Hey everyone,

I’m just getting back into scale modeling, and I brand new to this forum.

Anyway, I ordered dragon’s M1A1 AIM from greatmodels.com and I’m anxiously awaiting its delivery.

For any of you who own, or have build this kit, is there any advice you can offer me. To my understanding, Dragon is an outstanding company but does have a tendency of omitting some things from their instructions etc. Is there anything I should look out for? Tricky fits etc?

Thanks,
Noah

The M1A1 AIM is pretty complete. Just study the instructions well, they are quite busy, and you shouldn't have any issues. Do a search of the forums here as well. There were a couple threads following different members builds of it a while back.

Good luck and welcome.

Wonderful kit! The best M1 on the market hands down,

like the last poster said though just be careful. If you want to get it right do research and get as many photos as possible because Dragon does not specify some of the differences between the 2004 and 2003 M1's.

Enjoy it though, great kit!

Hi Noah,
You picked a very nice kit to get back into things. When you open the box don't let the number of parts intimidate you. Like Gino said study the instructions closely as they can be somewhat confusing, and take your time with the build. Over on Planetarmor there is a nicely done build log of this kit built up by Lawrence Quah, he also posted a helpful guide to some mistakes in the instructions. Here are the links, hopefully they will prove to be helpful.

Build Log:
http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2360

Instructions guide:
http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2543

Also welcome to the site!

Mike

It's a great kit. Good fit; LOTS of detail and there are 9 different markings options right out of the box. You really do get a lot of bang for the buck with this kit.

All I can do, is reiterate what others have said:

Read the instructions carefully; they're pretty busy and a bit complicated.

If you're a stickler for accuracy, not every Abrams out there has every single bit on it - you may need photos of the specific tank that you wish to model, if you suffer from AMS.

I personally didn't use the included metal barrel, but that was my own choice - there's nothing wrong with the plastic one.

Some of the little fiddly detail bits-n-pieces and smaller PE will necessitate patience and a steady hand (I have neither, unfortunately).

I think you will enjoy the kit. Best of luck.

Thank you everyone for your advice, links, and replies!

I can’t wait to get my hands on the kit – and you can expect plenty of more questions to come once I start my build