First Armor Build - M1A2 SEP

[adampolo13]

Good afternoon,

I watched a documentary about the Abrams a few months ago and I just had to build one. I have put together a few aircraft and now I'm building this beast. Many thanks to Scott at Elm City, he did a great job shipping out the SEP which arrived yesterday. Here are a few pics.

Dry fit the tracks:

(I don't like the way these tracks look so I have the bronco tracks on order which should be here in the new few days.)

I'm still very new to scale modeling so I am going to be asking for lots of advice!

Thanks again for looking!

 

[Chris S]

Nice kit ...looking forward to how you get on

Chris.

 

[spud]

um before you upload yer pics can you rotate them so i dont have to lay down to look ;D. simple to do just open them and hit the little arrow in teh pic viewer and it will save it,

other than that off to a good start, and rubber tracks Suck

 

[schweinhund227]

NICE !!!

for the tracks... you could have cut and move the Idler adjustment screw a few "mm" forward... to take on the slack... and reconnect the adjuster screw with a longer piece of round stock ... but maybe there is too much slack already !!! is the number of Track shoes correct ??? or too many? Not that you will see any of this... after the side skirts are glued in place !

UNLESS you are planning to have one or more Side panels OPENED !!! to show off your work ?

but there is nothing wrong with you adding a nice set of A.M. tracks..

Good luck with the project ! its a nice Beast ! will be following for sure !

Norm.

 

[Eastrock]

Adam, Norm is right you can also check the creeping death tread for reference.

well you need to make a plan first before building this beast

Good luck

 

[letsgobrowns82]

Great start so far. That is such an awesome kit, I have one in my stash that I am going to start once I finish up my Merkava which shoudl be soon. If you dont mind post the after market tracks you go with because I was thinking of replacing those as well. Thanks.

 

[panzerace007]

ADAMPOLO,

Rock-Solid. Welcome to th Dark-Side Ma' Brotha' !! We over here in th Armor forum are a funny bunch ! We are tight & don't mind giving advice to help our fellow Tread-Head !!

Looks like you have a good start !!

Don't be shy ..... Th only stupid question ... is th one that goes unasked !! ;D

Fire for Effect !!

 

[adampolo13]

Hello all,

Thank you for your kind welcome to the Armor world!!! I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get a post on here. I've been pretty busy traveling for work and haven't gotten much bench time. Here are pics of were I am at now. I pretty much have the lower hull complete (I haven't installed the clear parts yet, I was going to prime and paint the lower hull then put them in. Any thoughts?

(I like dry fitting the tracks on there, it helps me picture what this beast is going to look like)

My basic idea for assembly was to complete the lower hull, prime and paint. Construct tracks - prime paint attach them to hull. Then construct the side skirts prime paint and attach to hull. Etc. Then weather the whole thing at the end. (Which by the way I haven't done much of and I'm pretty nervous. I don't want to let you guys down as this is such a great kit. I want to do it justice! hahaha)

Does this sound like a solid plan? I have watched a lot of different builds and it seems that there are a lot of different meathods out there.

What do you guys think?

Thanks again for all the hlp!!!

 

[spud]

leav clear parts out till painting is done is a good idea, for teh other ideas they sound like a solid plan,

 

[Rentar1]

Keep on plugging along you are doing great!

 

[TRM]

Looking good buddy!! Just playing a little catch-up here!! I like the plan too!!! No time frame...if your comfortable it will come out that much better!!! Carry on sir!!!

 

[Beobachtungsbereich]

Nice start!

 

[Eastrock]

Like Norm said, are you planning for an open side skirt? when I was doing my mine I already glued the side skirts to the hull since I'm not doing it open.

weather it when you already build it about 95%... from the looks of it now you making great progress, take your time

 

[adampolo13]

Hi guys, thanks again for all the help! I have decided to keep the side skirts closed.

 

[schweinhund227]

I hope you didn't glue those wheels on? Itl will be very hard to paint, if so!

If they have Nylon bushings then.... It's all good!

You give me the TASTE.... To start another M1..... Bad boy!

Keep up the good work!

Norm.

 

[panzerace007]

ADAM,

Great Job on th Tiny P.E. parts !! Looks Good. I dig th anti-skid texture that on this kit. !!

It sounds like a Solid plan to me. Try to leave th trax off until you have weathered th lower hull.

Keep on Rockin' !!

 

[adampolo13]

Hey schweinhund227, dont worry the road wheels are just dry fit in place. (Very nice in box review of the kit by the way. It was one of the reasons I purchased it. Along with the fact that Scott from ECH is fantastic to work with)

Since this is my first armor build I am going very very very slow. I have probably spent more time looking at the instructions and dryfitting than actually cutting and glueing.

panzerace007 - thanks for the complements on the PE. So far I have only lost one very very very tiny little rivet detail to the carpet monster. Thank you for the heads up on the trax as well. Since I ordered the bronco workable set I may leave off till almost complete with the whole build.

To that point, I am waiting for the trax to arrive before I move on. Hopefully that should be today. I will post a few pics of that build part but I know schweinhund227 has a great video review of the trax on his youtube site.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[adampolo13]

Good evening!

So I've been working away on the bronco tracks which have been coming along rather nicely. Here are some pics of the kit and how they are going together. The one thing is they are taking up a lot of time going together!

Thanks again for watching!!!

P.S. Where can I purchase quality pigments and washes? My LHS doen't carry them.


thanks again!

 

[letsgobrowns82]

Wow that looks time consuming, but very worth it. I was thinking about ordering those tracks for my Abrams as well. Let me know how you like them. Oh and as for the pigments internethobbies.com sells some of the mig pigments.

 

[schweinhund227]

And let's not forget the NEW line... aK interactive....

Nice job on the Tracks!

Later buddy! And I am glad some of my videos help!

Norm.