M1A1 Abrams aftermarket for 1/35 AMT/ERTL

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

I have an old kit of the above and was wondering if anyone knows of any AM PE or resin upgrades for this kit.

Thanks in advance…

2

PART do a couple of etched sets for the Revell Germany kit,

http://www.pdi-model-supplies.com/images/uploads/PT72-014.jpg

and Extratech do an etched set for the Dragon kit, which might work with the AMT kit, and then generic stowage ans similar stuff is available, but why bother? Why not just get the Dragon 1/72 kit instead? Much better kit, and probably cost less than the aftermarket you’d need to get the AMT kit up to a decent standard. Keep the AMT/ERTL kit in your stash as an example of how things were in the bad old days…

Cheers,

Chris.

3

I used the Verlinden set on it for the exterior pieces. It fit just fine. But you will still have to do some scratch buidling of stowage bins and such. The bins on the AMT/ERTL kit are from an early production M1, not an IPM1 or M1A1. Have a good reference handy and you can make a decent looking kit. There will be inaccuracies, but it will look like an M1A1.

4

My bad. For some reason, I thought that you were referring to the 1/72 AMT/ERTL kit, not the 1/35 one. Anyway, the basic recommendation still holds. You’re better off keeping the kit in the stash, and buying and building either the Italeri or one of the more recent Dragon kits. Less hassle all round, and you’ll probably be saving money, compared to buying all the resin and etch you’ll need. Certainly if you buy the Italeri kit.

Cheers,

Chris.

5

Once upon a time, 20 years ago, AEF Designs made a resin update set for that kit. It consisted of a new turret (kit turret is the same as their plain M1), new rear engine grill, accurate bustle rack and several other hull and turret details. I have the set and it really isn’t bad. But today, it wouldn’t be worth the cost or the effort to get that kit updated. Older Dragon M1A1/A2 kits are a dime a dozen and get a better, more accurate kit.

6

Thanks to all who have responded. I have to agree, this is a bit of a last place finisher in a one tank race. But it is what Ive got. Bought it many years ago and shelved it. Now it’s my entry in a Group build, so I wanted to do it some justice.

I may go with what’s in the box, and let it be what it is. At least it’ll be one more kit off the bench and on the shelf.

Again, thanks for the input.

7

I wouldn’t waste my time on this one. It really is an old dog of a kit that is poorly detailed and inaccurate in almost every way. If you want a good, cheap M1A1, then get one of the older Dragon kits or a Trumpter kit. They build up pretty well and are pretty accurate. They are cheap now with the newer Dragon M1A1 AIM and M1A2 SEP kits out there too. You can usually get one for around $10-$15 on Ebay.

8

I hope we didn’t discourage you. A decent model of an M1A1 Abrams can be had, it just won’t be the most detailed or accurate. Back in the day when the Esci/AMT M1, M1A1 and Tamiya M1 were the only Abrams tank models available, I built many of them to “resemble” tanks crewed by friends.

The main problem of the Esci M1A1 is that they use the same basic kit for both their M1 and M1A1. The only difference they made are detail parts that go on the turret. Esci uses the exact same hull, but the M1A1 added an NBC system that replaced the left side hull sponson (stowage) box just forward of the engine intake vents. There were also some additional changes that included beefier (but simpler) headlight guards.

The turret is where they really went wrong. The true M1A1 uses a larger turret with increased armor to the forward slopes. Since the turrets of both kits are the same, this makes the M1A1 turret too small. Additionally, the M1A1 had longer turret sponson boxes on the right and left sides. The kit includes only the shorter sponson boxes of the straight M1. The M1IP and M1A1 both used a rear bustle rack that continued from the side grunt rails giving the whole thing a boxed appearance. The Esci kit’s rear bustle rack cut inwards at an angle making it too narrow and inaccurate looking.

Example:
Back of turret when looked at from above should look like this |____|
But the kit bustle rack makes it look like this ___/

When I was building kits for friends, the only thing I felt I really needed to fix was the bustle rack and the sponson boxes were an easy fix with some sheet styrene.