I am working on an old ESCI 1/72 M1 Abrams. It is primed and ready for paint. Problem is, I want to finish the Abrams in a MERDC scheme but have been unable to find patterns for the Abrams. I’ve Googled and Binged and hit various other reference sites with no luck. The Tamiya site lists the old M1 kit that had MERDC scheme on the box as discontinued and does not have more info. I can find photos but that’s not enough for my OCD.
Does anyone have, and willing to share the patterns/layouts for an M1 in MERDC or know of a site where I could find the info?
OldGoat, I was able to find some doing image searches but nothing with detail on the pattern. Looking through the link I was thinking I may be able to get away with overlaying another vehicle’s pattern such as an M109 (or MLRS- something big & boxy looking) over the M1. Since there is not much available that may keep the rivet counters at bay.
Stik, that would be awesome. I looked at some schemes for the M1’s cousin, the South Korean K1 but the scheme doesn’t jive well with US MERDC patterns – just eyeballing it anyway.
And the kit primed and ready, with a T-72 in the same state and a T-55 a bit further behind. Their progress is inverse to their order of purchase. The T-55 started this little 1/72 section of armor shelf squatters.
Yes I found the pattern in one of my old IPMS Quarterly issues. Winter 1980 to be exact… Now if I can get the drawings scanned, I will get them up here for ya…
Stik, that would be awesome, many thanks for the assistance.
M60_tanker, no joy on that site either. And to add insult to my intent, I have an 1/72 M60 inbound that I plan to do in the NATO tri-color. For the laundry list of schemes listed for the M60 on that site none are of the NATO tri-color. No big deal for now as the M60 kit has not yet arrived. Figured it would look interesting to have a MERDC finished Abrams alongside a NATO finished M60.
OK, my scanner is down, the desktop that I use for uploading photos from my digital camera is down, so I went with a weak alternative- cell phone camera, directly uploaded to photobucket (Lord I despise that site since they went all new age).
These are the official MERDC patterns developed for the M1 back in 1980 or so and published in an IPMS Quarterly from that year. The colors are referred to as 1, 2, 3, & 4. The black shadow color is obvious as are the light color highlights. But the two prime pattern colors will need you to compare with color photos for the various schemes (Gray Desert, Spring Temeperate, Fall Temperate etc.) to see which is which of those.
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Apologies for the sideways views… apparently the edits that I made to PB dont want to stay… like I said I despise that site…
I’ve got a Tom Clancy themed “what if?” M1A1 I’ve been dinking around with, but haven’t touched in about 9 months. I forget which book it was in, but there was a major tank battle between us and Russia in eastern Europe in the early 80’s. There was no M1A1 at that time, but we all know how war makes upgrades show up sooner than they do in peace time.
I’ve even modelled a few old ETO tricks from WWII into the build. But its a “meh” kind of build. It’s pretty much straight kit and a few scratch built do-dads that don’t really impress.
That Clancy novel is “Red Storm Rising”. Probably my favorite of his works. The M1s in there are from the 11th ACR at the Fulda Gap area of West Germany. The story is set in Summer 1987 if my time reference deductions are correct. At that time M1s were in the overall Forest Green, although the 11th was known for field applied camo schemes with mud or whitewash as needed. Also that was about the time that the IP M1 was coming into field service, so that would not be a stretch to model. The IP M1 shared many features of the M1A1 but still retained the 105mm main gun.
Many thanks, you-da-man Stik! If I would have went guessing I would have gotten all sorts of wrong. I managed to get a little paint onto my T-72, next will be a coat of sand on the M1. I’m not modeling any specific M1 so just going with the MERDC preference of Winter US & Europe Verdant.
YES! BINGO! That’s what I was going for. Unfortunatly I have all sorts of things wrong about the model, but if I decided to get serious then I know I could count on you guys to guide me in the right direction.
That was the book I was thinking of, and it was late 80’s. I have more than a few 105’s in the inventory atm. I’m sure I could really back date this A1 into something that would work in a fictional environment.
The Academy M1A1 kit is supposed to be a good one to use to make an IP M1. It has the later turret features, but Academy forgot to add the extra armor of the A1 on the front. If you swap out the kit’s 120mm gun for the earlier 105, you’re in business.
If you are going for fiction, the sky’s the limit. If you want to model an M1 IP, you may not want to start with an M1A1. The IP was an improved M1 with a bustle rack added and a better transmission. The M1A1 has different turret boxes, ammo blow out panels and the provision for a Commander’s Independent Thermal Viewer to be added later for the A2 (looks like a man hole cover in front of the loaders hatch). just my 2 cents. T. Ellis
Yeah it’ll be fiction alright, but advancements in military technology are not fast enough to allow an M1A1 to be found in 1987. That’s stretching it a bit too far even for me.
I think I can get away with using the hull, but the turret… may need some modifications.
Perhaps a TC’s cupola change is in order as well. I will need to do some research on what was available and kit bash things from that era instead of goofy-fab’in up some excuse as to why my A1 has MERDC camo.
I think this needs more serious thought than I have given it.
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