RFM ICWS cupola is just too small. As you can see, so is the Tamiya one. You may notice several other parts in the RFM kit strangly similar to the Tamiya versions (eg. the belly armor).

Pawel strangely similar , as in inspired by yes, but unlike some earlier suggestions, not the same, so not direct copy. Tamiya is actually more accurate belly armour wise in width (about 1.3mm difference), though RFM may be more accurate shape. there is a noticeable difference.

And the build continues………..
In the instructions, the M1A1 with TUSK is highlighted I green and the A2 with TUSK is in black. After dry fitting the barrel, I proceeded to step B-1 and drilled out all the holes were the TUSK components will be mounted. After that, I jumped to step B-4 and glued the two halves of the turret together. Using liquid cement, little to no putty will be needed. I light sanding of the beaded up plastic will clean the bottom of the hull up.




The rear panel was a good fit and again, little to no putty was needed.






Steps B-2, B-3, and B-5 are adding turret details like the side storage boxes, gunner’s sight, blow off panels and TUSK parts.
The TUSK parts will be added later for two reasons. Reason one is for ease of painting since the TUSK parts will be in tan and the vehicle will be NATO 3 color. The other reason is because the whole “J” sprue was missing from the box and RFM and Jim got that taken care of and it’s on the way to me.








Check out the detail on the hinges of the side storage boxes...




For plastic, the tow cables look pretty good. The cables were already pre-shaped and all the mounting holes helped keep them in place....




The gunner’s sight is mounted, masked and ready for paint……..


I did forget to take care of the punch marks though…..


The FBCB2 transceiver and GPS has been mounted and along with the smoke dis chargers, will be cabled up later.


Two types of wind sensors are provided in the kit. Check your reference to see what sensor is on the vehicle your building.




The bustle rack gave me a little bit of trouble because it was warped or bent while in the box. Careful placing and a mix between super glue and liquid cement helped correct this issue...


The extended bustle rack went together with no problem. It will be glued on later after I decide what bumber number I will represent. B24 has a tan extended rack and B23 has a green one...


As with the barrel, I checked the measurement of the kit turret with the ones I took of the Abrams I had access to while I was in the National Guard. Every thing checked out just fine. So far so good....












Next update will be the TC's and loaders weapon station,i.e., the .50 Cal and 7.62mm machine guns.

As always, questions and critiques welcomed.

Great thread Pete. I like what you are showing here with your build. It sure is informative for me since I know Jack about Tanks.

Also, glad to see you already utilize Word Doc into your updates. I too have learned tha little trick the hard way. Now, I can hit any stupid button and not loose my work

Anyway, I will follow along and learn a thing or two or three

Looking good Pete

None of belly armor parts in those kits are anywhere close to accurate. The belly armor should be WIDER than the bottom hull, as the side plates of the armor have extended "tabs" that enclose the hull between them. Both Tamiya and RFM belly armor parts are significantly narrower than the bottom hull and neither has the tabs represented at all. While the reduced width in Tamiya kit made sense, as it was caused by molded on suspension arms, in RFM kit it is just a poor research and "inspiration" taken from Tamiya part, instead of the real thing.

And when I say that parts are copied, I mean like this:



is a copy of this:



Obviously not the same but still a copy

Pete, sorry for spamming your thread!

Great build ! thanks for sharing . makes me buy this kit

I'll watching this thread with great interest. Very usefull informations, keep going. Thank you.

Second instruction correction, not numer wise, but in picture wise. I was checking out Andrew's(Konigwolf) thread on his RFM M1A1 build and noticed something different between his extended bustle rack and mine. Here is what I found out.....

Is there any chance you can fix the cupola? Thanks Pete

Jay

Pete, thanks for correction, you're right the mesh for the jerry can holders on the bustle rack extension should be UNDER not on top, will fix

Jay, guessing it would take a fair bit of fine work.

