ARMOR - M1 Abrams Group Build

Great, can't wait to see it Martian.
I finished up my current project, rearranged and cleaned my workbench (it's kind of a ritual thing I do after I finish a model), and took out my Trumpeter M1A2. Is it ok with everyone if I start a little early? I was just thinking of clipping off some parts tonight and cleaning them up.

My Trump is in the closet calling me as well...I'll admit i put a coat of desert sand on the figs yesturday. I couldn't fight it no longer. So i had to get back to the little 1/48 Abrams.

Ok well no news is good news. I think I'll start the tank tonight, but it's probably the only work on it I'll manage to get done till mid week next week, so my time frame will balance out anyways :)

All Right,
My first group build I am actually going to participate in!
I got hooked up with a Tamiya M1A1 With Mine Plow
It looks fun.
I can't wait until monday, so can we change the start time to Friday???!! PLEASE!
oh ok I have regained control
Well, It looks like a lot of fun
Do you know of any major flaws with this kit though?
anything out of the ordinary thats easily fixed?
please tell!
Thanks all!

Maybe I can tide myself over by working on the lower hull-you don't see that much anyway------I can do roadwheels, then work on somthing time consuming-treads/tracks!

QUOTE: Originally posted by beav Do you know of any major flaws with this kit though? anything out of the ordinary thats easily fixed? please tell! Thanks all!

Check this link out http://www.elccweb.com/MissingLinks/Tweaks/M1.pdf
Hope this helps.

OH WOW
That stuff sounds abnormally complicated
gee
well thanks!

Well, I will be doing mine Out of the Box as usual and I will not bother making it accurate. I did however buy a Tamiya modern armor accessories kit (just a bunch of boxes, jerry cans and baggage) to spice up my M1A2 (Dragon).

I may start on Friday night, too (if I can have the time...) I have been saying to myself that I wil start early but never got the chance..

Anyway it's good that starting time is just around the corner.

Let's get ready guys and gals.

ARGGGGH! CANT STOP MUST START TOMORROW>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

sorry beav...i already had a head start lol
but don't worry... i just built my mre ration boxes for my M1A1-HA oif

Garry,

How's the Dragon M1A1-HA going? What can you say about the kit?

I........must........put.........some.........armor..............to.............gether!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going through withdrawal. but I do not like having more than 3 projects on the go at one time

ok well I jumped the gun and started mine last night, as I won't be able to work on it much next week.
As said earlier, I'm building the Trumpeter M1A2. Still not 100% decided on the paint scheme, but I'm edging closer to trying out the desert monotone camo. Anyways, I don't have a digi cam, so I'll just post updates here.
The plastic of the kit seems a little...weird...to me. It's texture feels different, and not at all pleasant, but insofar the kit's been going ok together. Last night I decided to put together the lower hull.
The kit obviously was meant to be motorized, but thankfully Trumpeter provide a little 'plug' to patch up the on/off switch hole. I placed this in and used Testors gap filling puttu (gray tube) to fill the gaps around. I'll sand tonight.
Clipped the wheels of the sprue and cleaned them up. There are 16 road wheels to assemble. All of the inwards facing hubs have 4 ejection pin marks, but due to the fact that they'll be almost completely (unless you look underneath and outwards, an unlikely thing) invisible, I did not clean them up. I did, however, take a bit of time to clean the seams that were quite apparent on some of the road wheels. Clipped, cleaned, and installed the road-wheel mounts. Parts A1 are a little stiff going in. Trumpeter has very nicely moulded rectangular blocks into the lower hull that greatly aid in properly aligning the mounts. I glued them all on, then tried the road wheels, and to my great surprise, they all touched ground.
Be careful when removing the drive sprockets, as they're attatched to the sprue in between drive points, so this will have to be CAREFULLY removed and cleaned. Also, the drive sprockets were meant to fit onto a hexagonal drive shaft (again, motorization) so you will have to use a sanding block to thin the mounting shafts for the drive sprockets.
I assembled the rear panel. The quality of the small piece mouldings was not the greatest, and I had to thin a lot of them out to be able to fit into their designated holes. At this point I attatched the rear panel to the lower hull. This went fine, and a little bit of pressing and releasing uniformely spread the glue. A nice strong joint resulted.
Anywhoo, all of this took about 3 hours of my time. So far everything is going well. With the lower hull all completed now, it's become quite apparent that this thing is a BEAST. When complete, it will definitely be the largest tank in my collection.
WHen others out there start their Trumps, fill us (me :) in on the details.

Dwight = just opened the plastic but haven't started cutting and gluing yet. lots of accessories but no figures. i just cut the ration boxes and the rubber accessories like the tarps, bed rolls and backpacks. looks really good. and as i've said earlier, the PEs are rusted. it has an interior but i'm not sure if it's fully detailed. i'll find out when we start. (or finish)

Hope you have more patience than I Zokissima, I ended up giving my Trumpeter to my friend and his kid. I will be attempting the Dragon M1A1-HA. Probably be a week or so before I start.

The Dragon M1A1-HA is a cool kit having built one. I don't know if all of these are exactly identical but based on my experience, just watch out for the following:

1.) There is some gaps between the joints of the upper turret and the lower turret. The gap is quite obvious just below the root of the gun. Try to dry fit the upper and lower turret before glueing.

2.) The railings at the side of the turret does not align perfectly with that of the bustle rack (?) at the rear. Some major corrections are necessary. Or if you have things to cover the railings where the alignment is bad then do so like spare road wheel, bags, etc.

