Abrams II Group Build

Does this include variants on the M1 chassis?  Are What if's permitted?

Hi perman64 -- certainly, the Panther II, the Grizzly, anything on an Abrams chassis, and what-ifs are most welcome!

M/TB379

I'd like this. I'd enter... With a Dragon M1A1 AIM that I will be receiving it between August 14th to August 19th.

Welcome aboard Mikey, I'll get the Roll Call underway right now!

Mike/TB379

Hi Mike,

I'll enter with a Revell 1/72 M1A1 (HA) please

Cheers

Tony

Welcome aboard, Tony! M/TB379

Oh. I forgot about this. Sorry. Well I got my Dragon M1A1 AIM in today and let me tell you... it's crazy... The amount of detail put into that kit is astounding. Currently, I've completed the main gun and breech, and I've been working on the hull and suspension. I'm going to start paint tomorrow, mainly the road wheels so I can get the detail painting on that over and out of the way. I have some pictures but none of the main gun yet.

And now to wait and continue in the morn.

And now I have a picture of the main gun.

 I opted for plastic over metal because I though it'd be easier. And it was. Although it would've been nice to have a metal barrel.

Mike,

I'll do the AMT M-1 I have.  It should be a challenge.  If I get that done, I have the Trumpeter 5 in 1 kit.

Welcome to the battalion, Jim! have added you to the roll,

Mike/TB379

I painted most of the pieces between Saturday, yesterday, and today and got one of the photoetch pieces done:

Well....I guess I'll toss my hat into the ring, with the Academy 1/35 M1A1 Abrams (Iraq 2003) kit

Mikey -- great progress, I confess I'm most interested in the technique of painting the main hull parts on the tree, I've never seen it done but heard about it a few times. Great work!

Pyrman, welcome to the battalion!

Mike/TB379

All I did was take some (3 cans of paint. Still need another can to paint various pieces still unpainted.... like some finished PE) Model Master Modern Desert Sand #1963 FS33722 and spray the sprues. Sometimes I sprayed a bit too heavy and had to wipe off the paint and start anew but most of the time it worked well... I'm not an airbrush guy right now. Much bad luck with airbrushing. I also mixed my own colors for the .50 cal. and M240. I also have some Trumpeter M4A1/M4 w/ M203 (even though I meant to order the M4 RIS version) that I painted and sort of brush-weathered. This is what I came up with:

The M240 and M249 are a bit out of scale. They may be closer to 1/36-1/37 than 1/35 but they're Tamiya weapons.

Oh, I also finished the suspension and wheels assembly on the tank. I plan on starting the tracks, at least getting one dealt with, tomorrow.

Here's the Academy M1A1 Abrams (Iraq 2003) kit for this GB:

Here's the goodies in the box

this build is going be be primarily an OOB build with the addition of some Tamiya & Academy accessories added on.

Here's what I accomplished after spending 3-hours at my lhs last evening for the weekly build night:   

Nice progress! Good seam work, too, especially that back seam between body and stern plate, on the Tamiya kits it invariably needs filling. Academy based their basic kit on Tamiya's but might have corrected aspects like that. I look forward to seeing it come together!

M/TB379

Mike: thanks for the compliment.  What you can't see is that the rear plate is not as wide as the upper hull - I need to add some Evergreen strips.

Update: yesterday morning I managed to start on the turret.....look at all that putty!    the turret basket fitted, but not glued yet.  Now to go sand all that putty.

What happened to the turret that you need so much putty???

The Academy M1 is a copy of the Tamiya, to almost the last detail, and the Tamiyas always need a load of putty on the underside turret seam too... M/TB379

I finished the road wheel, drive sprocket, and suspension assembly. Tomorrow I'll work on the tracks, I'll probably only do one but one never knows.

 I started the tracks today, I finished the lower portion of one track, tomorrow... Well... Today... I will finish off 1, one, whole track.. I've actually gotten pretty O.K. at indy track. Gonna have to build more DML kits now. I also started the upper hull assembly. Unfortunately, I lost the M240B Pintle-mounted mg. I need to find a new one.

Thunderbolt379

The Academy M1 is a copy of the Tamiya, to almost the last detail, and the Tamiyas always need a load of putty on the underside turret seam too... M/TB379

Ah . Ok. I see now.

MikeyBugs95

What happened to the turret that you need so much putty???

Well seeing as I have begun to start slacking on the kit... Might as well post a small update: 

I have almost completed the turret. Probably about half way there? I need to know what to paint the electronics glass, though. The clear part that goes into the doghouse, I believe it is called..

The tracks are halfway finished. I just need to finish painting the other track and then a major block I've had will have been taken care of.

Here is the cupola and the other hatch on top of the turret:

I also completed the HVAC. Nothing special. Interesting to assemble though.

Now for all of the "correcting painting" that I needed to do, like where I missed with the spray or had to shave off when taking parts off sprue, I had to mix my own version of Modern Desert Sand... It's pretty close too. I was able to save some and mix more to put in a Testors 1/4 oz. jar for future use.\

Also, has anybody thought up a badge? Or has the GB leader been on recently?

Does anyone else have any updates?

After a short... Hiatus of sorts, I have an overdue update:

I'm finally get closer to the day that I may see this model kit finished. Now it may look like I didn't actually do much but believe me, I did quite a bit.

 The M2HB isn't actually glued down yet. I just have it fit in for now. I don't want to break it.

 Almost finished with one track; one quarter to go. Half way down on the other track.

 Turret so far. Little bit more to go.

 Almost finished the bustle rack subassembly. Sorry for lousy photo quality. And for the two sides, I used a rather... interesting tool to get that 90 degree angle for the end piece:

Not much happening in this particular clubhouse! I'm expecting my Trumpeter -HA to show up from China sometime soon and will rip into it smartly when it does!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

I'm still planning it Mike, I just need to get through some other builds first.  I might even change my build to 1/48 !

Cheers

Tony

pyrman64

MikeyBugs95

What happened to the turret that you need so much putty???

Uhm...nothing happened to the turret - it's the way the top and bottom are molded.  They don't fit well together - gaps and overhangs.  It took me almost an hour to get all that area (wet) sanded.

Do you know there is overhang between the bottom and the top of the turret on the actual vehicle? As you can see from this photo I took of one of my tanks, there is a noticeable overhang if you can see the tank up close.

And a photo of a display M1E1 at Fort Hood, Texas.

That will speed up building!

Rob -- thanks for the info! Amazing, all these years we've been squeezing parts and plastering in filler, and accusing the kit companies of having lousy fit in that area! Ahem!

:-)

Mike/TB379