New to Armorama and have a quick question. I'm working on the Dragon M1A1 AIM as a M1A1HC. One of the optional parts is U36, a small disc like object on the left sponson. I was wondering what this part was and when or which vehicles it is applied to. The Dragon instructions don't give much info.

Thanks
Frank

Frank,

I'm pretty sure this is an USMC Abrams, but I do not know that it is definitely a HC. It has the round boss"cover" in the photo, but I do not know what it is for (possibly a blanked crew heater exhaust opening?).

There used to be a mushroom shaped air intake there. It was deleted after the NBC system was added to the tank (you don't want non-filtered air to be sucked in through the crew heater). It was blanked over and eventually eliminated on later manufactured hulls.

Thanks for the quick reply! That is definitely the part in the kit. Am I correct in assuming then it would be required on an M1A1HC?

Thanks again!
Frank

On an earlier tank, yes, the blanked off port would be there. On a later manufactured tank, there may be no hole manufactured there at all and it would be just flat metal. Since many tanks were rebuilt from earlier tanks, a later remanufactured tank could have that there as well. Most, if not all active service M1A1 tanks are already on their second life.