M1A2 SEP C/w TUSK II

[nemesis]

With the advent of the war in Iraq, many armour vehicles found their armor to either be lacking or the "wrong" type to defeat the threats they faced in the aftermath of the "War Fighting". The Insurgency's use of IED's,VBIED's and RPG's caused many a problem for the Coatlition Armour. To counter act this various add on armour packages were introduced.

The M1A2 SEP Abrams was one such tank that benefitted from the additional armour package. Intially the M1A1's were fitted with the TUSK I upgrade, then later on the M1A2 SEP Abrams was fitted with an upgraded armour package called the TUSK II.

From a modelling point of view, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have provided the modeller with a wealth of new or upgraded vehicles, to build. The Abrams with the TUSK package has been high on my list of "to do" builds and finally i have found time to start it. This will more than likely be a slow build as i am in the middle of decorating my house in preparation for selling it, so bear with me

As with most amour builds we start with the hull and the suspension. All of which is straight forward apart from the assembly for the front wheel, which can be a little bit fiddly to get right





However with a little bit of care the assembly can be completed. With the suspension arms out of the way it is time to add the first of the Legend resin parts. The hull add on armour is moulded in two parts and needs the resin pour plugs removing. I used a pair of side cutters and a scapel and chisel to remove the plugs.



The one on the left has been cleaned up the right hand one has not. i always get a few small marks after i have removed the plugs and these can easily be filled with some Squadron green putty.



I try not to do any filing of resin parts because of the amount of harmful dust that would give off. Nearly all of my work with resin is done using side cutters, scapel, chisel and occasional a saw. When the pour plugs are very large i use an angle grinder on them, but use it out doors.

Anyways after the belly armour was in place it was time to move on to the upper part of the hull.



The fit here is not bad, but you do need to be careful around the engine deck as the fit there has to be perfect to make sure all the hatches fit correctly. The hatches supplied by Dragon can be a little bit on the large side but a quick swipe with a file soon has that sorted. The kit supplied PE is up to Dragon's usual standard.



Having built a Dragon M1A2 SEP before i knew there was one part of the build that i did not like, the rear of the hull, in particular the plastic parts for the exhaust vent. Now do not get me wrong here, the parts are well moulded and admirably thin, but they are a smeg to get to fit correctly.



With time running out, i assembled the driver's hatch and periscopes



And then the last task was to get the head lights etc in place.





Thats it for now guys, hopefully, decorating allowing, i can crack on with this next weekend. Any constructive coments are most welcome.

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

[danb]

Looking good mate so far i will be following this hopefully when time permits i want to start a modern armour project.

Dan B

[tobias5555]

Nice start

[spud]

great start nemesis.

[`Boots`]

Hey Eth.....................shaping up real good buddy ;D

Regards to the swamp

[Mence]

Always liked this baby!

[jackh]

I'm in Eth

[robbo]

Cracking tanks, I'm watching

[martyncrowther]

Hi Eth good to see you man! YOur off to a great start mate on what is such an interesting topic tank too also have you seen the new Abrams carrying the RWS on the turret? It looks pretty sweet!

Martyn

[eastrock]

Looks good here, Nemesis!!! I also built the DML Abrams AIM... planning to do a SEP in the future

[johnt]

Hi Eth, this is a sweet looking kit! Better than the tamiya one I did a while back, that didn't even have the antiskid surfacing! I'm in!

Cheers
JT

[chris0423]

Hi Eth,

I've got the kit and upgrade set, but still have to get round to it.

Here is a link to a good build log from Flory Models.

www.florymodels.co.uk/m1a2-sep-abrams

Also, if you don't have it, the Tankograd book is a superb reference, great detailed shots.

Chris.

[Deleted]

Te Best MBT in the universe the M1 I'll be looking in on this one.

mack

[modelfreak72]

Oh I'll be watching this! Great start, I haven't seen one with the SEP upgrade. Been looking to get an Abrams, haven't had a chance to check out the dragon kit, but now I can!

