The Official M1 Abrams Group Build 2011

I'm almost finished except for the 7.62 machine gun. I can't seem to get the barrel straight. For that one thing I'd be taking pictures tomorrow and posting them, that's all I have left. I've added all the storwage stuff and weathered it for Iraq

What should I do?

Mike,

I hear you about the hubs, I reckon they'd only appear shiny and black straight after washing. Drive cross country for a few minutes and they'd be coated in dust.

It's interesting that the MRS is moulded to the muzzle tip. Granted, it is an older kit though. Every other Abrams kit that I'm familiar with has it as a separate part (including Tamiya's own M1A2 kit).

Hi guys --

Phil H -- thanks for the points. On the oil level clear caps, there seemed no way to make them look clear, I considered gloss coating them to look like plastic but with all the dust on the tracks it seemed most straightforward to just let them 'be dusty.' Re the MRS, Tamiya molded it solid with the barrel so there's no opportunity to adjust the fit. And the smoke grenade launchers -- yes, they could do with a wash. I usually paint them black but on checking my refs the throats of the cast aluminum units are the same color as the exterior, but the illusion of depth would certainly be enhanced by a dab of diluted oils.

GD -- awesome! I think you have the best of the build, and I sooo must put a Dragon together one of these days!

KC -- the barrel of my 7.62 snapped on the sprue, I used a spot of gel superglue and added it right back on, (after all painting was done), and luckily I managed to get it completely straight. Give it a go, it might work!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Bad news!!

I just discovered my 7.62 machine gun barrel is broken in half. I have both pieces but I doubt they will ever be straight. What do i do now? All I have is another 50 cal but I don't know if that will work.

This might be the end of my model if I can't make it work.

I'm intent on finishing this tank before Dec. 31st! My biggest hurdle right now is how to arrange all the stowage stuff.

Here is the hull front. I love Echelon decals.They're so thin, and easy to use, but not too thin that they break apart.

Here's pics of the turret. Pardon the shine on some of the parts, I haven't sealed the turret yet with dull coat.

I love the fact that the commander's cupola can rotate 360 degrees. I should do this to my Tamiya Abrams.

Some of the rails on the turret broke, I glued them back, but they looked bent. But oh wells, they're gonna be covered with gear.

Here's the Tamiya crew. They look quite good. Great combat poses, and the faces are very expressive. Wish they came wearing nomex suits though. I also drilled the antenna base mounts and inserted a stiff wire in them, for added strength. Stretched sprues kept breaking. :(

I added a little strip of PE for the handhold for the commander's hatch.

Here's the turret APU. I'm gonna put decals on them later tonight.

CIPs. It's awesome that Dragon would supply stiff stickers as the CIPs.

So politically incorrect, but that just adds to its awesomeness.

Last couple of pics.

Later on tonight, I'm gonna have to add some decals, paint the M240, weather some parts, and paint all the gear.

Beautiful tank, Mike. :) It's funny because I bought *another* Tamiya Abrams for the sole purpose of building it as a ODS Abrams, because of your build. Your tank reminded me how awed I was as a kid, as I saw Abrams rushing through the Iraq/Kuwaiti desert, like they owned the place. :)

Looking good Mike, I like the light weathering so far.

Just a couple of little detail points.

The outer hub on the roadwheels and idlers are oil reservoirs and are made of clear plastic so the oil level can be inspected. These appear dark, though they could be covered in dust. This is how it appears when clean http://svsm.org/gallery/m1a1abramsjh2/DSC08861

The little part above the muzzle is the muzzle reference sensor. It's difficult to tell from the camera angles, but it appears that you may have mounted this parallel to the barrel. This is actually slightly offset and is aligned to the gunner's primary sight window. The gun sight computer can use the MRS to compensate for barrel deflection caused by uneven heating (eg. wind cooling the barrel on one side but not the other)

You may consider a darker wash in the bores of the smoke grenade launchers and the co-ax mg to enhance the appearance of depth.

Looking forward to seeing it when you have dusted her up a little and loaded up some stowage.

I'm happy to say this beast has passed the finish line with a few days grace!

She's as done as she's going to be at this time, baring that one decal that needs either finding or replacing, and some reliable clear flat to take the shine of the decals, then some final dust.

Bring on the pics:

Scratching the antennae was easy, tying knots in spandex thread was not... It took three goes to tie down the tall mast, and most of an afternoon of fiddling.

I'm not really happy with the way the periscopes came out, they're better than the bits of clear plastic supplied in the kit, but they don't look terribly convincing. I must find a better method...

Cheers, thanks for looking, and thanks for taking part in the Abrams build this year. If there's interest and folks want to take another shot, I'd be very happy to host another Abrams GM in the future; and of course, those still building are welcome to take all the time they need to finish.

I promise some badges very soon!

Mike/Thunderbolt379

Looking really good, you guys!

GD -- absolutely soo-poyb! This is going to be a bad boy you can really be proud of! Looks like we're finishing neck and neck!

