W.I.P SERIES: Academy M1A1 Abrams Part III Mine Plow (Part 1)

Part I
Part II

With the basic lower hull complete for the most part it was time to move on to the mine plow assembly. I had both a Trumpeter 5 in 1 Abrams which includes a mine plow and a stand alone Dragon track width mine plow on hand and after looking over the instructions of both I decided the best coarse of action would be to cannibalize parts from both in to a useable plow. It seemed early on this would be a fairly straight forward assembly, however this 60 piece mini kit quickly escalated in to an almost month long ordeal. Poor parts quality coupled with confusing instructions gave me a migraine more than a few times and made me want to throw it against a wall and beat it with a 20lb sledge for good measure. In the end I persevered and "War Pig" will have it's plow.


Assembly

Step 1

The first order of business was the main frame and travel locks. Most of this assembly's 13 pieces were marred significantly with flash, mold lines, ejector pin marks, and sink holes. The travel locks are a four piece assembly consisting of a hook sandwiched between two ends with a canister on the side toward center. Care needs to be taken to not get cement on the hinge points where the center hook meets the two end caps as they need to remain operational in order to properly align the support arms later on. The darker gray parts are the Trumpeter pieces while the lighter gray are Dragon parts.

Step 2

The skids are a five piece affair from the Dragon kit. They take some very slight modification to fit to the Trumpeter support arms mainly just removing the raised half circle that forms the attachment to the Dragon arms. There are three large ejector pins on the upper surface of each skid but otherwise assembly is straight forward aside from a small amount of filler here and there.



   

 Step 3

The support arms were yet another nightmare of an affair. Crusted with thick mold lines and several ejector pin marks each took quite awhile to get cleaned up enough for assembly. I did not apply cement to any of the hinge points on the travel locks, skids, or support arms which leaves the entire assembly operational in a sense. If I had taken more time with the plow blades I could have made it so I could display the unit in the stowed or deployed position, however as it is I will need to permanently leave it in the lifted or travel position.

Step 4

At this point it was a good idea to perform a test fit of all the major assemblies. The last thing I want to do is get the plow blades in place, along with all of their associated chains and smaller fittings, then find the assembly doesn't fit the vehicle correctly.






With the main frame completed, the next step will be to move on to the plow blades themselves, which will be seen in the next installment, along with painting and weathering.