I was just curious if anyone had built one of these kits? Or, does anyone know how good the kit is?How's the detail on it? Thanks.

Oh, I forgot to ad, this would be the M1A2 kit. Thanks again......

Hi Tony,
I build that kit and a couple of others, too , well, the major flaw is the turret face. You may also find tat the EAPU is way underscale. There's other bits and pieces, too but at least they're a decent basis for a relatively cheap price.
You should check Vodnik's site
for any guidance on any M1 kit.
HTH
Andreas

Personally, I didn't like it as much as the Dragon kit. I've bought the new Tamiya M1A2 (off of someone for about $25) and it looks like a much better kit.

I built the A2 but did not bother to fix the front turret face. It is not too noticeable.

-1-This is what it looks like when an amateur builds it...
-2-With the turret fixed...
-3-Oh yeah, and this is not the M1A2, as you can see... thinking about it I don't even know if the A1 and the A2 are based on the same kit.... well, hope it helps a bit...
-4-And agreeing with sabot, I won't go twice for the Trumpeter even though it saves you a lot of money being cheaper, you'll find that the Tamiya or the Dragon's are a lot more fun to build...

The Trumpeter M1A1 and M1A2 are the same kit with a few sprue swap parts, much like the Dragon M1A1 and M1A2. The parts are about 95% common between the two variants.

I have this in my stash, thinking of doing it as my next build as I just completed my first tank for the AGE2 campaign using an M41. Quick question with regards to general tanks builds, when do you guys put the tracks on?

May sound silly but the weakest part of my tank is the tracks as I put them on last (wanted to paint and weather first and then add tracks and finish weathering. Had a heck of a time getting the tracks on and in the end screwed one up more than I wanted to and now I hate it. lol Wil try one last time to fix it before sending in a pic for the campaign though. Do you paint and weather them and the bottom part of the hull and suspension before mating the top and bottom hull pieces? Advice definitely needed. Thanks!

I put the tracks on last. I completely build, paint, and weather the hull before adding the track. I paint and weather the track before dding it as well.

Really? Hmm, then I guess I was ok doing it that way but was fumble fingers with the rubber band tracks for the tank. They were painted and then I added pastels for weathering, from the working them under the fenders to get them in place the tracks were showing cracks in the paint in some areas. Maybe because I didn't seal them, wasn't sure whether or not to seal them with a dullcote or leave them alone being plastics.

Thanks for the info guys. I may pick one up, 'cos it is rally cheap. And, I install my tracks last too.

With all the talk about this tank I broke it out this weekend and started working on it. Seeing me working on it got my wife interested too so she broke out the P-38 we picked up that she thought looked cool and wanted to build at one of the HL sales last year. It's good to get the wife interested in building too, makes those model purchases easier plus she likes planes rather than armor so my stash should be ok.

I'm building it straight OOB, inaccuracies I'm not worried about as this is a 'fun' build and I'll save the accuracy for my Tamiya M1's for later. The turret is pretty bad though, will probably have to try to work on that to make it appear a bit better.

Here is a pic of my Trumpeter M1A1 with Mineplow:



There are a number of things I changed out to make the kit better.

1. Fixed the turret face on the gunners/loaders side. YOu can get by without fixing it, but if you know the problem is there, is sticks out like a sore thumb.

2. The suspension is rather fragile, more so that either Tamiya or DML. I snapped off a raodwheel arm when attaching my tracks.

3. I attach my tracks last, THEN add the side skirts. Yes, it means a fair amount of temporary assembly to get the cammo done correctly, but I think it is worth the effort and it makes putting on the tracks infinately easier. I cannot even imagine putting tracks on with the sideskirts in place...yikes!

4. Also, when putting vinyl tracks together, I find it easiest to staple them in place, THEN use the hot-knife method to connect them, then just paint over the whole mess. The side skirts hide the staples anyhow.

5. Because of the nature of the Vinyl, paint is just going to peel off. The only way to really avoid this is to handle them as little as possible, period.

Hope this helps you keep on finishing the kit.

Thanks Jaques! I was figuring I'd do the same with the tracks/sideskirts after looking it over yesterday. Have the suspension and hull built and primed minus the sideskirts and roadwheels. Going to stick with a plain desert scheme on this one, not messing with camo yet although I really should learn but I'll save that for later. lol

Going to start painting the tracks tonight and probably the roadwheels before starting to work on the turret, want to get the "pain" part of the painting done by knocking out the wheels and tracks before proceeding. At least get them started and on their way, they are usually the most tedious and 'boring' part of the painting anyway it appears.

Like the look of yours, pretty cool! Will pot mine when I'm done.

I don't know about you guys but I had problems with a Trumpeter model. I purchased their Abrams M1A2 about four years ago and had it painted and everything and was stored in my basement for a while. Somehow, the plastic deteriorated and wheels cracked after about 2 years. I don't know if it was Georgia heat or humidity but Trumpeter models' plastic- similar material used for soda bottles- is inferior in quality than regular plastic used by other companies. Like someone said earlier, they are more brittle and harder to glue also so I avoid Trumpeter ones as much as possible. Just my 2 cents worth...

I appreciate the information. I've picked one of the kits up and I'm going to build it as a "fun build". I'll probably fix the turret problem, though.