and well I happen to have a 1/35 sep from dragon, and I happen to have the resin engine kit from legen productions…so I naturally thought that a diorama like the one pictured above could be nice.
So a few questions.
So far I have only been able to find 2 M88 kits, they are produced by AFV, one is a M88 1a, I think…and the other was a M88 G. however both have german markings. So which is depicted in the picture above, and what would be needed to convert the german M88 to an american one?
The one in the pic is an M88A1. AFV Club does 3 M88 models; a Vietnam M88, an M88A1, and an M88A1G German version (which was also reboxed by Revell). I believe the German version has all the parts of the normal M88A1, plus the German-specific parts. If you leave off all the German parts and get some US decals, you should be good. I think the German parts are a few different tools and a tool box on the boom, all on one specific, new sprue.
A note on the pic. It shows a USMC M1A1 and M88A1. If you have the M1A2 SEP kit; first the USMC doesn’t have any M1A2s, and most (pretty much all by now) Army M1A2 SEP units have the upgraded M88A2 Hercules to go with them. It is a more armored, heavier capacity M88 and the latest version. Real Model makes an M88A2 conversion set.
No, the Revell M88A1G (not sure about the AFV Club rebox of the Revell rebox) does not include all the bits necessary to build a US M88A1. Most notably, the PE basket for the boom was replaced by a Revell made PE boom of the German type. I also believe the .50 cal may be missing, but I don’t recall without looking in the box.
The lineage of the M88 kits is as follows:
AFV Club M88 Nam
AFV Club M88A1 Modern
Revell rebox M88A1G that includes Revell produced PE and plastic Bundeswehr fittings like rear view mirrors, German smoke dischargers, machine gun, boom basket, etc.
AFV Club M88A1G-which may be a straight rebox of the Revell kit, but I do not know.
I have AFV Club’s M88A1 kit. It says Bergepanzer on the box, but it has parts to build the US version only. It doesn’t have any PE parts in the kit. The decal sheet has markings for US, Taiwan and FRG.
I was thinking of doing much the same dio at some point that you are thinking of. I have a few pictures that I took between Mar 04 & Mar 05 that show M88A1’s & Abrams with the powerpack pulled. I’m not sure of the exact designation of Abrams pictured though. I’d love to see a posted build of the dio if you do one. I’ve got the AFV Club M88A1 (kit # AF3508) and the Dragon M1A2 SEP (kit# 3536) in the stash waiting for me to find the time.
Hope these pics help, I’ve got a few more if they do.
The Abrams kit I will be building is the SEP from Dragon, I have built it before for a client and really enjoyed it, so I picked one up or myself. I suppose if I am going to model one of the versions that comes in the kit I can find out if that tank unit uses M88A1’s or M88A2’s, that would probly be the best way to go about doing.
I will probably not buy the aftermarket resin uprgade kit, it is pretty expensive, and I was planning on rebuilding the “boom” anyways, the Legend Production Abrams motor is a pretty heavy bit of resin, I am afraid the kit parts would bend and sag w/ time, so I am probably going to build it out of brass tubing.
