The Official M1 Abrams Group Build 2011

Progress pics -- I got all the tail end mods done, the retaining plates (no bolt heads yet, need some .020" rod...), lift lugs and replaced a bracket for the door hinges whose wedge-shape Tamiya missed:

Note also the drive sprockets with the mud holes introduced. Here's another look at the tail end:

With the tail light cast solid there's no opportunity to cut in the slots found on the real thing, though some rectangles of dark decal might suggest them -- or call attention to them. Anybody got any oppinions on that?

Next I filled the pesky holes in the belly:

I'm now at the point where I have to decide what mods I'm going to do to the rest of the tub. Correcting that plateau in the middle of the underside is not on, that's way too big an operation for a detail that's out of sight, out of mind, but... Rebuilding the idler assembly with tension piston looks doable, and I can scab on the laminate armour at least as far down as it's visible between the suspension units by the time the skirts are on. There's a fair bit to do there, and I can finish assembly of the turret while that's proceeding.

At this point, I'd like to ask if anyone has any sure-fix matxch/mix for ODS Desert Sand? is it either Armor Sand Fs 30277 or Sand 33531? Was it a shade developed specifically for the Gulf? This is what I'm remembering... I'd prefer to work in acrylics, and I've heard a decent equivalent can be mixed from Tamiya Buff and White... I'd appreciate any input!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Thanks, RBaer -- well, they sounds pretty good! And they'd be the right tracks for the HA and later, I'm tempted to order them up!

You can buy Tamiya parts, such as through Time Tunnel in England (Google them, I couldn't find the link...) but it turns out tracks are an expensive element of a kit. I'll be paying ten pounds for a track set for their T-72 so I can finally finish that Zvezda ex-Dragon with the shocking L&Ls... Does it have to be Tamiya? Trumpeter offer vinyl or plastic in their kits and IIRC they're T-158s, albeit a tad less accurate.

Cheers, M/TB379

TBolt, those are the tracks I used on one. Idon't know if they do the earlier tracks or not. Those I used only took a couple of hours to assemble, though. They're set up so the sprue is an assembly jig and they press together, very quick for link-to-link. I do use acrylic paints only on them as the pins are pretty small.

I need to so a little research on the turrets, see what I can come up with. I did lengthen the front of an Acad turret once to represent the thicker armor, but found it tough to maintain the correct profiles on the frontal armor.

The Acad kit tracks are pretty rough, so I'm on the hunt for the Tamiya bigfoot tracks for the other one.

It just seemed like a good idea at the time to do two at once, especially since they've both been in the stash for a couple of years, at least........

Thunderbolt379

KC and cyeargin -- thanks for your observations on the antiskid! The Coast Guard inspects military transpoprt ships???

Mike/TB379

Mike, we work as advisors with the Army transport guys to do safety inspections of hardware prior to it going on a ship to go overseas or after it comes off a ship and before it is put on a truck or train for it's trip back to it's home fort.

Mind? Welcome to the brigade, agentg! Updating p1...

Mike/TB379

RBaer -- looking good! There's something about an unpainted tank chassis with running gear that is 'latent with promise," and that always gets the enthusiasm going! I have the same Hobbycraft boxing of Trumpeter's HA on the way, it was a steal on eBay. Yup, got the accessories pack too!

Are these the AFV Club Bigfoot tracks you're using? http://www.greatmodels.com/~smartcart/cgi/display.cgi?item_num=AFV35012

Do you know if they make a T-156 track as well??? And any clue if they make a vinyl T-156? I'm not a fan of tracks that take several days to assemble...

To backdate the Academy M1A1 turret to IPM1 format may be as simple as casting out an L-7 gun. I did the mods the other way round starting with a Tamiya M1 (early) adding a Trumpeter bustle rack and scratching the 4" of extra armour on the frontal plates, plus shortening the gun to compensate for the change in the relative rotation point of the pivots. FSM bought the article over three years ago but I don't know if it's ever been published!

Cheers, M/TB379

You guys are really moving along! I got to the bench the other night (what happened to A&M?) and knocked out two sets of road wheels and tubs. I've had these Acad kits for a while (gifts) and thought why not do one for this GB and another for the heck of it. I'm going to use the Trump turret for the -A1, but does anyone know off the top of their head if the Acad turret is usable for maybe an early M1IP?  I've got buddy that commanded one in Korea, and he has a few pics......

Anyway, I also found a set of Eduard PE in one box, forgot all about it! So, two Acad M1A1's, a Trump M1A1, Eduard PE, and a set of AFV club tracks. BTW, anyone have an extra set of the Tamiya bigfoot tracks they're not going to use?

Progress so far:

I also found these:

Never hurts to really dig through the stash.....

