Given the age of the other USMC kits and their shortcomings, I think this is EXCELLENT news. I have the Meng M1A2 SEP kit, and it's a gem. This one should be well-received. Perfect Scale Modellbau has a resin set for upgrading the M1A1 to A'stan by the way.

Some details of the upcoming release:

Looking good. It looks like it will have all the parts needed to make either a USMC M1A1 in Iraq or Afghanistan. It also has parts to build a US Army M1A1 early or late Iraq w/or w/out TUSK side armor as well. It should be a nice kit.

I like

It looks good. I have a couple of comments. 1. The MCD seems to be missing the small cooling fins on the side of the heat sink. 2.The USMC Abrams in A-Stan are using a newer antenna mounting piece that runs along the top of the turret, just behind the blow put panels. You can see a good example in the Perfect Scale Modellblau set. I like the rest of what I see in the pre release pics. They even to seemed to have done the later CWS with the side protection for the TC. THe SGL's have the correct frame and mounting posts. Joe Bevans AMPS 2nd VP West Region AMPS So Cal

Just got mine today, and it's a FABULOUS kit that lets you build a straight USMC M1A1 without belly armor or any of the doo-dads from later on (no CITV, or MCD for example). The photos with the Chinese commentary in the post above will give you a pretty good estimate of what's in the kit). If you are only going to buy one M1A1, this might be the one. It blows the old Dragon kit totally out of the water.

Actually it looks like it does have the cooling fins. If you look closely here: you'll see that there are fins present.

How will it suite to build current Australian M1s?

Shouldn't be too difficult ... just a few AUSSI specific extras. You will need to swap the smoke-dischargers for ARMY type and avoid the fording-kit and other USMC parts ... but otherwise I would say your good to go. Just check what "upgrade" stage your AUSSI M1 should be. Cheers Christopher