[nemesis]

Well 19 days without a reply from me is not my usual style, but then again neither is hyper extending my hip, breaking three toes and suffering from a post viral infection Really takes the wind out of your sails. One would be bad enough but all three one after the other just knocks you on yer a$$....hey ho could be worse. I could be an idiot politician that does not know the law on storing petrol in your garage.....but then intelligence is not high on the list of pre-requisites for politicians

So enough walloing in all of that and on with the update. Firstly, thank you to everyone who posted a response to the first part of this build, your encouragement and interst is appreciated Dicky, yes i did use the retaining thingymajigs, although they are a smeg to attach, for some reason super glu does not seem to work that well with them.

chris0423, i agree with you on the Tankograd book, a most excellent reference book that one.

@mack, not sure i agree with you on the Abrams being the best MBT in the world, the Chally 2 has a better gun and optics in my opinion and i think the Leopard 2 could give the Abrams a run for it's money.

So i guess some progress pics are in order . Continuing with the upper hull i added the small additional side armour part



Just a "nothing" part to be honest, but it is important to make sure it is located correctly. After that it was onto the main gun and Dragon provide a turned aluminium barrel which is a god send as it means no seams to remove, always a problomatic area.





It's a fairly easy assembly but care must be taken to ensure alligment. I did not bother removing he seams on the internal part of the gun as this is not going to be seen, and why make extra work for myself

Setting the barrel assembly to one side it was time to build the Comanders Hatch and add the second piece of Legend resin. The Comanders Hatch is a very nice piece of moulding and benefits from the multi part assembly.







The vision blocks will be masked before painting which is why i choose to add them at this early stage of the build. When the sub assembly was dry i added this to the turret.



I am not a fan of the Dragon turret, i think the Tamiya one has better detail, although it does not have the anti slip coating that Dragon's does, which does save us a lot of time. While the glue for the turret was drying i built up the gunners sight and the Commanders sight and added various other bits and pieces, such as the wind sensor and the side bins.









Thats the update for now, hopefully work can proceed at a more normal pace now, and any further injuries/illness' will be avoided as i have had enough of them to last me the rest of the year!

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

[eastrock]

Nice to see this one again, Nemesis

Take your time...

[wbill76]

Talk about a triple whammy! Glad to hear you're back building on this one again though, hopefully you've had your dose for a while!

[nemesis]

eastrock, thanks mate, although taking my time with a build is not something i like to do otherwise it stagnates or other things get in the way.

@a triple whammy it certainly was and not what i needed when we needed to get the house ready to put it on the market. All that is done now thankfully so i have more time for modelling.

@nemo, you jest sir!! Workbench*rofl* Dude my work bench is a fold away table, certainly most un-workbench like

So onwards with todays update. Work continued with the turret and the two turret stowage racks were added, the normal stowage rack seen on the Abrams plus what i beleive is called the bustle rack





No real issues here but time must be taken to align everything properly. The PE is a little on the large size but nothing a mallet and a file could not deal with

Then came the first mistake on the build. I added the smoke dischargers:



Only to find out that they get in the way of the Legend turret armour. On checking my reference pictures the mounting frame for the smoke dischargers are present but not the actual smoke dischargers. So they were removed post haste. More wind sensors were added plus the mount for the Commander's .50 Cal



The Gunners hatch and various ammo boxes were also added plus the ring and mounting plate for the Gunner's machine gun



The water/POL cans were added to the rack, the Dragon PE straps are a bit onthe long side and needed trimming. Two "Washing Up Bowls/Laundry bowls" were added to the rack as well. I have no iodea what they are really called, or what their purpose is so if anyone can enlighten me on that it would be appreciated. The close up photo really shows off the anti-slip and the weld texture very nicely and this is where the Dragon kit scores over the Tamiya one.



And that was the majority of the Dragon parts added to the turret.





