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M1A1 Abrams OIF

Great job Robert thanks for sharing and thanks Vinnie for posting the link. regards, Robert

Bob, Great looking M1! Lets see a '113 from 3-69 now! Dan from MN.

HEMTT fueler is next. M113 is in my stash of OIF projects too. Probably a mortar track before I get around to a battle taxi.

Great Job Robert What kit did you use and what are the figures. Like the spent shell cases scattered around how did you that. Will have to get my Dragon M1A1OIF started Cookie

Cookie: That is the Tamiya kit with LOTS of extras added to make it look exactly like the tank depicted. The figures are Warrior w/ Hornet heads. There will be a build article in Military Modelling later this year. Those spent shells came out last year sometime. They are from Mission Models. Suprising that I have not seen them used that much so far, but of course they are not cheap. With the M1 alone there are so many options now that OIF has happened. 3rd ID w/ all those add-on extras, Marine tanks in both sand and woodland camo and their unique add-ons, follow-on forces w/ M1A2s, ... I am very interested to see the new DML kits come out. They could re-issue those crew figures from Desert Storm since at least in the 3rd ID guys wore the small spall vest, but I would like to see them come out with a whole new set w/ the spall vests and/or IBA. At least resin manufacturers are doing them now. Bob

I just recently recieved the Dragon M1A1HA 1st Marine Batt. from Hobby easy and having read the artlcle on the Dragon M1 Panther by Pawel (VodniK) Krupowicz i cant wait to see these next Abrahams kits ( when will they be released). I agree about figures, the resin guys have, to there credit ,been producing some excellent figures for IOF but a box of Dragon figures costs the same as one of the figures. Mybe Dragon will produce OIF figures to go along with these new M1's Will look forward to the review on Bobs M1project.

Holy cow!!! Not only the spent shells, but the links too!!! You are the MAN!

Yes, those links are a pain in the butt! Each one has to be bent to shape. I used needle nose tweezers, in both hands. Through trial and error of seeing how the fastest way to bend worked, I was able to get them done w/o going nuts. A long time ago, when I was just learning about the looks of operational M1s, I was not sure whether to depict spent shells for the loader's MG. The official answer is that they do not need to be shown (and are not on mine), but they very well can be shown, especially on an Abrams that has seen a lot of action. As many know, the box at the bottom of the MG holds the spent shells. But they have to be emptied sometime. The video I have shows the loader removing the box and tyring, w/o too much luck, to dump the shells over the side. He misses, and the shells end up all over the left side of the turret. He then brushes them away, but many remain, especially in crevices and such. Thank for the comments and interest. I hope you enjoy the model. Bob

Bob, you did those guys proud. Excellent build. "Q"

Very nice indeed. I'm still facinated at the size of that turret when you're used to the likes of pint sized panzers Thanks for sharing, Eddie