M1A2 SEP are awesome.  Dragon has also announced an M1A2 SEP v2 version, which is the latest version in use by the US Army.  It should be awesome as well. 

A tip on the Bradley, if you want to do a really detailed one, Meng make s a couple modern ones (M2A3 and M3A3) with full interiors to include turret interior and full engine compartments.  They are awesome.  Also, the M3A3 interior is a separate kit that you can add common parts from to the Tamiya kit for extra details.

Good luck and be sure to post some pics when you get started on them.

Gino P. Quintiliani - Field Artillery - The KING of BATTLE!!!

Check out my Gallery: https://app.photobucket.com/u/HeavyArty

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Fort Knox
Posted by Rob Gronovius on Monday, November 3, 2014 7:02 PM

The real reason for the upper hull poly caps was the need to remove the upper hull to replace batteries, but for some reason Tamiya never released a motorized version of this kit. Most of their kits they released in the 1970s and 1980s used the poly caps for this reason. Their M113 used the commander's seat stand to remove the roof to display the interior. It was rather ingenious at the time.

A good kit to display with interior would be the Academy M113A2. It served along side the Bradley and Abrams.

As an aside, the transmission on the original M2/M3 Bradleys would putter out as your turned and then grab and get going again. It took some getting used to until they upgraded the tranny.

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