The last task i wanted to get finished was the addition of the ranging .50 that is mounted on the main gun. This is a mixture of resin and PE parts from the Legend kit and needs careful assembly, mainly because the Legend "instructions" are hopeless, so care is really needed here and dry fitting is the order of the day.















AS you can see this is a nice sub assembly in itself and although the assembly instructions are hopeless the same cannot be said for the parts. Some very nicely moulded parts here and they do look good once in position.

Well that is it for this update, in the next one i will concentrate on the add on armour, which is a chore in itself, as you will see.

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

[eastrock]

coming along great, Nemesis!!! the resin 50 cal on the barrel makes a difference.

[Mence]

Very clean building Eth, looking superb!

[Deleted]

That looks great, keep them photos coming!

mack

[martyncrowther]

KIller stuff Eth!

[Deleted]

Eth....apologies,for not posting before...I thought I had ...Never mind,and sorry to read about your unfortunate recent circumstances ,but good to see you back,and building such a fine vehicle!Like you say,not as good as a Chally,but pretty close....

[multicam]

Lovely work , mate!

[jackh]

Nice progress Eth

[406 Silverado]

Wow, very impressive Eth. The build is very clean and the parts look nicely detailed too. Last and only time I built an M1 Abrams was a burnt out tank. Might have to have another go at it seeing this cool kit.

[nemesis]

@ Nemo, do Penguins actually have dangly things? I would have thought they would have shrunken up and disappeared in all that cold

@ Multicam and Jack, thanks for dropping by guys, your comments are appreciated.

@rob, I remember your Abrams and it was a killer model mate! The Dragon kit is very nicely detailed, with the usual Dragon quirkiness when it comes to the fit of some parts. Both the Dragon M1 and M1A2 are very impressive kits i just wish Dragon would produce a few more modern armour kits. Bout time we had a new Bradley kit and a modern kit of the Chally would really go down well with me.

The build will be on hold now as it is time to disappear to Cornwall for a while and indulge in some surfing....it just has to be done guys so i will see you all when i get back, sometime around the 14th of this month if all goes to plan.

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

[eastrock]

Enjoy the waves, Eth and have fun!!!

[nemesis]

Well just how long has it been? Moving house is never exactly easy and certainly not with 13 cats, but it is made a lot harder when you cannot get a new internet connection for two months!At first i thought we had moved to Outer Mongolia or somewhere considering the difficulties we have had getting someone to supply us with an internet connection. Never mind it is all sorted now and with most, but not all, tasks done around the new house, i find myself with some modelling time

So onwards with the Abrams build.

I had got as far as installing the .50 machine gun and now it is time to start work on adding some of the PE and resin from the Legend kit.

First up is the support frame for the turret reactive armour. Nothing to it really apart from making sure it is positioned correctly.

First the left side:



There are several resin parts that need adding and which can just about be seen from this overhead photo and from end on:





Secondly the right side:



Overhead photo of the right side:



With that taken care of it was on to the reactive armour for the track guards. Quite a few of them actually



Still it keeps me from making mischief ;D

The next step was to prepare the TUSK II additions for the top of the turret, the protection for the Commander and Gunner.





As you can see there are quite a few parts there and some of the PE frames are very annoying to work with because of how flimsy they are. I have not installed the clear windows yet as the first one i tried to cut to size was a real pain in the proverbial so i need to source some thinner clear plastic sheet and make my own.

As far as i know the original idea was to have a remote controlled machine gun in front of the Commanders hatch. However i have not seen any photos showing this in actual combat/service. Instead the TUSK II system utilises the maching guns already in use and provides armoured shields for them, as can bve seen in the following photos.





Not an easy build by any means as trying to get the shield to set in the correct position nearly drove me to drink.



And that is about it for now. Not sure when i can do some more to this build as the remainder of the week looks busy. But i promise it will not be as long between posts this time!

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

[spud]

thats looking great, im really tempted to get one of these some time,

13 cats?? 1 is bad enough ;D