Another resurrection project that I am trying to get off the "shelf queen" list. This project was started back in 1994 while I was in college at UCLA. Picked this up at an LHS or TRU for $20 or so back then and the idea was to recreate MY tank from Desert Storm. While the Tamiya kit is quite dated now and lacking in many areas I set out to make my track and come hell or high water, that is what is happening.

While I had been "building" since I was young, finishing was never my strong skill set so many kits were begun only to be shelved due to lack of experience and an over abundance of enthusiasm for perfection. So while I had started this years ago, I really only got the running gear on the lower hull and the additional armor for the turret and lower hull. The additional armor that the HA model had was not yet represented nor did too many people actually know about it. So I used some sheet styrene of various thickness cut to size and glued on to the kit pieces. Say what you want but I have always been happy with how it turned out.

Having just come out of DS only two years previous I was smart enough to know that I needed to rough up the road wheels but not sure how to depict the worn paint that I noticed from 6 months of climbing on and off that beast. Having a few more years experience and Armorama, has now afforded me the confidence to bring this one out of retirement and back to the bench.

So construction began anew yesterday with some additional weathering to the road wheels and the non slip coating to the upper hull and turret. Before I added the non slip to the turret I mated the two turret halves using some rubber bands and clamps and lots of glue ( i was fresh out of chewing gum). This was a multi layered process as the Tamiya turret had some significant gaps that needed to be addressed, so much for my never ending praise of the King of kits. I have also noted a bit if flash and at least one sink hole as well. Have to say that this is the first "modern" Tamiya kit that I have EVER noticed this with. Maybe my eyes are more in tune now, but kinda disappointed about this.

So the sponson boxes are on the loaders ring mount is too. For the loaders ring mount I used the Tamiya PE set, seemed the thing to do as I had it laying around. I am doing this "mostly" job with a few additions. I am trying to get this one built and looking good, not trying to make the silk purse here. I am sure that there will be the need for some homemade decals again as our tracks had some unique markings that so far, no one has produced. Trying to figure out if I am going to use the kit tracks or am ones. We'll see now the rest turns out. Pics below show what I have done to date. Lemme know what you think and thanks for stopping by. Cheers.

Damon, good start so far. I've only done one of my tanks, my first, an M551A1, the others are sitting on theshelf. I like the idea of getting the half dones or just starteds off the shelf. If its anything like your otherwork it should turn out great.

Tom

Tom;
as always you are too good to me sir.

Managed to get the main gun assembled and the mantlet as well. The mantlet is in need of some TLC, the gaps on the sides need to be filled and Tmaiya's design is not "quite" accurate. The top of the mantlet will also need some scratch work, the hinges and hinged plate need to be added, hopefully I can find some thin sheet tonight and get that done.

Finally located some of my accessories that I am going to be adding to this, once I have started painting on these I will post photos. The decals are going to be a challenge I am sure and I am trying to figure out how to produce enough so that I do not have to do this 10 times, for every one of these I am going to build. If there is anyone that has some experience with Photo Shop or another program that can reproduce images, let me know as I am sure I am going to need some help getting things laid out and sized. Cheers.

But what have you done for me lately?

Today was a good day. AFV Modeller #70 arrived. A CD (yes some people still buy CD's) arrived that I ordered, (yay!) and I got a LOT of build time. Good thing cause I am gonna be busy this weekend with work and kid birthday.

Got the extra plate for the mantlet build and added. sanded the gaps around the sides of the mantlet that I filled last night. added the commanders hatch cover. Added the loaders and drivers periscopes. got the smoke launchers on as well as the bustle rack(s).

Added the wind sensor. Now here is where I will pause and explain something. The WS that Tamiya provides in the kit may have been an earlier or later model than what my track had. Knowing that we had THE most modern version at the time I am assuming that it is an earlier model WS. The one on my track was a straight tall cylinder with little "vents" or vertical slats at the top. So this I scratched from some tube a no 11 blade and some diligent sanding. Results look good.

added the front headlights and guards (I once bashed my knee on the right light guard trying to mount the tank from the front slope during an alert. . . never made that mistake again) Added all of the rear attachments including the tow attachment and the lifting points. Tamiya has the outer most lower lifting attachments solid and not drilled out as they should be so I fixed this. In the rear bustle I used the PE mesh provided from that same Tamiya PE set for this kit (aftermarket) and I like the way it looks. Added the MILES gear attachment area to the turret front. On my track this was just the leftover glue as we torn ours off once we got out in the sand. Seemed silly to have a big velcro strip on the front of the old girl.

So, whats left? The three small lifting rings around the commanders cupola, the loaders grab handle down on the front left side and then paint. the 40mm cans will go on later after the first coat. I also need to make the brackets for the tow cables for the side of the turret. Our cables were removed and stored on the back hooks. Last thing you want to have to do if you break down under fire is go and fetch a tow cable from the turret side. I will probably add some small detail items like hinges for the smoke boxes, wires to the launchers and the wind sensor and I am sure there are more but I cannot think what it would be now. Enjoy the pics. Cheers.

