Built this little sucker starting with the dragon M1 kit with a Mine plough. Lemme tell ya to get it to this leverl requires totally reworking some areas of the kit, a set of photoetch and alot of strip styrene bits.
The kit out of the box is just Dragons RC M1 abrams without the guts. It has the fat belly for the batteries, cut outs in the lower hull, solid turret basket, and very soft detailing. Some of the modifications i have done are to remove the fat belly, rebuild the entire stowage rack using wire and strip styrene, remove the soft or incorrect detailing. After i cleaned up the base kit i went ahead an went to town detailing it to bring it up to a more modern standard. I added framing for the commanders vision blocks on the turret cupola. Replaced the too fat 50cal browning MG with a much finer one from the dragon HMMWV set. Added photoetch details like the 20mm ammo cans, MG ammo, rear exhaust vent mesh and other details. For those familiar with the kit or if you have it in your stash break it out and compare the parts to it. Youll see the difference.
The level of detail i have applied to this model even garnered praise from the M1 expert in our club. He has worked on the tank personally and commented that i "really polished that lump of fecal matter" He was impressed how well i had been able to capture the look and feel of the tank.
All bad points aside this is actually a very nice kit if your willing to put the effort into it. Dimensionally it is the BEST M1 in 1/72 scale. The Revell one is too large in its overall dimensions and has turret shape issues.
Enjoy
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5307.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5308.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5309.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5310.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5312.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5313.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5314.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5315.jpg
The kit out of the box is just Dragons RC M1 abrams without the guts. It has the fat belly for the batteries, cut outs in the lower hull, solid turret basket, and very soft detailing. Some of the modifications i have done are to remove the fat belly, rebuild the entire stowage rack using wire and strip styrene, remove the soft or incorrect detailing. After i cleaned up the base kit i went ahead an went to town detailing it to bring it up to a more modern standard. I added framing for the commanders vision blocks on the turret cupola. Replaced the too fat 50cal browning MG with a much finer one from the dragon HMMWV set. Added photoetch details like the 20mm ammo cans, MG ammo, rear exhaust vent mesh and other details. For those familiar with the kit or if you have it in your stash break it out and compare the parts to it. Youll see the difference.
The level of detail i have applied to this model even garnered praise from the M1 expert in our club. He has worked on the tank personally and commented that i "really polished that lump of fecal matter" He was impressed how well i had been able to capture the look and feel of the tank.
All bad points aside this is actually a very nice kit if your willing to put the effort into it. Dimensionally it is the BEST M1 in 1/72 scale. The Revell one is too large in its overall dimensions and has turret shape issues.
Enjoy
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5307.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5308.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5309.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5310.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5312.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5313.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5314.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/HWRMKII/Leopard2A5/100_5315.jpg
