I've picked up a couple of the Hobbycraft M1A? kits for a ridiculously low price and am have a few questions about the kits. I know they're not Tamiya, but they'll offer a lot of low cost hours of "fun"

1. Do the Hobbycraft kits (I know that they're Trumpter) have a corrected turret?
2. Which photo-etch set can be used?
3. If I make an M1A1 from the 3rd ID (I assume that the predominant version), were they all equiped with the bustle rack APU?
4. What were the combat loads?
5. It looks like the 1/64th Armor did the "thunder runs" through Bagdahd ... does anyone have a list of vehicle names and bumper codes??

Thanks ..

PS: where can you buy a set of Tamiya roadwheels?

Hi Nail ,Welcome to Armorama
# 1: The left side needs a bit of work . This is a M1 that Animal is working on

The white plastic card is added to get the turret face to the right shape . I did a post in Rvt. Review on this step by step but I deleated the pics to make room . If you need them let me know
# 2 : MMMMmmm I dont mess with P E much sorry
# 3 : Turret APU - I see a lot of those in the pics so I think it is ok to go ahead and put it on
# 4 : combat loads - Ammo - or crew gear ? All ammo would be inside the tank - 40 rounds I think . 120 mm ammo has a combustable shell so the crew keeps it under cover . Crew gear - depends on the units load plan . The purpose of a load plan is so that if another crew has to use my tank all the critical gear is in the same place as it is on every tank . The standard issue per crew man is : 1 Alice pack - 1 CVC/helmet bag - 1 sleeping bag w/ cover - NOTE - these are in the new Tamiya kits - they look great - 1 NBC suit bag 2 duffle bags -( I know I left something out ) So just take all this x 4 and you have a lot of gear to add to the tank
# 5 : I'll have to look around a bit on that one - there were a lot of good tank names on TV Here is the link to Archer ,They ship pretty quick lots of OIF options http://www.archertransfers.com/MIDEASTAFV.html
# 6 :Tamiya road weels - beats me
Hope this helps - toad out

Eduard's PE set says it is for Tamiya, but since all the other kits were patterned on their model the Eduard set fits them all too, including Trumpeter. The Tamiya roadwheels can be bought straight from Tamiya, but one sprue will generally cost about ten dollars plus ten more for shipping. The Tamiya roadwheels come on two sprues, so their you would spend $30 just for the wheels. The whole kit can be gotten off ebay for that much, so don't waste your money gong to Tamiya, just buy the Tamiya kit.

Rob

Thanks much ... I was mostly interested in what a crew might carry. Overall, the Trumpeter kits look nice, although I haven't built a kit in years.

RE: roadwheels - I might try and pick up a couple of "old" Tamiya M1's ~ as they should go pretty cheap.

Do you know of a web site that carries a series of detail photos for the M1A1? Or even better yet, one that deals specifically with photos from OIF?

It also appears that some of the M1A1s used in OIF still carried the NATO camo vs. Sand ... why? Were these tanks that came from Europe or the US vs. pre-positioned stock?

When reading some of the accounts of tankers, it appeared that having a rifle handy became common ... would have they been an M4 or a picked up AK? I recall a story of someone picking up an Enfield (yup, a 0.303) and using it to "reach out and touch someone" where the M4 didn't have enough ommph in a particular incident.

One more thing ... am I correct in thinking that the Army used different smoke dischargers than the Marines?

As I understood it, the NATO 3-tone camo ones were shipped in (Germany) and the sand-tone ones were allready in Kuwait/Saudi Arabië. (there were allso olive-drab/green ones in the field, they came off the Marine-ready ship (don't know the name in english, sorry))
Try Webshots and search for IRAQ, you'll get about a 1000 pics, good luck!

How about here.

Let me see if I got this right, that is a picture of a hobby craft M1, and the turret is shaped wrong on them, is this correct, is there any other manufacturer that has this problem or just hobby craft? Thank you if you can help me.