I stand corrected, Bob! Thanks for the info, it means I won't have to modify the MB figures if I don't want to.

The turret is now mostly complete. Just a few small items yet to add such as some water bottles, TC's M4, and a couple of kevlar helmets...maybe an MRE pouch or two. Here's what it looks like prior to fitting the crew figures:


Lots of expended .50 cal shells and links around the TC station indicating how much firing these guys were doing going down the road. Both the links and the shells are from Live Resin.


Both of the crew weapons stations...the .50 cal again and the loader's M240. Green duct tape holds the bipod up while mounted but could be removed so that the gun could be used dismounted if needed. Many of these guns were fitted with a "dismount kit" which added the bipod and heat shields. No expended shells were visible from the M240 because they are ejected into the hopper directly below the gun. There were cases where these guns began jamming because the hoppers were so full.

Also visible here is the simulated armored glass on the rangefinder, commonly referred to as the "doghouse". I painted two dark silver circles on the glass before applying the AFV Club stickers to indicate the reticles. The color change effect of the stickers is pretty clear when compared to the periscope windows on the TC station.


Here's the stowage. Crews lived in the tanks so pretty much everything they needed was carried with them. Water, MREs, extra ammo, sleeping bags, tents, cots...it's all on there. I used the Legends stowage kit and added a tarp made from A+B putty to squish some of the stuff into so that the hard resin pieces wouldn't look like Lego blocks stacked together. Ratchet straps were made from cloth medical tape cut to size and attached to PE ratchets and end hooks from CSM Designs.

Shots of the crew will be up later.

That's it for now. I have to re-install the razor wire coils and pickets on the rear hull since I'm not liking how they turned out on my first attempt. Then I'm gonna finalize some turret details and take "glamour shots" both with and without the crew which should wrap things up.

Thanks again for looking!

Wow! Look at the expressions...great stuff. This work should look great in the line up for TR. Congratulations!

Tremendous!! .50 cal shells very nice touch!

Here are the crew figures. I pulled them out of my last post in order to downsize the images because Photobucket wasn't liking my edits. So here they are:

Tank Commander, SSgt Santiago


Loader, Spc Hicks


I used different flesh tones to give the TC a darker complexion to match the one photo I've seen of him. Hicks had a light mustache at the time of the TR and I tried duplicating it but it came out making his lip look dirty so I had to darken it a bit more than I would have liked. In any case, I tried to make the figs look somewhat like the actual crew.

The turret and figures look awesome! The weathering of the stowage is first-rate. How did you make the padlock on the TC's cupola? How easy/hard were the Live-Resin shells and links to use? They look microscopic!

Hey Lucas. The padlock is a PE item leftover from an Eduard Sherman PE set. The Live Resin clips, while not hollow to show where they hold the shell, worked fine...I just sprayed them black and ran my finger along them to detach from the sprue. They pop right off and only need a touchup of black in one location after mounting.

As for the Live Resin shells, I'm not sure I could recommend them. They come attached to the sprue where each shell has THREE attachment points; the base and each side. I tried removing the side attachment points prior to painting but the resin is a bit brittle so the just kept detaching from the bottom. That meant I had to paint them on the sprue, then detach, mount on the tank, and touch-up all the areas where the paint was removed at the attachment location.



Additionally, even changing to a fresh X-acto blade every dozen or so cuts, there were still spots where the cut wasn't perfectly clean which left "nubs" on the shell. This is because they tend to roll one way or the other as you cut them off the sprue. Once they are off the sprue, there is really no good way to hold them and get a better trim so quite a few had to be discarded since they were not perfectly round. So, while the CAD drawings of the shells are attractive, in reality, their configuration on the sprue makes all the fidelity of the resin casting rather worthless since they are not easy to remove.

I think a similar outcome could have been achieved just using cut-up sections of brass rod. There are also the Mission Models brass shells which look great but are quite a bit more expensive and since I needed a lot, I went with the Live Resin. I wouldn't make that choice again. It's not worth the work.

Sadly, Mission Models is no longer.

Looking Great! Don, would be nice to see them all together when done.

Cheers Rob.

Don--you're right, those rounds do look like a pain to clean up. I'm lucky that I got a package of the mission model rounds several years ago--now I guard them closely (but I'm also afraid to use them lest I run out!).

Lucas, yes the Misson Models shells are the way to go, as long as you don't need to show too many...I read a review some time ago that said they work out to about 64¢ each! In addition, you'll have to fold all those microscopic links...

Maybe this video will inspire you (or possibly discourage you?)!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJOWD3Mumrs&list=UUNFwUnVfLwM8THyohoQXBAQ

Well finally had a chance to take some more photos with the crew aboard.







Also added a couple more details such as the commander's M4 and some water bottles.





And finally, got the razor wire coils and pickets installed more accurately.



Except for a few minor touch-ups, this project is now done. Thanks to everyone here that contributed feedback and advice. See you all for my next project!

Very nice !
Well done !
Enjoyed following your project.

Cheers
Christopher

Amazing model... every detail is researched and accurately depicted. It was a pleasure following your blog and I hope this could be turned into a feature for Armorama, so it will be permanently available on site... what do you think?

Mario

Very well done!

Cheers Rob.

Don, for me your Abrams is the best ever. I think I won't see any MBT like this for a long time.

Cheers!

Marco

It looks spectacular! I love the weathering and the attention to detail.

Sweet!! Congratulations on an inspiring effort

Quick update. As I haven't yet sent off the model to the museum, I decided to try my luck in competition while I still had it. I wanted to take it to Chicago for the annual MMSI Show but as it happens I was traveling for work that week and couldn't make it. However, the Twin Cities NordicCon show was just this past weekend so I had time to put together a simple display and enter the armor competition there.



There was an abundance of talent on display at the show and numerous gold medals were awarded in the Advanced category, including one for this model. However, I was extremely fortunate to have also won two additional awards amongst so many other excellent models. These were Best Armor Subject and Best U.S. Armor Subject.



I am truly honored to have been recognized by the judges for my efforts on this model.

Well deserved Indeed !

Very impressive work going on with this kit. Will love to see what the museum exhibit display looks like when you are done. It is an honor to have your kit at the 3rd ID Museum at Ft. Stewart.
Army father here. Son served wih 3rd ID from Ft. Benning 3rd Brig 3rd ID.

Well deserved!

Congrats,
Mario

Congratulations! It's a great model and the awards underscore that. I'd love to see it when the museum display is finished, too.

@ Don Haney: Don, just wanted to let you know I finally got around to using your method for painting stripes on a barrel as per your technique in this very old thread. I thought you'd appreciate that someone is still going back to look at this spectacular build you did several years ago for ideas on how how to build and paint an M1A1!

What's his technique?

Quote from earlier in thread:
One detail note: A32 has blue rings on the barrel as platoon and vehicle number identifiers but the decals supplied in the kit are actually black. So, I used a tip I saw in AFV Modeller magazine: I first painted the evacuator blue and then taped off the rings with Tamiya tape cut to the same width as the decals. I sprayed the area blue again to seal the edges of the tape and prevent the lighter color leaking underneath. Once that was dry, I sprayed the entire barrel using the various sand colors and peeled off the tape before that last layer was completely dry. Result is blue rings with little or no touch-up needed.

Here.

Cheers Rob.