Those tracks are beautiful, I’m inspired to take mine off and redo them. Would your method work for indy links?
Hi Chris – I’m sure it would, it’s basic spraywork, brush the rubber areas, overspray again, and pinwash and drybrush to finish off. Check out my tute at http://worldinminiature.blogspot.com and if you can a) unmount the indies safely, and b) get around the curved sections with enough elbow room to get a small brush inside for the pads, it should work fine.
Cheers, M/TB379
PS: Did the shade and fade coats today, this beast is moving along!
Progress over the last couple of days – first the main hull with fade and shade coats on, these were mixed using he Acryl base colour and tints of Tamiya Acrylics, XF-2 White and XF-64 German Red-Brown respectively, and thinned way down to mist on. The gun barrel and turret were also treated separately, and the barrell is shown here with the first round oil wash weathering done:
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3041a.jpg)
Next, the turret, first round wash done:
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3042a.jpg)
Then I handled the running gear, oil wash to start with, then a few flecks of bright rust and some bare metal, done in enamels (bottom rank done, top rank in basecoat):
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3046a.jpg)
And finally, running gear mounted:
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3047a.jpg)
The treads are loose so I can unmount them if I decide to do any more to the suspension, though there’s precious little to be seen. The tires look pretty stark against the tread blocks, if Mig pigments don’t reduce the starkness acceptably I can unmount the wheels and give them a quick spritz with the ultra-thinned Buff.
Plenty to do yet, head and tail lights, periscopes, tow cables, intakes and exhausts, smoke gren orifices, antennas, decals, stowage, dust… Getting there one job at a time.
Cheers, thanks for looking, Mike/TB379
I’ve finally managed some bench time, and done the second round oil wash on everything but the skirts, and manged to forget them!
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3362a.jpg)
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3363a.jpg)
Now she looks battered and weather-worn, in the worst the Gulf can throw at her! Now, some more muck on the skirts, then I’ll mount the cables and look at the MGs, finish the detail painting and start thinking about the periscopes. My stowage accessories pack is in the bottom carton of a stack of five in my stash, so it won’t be coming out this side of moving house… Not sure what to do, maybe buy some new stowage!
Cheers, Mike/TB379
Looks the part! What’s in the plans for markings, or did I miss that?
Thanks RBaer! I’m using an Echelon sheet, she’ll be “Atlas” of Tiger Battalion, tact board # 81. Not far to go and I’ll be giving the decals a dip…
M/TB379
Today’s progress was to more or less complete the oil weathering by dirtying up and scratching the flank armour, bow and tail, doing the engine grills with black wash, painting the commander’s periscopes, and washing the central exhaust grill preparatory to a pigment job to create the heat stain/burning often seen. The head and tail lights are now painted also and I’ve been fiddling with the MGs.
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3365a.jpg)
I managed to get an oily stain on the engine deck that wasn’t meant to be there, yet it looks random… I’ll decide whether to remove it after I’ve looked at it a bit more.
Four periscopes to scratch and paint, grenade launcher an towcable to remount after they fell off, MGs and ammo cans to do, then I’ll be ready for decals.
M/TB379
Engine deck looks great.
I made some progress today, sprayed the minimal stowage supplied in the Tamiya kit, mounted the Browning and put most of the decals on. The Echelons go on very nicely. The instructions indicate that the battalion numbers go on the topmost inclined surface of the rear plate above the engine grills but all my references suggest they go on the next inclined surface down – but I can’t get a clear look at the rear end of an ODS-era Abrams… Anyone have any ideas about that?
New pics soon. The GB is due to end at the turn of the year but, as always, an overrun is very welcome for those who would like to finish and claim a badge (which reminds me, badges are needed!)
Cheers, Mike/TB379
Good work guys. I’m going to get mine out and finish it before the end of the year.
I may have to get mine cranked up again, it’s soooo close…
Sorry for neglecting this build, but I have finally had some time to work on this kit. 
Started working on the tracks. This is the thing that made me drop the kit and build something else for a while. It’s a very tedious process, with no clear advantage since half of the tracks is gonna be covered with the ballistic skirts.
In fact, I bought the Tamiya kit just to use its tracks and accessories, but decided to persevere and just use Dragon’s tracks.
I’ll probably just build this Tamiya kit as a Marine OIF gun tank.
Roadwheels and sprockets are all primed and ready for paint.
I foolishly followed Dragon’s instruction when assembling the tow hooks (?) Not only are they positioned incorrectly, but looking at pictures, I don’t think these are used often.
Gonna paint this gun tank tonight. Btw, does anyone know if any aftermarket companies sell stowage racks? This kit only comes with one water rack, and I believe a lot of 3ID tanks have at least two of those.
