Im definitely new at armor modelling and was trying my hand at weathering after reading a few articles on the web and this was the end result. Would be great if you guys could share some tips on how i can improve my modelling skills and criticisms are definitely welcome.


This was the constructed model before any attempt was made to weather it. Looking back i cant believe i actually considered NOT weathering it.

Side On View


Front View



Then i got brave...and possibly went a little overboard with the muddy look.






After doing a bit of research, i realised most of the tanks in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom didnt really have a lot of mud on it but i just couldnt bear the thought of only a slightly dusty tank so i figured it had to look as if it went through a sand storm and dipped its tracks in some wet muddy sand.

Welcome to Armorama !

Nice built ! I am sure that you will receive many tips from our Amorama mates about building the M1A2 Abrams.

Sorry, can't see the pics. Bandwith Exceeded. Geocities is not a good photo host site. Try Photobucket. It is free and will not be unavailable after 2 people have looked at them.

dont be downed by mud we got our tank stuck 4 times in the mud in late febuary when that whole dump turs to mud in the rainy season....but it looks really good..

Looks pretty good. Two things on the stowage. You appear to have a gerry can and road wheel that are not secured and that are going to go flying at the first bump. Also, you might want ot consider adding some straps to the back of your rucksacks where they are hanging on the bustle rack.

Am I the only one getting the Exceeded Bandwith message? I only see red "X"s. Copy the url from properties and get the following bandwith message,

"Sorry, this site is temporarily unavailable!
The web site you are trying to access has exceeded its allocated data transfer. Visit our help area for more information.

Access to this site will be restored within an hour. Please try again. "

I can't see them either!!!

Ditto, no pictures here either.
Kyle

Pictures came through fine on mine.
capnjock

Alot of tanks had mud on them after the storms in late march 03.

Looks great, I would recommend cleaning off some of the mud between the tracks. The movement and travel of the tank would keep much of the mud from staying between them, unless you want to put it in a mud pit, but it looks like it is meant to be dried mud.

Either way, nice build.

Ryan

If you paste the link it says access will be restored in an hour.

Paul

Ahh, the pictures are back up again.

One other note, on the next one, you might want to limit the number of ruck sacks on a tank, one per crew member is considered normal. One sleeping mat and one sea bag per crewmember is also considered normal.

Other wise, after a longer look, I would repeat that it looks great.

Ryan

Thanks for all the comments guys! Keep those tips coming in, there's some really good stuff in here.

Sorry about linking it to a geocities site, ive since uploaded the pictures onto my own hosting site so you should be able to see it now.




I did a couple of searches on the web and couldnt really see how the spare wheels were strapped onto the hull. Any ideas / example on how i would do that? As for the gerry can....i did start running out of space to put it. I had diligently followed the kit instructions and the picture example.

If most of you havent already noticed, the colour of the tank is actually a little too dark. I noticed this a little late. Any tips on how you guys mix the colours to get the right shade of yellow?

Army M1s in Iraq have a sort of cool (tone) grey color to them. It may be a little late on this project, but you could fix a similar problem by giving it a blue or blue/grey (Payne's Gray) filter wash. That will change it to a cool tone. Then to lighten it some more you can use Bleached Titanium for hightlighting the flat panels and high points of the model.

The above are accomplished w/ oil paints. The filter is mostly thinner and just a tiny bit of the paint. Thus, it is not a wash in the traditional sense of creating shadows. It is designed to change the tonal value and impart a more three dimensional look.

You can take a look at my M1A1 to get an idea of what I am talking about. I did the same thing with that.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/646

Bob

Hi Burik,

Im truly embarrased with my model after seeing the quality of your M1A1. Thanks for the tips however. My next project is the M113A2 so i will be playing with largely similar paints.

Incidentally, how did you get the writings on the turret? Did you custom spray those onto your models? Viewing the M1s in Iraq, i did notice every tank had a different writing on it so im guessing it was placed there by the tank crew?

Jeremy:

Thanks for the compliment, but it is not difficult at all to get the look of my Abrams. I do not use an airbrush. Oils are very forgiving, so with my limited skills many little mistakes are cleaned up, and some are even incorporated into the model (blending).

Anyway, I assume you are asking about the markings on the tank. Those are decals sold by Echelon. You can go to the Review section on this site and read about their quality, and of course go to their site too. In most people's opinions dry transfers are the best, since there is no film outline on the decal. Archer is one of the more well known dry transfer companies. Echelon's decals are traditional wet slide decals, but they are so thin and cut so fine near the artwork that the film does not show. They are fantastic (I am a bit biased since the ones on my model I helped develop with Echelon).

You can do a search on this site and others, like Missing Link, and find the discussions on what the markings mean. But basically the chevrons help identify the company or platoon, depenind on which one you are looking at. Yes confusing, but that was a result of some pre-war last minute adjustments. Some units like this one did not make all the right changes. But most OIF1 units did make the changes, so other units markings are not so confusing.

Your tank is a depiction of a unit that came in to theater after Baghdad fell in 2003.

It's a nice start. I hope to see in-progress shots of your M113. Note that it is not as accurate as the Abrams model you started with. I assume you have the Tamiya M113. The Academy one might be better, but it does not have all that cool OIF stuff that Tamiya included. That is another search you can do here to see about (I believe the Tamiya M113 is reviewed here).

Bob

Yup its definitely a Tamiya set as im pro Tamiya. Ive had some bad experiences with Academy's kit back in the days when i was building WWII planes.

Im contemplating building the diorama after ive completed the M113A2 as i was hoping to create a "convoy" style diorama although there must be something more original i could do with an M1A2 and a M113. Ideas anyones?

Personally, I would stay away from a convoy idea. They just look like parking lots since it is hard to convey the movement. Figures can help though. Off point just a little, but studying such figure artists such as Bill Horan can help one understand what can be done by just understanding body position to convey ideas. He strictly does pre-20th century work, but the point is, is that the pose is the key. For instance, in my recent M1A1 I prurposely posed the TC leaning as forward as possible to try to impart some idea that the vehicle was moving forward, as well as to suggest urgency.

I would suggest studying OIF pictures too for inspiration.

Cool looking Abrams Jeremy, I am looking forward to seeing your M113. I am also glad that another Kiwi is becoming active on armorama.

Hey thanks for the kind words. I have actually been around here for quite some time but didnt register and start posting in the forums until recently. I use this site alot for reference and ideas.