Yep that is definately an early model wind sensor in the kit, we had that type on our slick M1s. Looking at your pictures made me realize how bad the original kit was.

Damon you sure do like a challenge. What did you use for the non skid?

Well you got me thinking after the campaigns are over I'm going to pull out the M60A3 I was building as one of my tanks.

Tom

Hey Tom;
I used, and you are gonna laugh here, the Marha Stewart metallic texture paint from Home Depot. Acrylic, water based and a jar will set you back like 5 or 6 bucks and is enough to do a battalion of Abrams. What I like is I can brush or on and it cleans up with water, cause I am a slob and hate all the masking.

Yes this kit when you get into it, is seriously lacking but it used to be the only one available. Even the position of the headlight guards is wrong. Ours came up to the front slope and were not set back like these. And don get me started on the grenade launchers and boxes . . .

Damon: I think you may have ADD. You are starting to build like me. I currently have seven panzers under the knife and fifteen other, miscellaneous kits.

I am not sure that I have ADD but I am a bit OCD about too many things. I find that if I have other things to work on the faun will build itself and I won't waste too many hours just starring at it. Cheers

I may have to pick up some Martha Stewart paint, next time I go to the hardware store. Personally, I despise the woman. But, I hate Wal-Mart too. JMO

An excellent build log going here. I'm adding this to my regular reading. It's especially cool that you're building your own tank (and resurrecting a half-build)
Cheers!
-Sean H

Not really half build but started, so I guess that counts. Thanks for the kudos though, they are appreciated. Cheers,

Hi;

MATT; Martha isent all that Bad, At Least she not as Bad as,
lets say ?----- J.F.

Damon; Great Start on your M-1, Keep it Going.


CHEERS; MIKE.

Did not get much done tonight but got some done. Managed to replace the grab handle on the hull with a wire made one and while I was at it replaced the one on the loaders hatch too. Tamiya had made this a solid pice that was not a handle. I also "fixed" the rear skirt. On my track we removed the skirt section on the left side that fits around the final drive. Our was damaged and so we ripped it off, our Lt. Was not terribly pleased but we explained that he got to ride on it and it really belonged to me nd the driver, so he didn't get much say. He quickly put in his two cents on the right side as a preemptive strike. The right side got the hot seat tonight and bent niclely, looks pretty good I think. The next few days will be spent with craziness at work so do not expect to hear too much from me until Monday, maybe. If i can manage time tomorrow night I will post those pics I took tonight. Cheers.

Laid down a primer coat on this Sat night and last night added a dark base. Using a two stage process for the color on this, not sure if the effect will look right or not, but gonna try. I mixed up a previous batch of "sand" for my USMC LAV C2 a wile back, and while I like the look of that it is too dark for my tank, ours were very light based on photos. I will get some pics up tonight but time to get the kids to school. Cheers.

Quick update, managed to duck out of work early and got home with enough time to slap a coat on the road wheels. Whadda ya think?

SO I have been posting lots of pics on this rather quick build but have not talked much about the process so I am going to take this opportunity to recap what has transpired. Here goes.

So when the project began the only work completed was the "lid" was put on the Commanders Auxiliary Sight mount, the drive sprockets were made, I had added the additional armour of the HA variant to the turret front glacis and the hull glacis (fancy word for slope). Other than that nothing else, save for the wheels were assembled and lightly worn. The rest of the running gear was added to the lower hull and the road wheels were worn a bit more for effect. The return rollers added. The barrel was assembled and touched up with some Mr. Dissolved putty and Mr surfacer 1000 and then sanded down to eliminate the seams.
The upper and lower hull elements were added in stages and only the grab handles were replaced with some homemade ones of brass wire. The gun mantlet has been carefully fitted with the use of some serious clamping and gap filling using Mr. Dissolved Putty and Mr. Surfacer 500. I have added the hinge plate to the top of the gun mantlet using some sheet styrene and rod. The loaders MG ring was replaced with the Tamiya one from their M1A1 update PE set. I have not yet added any wiring for the rear lights, grenade launchers or anything else, yet. I am contemplating swapping out the loaders MG with an aftermarket one, but not yet sure. The kit supplied wind sensor was also replaced with a scratch built one as the kit supplied one is not correct for the variant that I am modeling. I have modified the side skirts to reflect the "damage" that my track had, last skirt missing on the left side and the right rear skirt damaged. The drivers and loaders periscopes were made from scrap plastic card and glued in place.
I have laid down a primer coat to help the paint adhere to the plastic as well as to help the non skid stay put. A base coat of Tamiya XF 59 & XF 60 with some XF2 mixed in was laid down as a dark base colour. This was followed up by a lighter version with more white added in to lighten the tone significantly. The second colour has just been applied today. There is still some dark showing through from the non skid but I think this will serve the purpose as the original NATO 3 tone showing through. This will be augmented with some chipping and dry-brushing towards the end. Not sure what else I am missing but so far this kit has been a nice build. There will be some endless detailing with stowage that will go on as well as creating the homemade decal set for this, which I am sure will be a challenge. Cheers.

