That looks awesome Wing!! I havent done any scratchbuilding as of yet but its great to know that there is a ton of experience on the forum to steer me straight..lol.. again the tank looks great.

Looks great Marc!

I saw it in person last week,the pics don't do Marc's work justice. As in all his builds

John

Oh and I guess you ment me as the "member o the club"....lol

John

I like your project and your AMPS chapter's GB. All that fancy PE and scratch build stuff does slow down a build pace.

Looks great so far Marc,that rear rack gave me fits a few years ago

Great job Marc, love those PE racks despite the trouble they were to construct they're more than worth it.

And heck at this pace you're still moving faster than I do!

Man I just love the M1A1/A2's.  Such mean looking tanks in the Desert Yellow scheme.  I swear they are what a DAK Tiger I would be if it married and had kids and this was it's child!

Thanks guys.

Yes John... that would be you

Looking good.

Those storages are great, do you weld them?

Thanks garz... nope those are soldered.

Isn’t there an old saying, “Slow and steady wins the race”? WOW this is gonna be a long race. I got a few more bits and bobs added and I think I am actually closing in on a coat of paint.

With a choice of 2 types of drive sprockets there should have been the unused ones to use for the spare on top of the turret. My carpet monster must be a brazen little bugger and jumped up on my bench cuz they are gone. Stamped one of the sprockets in silly putty and made a resin cast to solve that one.

Hard to see in the pics but the tracks pads have been chunked up. The dark steel color is a mix of magnesium and jet exhaust Alclad II.

Nice work on the putty-casting Marc, Abrams is looking good!

Thanks Bill.

I love this forum...silly putty casting?...oh the tricks to learn

Looking very nice. Love the silly putty. Nice details

Rounds Complete!!

I never thought problem solving can get that silly.

Good thinking!

Thanks guys.

Hey Rob.  Old man? What are yiu talking about?  I am only.. oh crap...you're right...i am an old man.   My body turned 58 a couple of weeks ago.  The brain is still in the 30's though so i don't care about the other.

 AH, such a clever olde Dude.

All my previous attempts at pre-shading armor have failed. I am guessing that by the time you get 3 colors down on a Panther or Tiger the shading doesn't stand a chance. This being a single light color should work.

Marc, especially with sand color, pre-shade works nicely.....moving along nicely

Rounds Complete!!

Thanks Mike.  I got my fingers crossed.

hey Marc I've been away from here for a while .good to back and see your build .

looks like a great build!

and the PE racks are very nice.

can somebody explain why do M1 tanks need so many racks?

what do usually you put in additional rear bustle rack?

When I was in we kept all of our stuff on the tank when deployed. So all of the duffel bags (except maybe the one with winter gear in it during the summer) , ruck sacks, and wet weather bags for a crew of 4. Add on to that small arms ammo, camo tents, NBC gear, MRE's, water, water, and more water.

I didn't go to Iraq in 03 but I was in Kosovo in 99. I can tell you at least from that perspective there is never enough room in the racks. And we didn't have the extra add on racks you see here. We rolled in standard M1A1 configuration for the most part.

t-bolt

can somebody explain why do M1 tanks need so many racks?

what do usually you put in additional rear bustle rack?

This tank represents a tank from 2 BDE, 3ID during the invasion of Iraq in '03.  At that time, 2 BDE tanks had extra storage racks made in Kuwait since the tanks were from PrePositioned Combat Stocks in Kuwait.  The added racks were used to carry all the junk we carried since we were carrying everything we owned on our vehicles.  We looked like a bunch of gypsies. 

Usually, especially when operating from forward bases, the built-in stowage racks are suffuiciant to carry the little bit of gear you need for a day or two outside the base.  Like I said though, we were carrying everything we owned since we were invading.

Edit: Looks like ColdSteel beet me to it. 

Let's just say that the US GI is the most lavishly equipped soldier in the world- especially when going to war. Basic issue items- uniforms, underwear, socks, boots, etc. fill up almost one duffle bag. Unit issue items- field gear fill up the rest of that duffle bag and much of a second one. Mission gear completes that duffle bag and a rucksack/Molle pack, etc. any additional "comfort" items (cots, hammocks, etc.) a soldier picks up along the way just add to that.

Hey Carl… How’s it hangin”?

 Thanks for filling in and the answer to the one guys.  I knew they carried all thier stuff but is was still cool to read what it all actually is.  

Finally… PAINT!