Well, the price was right and in a moment of insanity without prior research I bought an Academy M1A1.
I intend to push this kit as far as possible one of the things I would like to include would be a mine plow.
Despite looking everywhere I can think of, so far I can only find the plow as part of either the Tamiya or the Dragon complete kits.
So folks does anyone know where I can find the plow either aftermarket or is someone interested in selling the parts from their kit

Either way let me know

Hi There
I remember an individual mine plow offered from dragon not sure if it is still in production personaly I would get one of the trumpeter kits such as the panther it has both styles and depending on what year you will probaly need the tracks as it contains two sets as well then you can use whatever parts you need between the two and the panther is very reasonably priced for this purpose.
thanks out cuny12

Sprue Brothers has the DML M1 Panther II on sale for $19.99. You could get one and use the Track Width Mine Plow for your M1A1 and build the M1 Panther II with the Mine Roller, since both are included in the kit.

Just an idea...

Are referring to the Pearson Full Width Mine Plow. These were also used by the Marines along with the Pearson Blade. Here is the link to their website. Pearson Mine Plough

Thanks guys
I hadn't known the DML Panther has both plow and roller.
I was hoping to avoid adding another model to those in storage-(yeah right). Now to stop adding to this build and start putting it together.


The greatest risk is not taking any risk at all. . .

Pretty sure the Dragon M1 Panther II only has the roller. The Trumpeter one comes with both.

Jim

I stand corrected. I checked DML's info for the M1 Panther II and it only shows the Roller.

I recently purchased a M1 Panther II Roller set from another Armorama member, and thought both the TWMP and the Rollers came in the kit for someone to end up having an extra Roller leftover.

I guess I haven't learned the old adage "Assuming makes an a$$..."

Get the Trumpeter 5 in 1 M1A1/A2 kit as this contains everthing you need, and will leave you the option of making another M1 of your choice from the remainder.

Now you just need an M1A1 turret and a 120mm gun (neither item in the Academy kit is remotely close to being correct). Academy used the turret shell molds of the original M1 (a clone of Tamiya's) and added new blowout panels, forgetting that the M1A1 has drastically thicker frontal armor--the kit part is very short, front to back. The bore evacuator on the 120mm gun is ridiculously oversized--it looks like a more like a beer barrel. If there is still time, return the kit. Any of the others on the market now, even the Trumpeter or Italeri kits, are better representations.
Dragon's recent Abrams kits are excellent, though their 1990's kits (which were re-released not long before the new ones came out), are not as well engineered.

Thanks for the conformation Gerald.
I came across the long online article rating the various available kits AFTER I got the academy. So I had some idea of the major inadequacies. But (foolishly) I'm pushing on despite that. Yep-good money after bad--
So far adding PE details from Edwards, t158 tracks from Trumpeter and replacing the barrel with an Armorscale replacement
(-huge aside here--how do I fix the seams on barrels --can't stand the look of any of them, especially after getting spoiled by AFV's Long Tom kit-when will the kit makers switch over to including machined barrels?)

Hmm. . . after reading this perhaps it would make sense to switch over to the Trumpeter or Dragon model

The 2 DML offerings are the best of the bunch. I would still look into getting the Trump 5 in 1 offering as you can then build the Academy kit and an M1 Panther.

I agree with Darren the 5 in 1 kit would be the best bet you can pick through both kits and choose the best parts starting with the main gun ive seen them on ebay for 19.00 to 25.00 and for all you get you cant beat the value aspect it may seem an expensive way to build a kit but it is quite fun mixing and matching parts I recently used the academy m2 and Tamiya m2 to make a better version of the ods version and it was time and money well spent and I was still left with two complete kits at the end.
cheers cuny12.