Hi Gang,I`ve been looking through my stash and i came across my Tamiya M-1 105mm gun version of "Thunderbolt".
What i was wondering was if it was fitted with lighten-ing
holes on the drive sprockets ?.All the photos i`ve found do`nt show any details of this area so if anyone can help it`d be appreciated.

Danny,
After more than 20 yrs of being an M1 Tanker, I can vaguely remember having to dig mud out of the holes on the M1 sprockets. We also had some tanks with the bolt on track guides on the sprockets but they made it hard to put thrown tracks back on so most were removed. As far back as I can remember though, the Abrams have had the mud holes in the sprockets.

Hole have always been there; my father was an Abrams mechanic for twenty-ish years. No clue about the track guides though.

If you revisit the archives here on armorama you can find most of what you need, also Verlindens book on the M1, m1IP, M1A1 has some good references on the early Abrams. Heavy Arty and Sabot here also have both very good references and knowledge on the early Abrams

I've never seen either of them on (then again, I haven't been around that long)! When In doubt, ask Frenchy, Mauro or Jacques.

It looks like "Thunderbolt" has them :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisstreckfus/2450092939/sizes/l/

HTH

Frenchy

Way to go Frenchy !!

An interesting tidbit, based on this post. I took pictures of the Knox and Aberdeen XM-1s in 2007. The APG one was still in the flat OD paint with the Thunderbolt logo on it per the link that Frenchy provided. The TC's MG mount was the same as what is found on current M1A1s and the previous M1s & M1IPs.

The one at Knox had undergone a restoration of sorts and had been repainted a gloss/semi-gloss OD and was missing the Thunderbolt cloud and lightning bolt logo. It also had modern scolloped sprockets, no mud relief holes in the hub (my suspicions are the hubs were reversed when they were mounted on the final drives and the holes were in the inside...), no track retaining ring and worn T-158 track instead of the all rubber T-156 track.

The TC's MG mount was a different, earlier model that had the ammunition box on the same axis as the MG and a long chute that brought the ammo to to the MG that doubled back on itself and curved to the MG. I remember trying to recreate this chute, back in the early days of my modeling efforts (1984-85).

I was ready to throw the BS flag when I looked at the Knox pics until I realized that the resto staff did...

FWIW

John