Hey Damon
I'm following this with interest.
May i ask what have you used for the anti-skid?
It looks like sand-paper.

Chris

I think it was covered above with some humor, but its the Martha Stewart metallic texture paint available at Home Depot. It's acrylic so cleans up nice water and goes on pretty easily and cleans easily too. I used a larger like 4 or 6 size brush to apply and kept a q tip loaded with water to clean up any issues. I think it works well and produces a quick, easy ad rather cheap solution to the problem. I also like it cause you can change how fine or coarse you want it by doing a light pass or going back over it to create a heavier texture. If you need more info send me a pm and I can send you more info on it. Cheers.

Some progress today although "modelling time" was interrupted by an unplanned visit to the VA due to an over zealous chart reader. . . .anyway, managed to do some touch ups on the turret, including filling the depressions where the tow cables would normally go, ours were mounted on the rear for easy access. I added a couple of wires also, one each for the smoke grenade launchers and one for the wine sensor. These were hand brushed with black and then "dusted" with the overall base colour to simulate the hastily applied sand we got and the wear and tear that occurred. I also managed to make our unit marker panel that goes on the rear bustle. Ours were square with rounded corners and overall black in colour with buff colored numbers and chevron. The chevrons were simply marked out with tape and sprayed. I accomplished this by using a piece of card cut to size. I then sanded the corners and gave it an overall coat of buff. I then cut stencils from a paper copy laid over painters tape and covered with some packing tape. The idea was to use the blue painters tape as the mask. The paper copy is too flimsy by itself and the packing tape helps it hold together better during cutting. The mask was carefully laid in place and the whole deal sprayed black. Pretty close to the real deal. I gave it a quick coat of future to help seal it. Also managed to get the 40mm ammo cans laid out on the rear bustle and everything seems to fit well. These need to be painted and then attached. once in place they will be sprayed again for effect. Still need to figure out how to make the regular bumper numbers for my track. . . . cheers.

Ok! Pictures! Been busy with work and life and modelling time has been few. Today I dedicated the afternoon to getting something done and so I did.

Began by painting the inside of the loaders and drivers hatches.These were the original NATO green since only the outside was painted and not the inside, it was a quick and dirty job when we painted our tracks in country. Once that was finished I touched up some spots on the hull with the NATO green as some areas would have been hard to reach, i.e. the spots that would have been behind the road wheels. Then I began to use the same NATO Green (mine is a mix of Tamiya Olive and Nato so it looks darker) to begin the drybrushing process to simulate the wear of the sand paint on the tank over the 6 months were were there. I then painted off the periscopes and lights and touched up the drive sprockets with some NATO green. I have painted the loaders MG ring and that is about it. The unit marker sign is done and that and the 40mm boxes will go on soon. Still need to make decals for this bad boy so we'll see what I can do. Let me know what you think. Cheers.

Ok, last night I buckled down and actually got some good time in (thank God the TV season has ended). Added some initial rust to the spots that needed it along with the green to the road wheels. The drive sprockets got a healthy dose of rust and metal to show the wear and tear that the sand and wet did to the old girl. The 40mm cans were added as well as the unit marker panel. Loaders hatch set in place and the tracks got an initial coat of rust on the end connectors and center guides. The tracks will be dusted pretty heavily so I am not too worried about my sloppy paint job on those right now. The rust for the road wheels will be added during the oil washes stage as I think it will look better that way and hopefully not over done. Decals are needed now before the rest of the detail parts go on. While I am waiting on decals I am going to (WORK ON THE FAUN!!) get the stowage painted as well as the crew serve weapons. Once decals are ready I will move forward with the rest of the process. Let me know what you think. Cheers.

Ok, so other than getting the crew serve weapons built and all the stowage painted this project will be on hold until we get all the decals ready to roll out as we are pretty close to being ready to start weathering with the oils once those decals are on. So stay tuned will post minor progress photos of the stowage as it gets done. Cheers.

Decals are now on!! WOO HOO! Big thank you to RObbert Blokker for his help in reproducing my artwork. Two coats of future on and now ready for oil washes. The crew serve weapons have been assembled, and have some paint on them, but more still to do. antennas are made and ready for mounting as well. Here are some pics, let me know what you think. Cheers.

Hiya Damon,

Man i just found this build. Im WAY late to this party! M1A1 is lookin fine my man. Ill be back!

Cheers buddy.