I ordered my first modern armour kit today, an M1A1 with mine plow through Tamiya. Is this kit any good, or is the Dragon one better?
It depends on from when you want the tank to represent. The Tamiya kit isn’t too bad. It does not represent a modern one in OIF though. It is good for ODS (Operation Desert Shield/Storm, '90-'91) time frame, sort of. It has the older T-156 Chevron block track. This was replaced with the T-158 Bigfoot track before/during ODS. Also, the rear hull mounted APU is no longer used since about the mid-'90s. There is also no anti-slip coating on the hull and turret either. The DML one or the newer Tamiya M1A1/A2 OIF kits represent a modern, OIF M1A1 better. They still need some small items added to represent the most current versions.
Check out my article to read up on the lineage of the M1 Abrams (no “h” in the name, by the way) and its different versions.
http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=613