My wife purchased an Academy M1A1 Abrams tank kit for my birthday. I found a review for a TUSK II conversion kit. I found that on the Perfect Scale site that they have a M1A1 TUSK I Conversion kit.

Will this work on the Academy kit? If so, is there anywhere in the USA that sells this kit?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Tony

Duh...

I should have read better. The site says it is for the Dragon kit. That stinks.

If both kits are 1/35 is it possible that it will work on the Academy kit?

Tony

you would think in this day and age of laser range finders and atomic clocks you think 2 people or machines could read a ruler huh?

The conversion will probably work with any kit, considering its just a matter of adding stuff to the roof I cant see it being a problem. You may have problems with the side skirts though, but perfect scale dont even represent these accurately, the front side skirts are replaced with metal sheet, wheres perfect scale have them molded as the original armoured skirts. Personally I think the legends kit is better, but you will have major problems trying to fit that to the Academy kit.

As a note as well, the Academy kit is far from perfect, the tracks are wrong and you will need to source new tracks, I believe there are dimensional issues with turret if that bothers you, check out Pawel Vodniks Abrams comparison here:
http://vodnik.net/pages/m1-comparison/m1comp1.htm

Tbh if you want a decent accurate TUSK the academy kit isnt the way to go, no is (in my opinion) the perfect scale conversion. Id suggest the new Dragon kit with the Legends TUSK conversion. As your wife bought you the Abrams for your birthday it might be nice just to build it ootb and have some fan practicing painting and weathering, and save the TUSK for a better kit.

I agree with Rob. The Academy kit is nowhere near correct nor up to current standards. The Legend TUSK set is much better as well.

Thanks for the replies. I will go the other route suggested. I will build the Academy as presented in the box.

Thanks again,
Tony

At the IPMS-USA conference I purchased Dragon's M1A1 Abrams AIM kit. Will the Legend conversion for the TUSK work with this kit? If so, I have been looking on the net and can not find a copy of kit.

Thanks for the help,
Tony

Yep the Legends kit is meant for either of the latest DML kits. The only thing you will need to do is scratch build the infantry phone, mounted just below rear light on the right side (looking from the back)

Lucky model have the conversion but be aware its listed as available and not 'in stock'
http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=LF1177

You may also be interested to check out a build blog of this conversion I started on another model site:
http://www.modelarmour.com/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=81&jfile=viewtopic.php&f=14&t=637

Thank you Rob. I liked the review of your build. Do you have any pictures of the finished project. I think I am going to look on ebay for a Legends kit. It appears to add a lot of extras. It looks almost like another kit. I may even get another DML kit so I can have one of each.

Tony

Thanks Tony, pleased you liked my review. I dont have any finished pics, the project has stalled. Waiting till I have the motivation again.

The Legends kit is certainly a good starting point, but its not perfect as I hope my build shows. Id certainly say that the most important thing you will need is the Tankograd book, its a must for this project! I just did a quick ebay search for you as well and turned this up:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LEGEND-LF1177-1-35-M1A1-M1A2-TUSK-Update-set-for-Dragon_W0QQitemZ110429318830QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b619aeae&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

seems to be a good price.

Rob,

Thanks for the ebay link. I will check it out when I get home from work. Ebay and all social network sites are blocked.

Tony