Hi all, I’m back to model building again after a 4 week pause. Been buisy doing some major remodeling for when the in-laws visit this summer.
I kinda got bored with building WWII german wrecks so I decided to take a break and try some modern stuff for a while. I plan on building some T55 and T67 wrecks, but I’m starting with this M1A2 Abrams from Italeri that I picked up at Valleycon for ten bucks.
I have O knlowledge of modern vehicles so I won’t try to fix any inacuracies in this kit, it’s an OOB build. I mainly want to work on the painting using and mixing different techniques. I wasn’t very happy with the way my PZIV wreck turned out so I want to things like the salt and hairspray methods.
Here are a couple of pics of how I’ll be painting the Abrams. I’ll be using these and other pics a painting guide and am notdepicting any particular tank. This is a practice model before I start some T55’s.
I have started the model this past weekend and it’s about 90% done right now. It was to be a quick build but as with all Italeri kits there is a lot of clean up work and those darn ejector pin marks that drive me crazy. I’m not doing any major scratchbuilding or damage to this model, just a burned out tank. here is what it looks like so far.
I removed the wheel axles and made new ones to lower the tank. All you modern armor guys, go easy on me, this is my first modern tank.
It breaks my heart too and have tried to stay away from this subject. I had no idea we lost sooo many M1’s over there, I guess it’s time to face reality and accept it. I think some of the oldtimers from WWII are still trying to deal with it also. As a Desert Storm vet, I have seen the loses on the Iraqi side and very little from our side. War does suck, but on the other hand what type of model would we be building, cars…
I don’t want to dwell on this topic but I am curious…particularly after reading about the successes of the M-1A1 in Desert Storm (IIRC: I believe we did not loose any M-1s, except for one that had to be spiked when they couldn’t repair it in the field - and then it was only destroyed after we put it out of its misery).
What is the cause of all these damage pics…IEDs…or Iranian anti tank weapons, or both?
Most Abrams have been damaged by large IEDs. There have been a few damaged by RPGs. There were also a few disabled and subsequently destroyed by US forces during the invasion as well. A few have been destroyed by fire caused by stored gear catchng fire, then setting the tank on fire.
The key point is that in 6 years of war (Desert Storm was only 4 days of ground combat), there haven’t been that many destroyed. Most have been damaged and repaired. Also, the biggest thing is that, I believe, only one crew has been killed due to enemy action while in an Abrams. So the vehicle did its job by protecting the crew.
You have to feel good about the tank’s doing one of its jobs well, which is protecting the crew. Part of what I do for a living is building roll cages for off-road and other vehicles. An accepted part of that is the cage may need to be (or should be) replaced after a major incident, but if you walk away, it did its job. One of these days I’ll model my jeep, and it’s current cage is number four, and about ready to be re-done again…
That being said, I have thought about using one of the M1 parts kits I have in the stash to do a spiked tank, but haven’t yet…so I’ll watch this one.[tup]
looking at the three pics, it looks to me like two of them are rebuildable (although a major and complete rebuild). Like Gino said crew surviveability is the main factor here. We can always build a couple tanks, but can’t make another Johnnie.
The burned-out tanks in the begining of the thread make great refs, as the fire and heat caused a lot of interesting color variations…if you can replicate one of those, you are looking at a real winner…I’ll be watching this one closely…
Modeling burned paint is a skill that I have yet to even attempt, much less try to master… I too will be watching this build… As for the subject, I personally stay away from modeling My Army… Too close to home fer me, but brewed-up WW2 tanks & trucks I’ve been wanting to try…
'Course… There WAS the time my 548 caught fire and brewed up in Ft Hood, back in '84, lol… That would make an interesting diorama…
maybe these pics as well will help you out. some guy modeled the infamous “cojone eh” tank that was hit in the fuel canister and subsiquently caught the tank on fire…the men while under fire couldnt put it out so they ran a sabot round into the back of the turrent to destroy it…however (shows u how well the damn thing is built) it wasnt enough to do the job so rather than let it fall into enemy hands the airforce (i believe an f-16) ran 2 maverick missles into the side and front of the turrent utimately resulting in the final tank u see in the pics.
anyway, u can see he used tamiya’s m1a1 not the a2 like yourself, but perhaps these can give you some ideas.
there’s alot of inaccuracies with his final product but in the end just doing what he did deserves alot of respect. i.m.h.o.
Wow! That is incredible. I must admit that I too hate to see a destroyed Abrams. I thought most of the ones lost in Desert Storm were from friendly fire. I kind of feel fuzzy knowing that the tank is so durable and only one crew has been lost. That’s excellent!
Gino or Rob, how long do you think the M1 will remain on the battlefield? Is it going to be replaced? Are they still being built?
This should be a pretty cool build…I’ll be watching too!
As for the M1, I gotta say it holds a sweet spot in my heart. I am not a super big modern armor guy, but I just bought the Tamiya M1A1 kit in 1/35 (my first 1/35 kit at that!) since I simply LOVE this tank. Much has been made of which modern tank is the best on the net, usually the M1 vs. the Leopard (seems the Merkava gets overloked a lot). I give props to the Germans and their armor weapon of choice. It is modular thus easy to repair, and is better fuel economy wise, and now with the chobham armor upgrade it is in the same survivability class as the M1. But the M1 series has one thing the Leopard does not…plenty of combat experience. The crews and the vehicles themselves have benifited from continues “real life” experience and has been upgraded appropriatly.
But you know, I am biased, so this may not be fair [:D]
I’ll be following this very close Rob. I plan on modeling my first destroyed tank, a burnt out T34/85, and you’ve just volunteered to be my teacher.[:D]
the m1 will be in service from what i understand for at least another 20 years. according to the military channel. not that they’re experts. again according to them nothing out there can match the m1’s capabilities and right now the guys that hand over the $$$ to have them built (new tanks…no new abrams are being built just rebuilt) are wondering if the tank is now obsolete because the us has such a large scale technological edge. however, that’s always debatable!