He's right about the garp handle, it clearly show in the like of the 4 different models I posted on the first page. I filled my holes up and will gule it in the right place later before painting.

One good thing is the Voyager PE set incules the wipers so I'm safe there.

I also messed up the bolts in the wheels but it wasn't that bad.

Hi Frank, thanks for the link, another very useful reference. Armed with the kind of info happening here it would be possible to build a largely accurized Abrams if one's skills were up to the mods. The ol' fingers are a bit happier today but doing the other sprocket will entail using pinvice and unmated drill chuck for the larger size bit! Unfortunately I scabbed off all four bolts... I could dab in a bit of dried mud to hide it, but that would mean slathering mud elsewhere to be consistent and I hadn't planned on that. Ah well...

I'll have to double check on that grab handle, I never noticed it was incorrectly placed. The Z-springs are an easy addition from wire, as is the square lift bracket at the front of the skirts from brass. Wiper blades on the drivers pericopes? I was thinking of doing something more solid than the clear film supplied in the kit, I've done two Tamiya M1s in the past and have always thought that was the weakest part of their engineering. I'll check refs and see what the periscopes actually looked like, and maybe build something in styrene from below...

KC and cyeargin -- thanks for your observations on the antiskid! The Coast Guard inspects military transpoprt ships???

Cheers, should have pics later,

Mike/TB379

My duties with the Coast Guard inspecting military cargo on occasion brings me in contact with full-sized Abrams, and one interesting thing I've noted regarding the anti-skid is that it can vary tank-to-tank, especially on the front of the hull, in the degree of roughness of the texture. Wish I could provide photos to show what I mean, but taking pictures during outload ops is frowned upon, LOL

I wish I had seen that diagram, I went with what I saw on the other models in the link I first posted with the 4 different models of the Abrams. I tried to copy what the other companies models had in their build in anti-skid.

One thing I have seen in real life that's wrong in the diagram is those 6 covers in the back, they DO have anti-skid on the top of them. You can see it in some of the pictures of real Abrams in Iraq.

Mike- Not sure if those earlier Abrams' had the anti-skid coating, but if you like here's a page from Armorama on adding it (including a diagram of where it is applied):

M1 Abrams anti skid

I also added the lightening holes in the drive sprockets, and know what you mean about the sore fingers and nicked hub details.  I got lucky and only really damaged one bolt head on one side.  It was quite nerve-racking actually!  Also added the missing lifting lugs on the rear hull.  A couple of other things that Tamiya either missed, or put in the wrong place was the grab handle on the left front side of the tank (wrong position) and the Z-shaped springs for the front fenders on the top front.  Another quick addition is the wiper blades over the front of the drivers hatch periscope.  On mine, I just used two tiny strips of styrene to replicate it.  HTH!

Thanks, KC -- looks good! That brand name doesn't ring a bell, I don't think we have it here. I'll have to keep my eyes open for something that'll go on rough but even...

I had hoped to post more progress tonight but I had an attack of AMS and decided to introduce the mud holes in the drive sprockets. I drilled through in four places, then opened them out with a file to an oval shape. Easy to write but after half an hour or more I have one sprocket done and very sore fingers. The holes are not perfect but not bad, the downside is the tip of the file whacks detail on the wheel hub... I'll do the other tomorrow, along with adding some missing lift lugs and a couple of retaining plates on the rear end, which I spotted as missing while studying the Verlinden book today. It's amazing, I studied it hard when I did the IPM1 about four years back, but still missed a lot of details.

Cheers, M/TB379

I used Rust-Oleum Textured for my anti-skid coating. You can get them at Wal-Mart.

They sure do, Frank! And the ease of building means the project goes in a flash. To do this kit OOB, from slitting shrinkwrap to final decals would be a weekend job! I've been using Vodnik's site to check the parts step by step and on balance Tamiya tend to be as or more accurate than the others, though a few areas are particularly lacking, such as the track tensioner. i think I've worked out how to do that from scratch, I'll post details soon...

Speaking of tracks, I checked out the Armour track workable T-156 set, and it's out of stock at many outlets, there is some suggestion it was out of production for a while. The cheapest price I could find at a place in Aus where it's still listed, is also three times what I gave for the kit, so I find myself thinking maybe I could live with the inaccuracy of the kit tracks, given, once again, that Tamiya have the most accurate of all the "wrong" detail (and absolutely nobody got the tracks right in the box, vinyl or plastic!)

I'm making up a list if items to modify or scratchbuild, basically the list from my IPM1 plus extras, but I'm drawing the line at anything which is completely hidden behind the side skirts, I don't have AMS at the moment... Eg., the tensioner would be visible, but the dodgy return rollers would not be...

