History

The M1 Abrams is a third-generation main battle tank named after General Creighton Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and Commander of US military forces in Vietnam from 1968 to 1972. Designed for modern armored warfare, the M1 is highly mobile, well armed, and heavily armored. Features include a gas turbine engine usually fueled with JP8 jet fuel, composite armor, and separate ammunition storage in a blow-out compartment. Weighing nearly 68 tons, it is one of the heaviest main battle tanks in service.

The M1 Abrams entered service in 1980, replacing the M60 tank. The M1 remains the principal main battle tank of the United States Army and Marine Corps, and the armies of Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Iraq.

Three versions of the M1 Abrams have been deployed – the M1, M1A1, and M1A2, incorporating improved armament, protection, and electronics. The M1A3 is currently under development.

Some M1A1 Abrams are equipped with a mine plough tank-mounted device designed to clear a lane through a minefield, allowing other vehicles to follow. Buried land mines are ploughed up and pushed outside the tank's track path or tipped over. Anti-tank mines rely on a concentrated explosion to destroy or disable a tank or similar vehicle. Once turned over they are useless, as when a heavy vehicle runs over the mine, the mine will explode and expend its blast force downward instead of upward, causing insignificant damage, if any.

Box Contents

There are nine sprues plus the hull tub for the tank model. A separate sprue for the four modern U.S. Army figures is also included. All parts are molded in the grey plastic common to DML and Cyber Hobby kits. The top of the large turret features anti-slip surface material.

There is no metal barrel or photo etch included in this kit. A small decal sheet provides marking for two different M1A1’s from Desert Storm. Instructions are provided in an eight-page fold-out format, with full color drawings for the four figures and the two vehicles. There are fifteen exploded-view construction steps. A paint color legend is included for GSI Creos Aqueous Hobby Color and Model Master enamels.

Hull Construction

The hull tub is molded with the road wheel swing arms molded in place. The driver’s position is detailed with floors and side walls, along with a recliner seat. Leave the hatch open and add a figure. The top of the hull is not fitted to the tub until late in the assembly process. The plow must be assembled and fit in place before the top of the hull and the tub are mated together.

Various lift handles and other details are molded as raised surface detail.

Running Gear/Tracks

The drive sprockets and return rollers are each two-part assemblies, while the tracks are the link and length design. The contact surface of each road wheel half required sanding to smooth the surface, while flash needed to be removed from the mounting surfaces. The fit of the road wheels to the axles was quite loose, so I shimmed each axle with a 3/16” long strip of .010” by .030: styrene. Much better.

The tracks sections all had large ejector pin marks or spurs that would interfere with the road wheels if not removed.

I loose-fitted the road wheels, assembled the tracks, and once the solvent cured overnight, I removed the tracks for later painting and weathering. Two diagrams are provided that shown the track assemblies for each side. Review these closely before beginning the tack assembly.

Turret/Weapons

The turret can be built with a partial interior. I built mine as a closed-up vehicle and omitted installation of the turret interior parts. There were some noticeable gaps between the turret top tub and bottom that required filling.

The rear storage rack became an exercise in careful removal of parts from the sprue and careful assembly. A good deal of time could be spent removing the attachment points from the very fragile rails. I used brass rod bent to shape and fixed in place with Gator Super Glue. This save a good bit of time and resulted in perfectly round rails.

The Mine Plough (Plow)

The mine plough is quite a complicated assembly. Every part has multiple raised ejector pin marks on exposed surfaces that must be dealt with before the parts are assembled. The two ploughs are made up from four parts each, and the fit is challenging. The small, upper corner parts appear to be too small and do not resemble the finished plow in the subsequent steps. I used styrene strips fixed to the edges and putty to fill out the shape more in keeping with the latter steps. The remainder of the plough assembly is addressed in two very busy steps, and much time and effort went into studying the instructions and fitting the parts together.

The details for attaching the plough to the tank were baffling. Nothing was clear, and I resorted to the Internet to help with this portion of the build.

Painting

I first primed the model with Rustoleum’s Painter’s Choice flat white primer. Next, the model was completely under-coated with Tamiya NATA black to serve as pre-shading. The desert sand color was my own formula using Tamiya acrylic paints.

Decals

The model was sealed with Model Master clear gloss acryl. The decals went down without any issues. The clear film virtually disappeared. Once the decals were applied, everything was toned down with a misting of Tamiya Buff and finally sealed with Model Master flat clear acryl.

Figures

I am not a figure builder, but these figures are quite nice and will build up to truly compliment this kit in a diorama setting.

Conclusion

This is a basic model kit for the M1A1 Abrams tank. Although relatively simple in parts breakdown and assembly, most parts have several large ejector pin stubs that would be visible on the finished model and should be removed. Several of the parts have flash, or attachment points that require cleanup or repair before the parts will fit together. A few of the parts required trimming or minor modification before they would fit.

In several instances, the instructions were a bit vague on the actual location or orientation of the parts. The instructions for the mine plough are the most baffling part of the work. Good references are in order here.

This kit can be made up into a really nice basic model, but it will take some effort and planning. By today’s standards, the cost of the kit is quite reasonable. I recommend this kit for the experienced modeler.

I wish to thank Dragon Models USA and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to build and review this product.