Hello all, I was wondering, aside from obvious differences such as the LRF/GPS housing, presence/absence of the BRE, and the APU location (or its' presence at all), are there any other differences between the M1A1's used in Desert Storm and OIF 1? I was pondering getting a Tamiya M1A2 and building a Desert Storm-vintage M1A1, and was wondering what other bits and pieces would be different between the two versions. Any info on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

externally there are not much diffrences other than what you mentioned. I believe they may have used a diffrent shade of tan. On quite a few M1A1's used in Desert Storm the newer Dog House for the GPS was used. You are correct about the APU. The only APU used was the one that was hung on the right rear tailight. Not all units kept them. Some did others got rid of them. The only other thing I can think of are the sprockets that drive the track. You would want to use the older sprockets. The newer ones have scallopes cut out to reduce the weight. The older ones are one regular circle.

Ric

Both styles of track would be OK, and some tanks would have the access panels on the back deck and some would not. Additionally, the 3 caps on the blast panels may or may not have been present.

Rule of thumb is that the lack of access panels, lack of caps and early style tracks would be on one tank. And the later style tracks would be on a tank with the 3 caps and access panels.

I didn't see any of the rear mounted APUs installed on our tanks.