In your opinion?
Best one currently out is a tossup between Dragon’s current M1A1s and the newer Tamiya M1A1/A2 kit. Here is a side-by-side comparison, by Vodnik, to help you decide.
I personally prefer the Dragon kits. They may not fall together like Tamiya’s, but they have finer detail and features that Tamiya left off, like no-slip coating.
Dragon’s soon to be on the market M1A1 AIM will blow all the current ones away though. If you can, I would wait till it comes out.
What he said. My four tanks were all different, it looks like the Dragon kit can model each of them with the exception of the decals. I note they even won’t make me scratchbuild the heatshields.
NTM
When will the newest Dragon kit be released?
Ahhh, that is the million $ question. Latest release date was late March. Nothing on the shelves yet. We shall see. Hopefully soon.
can it be kit bashed with the old usmc m1 kits to make a better marine m1a1?
Sure, all you have to do is add the USMC specific parts, smoke launchers, T-I Phone box on right rear, and MCD for OIF tanks, and you now have a USMC M1A1. M1A1 AIM already has the exhaust flange for the fording stack. Easy conversion.
Any AM engine sets that could be adapted to this kit? Those separate engine access panels just cry for a maintenance dio.
No idea which AM engines will fit. We will have to wait and see when the kit comes out. There was rumor that an undisclosed AM company was working with Dragon to do an interior and engine for it, but that has reportedly fallen through.