I am planning an OIF diorama and need to know what is the best M1 Abrams out there. Anothe question: Which M1 with Mine Plough is better, DML or Tamiya. I will not be buying PE for this project as I will be building a platoon of tanks for the diorama and time is precious.
Thanks
Recon

At this point you will probably want to go with the Tamiya M1A2 kit. It has the best detail for an OIF abrams and plenty of accessories to detail them. You can build it as either an Army or Marine M1A1, or an Army M1A2. However keep in mind that the A2 didn't see any action during the fighting and most A2's that have been over there were of the SEP variety, which is not a variant of this model.

Probably the best Abrams kit right now is Tamiya M1A2. It has parts in it to build three variants: US Army M1A1HC, US Marines M1A1HC or US Army M1A2. It has its share of simplifications and inaccuracies, but still in my opinion is the best. For more information about various M1 kits on the market see my kit comparison article here: http://vodnik2.republika.pl/pages/m1-comparison/m1comp1.htm.

As for the plow parts - you have actually three options: Dragon (DML), Tamiya and Trumpeter. Trumpeter one is most detailed, but most parts are copies of Tamiya ones with some modified engineering (modified to worse in my opinion). DML one is also not bad, and their plow was available separately, so it was possible to buy it and attach to Tamiya model. The plow set is out of production, but can be found on eBay etc..

Pawel