M1A1/A2 Tank (5 in 1)

Trumpeter's M1A1/A2 is a nice basic kit with lots of options. There are parts to build several M1A1s, with mine plow, with mine rollers and with river fording equipment. You get copper wire, small chains and string to give you details for the mine removal equipment. You can also build an early M1A2, which is what I chose. If you want to get a bit more exotic, you can build the turret-less mine removal vehicle. You also can choose from rubber band style tracks, or link and length style. The rubber band tracks suffered from a bit of flash around the edges, and it was nearly impossible to remove, so I went with the link and length. These also required work, as almost every pad had an ejector pin mark that needed filling. Several other parts also needed filling where ejector pin marks marred the surface. Putty was needed in several other places as well, but nothing to serious. This is one of Trumpeter's older kits from the year 2000, and it shows. The parts are not bad, but Trumpeter's newer kits are much cleaner. The kit offers clear plastic for most of the optics, and it actually works. I glued these in place with white glue, them painted the backside to simulate the sheen that you see on tank optics. The kit also offers two figures: a full commander figure and a half body driver/gunner. The only part of the kit that I really hated, was the crummy vinyl wheel caps. These were impossible to clean up, and did not fit well. You get to choose from decals for about 5 different tanks, depending on which version you choose. The painting instructions were a bit sparse, but there are plenty of photos on the internet. There are many newer kits of more modern M1s, but for the low price of this kit, and the many options you get, this is not a bad way to go if you are on a budget or just want to have a nice tank kit without braking the bank. Plus you get a bunch of left over parts that you can use in other projects. I had fun with this kit, and I think it turned out nice in the end. Recommended.

This is a company from china so I thought there might be problems with the manual but none at all that I had with, the detail of the parts for the most part were pretty accurate for I do have Extensive experience on many variants of the M1A1 Abrams Tank from being in the Army(19kMOS) and working for General Dynamics, such as : M1(105mm) Basic Training - M1A1 and upgrade (HA with EPLRS) - M1A2 ( CITV and IVIS system) - M1A1 (AIM) - M1A1 (AIM SA) - M1A2 (SEP- System Enhancement Package) - M1A2 (SEPV2) and Both the M1A2 SEPv2 with Crow II and M1A1 AIM SA with New Enhanced CROW II, so as far as the M1A1 HA is concerned it is does have a couple of faults like there are two apu units one did get mounted on the right rear of the tank behind the battery box and the newer one was mounted in the bustle rack, the one in the bustle rack by the manual is called a tool bob an that is bot accurate, the overall build goes together quite well, they give you five designs to chose from I went with IFOR since I was the second BN 4-67Ar of 1st AR DIV to cross the Sava River behind 1-1 Cav out of Budagen Germany and we where from Friedberg any how it was med range in putting together no extra parts the plastic is durable and semi-pliable, the front glacias shows added armor being welded to it, so they did try to be accurate I think a beginner could have alot of fun if not trying to rush it! Enjoy! I did! Scott M.

I didn't expect this model kit still exist... A lot of options nice detailed big size Morden tank