3.) If your M1A1-HA comes with a driver...be sure to insert the before you mate the upper and lower hull. It is difficult to squeeze the driver in through the hatch. It means that the diver must be painted first prior to the mating of the hulls.

4.) The indy tracks have sink marks and parting lines. Cleaning is a must so as to guarantee good fit.

5.) The headlights guard are not exact mirror image (I am not sure of it is the case in the real tank) and some adjustments should be made.

6.) The operable panel in the side skirts must be trimmed a little bit inorder to have a good fit.

If your kit does not have the above flaws then consider yourself lucky.

Thanks for ruining my day Dwight. Wah. LOL

QUOTE: Originally posted by tigerman Thanks for ruining my day Dwight. Wah. LOL

My pleasure...

I love my Trump M1A1 Zokissma! I have all three suassemblies together. I my only major problems aligning the rear bustle rack to the side rails but they are fine now. The BIGGEST problem for me is the side skirts! i would recomment using a plastic weld instead of supper glue on them. The reason being is that the plastic weld dries in like 10 seconds and you don't need tape or some type of complex rig to kep them in place. If i used super glue it would have taken me forever to get those skirts right. But I used plastic weld on all my kits esp my sci fi ones. it melts the plastic and fills th seams all at the same time. However the drawback is that PW does not leave a lot of room for error. Once it's glued its glued!LOL I still have a VERY complex looking mine plow to go and i haven't attached all the hatches yet because I may have to paint them separately.

OK I'll go ahead of you guys.

I will try this thing (1/35 Dragon M1A2) over the weekend (tomorrow and Sunday)...kinda weekend project and see how far I can go with it. I have put aside the "Mayflower" that I have been working on lately for this one. I will build this OOB and with a nato 3-color camo. I will also put on some of the Tamiya modern tank accesories like baggages, ration boxes and jery cans as necessary. I used to do my kits fast and I would like to know if I can still do it.

I'll see you on Monday.

Thanks for the heads-up Martian. Most of the Trumpeter kits I've built, I've had problems with skirts, but thankfully, I just use all my old Lego blocks to construct jigs to hold in place :)
And I completely understand your worries about the rear bustle rack, as I thought this might give me some problems. How did you attatch to turret? CA glue or plastic cement?
Probably Sunday night I'll get around to building up the upper hull, then sometime during the week finishing up the turret. then it's on to basecoat, and filling and sanding...
:)

Does anyone, mostly you Dwight, have any good pics of the 3 tone NATO camo scheme?

QUOTE: Originally posted by zokissima Thanks for the heads-up Martian. Most of the Trumpeter kits I've built, I've had problems with skirts, but thankfully, I just use all my old Lego blocks to construct jigs to hold in place :) And I completely understand your worries about the rear bustle rack, as I thought this might give me some problems. How did you attatch to turret? CA glue or plastic cement? Probably Sunday night I'll get around to building up the upper hull, then sometime during the week finishing up the turret. then it's on to basecoat, and filling and sanding... :)

I notice most guys on the forum use CA glue or plastic cement on their kits. I never use either unless I need a "tacky bond". I started using Ambroid and Tennax plastic weld on my sci-fi and Gundam kits over the last three or four years. It's great on Gundams because it automaticly creates its own seam filler of plastic so it's easier to sand and blend and there is no residue becaue it evaporates in seconds! Though with most of the good stuff there are drawbacks. It's somewhat toxic based on the bottle warnings so use it sparingly. Also you don't want to spill it esp on your plastic parts or they're toast! Ambroid also now has a non-toxic weld that smells like the non-toxic Testor's plastic cement [like oranges]. Problem is it works okay but takes longer to set. Regular weld setsin approx 10 seconds! The non-toxic says 20 seconds on the bottle but it seems to depend on the plastic. I'd recommend trying the non-toxic first only because this way you won't get "spoiled" by the much faster time of the toxic. I've been using the toxic so long it's kinda hard for me to use the non-toxic but i'm trying to switch over!lol
Oh, i've also learned by accident that if you want your CA glue to cure faster put a small amount of Testor's plactic glue on one surface to be joined and just a little CA on the other. Put them to gether and it creates a strong bond in seconds! It's great when you are in a hurry! this would also make a great option on those skirts.

Hmm, I"ve never heard of mixing the CA and testors cement, but I'll give it a try.
I haven't seen tennax at the hobby shops I go to, so I'll have to ask the store owner if he can order some in or if he knows where to get some. To be honest, I do need something that sets fairly quickly for these kits, so I'll definitely give that a try.
Thanks!

Mixing the two cements was something i disovered totally by accident. Tennax and Ambroid are sometimes located totally separate from the other adhesives. At least they are in the local Hobby Town USA. Hobby Lobby has them in the same section. Hobby Lobby carries Ambroid and Hobby Town has both if you have either of these shops in your area. Ambroid and tennax work exactly the same IMO except that Ambroid is a little cheaper [approx $2.99 for a 1oz bottle]. It's farely large bottle for 1oz. Twice the size of a testors paint bottle.

here's the paint scheme so far on my 1/72 revell. it still needs a lot of work.

That is cool M1AbramsRules! what do you call it or what do you call the paint scheme? It looks menacing!

hmmmmm......... haven't christened it yet. I'll have to think about it.

I don't feel like naming a paint scheme........ somebody else do it. Captain Caveman came up with an awesome name for the scheme on jhulks e100. he called it Berlin Ambush.

Wow, I really like that
I think I'll maybe go for some scheme just out of my mind. Still have a couple of days to decide. Tomorrow I'm off to a show, so if I see something I like there, I'll probably try to replicate it.