I wanted to build the Tumpeter HA as well but I'm out of time... I might do it next year for the hell of it, I have a M981 FISTV waiting for NATO camo, and I wanted the HA in the same scheme so i could do them as companion paint projects. Hmm, I'm also in the market for an M60A1 w/ ERA in ODS sand as a companion to my Abrams -- I need a GB for it!

Cheers, M/TB379

Almost finished with the hull. All I need to do is add the front and tail lights.

I finally decided on "Crusader 2", mainly because it was the only Abrams in the Echelon sheet I have that had the turret APU. Although I really would have liked to have chosen a tank that had chevron markings. :(

Tracks and bottom hull. I didn't worry too much about the hull bottom and just gave it some rudimentary shading because well, I'll hardly ever see it.

I'm quite pleased by this Dragon kit. Highly detailed, and it even has a better fit than the Tamiya Abrams!

Up next is the turret.

Your Abrams looks great. :) Looks like you're gonna be able to meet the year-end deadline. Can't wait to see your tank all finished!

PS: Thanks for the info. I may have to track down that Verlinden set on Ebay. :)

GD -- sorry I didn't reply, my webmail has changed format and blocks me from seeing material low in messages -- GRR! Great progress, looking good. In answer to your question, the only standard rack kit I recall was done by Verlinden as an M1A1 upgrade for early M1 kits and is long OOP. But there is a rack extender kit on the market, for the secondary stowage rack added behind the normal one -- I wish I could remember where from...

Promised pics at last:

This is as the decalling process was getting underway.

More decals on, and some stowage sprayed NATO green to break up the sand a bit (materiel flown in from Europe, perhaps, and not yet repainted...)

And a closeup on the weathering at that point.

As of today she is almost finished. All decals are on, baring the one that flew away when I was cutting the sheet, never to be seen again. I also can't locate my Verlinden rubdown sheet, and I'll need that to replace the missing company ID. The Echelons went on beautifully but are rather shiny, as I've found with them in the past, so I'm holding off doing final dust until I can see about a decent acrylic flat to overcoat those panels.

I mounted the second MG and scratched the antennae today, but the black acrylic is not drying as fast as it might, and I'm not happy with the finish, I might pick up some black enamel and repaint them, though that can be done after they're mounted. Mounting will probably be tomorrow, I can dust the tires, and call this animal finished as far as she's going to be at the moment.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Sorry for neglecting this build, but I have finally had some time to work on this kit. :)

Started working on the tracks. This is the thing that made me drop the kit and build something else for a while. It's a very tedious process, with no clear advantage since half of the tracks is gonna be covered with the ballistic skirts.

In fact, I bought the Tamiya kit just to use its tracks and accessories, but decided to persevere and just use Dragon's tracks.

I'll probably just build this Tamiya kit as a Marine OIF gun tank.

Roadwheels and sprockets are all primed and ready for paint.

I foolishly followed Dragon's instruction when assembling the tow hooks (?)  Not only are they positioned incorrectly, but looking at pictures, I don't think these are used often.

Gonna paint this gun tank tonight. Btw, does anyone know if any aftermarket companies sell stowage racks? This kit only comes with one water rack, and I believe a lot of 3ID tanks have at least two of those.

I may have to get mine cranked up again, it's soooo close.....

Good work guys.  I'm going to get mine out and finish it before the end of the year.

I made some progress today, sprayed the minimal stowage supplied in the Tamiya kit, mounted the Browning and put most of the decals on. The Echelons go on very nicely. The instructions indicate that the battalion numbers go on the topmost inclined surface of the rear plate above the engine grills but all my references suggest they go on the next inclined surface down -- but I can't get a clear look at the rear end of an ODS-era Abrams... Anyone have any ideas about that?

New pics soon. The GB is due to end at the turn of the year but, as always, an overrun is very welcome for those who would like to finish and claim a badge (which reminds me, badges are needed!)

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Engine deck looks great.

Today's progress was to more or less complete the oil weathering by dirtying up and scratching the flank armour, bow and tail, doing the engine grills with black wash, painting the commander's periscopes, and washing the central exhaust grill preparatory to a pigment job to create the heat stain/burning often seen. The head and tail lights are now painted also and I've been fiddling with the MGs.

I managed to get an oily stain on the engine deck that wasn't meant to be there, yet it looks random... I'll decide whether to remove it after I've looked at it a bit more.

Four periscopes to scratch and paint, grenade launcher an towcable to remount after they fell off, MGs and ammo cans to do, then I'll be ready for decals.

M/TB379

Thanks RBaer! I'm using an Echelon sheet, she'll be "Atlas" of Tiger Battalion, tact board # 81. Not far to go and I'll be giving the decals a dip...

M/TB379

Looks the part! What's in the plans for markings, or did I miss that?

I've finally managed some bench time, and done the second round oil wash on everything but the skirts, and manged to forget them!

