M1 Abrams scheme help

I managed to spray couple of colors tonight.  I applied what I hope is the final coat of sand-yellow to the T-72.  I also sprayed the areas of the M1 that will be masked-off for the sand portions of the camouflage.  Now I wait on decals and dry transfers to arrive before beginning the weathering process on the T-72.  The Abrams I’ll let dry at least 24 hours before applying masks and applying the next color.

Yeah I think I'm going to put more thought into this idea. Thanks guys. I have to make a plan for this one and give it some actual effort. :)

Right on Stikpusher, the Army would have fielded the M1A1 to USAREUR units first to counter the most dangerous threat, either to the ACRs or an Armored Division.

Here are line drawings of the M1 IP. The turret bustle rack and skirt cutaway at the sprocket wheel are two key recognition features

BTW, the M1A1 entered production in 1985 and service in 1986, so it is not too muc of a stretch to see them with a few units in the "Red Storm Rising" scenario. But at that time the M1 IP would be the more numerous likely variant to be found in USAEUR.

I do have some for the M-60 and I saved the images from above. However, we all know that more information is not a bad thing.

Bring it on. :)

Do you still need MERC patterns? I found the instruction to the original Tamiya M1. It has some nice diagrams.

Yeah it'll be fiction alright, but advancements in military technology are not fast enough to allow an M1A1 to be found in 1987. That's stretching it a bit too far even for me.

I think I can get away with using the hull, but the turret.... may need some modifications.

Perhaps a TC's cupola change is in order as well. I will need to do some research on what was available and kit bash things from that era instead of goofy-fab'in up some excuse as to why my A1 has MERDC camo.

I think this needs more serious thought than I have given it.

I'm working with the Dragon M1A1.  ':/

I may need to start over....

The Academy M1A1 kit is supposed to be a good one to use to make an IP M1. It has the later turret features, but Academy forgot to add the extra armor of the A1 on the front. If you swap out the kit's 120mm gun for the earlier 105, you're in business. 

stikpusher

That Clancy novel is "Red Storm Rising". Probably my favorite of his works. The M1s in there are from the 11th ACR at the Fulda Gap area of West Germany. The story is set in Summer 1987 if my time reference deductions are correct. At that time M1s were in the overall Forest Green, although the 11th was known for field applied camo schemes with mud or whitewash as needed. Also that was about the time that the IP M1 was coming into field service, so that would not be a stretch to model. The IP M1 shared many features of the M1A1 but still retained the 105mm main gun.

 

YES! BINGO! That's what I was going for. Unfortunatly I have all sorts of things wrong about the model, but if I decided to get serious then I know I could count on you guys to guide me in the right direction.  :)

That was the book I was thinking of, and it was late 80's. I have more than a few 105's in the inventory atm. I'm sure I could really back date this A1 into something that would work in a fictional environment. 

Many thanks, you-da-man Stik!  If I would have went guessing I would have gotten all sorts of wrong.  I managed to get a little paint onto my T-72, next will be a coat of sand on the M1.  I’m not modeling any specific M1 so just going with the MERDC preference of Winter US & Europe Verdant.

That Clancy novel is "Red Storm Rising". Probably my favorite of his works. The M1s in there are from the 11th ACR at the Fulda Gap area of West Germany. The story is set in Summer 1987 if my time reference deductions are correct. At that time M1s were in the overall Forest Green, although the 11th was known for field applied camo schemes with mud or whitewash as needed. Also that was about the time that the IP M1 was coming into field service, so that would not be a stretch to model. The IP M1 shared many features of the M1A1 but still retained the 105mm main gun.

What would be the fun in that? lol

I've got a Tom Clancy themed "what if?" M1A1 I've been dinking around with, but haven't touched in about 9 months. I forget which book it was in, but there was a major tank battle between us and Russia in eastern Europe in the early 80's. There was no M1A1 at that time, but we all know how war makes upgrades show up sooner than they do in peace time.

I've even modelled a few old ETO tricks from WWII into the build. But its a "meh" kind of build. It's pretty much straight kit and a few scratch built do-dads that don't really impress.

Anyways, thank you again. :)

M. Brindos

Looks like I'm going to have to repaint my M1. lol

Thanks for the pattern!!  :D

 

You're welcome...

you could always go with how most M1s were painted in the 80s... solid overall 34079 Forest Green. 

Looks like I'm going to have to repaint my M1. lol

Thanks for the pattern!!  :D

OK, my scanner is down, the desktop that I use for uploading photos from my digital camera is down, so I went with a weak alternative- cell phone camera, directly uploaded to photobucket (Lord I despise that site since they went all new age).

These are the official MERDC patterns developed for the M1 back in 1980 or so and published in an IPMS Quarterly from that year. The colors are referred to as 1, 2, 3, & 4. The black shadow color is obvious as are the light color highlights. But the two prime pattern colors will need you to compare with color photos for the various schemes (Gray Desert, Spring Temeperate, Fall Temperate etc.) to see which is which of those.

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Apologies for the sideways views... apparently the edits  that I made to PB dont want to stay... like I said I despise that site....

anyways hope these patterns work for you

Try this one.

http://www.cybermodeler.com/armor/m60/m60_all.shtml

Stik, that would be awesome, many thanks for the assistance.

M60_tanker, no joy on that site either.  And to add insult to my intent, I have an 1/72 M60 inbound that I plan to do in the NATO tri-color.  For the laundry list of schemes listed for the M60 on that site none are of the NATO tri-color.  No big deal for now as the M60 kit has not yet arrived.  Figured it would look interesting to have a MERDC finished Abrams alongside a NATO finished M60.

This is my first post here on this site. Try this sight for your patterns.

http://www.cybermodeler.com/references.shtml

Yes I found the pattern in one of my old IPMS Quarterly issues. Winter 1980 to be exact... Now if I can get the drawings scanned, I will get them up here for ya...

OldGoat, I was able to find some doing image searches but nothing with detail on the pattern.  Looking through the link I was thinking I may be able to get away with overlaying another vehicle’s pattern such as an M109 (or MLRS- something big & boxy looking) over the M1.  Since there is not much available that may keep the rivet counters at bay.

Stik, that would be awesome.  I looked at some schemes for the M1’s cousin, the South Korean K1 but the scheme doesn’t jive well with US MERDC patterns – just eyeballing it anyway.

And the kit primed and ready, with a T-72 in the same state and a T-55 a bit further behind.  Their progress is inverse to their order of purchase.  The T-55 started this little 1/72 section of armor shelf squatters.

I think I have the original M1 MERDC pattern in an old IPMS here, but not sure how I could get it to you. Let me check on it.

https://sites.google.com/site/merdccamo/home

Not a lot on the M1, but MERDC Photos III I believe have some Abrams examples.