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.

W.I.P SERIES: Academy M1A1 Abrams Part II Rear hull details and suspension

In part one of this series on building Academy's M1A1 Abrams the basic hull was assembled, motorization holes filled, and a non skid texture was added to the upper surfaces. In part two I will go over the details and fixes for the rear panel and the suspension which consists of the road wheels, idlers, and main drive sprockets.

The photo above shows an overview of the rear panel. Everything here was assembled per the instruction sheet except for the addition of two missing lift rings. These can be seen directly over the main exhaust visible by their silvery color. In order to produce these I bent a piece of hollow core solder to shape then flattened it with a hobby knife. They were then glued on with CA and blended in with tiny amounts of Gunze Mr. Surfacer 1000. The below photo shows them in greater detail. They may not be entirely the correct shape but since I am a fan of the TLAR (That Looks About Right) method they are good enough for me.

W.I.P. SERIES: Academy M1A1 Abrams Part I Lower hull fills and beginning details

My latest endeavor will be the Academy 1/35 scale M1A1 Abrams main battle tank for the Finescale Modeler community "Gulf Wars Group Build 2012". The particular vehicle I'm modeling (tentatively) is a USMC Abrams known as "War Pig". It should be noted that the "War Pig" seen in COD4 is incorrectly modled as a M1A2 which the USMC never used, only the Army has batallions of M1A2's. Several pictures I have seen of "War Pig" show it ith the mine plow attached which the kit does not include, hence I may model a different vehicle and save the WP decals for a Tamiya or Dragon with the plow.

How to apply non-skid surfaces

Many modern armored vehicles have sand textured upper surfaces to provide a non-slip grip for crews boots when mounting or working on the vehicle. There are several ways of modeling this type of surface including textured mediums, textured spray paints, white glue and silica sand, liquid model cement, and Mr. Surfacer 500 stippled on to the surface with a stiff brush. The easiest method I've found is very similar to applying flocking on a model car interior floor. The materials are very simple, all you need is a wide brush, a smaller brush for getting in to crevices, masking tape, acrylic paint (I prefer Model Master) and baking soda. Using your references mask off the areas that are not supposed to have the texture on them, then using your wide brush apply a layer of acrylic paint. While the paint is still wet sprinkle the baking soda on to it from a height of about 4" or so making sure to keep an even layer. It should be noted on the real vehicle this is a hastily applied medium much like the field applied zimmerit of WWII so you don't need to make it absolutely perfect, just even. After the paint dries (I give it about 2hrs) use a wide makeup brush to dust off any excess baking soda leaving you with a texture that looks something like this.

 Any bare or uneven spots can be lightly touched up with more paint and baking soda.

The final step is to paint over it with the proper color, add a wash, then dry brush to pop the texture. The entire application on the upper hull of the tutorial subject Academy M1A1 Abrams only took about an hour and really looks the part. Try it out on your next modern armor build, you won't be disappointed.

T-34/85 (January 1944)

About The Build

Manufacturer: Tamiya

Scale: 1/35

Subject: T-34/85 Soviet Medium Tank

Kit Number: 89569

Date Built: August 2012

Modifications:

• Styrene rod grab handles
• Mesh material to replace engine deck vent
• Hex rod bolts added

This was my first experience with Soviet WWII armor. I always liked the idea of doing a winter whitewash and the T34 is one of the best platforms for it. Despite the concessions made for motorization (this kit was initially released as a toy in 1985) it looks very nice when completed and with the addition of some aftermarket photo etch and some elbow grease could make a highly detailed show piece. Weathered tanks like this can be a fun challenge, however I found with this kit that I much prefer a cleaner style of build, more of a museum of various armor types versus 100% accuracy. My only issue with the finished product is through my own stupidity I managed to break off the front machine gun and drop it down the sink while washing it in preparation for the whitewash. Hopefully I can find an old glue bomb to scuttle out at a show one day, I can use the gun then turn the rest in to a diorama of a knocked out T-34 perhaps.

Buildup

Completed Build

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