Now she looks battered and weather-worn, in the worst the Gulf can throw at her! Now, some more muck on the skirts, then I'll mount the cables and look at the MGs, finish the detail painting and start thinking about the periscopes. My stowage accessories pack is in the bottom carton of a stack of five in my stash, so it won't be coming out this side of moving house... Not sure what to do, maybe buy some new stowage!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Progress over the last couple of days -- first the main hull with fade and shade coats on, these were mixed using he Acryl base colour and tints of Tamiya Acrylics, XF-2 White and XF-64 German Red-Brown respectively, and thinned way down to mist on. The gun barrel and turret were also treated separately, and the barrell is shown here with the first round oil wash weathering done:

Next, the turret, first round wash done:

Then I handled the running gear, oil wash to start with, then a few flecks of bright rust and some bare metal, done in enamels (bottom rank done, top rank in basecoat):

And finally, running gear mounted:

The treads are loose so I can unmount them if I decide to do any more to the suspension, though there's precious little to be seen. The tires look pretty stark against the tread blocks, if Mig pigments don't reduce the starkness acceptably I can unmount the wheels and give them a quick spritz with the ultra-thinned Buff.

Plenty to do yet, head and tail lights, periscopes, tow cables, intakes and exhausts, smoke gren orifices, antennas, decals, stowage, dust... Getting there one job at a time.

Cheers, thanks for looking, Mike/TB379

Hi Chris -- I'm sure it would, it's basic spraywork, brush the rubber areas, overspray again, and pinwash and drybrush to finish off. Check out my tute at http://worldinminiature.blogspot.com and if you can a) unmount the indies safely, and b) get around the curved sections with enough elbow room to get a small brush inside for the pads, it should work fine.

Cheers, M/TB379

PS: Did the shade and fade coats today, this beast is moving along!

Thunderbolt379

Hope you find what you want at a decent price, RBaer.

A bit more progress to report -- the tracks are done, they took some days as the repetitive nature of the process is somewhat tedious. See my blog (address in my sig line) for a workshop on the method -- suffice to say it takes six stages and was done mostly in Tamiya Acrylics...

The dusty look of the rubber is a bit more pronounced in real life than it appears here, and was done with an overspray of well-thinned Buff. Next, the state of play as of this morning:

Those tracks are beautiful, I'm inspired to take mine off and redo them.  Would your method work for indy links?

Great work on the Abrams, Mike!    I really like the look of your tracks!

I've got the Dragon M1A2 SEP on my To-Do List.  I'm working on the Trumpy up-armored BMP-3 right now and have the Tamiya M2A2 Bradley ODS awaiting detail work once HobbyTown gets more Tamiya acrylics!

Looking good, Mike. I like the tracks, and I too have had issues with M1 side skirts.  I'm still wrapped up in the IDF project, M1 is close by.....

Re: the UK, I wanted to ask what YOU had in  mind - I was there a couple of years ago.

Hope you find what you want at a decent price, RBaer.

A bit more progress to report -- the tracks are done, they took some days as the repetitive nature of the process is somewhat tedious. See my blog (address in my sig line) for a workshop on the method -- suffice to say it takes six stages and was done mostly in Tamiya Acrylics...

The dusty look of the rubber is a bit more pronounced in real life than it appears here, and was done with an overspray of well-thinned Buff. Next, the state of play as of this morning:

The next major job was to attach the skirts, and this was a PITA -- for some reason the parts fit perfectly when you dry-fit them, and as soon as you add glue they don't want to know about it. I tried fitting them before painting but they wouldn't have it and I lost patience. This time I cleaned up mating areas with a knife and used gel superglue as well as liquid cement and they seem to have accepted that their new home is on the sides of this beast. Here's the job as it stands right now:

Next, check for needed reinforcement of the skirts while I have access from underneath. Yes, the idler wheels are in place behind the skirts, and yes, I had to pry the front ends free to mount them, on both sides (real ability to hold onto details, eh...) Next step, fade coat on the top surfaces, subtly done, and maybe a shade coat on the underworks, to the same degree, then I can get to the pinwash. The MGs are underway as well.

I considered doing a dust coat on the roadwheels to match the track pads and blocks, but photographs suggest the roadhweel tires retain a darker appearance than the rubber they are in contact with, so I'll let a little Mig powder suffice on that score.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Watching still......

Gonna hit some hobby shops in the UK? Bovington? I had an opportunity to spend a day at Bovington two years ago, had to be sweet-talked out of the place by my wife and her English cousins, something about pubs in Poole......

Hi all,

Back again -- I spent the middle two weeks of this month in England and have just managed to get my head around a project. I just put the main ODS sand onto my M1A1 and it looks pretty good. I used MM Acryl and hosed on three mixings before I started to encounter tip drying, which is not bad. But for a couple of touchups, the main colour is now done.

Before I headed off to the UK I made a bit of progress, scratching the Z-springs and the crew heater drain, and masking the turret rotation ring, here are the pics:

From this point, I dismounted the wheels and tracks (which latter will be sprayed separately), and hosed on the main shade, which as it happens Tamiya matched near-perfectly with the colour of their plastic. The Acryl went on evenly and seems to have laid down very nicely.

Next, oil pin-wash all details, mask and spray the mudflaps, work up the stowage, paint the topside MGs, work up the periscopes, attach the skirts and accessories... WIP pics soon.

Cheers, Mike/TB379