Speaking about the under belly armor, here a pic from the Meng's one :


It look more correct

Jay, like Andrew said, it would take some work to fix the A2 cupola. Like Pawel said in his other thread, it's just to small.

Now as far as the belly armor is concern, I think that can be fixed. Thanks Pascal for the picture post of the MENG's kit belly armor. Looking at the RFM belly armor, I'm thinking slicing it right down the middle and adding plastic strip to widen and some plastic scrap sanded to shape will make it look close. I'm seriously going to think about doing that before I even make one cut.

Pete, I was thinking similar about the belly armour but have decided not to as I'm going to grab a MENG kit to build as a M1A2 TUSK I and make both OOTB, no mods for comparison. Don't know what to do about adding a TUSK II to the stable though. Academy or correcting a MENG or RFM kit as a project???

Thanks Pete.

I remember Pawel said that Meng's belly armor is not right also? Jay

Hi Jay
The rear part of Meng's belly armor seems too long compared to other kits

I can confirm this and will modify my Abrams !

Great build so far Pete!
I really like what you are doing, but with each new picture the less I like this kit.
That's why it is really useful to have this kind of build logs to see what you actually get in the box.

Just a small update with some more corrections I found in the instruction book. Will have a good update later this evening, got to editsome pictures of the build first.






Flipping through the pages of the instruction book,it seems the norm of not listing the part numbers if they are the same on the other side.

Just curious if this kit come with an engine?

Mike, no engine mate.

Pete. Yeah I have been noticing the instruction issues as well. Frustrating at times and nothing someone with some experience cant figure out but considering this is really only RFM's second kit I'm impressed.

Thanks Andrew. I thought there might be one considering how they model the back end on this kit.

No engine, but in my next update, I will show evidence that a full interior with engine might be on the way.

Received the sprue “J” from RFM today. Thanks RFM and Jim for getting that to me so fast.

And the build continues……

First, I want to apologize for giving out wrong information. I was asked if the road wheel arms were movable in this kit and I answered yes. The way the kit is built, the road wheel arms are not meant to move. Torsion bars are included, but the arms have locking pins. It is possible to have the road wheel arms move by removing the locking pin.



Next is more evidence that there could be a full interior, including engine, coming from RFM soon.

This picture shows a location point where the batteries would go. The only thing is that on the hull, the doors to access the batteries are molded to the hull. Maybe a new hull will be included?



Possible engine locating spots:







And drivers compartment:







Did work on the loaders hatch, external APU, and TC’s station…













There was a major problem with the TC hatch…



The engine doors and grills look very good. They were a bit tricky to put together but if you attach the hinge parts first, then attach the doors, it goes to better easier. The tail lights are not that bad looking either.













Road wheel arms, torsion bars, return wheels and all the other nick nacks that go behind the tracks went on with now problem. Even with the locking pins, there is still a little play with the road wheel arms, so use a straight edge or something level to level out the arms while they dry.









Now was the time to mate the upper with the lower hull. The front of the hull was a good tight fit. Under the left and right rear has some small gaps. If it bothers you, you can fill these gaps, but for me, since you won’t see them, I won’t bother filling them.















There is 3 places on the hull that will need to be filled and sanded and fixed. First is the front glacis plate. The front did have the weld seem molded on the bottom hull, but it was faint. So I sanded it all down and will use some Evergreen rod to replace the weld bead.



Next spot that will need filler and sanding is the right rear side of the hull…



Last to show in this update is the left rear area of the hull. Since I am building the M1A1 with Tusk version, I used the fuel cell panel that goes glued atop the right rear. The u shape and lip seen on A2’s with the APU and or Hawker Batteries is not visible on the A1 that I am building, so fill and sand this area. The other area is where the upper hull meets the rear. This needs to be filled and sanded.



Well, that’s it for tonight’s update.

Pete, we are still at similar positions. No mention of the "problem" with the tank commanders 50 cal in the M1A1 instructions? Not super familiar with 50 cals it took me little to work out.