Hello
Im building a trumpter abrams. There are
no stops built in to give me the proper height
of the hull from the ground. Any ideas about
proper height? thanks

Here's a good site with all sorts of details and images. Follow the other links for just about any other vehicle you can think of.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m1.htm

On all the Trumpeter M1's I have built (quite a few on consignment, tankers love models of their mounts) there have been small square blocks behind the holes (next to the square attachment plate) where the road wheel arms attach. The road wheel arms have hollow backs. The small blocks go into the hollows on the road wheel arms. This establishes the height for the road wheels. As long as you set the hull down and align all road wheel arms on the ground, you will get the proper height and flat road wheels. You can also articulate the road wheels by cutting and moving these blocks up or down.

You can see the small blocks on the below picture.



Hope that helps.

The height of the center of the hull is 19 inches or .528" at 1/35th scale (13.6 mm).
If you are going from the suspension strakes (or bumps) then they are 17 inches off the ground, which amounts to .486" at 1/35th scale (12.3 mm).

There should be. As far as I know all Trumpeter M1 kits share common molds, most especially for the hull.

IIRC, alongside each hole for the torsion bars there is a small rectangluar block that would fit into a channel molded to each suspension arm. It would help you get the correct height.

Hope this helps.


BT6


ADDENDUM: Looks like HeavyArty beat me to it, heh-heh.