Does anyone know if the antiskid coating was applied to early -A1s built in the late 1980s? Any recommendations for how to apply it? (Frank, I'll take a look back at your prior work shots, I remember you had a coating...)

There may be a few scratched details to go on the rear end, I can drill the towing lugs through, my target for today would be these points plus make up the drive sprockets and mount them, and do some serious thinking about the tensioner. I'm thinking maybe design and build the new parts before sawing away the spurious stuff, that way if the scratched parts don't turn out I can go OOB without weakening the idler attachment points.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Change of plans guys. Instead of doing a M1A2 I'm going to do a USMC M1A1HA from 2003.

Looking good there Mike!  I agree- those Tamiya kits, if not THE most accurate, sure do go together nicely.  And, they certainly LOOK like an Abrams on the shelf!

Right, my first WIP shot for this project:

Say what you like about Tamiya, they almost fall together by themselves. There are 26 used parts in that shot...

What's the deal with the APU? Not all M1A1s seem to have carried it, or at least not at all times... There are no -A1s with the APU in the old Verlinden Warmachines book, which I use as a main reference on early Abrams. The Echelon decals are for an ODS example, therefore a fairly early -A1, and as depicted on the sheet there is no APU on the rear hull. Anybody have any info on how it was used or not used???

Cheers, more soon, M/TB379

I made a start on my Tamiya M1A1 today, I had some spare time so I whacked some subassemblies together, stowage bins, APU, barrel, mantlet. I see there are plenty of details missing overall, the suite of mods I did for my IPM1 conversion will be applicable here (missing bolt heads, hinges, Z-springs etc) before I get to more ambitious stuff. I've been kicking around an idea for completely rebuilding the idler location point, basically cutting away the spurious detail, filling the slot, drilling a new hole for the axle if need be, then dressing it up, including the track tensioner piston... Let me think about that some more.

Pics tonight, I might have a turret to show you by then as well.

Cheers, MIke/TB379

Got my Dragon M1A2 Tusk II started; I loathe doing tracks and road wheels, so I'm starting with the turret. Turret body and main gun were assembled last night, and tonight I installed the Legend .50 cal Counter-sniper/Anti-material mount above the main gun. Pics to follow soon....

I'm in the same boat, sort of. More like a "looking for work" schedule, but will have something going soon, I'm sure. All the pieces are in place, plus a set of AFV Club tracks, so it's looking like I'll get going as soon as I get a T72 project in primer.

Sure looks like the rest of you are busy.......sweet.

sorry i havent posted anything yet guys...my work schedule is more than hectic.  will get something together soon. (i hope) :)

RESlusher -- good to see you on board, Page 1 is updated,

Cheers, M/TB379

Since we've got a full year to do it, I'll throw my hat into the ring!

I'm going to build the Dragon 1:35 M1A2 SEP.  For now it will be just done straight OOB; but I might pick up some goodies for it between now and completion!

Thought I might post this here. While doing some research on some other forums talking to Iraq vets I was offered a private tour of the M1A2 SEP and M1A2 TUSK tanks at Fort Knox. He said I could craw all around inside and out all I wanted. They are in the progress of shipping the entire div to Fort Benning, Ga. They will not have any tanks at Fort Knox any more. I'm going to try my best to get over there soon.

Hi KC,

The USMC doesn't use M1A2's.

I believe you can put the BRE on a "straight" M1A2. I don't know where this pic was taken but it seems to show a non-SEP M1A2 with the same type of BRE you have ordered.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/2008/08/m1a2.jpg

Note the EAPU in the bustle rack (not the VCU) and that this tank still has the left rear filler cap. I'm taking these to be indicators of an "early" M1A2, but I'm more than happy to be corrected)

A couple more questions.. Can I use a bustle rack extension on a straight M1A2 or should I leave it off? Or ever build a USMC M1A2?

Update, I might try to do it the way you last posted. I'll try that first and see how it looks then make up my mind.

Thanks!!

Kentucky Colonel

So is the C31 a SEP or not. Those photos were taken in April 2004.

I would presume so, as there are references indicating that 1st Cav began receiving M1A2 SEP's about mid-2001. Looking at the pics above, it's difficult to see any of the distinguishing features to positively identify it.

EDIT: Re the VCU, you could do it the easy way,  just scratch an approximate shape, then put a "tarp" over it and pile on a load of stowage. then all you'd need to do is add the armour for the VCU plumbing on the underside of the turret bustle. I'm almost sure I've seen diagrams of this. -even better, check Gino's M1A2 build pics here

Looks like they were SEP tanks. I guess I'll forget the Echelon decals and  go with a straight M1A2 and use the Tamiya decals. Unless I can find a after market VCU.

So is the C31 a SEP or not. Those photos were taken in April 2004.