The worst part of the kit is the barrel.  It is way too short and hugely exagerated in its diameter, esp. the bore evacuator.  You should really get an AM barrel for it.  You need to look for an M256 barrel.  With the kit barrel it will look very toy-like.

By the way, there is no hyphen in the name.  It is simply an M1A1.

Don't bother with clear plastic. Fill the vision ports in with styrene and paint them black.

GMorrison

Don't bother with clear plastic. Fill the vision ports in with styrene and paint them black.

 

Agreed.  Then paint a couple coats of clear red and a couple coats of clear gloss over them and they will look like the correct anti-laser film coated optics that the real tank has.  The optics should not be clear.

SB,

I'll be following along! Looking forward to this build!

And isn't it awesome having Gino around for all the technical information!

Nice! So it might not be up to current standards but you've got the kit so you might as well build it while correcting the most obvious issues, thanks for letting us follow along. 

silentbob33

I looked into getting an AM barrel and unfortunately it's not in the budget for now. I have the OIF Academy Abrams in the stash, so I'll save up and get it when I build that kit... 

Actually, in the "Iraq 2003" Academy kit, there is a new sprue that has a corrected barrel and a bunch of other updated parts that make it a pretty good kit in the end.  It is almost worth getting the kit for just the new "J" sprue, almost.  It still has the bigger problems of a too short turret (as all Academy Abrams do since the turret is a copy of Tamiya's original M1 kit and never corrected for an M1A1) and the old style T156 chevron-block tracks that have not been used since the early '90s.

Progress has been a little slow.  It seems like every little part has some kind of ejector pin mark on it.  It's a long processs getting them all filled in and sanded.  I have the turret just about done, all I really have to do is the basket along the sides and back.

These are the styrene blanks I put in for the optics.

Looking good so far.  The blanks on the optics look great.  One thing you may want to adjust is teh smoke launchers.  They should point up at about a 45 degree angle. 

She's looking good Bob! I know what you mean about injection pin marks, AFV Club kits seem to be covered in them. 

OK, finally some progress to show.  It was incredibly tedious filling and sanding all the ejector pin marks on almost every single piece of the brackets.  Each piece had between 2 and 4 marks.  I took a good look and I don't think I see any more on any of the other pieces.  I also attached the upper and lower hulls together.  I didn't bother filling in any blank areas since they won't be seen once everything is together.  Hopefully next week I'll be able to get some painting done.

Since I last posted I've gotten paint on the tank, wheels, and tracks.  I still need to do some drybrushing for the details though.  I also got some bits and bobs put on and gloss coated and applied decals.  This is taking me way too long.  Part of it is that I put off painting all those wheels and the tracks, it's way too repetitive for me.

Hey Bob, she's looking good! 

And nice work on the tracks, I airbrushed a Sherman's treads years ago and then brush painted all the exposed metal bits. Never again! I've cheated and just airbrushed the whole blasted things with a muddy brown from that point on. 

Btw: I paint my wheels dark rubber grey and then use a circle template from the art store to mask the wheels and spray the centers. 

SB,

Looking good! Coming together nicely! Looking forward to seeing this M1 finished.

Hey Bob - 

Looking great sir, and I really like your idea for painting the rims. Using a circle stencil, great idea. I will be here watching and I hope you enjoy the build.

Thanks Hunter! 

I did a pinwash and I really like how it turned out.  Unfortunately I ran out of dullcote and I won't be able to pick any up until after the weekend.  Barring anything unfortunate I should be done by the end of the month.

Cool Bob, hope we've lured you over to the 'dark side' to stay! 

Its looking good so far.  A couple pointers.  The 3/4 circle ring that the loader's M240 mount sits on should be steel (gunmetal) as well as it is unpainted to allow the mount to slide around on it.  Also, black paint in all the openings on the smoke grenade launchers makes them look better by giving the illusion of depth as the openings are actually the length of the launcher, not shallow as the part is molded.

Well, she's done.  I didn't weather it too much because I built it for my brother and he wanted a pretty clean build.  I had an OK exerience with the kit.  Most parts fit together well enough except for the side skirts.  It was also really annoying filling the gazillion sink marks all over every small part.  Here is A-66 of the 3rd Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armor Division in Operation Desert Storm.

This was a little bittersweet for me as this will be my last build until we are able to sell our current house and get moved into a bigger home.  I'll still be lurking around here until I can start building again.

Very nice work.