Good day fellow modellers,

I was wondering how the quality of the above mentioned kit is. To be more precisely, how are the mine plow and the mine roller quality- and accuracywise?
The roller would be useful for the M1A1 "Bad Influence" w/TUSK I which I plan to build. At first I wanted to buy the DML M1 Panther II kit and rob its roller system but the Trumpeter 5 in 1 offering is much cheaper and I'd also get the plow for another project.
So what would be the better choice? I don't mind scratching some parts to enhance the Trumpeter device as long as it's not completely inferior to DML's offering (which I could get for less than 20 Euro).

Thanks in advance,
Johannes

€dit: Don't know how the @ got in the thread title.

For the roller, Dragon's is the best. Trumpeter's is a very close second.

For the plow, Tamiya's is the best with Trumpeter's and Dragon's old one in their older Abrams kits pretty much equel and a close second.

For the money, the Trumpeter ones are fine and look pretty good, esp. if you add some PE or scratch details to them.

Johannes, two questions: Do you prefer the plow or the rollers for your current project and which Abrams kit are you going build? As far as i know the rollers from Dragon's PantherII-kit fit without any problems to the Tamiya kit. The other way seems to be the plow from Tamiya (a little bit expensive) at Dragon to fit without major problems. Photos of so-built models confirm my suspicions in this regard.

Take a look at this page --> http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://vodnik.net/pages/m1-comparison/abrams_65.jpg&imgrefurl=http://vodnik.net/pages/m1-comparison/m1comp2.htm&h=697&w=1024&sz=91&tbnid=8ORDO4cbUtdnEM:&tbnh=102&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtamiya%2Bm1a2&hl=de&usg=__WtxFO_YlY4aun0uESw7rkB819j4=&sa=X&ei=JaQdTOXLE5SAOM-5rKsM&ved=0CD4Q9QEwBQ

I'm sorry that i can't give you a concrete answer about your question to the Trumpeter kit. It seems that mold quality and detailing require a lot of extra work. There's always the possibility to make it fix.

Coincidentally I bought two DML M1 Panther II kits last saturday in munich for a price of 13,99 € each (reduced from 37,99 €!). Very nice kits, no matter what you use them for. It would have been very stupid not to buy them. Don't know if i will rob the roller for my DML M1A1AIM/A2SEP kits or if i will build the kits the normal way...
So if you can get the chance to buy a DML Panther II for less then twenty €uros --> SEIZE IT!

The basic hull shape and size of all the current Abrams kits are pretty much the same. Any brand roller or plow will fit any of the kits. The only question is what level of quality are you looking for and how much detail work you want to put into them.

Hi Gino, hi Bernd!

Thank you very much for your fast replies. As far as accuracy is concerned, I'll try to stay as close as possible. The Abrams I'm planning to build is this one:



(source: US Army photostream on Flickr)

I understand it's "Bad Influence" which is also covered in Tankograd's TUSK I & II reference book (without the mine roller, though) during operation "Panda Garden" in late 2008 in/around Baghdad, Iraq. My plan is to do both "Bad Influence" as well as "Bad Blessing" - as precisely as possible. The base kits in both cases will be the DML M1A1 AIM kits with Legend's TUSK I upgrade and some other AM pieces.
So the actual tank in the Trumpeter kit will not be used for this project.

I guess I'll go with the Trumpeter kit for a start and compare the roller with some reference pics once I get hands on it.

Thanks again to you two, your answers helped me a lot.

Just that we are on it: Are there any more pictures of "Bad Influence" from this operation?

All the best,
Johannes