I just found out Iraq has taken delivery of its first 11 of 140 rebuilt M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks as part of the equipping of the Iraqi army to take over its own defense. I happened to have an old Tamiya 1/35 M1A1 that likely would never get built in the Dragon M1 age and I decided to build a "quickie" to get something for the display case. I built the kit OOB in less than 24 hours and still love the look of the Tamiya Abrams despite of the "simple" nature of the kit.



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Lets try those pictures again!

Ethan,

You have the Lift Ring/Engine Door Brackets reversed on either side of the rear Engine Doors.

But like you said, this was to "build a "quickie" to get something for the display case." Just thought you would want to know...

That is a big old oops. Was watching "The Godfather" marathon and must have done it in a fit of rage.

You also forgot to paint the tail lights, spare road wheel, commander's vision blocks, fill in and paint the driver's periscopes, etc., etc., etc. Maybe a little weathering as well. Also, you have the old Iraqi flag on it. The current one looks like below.




Also, the old Tamiya M1A1 is current only up to about 1991. There have been many upgrades and changes since then. The most noticable being the old chevron block track pads. They went out in the early '90s.

Unfortunately, it doesn't represent an Iraqi M1A1 AIM very well.

The limitations of the old kit are well known and this is truly a 5 foot model. I would have probably donated it to a neighborhood kid (I already sent two to troops in Iraq)

I only wanted to do something quick and topical and it will going in the case next to my Dragon M1A1 AIM, MLRS, and OIF Bradley. This was truly a quick build and don't worry, it has been painted and weathered since. More photos to follow and I intended it to look as new as possible.

Few more details added. Just for Gino I painted the spare bogie. Added some unit markings I saw in a photo. Yellow squares with a vehicle number.

So, Gino, you're saying the shot of the Abrams with the Iraq flag is of a model, and not a real Abrams?
If it's a real Abrams, I'm disappointed to see the Iraqis chose the standard plain desert scheme, I was hoping to see it come in the more interesting "chocolate chip" like some of their other vehicles.