Hi guys,I'm building a Trumpeter's USMC M1A1,
I wanna make it like a TASK FORCE TARAWA 's Abrams
But I don't know,What's the long thing on turret,does someone knows that?
Thank you~

It's Tamiya's Nato Colors.




The long black thing

It's a Flexcel 80-gallon synthetic rubber fuel bladder. It can dispense fuel by gravity feed or can be dropped onto the ground and the vehicle drives up on it and pushes the fuel out while the built-in hose is inserted in the vehicle fuel tank.

But a picture is worth 1000 words :



HTH

Frenchy

Howdy Dachian, the systems official nomenclature is SFC2(Supplemental Fuel Carrying x 2) Capability. They are 55 gallon capacity bladders. The SFC2 system NSN is 2910-01-434-4961. Here is a shot of a bladders data stencil.

And a link to an Armor magazine article on the SFC2:
http://www.knox.army.mil/center/ocoa/armormag/backissues/1990s/1998/jf98/1fuelcap.pdf
If doing a TF Tarawa M1A1 tank March, 2003 you could leave them off your model as the company briefly dropped the SFC2 bladders around the the end of the first week by Nasiryah and then reinstalled them a few days later as they headed North. Happy USMC modeling! Outta here, Mike sends . . .

I stand corrected Thanks for setting me straight on the bladder capacity Mike (and for the link as well !)

Frenchy

It's a fuel bladder, like this!

Frenchy, I could never correct you, just clarify! And you are welcome for whatever measly ino I can provide. James nice looking Jarhead Abrams. The Bladders look great. Outta here, Mike sends . . .

Thank you Frenchy , Mike you let me know that and James you did a nice working ,Thank you guys.
This this the latest update,I'm using a pen barrel plus AB putty to make the fuel bladder,


Can somebody tell me what the "III＞＞A/8 "means?I drew it as the pic but didn't understand that.

Diachian,
"A/8" means A Company, 8th Tank Battalion, a USMCR tank unit that TFT.

A couple of things that I saw on your model that you might want to correct. First, the commander's hatch should be at a 90 degree angle. Second, the model needs more crew bags. There are four crewmembers and each should have a pack and at least one, possibly two duffle bags on the vehicle. The NATO camouflage came out very nicely on your model.

John

Howdy Dachian, the tanks used by TF Tarawa were drawn form 2nd Tank Bn M1A1s at Camp Lejeune. The 14 tanks were taken from each company and assigned to Alpha Co, 8th Tank Bn(Reserve) out of Ft Knox, KY. While in transit aboard ship to Kuwait most of the tanks had the former 2nd Tk companies black colored Tactical Markings painted over and the new white A Co markings applied. The tank you are modeling is a former Bravo Co, 3rd Plt tank= III>. The original marks were not painted over. And US Marines use "Seabags" not duffle bags and there would be one per crewman. Outta here, Mike sends . . .

That’s something I never gave it a thought. So Mike are the Seabags different, even bigger.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

Thanks guys. A little insight to that model. It's not finished in the picture. Still needs crew, antenna's and other stuff. I built the fuel bladders first. They came out so nice I had to build a tank to put them on. All they are are lead foil wrapped around the handle of an exacto knife. I pinched off one end and detailed it out. The other end is stuffed with tissue paper with a little nozzle looking thingy inside. The small voids were filled with elmers glue. At the time I made these I could find NOTHING on the net to show details or how they were mounted to the tank. A lot of guess work going on there.

Howdy Joe, same green bag with "US" stenciled on it. Outta here, Mike sends . . .

Thank you guys,
John I've corrected the angle of commander's hatch and plussed more packages Thank you,

Mike you are the expert about Marines, I'd admire you ,Thank you for your HELP~

The fuel bladder is a little bit hard to make,I'm try to figure it out

Fuel Bladder is easy! Read my post above, it took minutes to make them both.

Hi,guys,This is the latest update.
Thank you James for sharing the way you build fuel bladder ,though I didn't build that like a real thing...
Now my Abrams is on weathering:

All Finished!

Howdy Dachian, it really looks nice. Now get some crewman in those hatches!
Outta here, Mike sends . . .

Young Guns turned out amazing! That was my tank during the war. You wouldn't be interested in putting it up for auction…would you?