GD – sorry I didn’t reply, my webmail has changed format and blocks me from seeing material low in messages – GRR! Great progress, looking good. In answer to your question, the only standard rack kit I recall was done by Verlinden as an M1A1 upgrade for early M1 kits and is long OOP. But there is a rack extender kit on the market, for the secondary stowage rack added behind the normal one – I wish I could remember where from…
Promised pics at last:
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3381a.jpg)
This is as the decalling process was getting underway.
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3382a.jpg)
More decals on, and some stowage sprayed NATO green to break up the sand a bit (materiel flown in from Europe, perhaps, and not yet repainted…)
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3383a.jpg)
And a closeup on the weathering at that point.
As of today she is almost finished. All decals are on, baring the one that flew away when I was cutting the sheet, never to be seen again. I also can’t locate my Verlinden rubdown sheet, and I’ll need that to replace the missing company ID. The Echelons went on beautifully but are rather shiny, as I’ve found with them in the past, so I’m holding off doing final dust until I can see about a decent acrylic flat to overcoat those panels.
I mounted the second MG and scratched the antennae today, but the black acrylic is not drying as fast as it might, and I’m not happy with the finish, I might pick up some black enamel and repaint them, though that can be done after they’re mounted. Mounting will probably be tomorrow, I can dust the tires, and call this animal finished as far as she’s going to be at the moment.
Cheers, Mike/TB379
Your Abrams looks great. Looks like you’re gonna be able to meet the year-end deadline. Can’t wait to see your tank all finished!
PS: Thanks for the info. I may have to track down that Verlinden set on Ebay.
Almost finished with the hull. All I need to do is add the front and tail lights.
I finally decided on “Crusader 2”, mainly because it was the only Abrams in the Echelon sheet I have that had the turret APU. Although I really would have liked to have chosen a tank that had chevron markings. 
Tracks and bottom hull. I didn’t worry too much about the hull bottom and just gave it some rudimentary shading because well, I’ll hardly ever see it.
I’m quite pleased by this Dragon kit. Highly detailed, and it even has a better fit than the Tamiya Abrams!
Up next is the turret.
GD – absolutely soo-poyb! This is going to be a bad boy you can really be proud of! Looks like we’re finishing neck and neck!
I wanted to build the Tumpeter HA as well but I’m out of time… I might do it next year for the hell of it, I have a M981 FISTV waiting for NATO camo, and I wanted the HA in the same scheme so i could do them as companion paint projects. Hmm, I’m also in the market for an M60A1 w/ ERA in ODS sand as a companion to my Abrams – I need a GB for it! [:)]
Cheers, M/TB379
Looking really good, you guys!
I’m happy to say this beast has passed the finish line with a few days grace!
She’s as done as she’s going to be at this time, baring that one decal that needs either finding or replacing, and some reliable clear flat to take the shine of the decals, then some final dust.
Bring on the pics:
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3436a.jpg)
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3437a.jpg)
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3441a.jpg)
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3443a.jpg)
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3449a.jpg)
!(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn48/MikeTheModeller/Tamiya M1A1/DSCF3451a.jpg)
Scratching the antennae was easy, tying knots in spandex thread was not… It took three goes to tie down the tall mast, and most of an afternoon of fiddling.
I’m not really happy with the way the periscopes came out, they’re better than the bits of clear plastic supplied in the kit, but they don’t look terribly convincing. I must find a better method…
Cheers, thanks for looking, and thanks for taking part in the Abrams build this year. If there’s interest and folks want to take another shot, I’d be very happy to host another Abrams GM in the future; and of course, those still building are welcome to take all the time they need to finish.
I promise some badges very soon!
Mike/Thunderbolt379
Looking good Mike, I like the light weathering so far.
Just a couple of little detail points.
The outer hub on the roadwheels and idlers are oil reservoirs and are made of clear plastic so the oil level can be inspected. These appear dark, though they could be covered in dust. This is how it appears when clean http://svsm.org/gallery/m1a1abramsjh2/DSC08861
The little part above the muzzle is the muzzle reference sensor. It’s difficult to tell from the camera angles, but it appears that you may have mounted this parallel to the barrel. This is actually slightly offset and is aligned to the gunner’s primary sight window. The gun sight computer can use the MRS to compensate for barrel deflection caused by uneven heating (eg. wind cooling the barrel on one side but not the other)
You may consider a darker wash in the bores of the smoke grenade launchers and the co-ax mg to enhance the appearance of depth.
Looking forward to seeing it when you have dusted her up a little and loaded up some stowage. [:)]
Beautiful tank, Mike. It’s funny because I bought another Tamiya Abrams for the sole purpose of building it as a ODS Abrams, because of your build. Your tank reminded me how awed I was as a kid, as I saw Abrams rushing through the Iraq/Kuwaiti desert, like they owned the place.