Ain't too sure 'bout this but have to try...Finished 12/13

[reserve]

Was wandering about the LHS today and must have been in a cocksure mood, for I came home with this






Orange Box. Always a tossup. Been wanting to do an Abrams for awhile and I've been guilty of not buying kits from the LHS lately as the prices at ScaleHobbyist are awfully hard to beat. Therefore,... It does not look too bad on the trees but I'll find out when the sticking together begins.


Regards,
Mark

[deafpanzer]

Nice score! I have couple of orange boxes myself. One was OK and another was just great. So its half half chance out there... count me in!

[TRM]

I'm in!! Always a good bit of fun!! Crack the box already!! LOL!!!

[fightnjoe]

should be fun to watch.



joe

[wbill76]

Looks like a fun project Mark, will be following along with interest!

[Leon]

Count me in a Mark.Abrams looks like nice build.

[mz3]

All I'm saying is this exact kit made me run back to the "older" M1A1 AIM Dragon kit and finish it.

[eastrock]

Go for it Mark

[reserve]

Hey gents

This one'll be starting out slow as I am integrating the start of it with the finish of the Tiger 1 I've been working on. The kit includes a very rudimentary interior but I'll most likely not include it as the hatches will be full of crew figures. For an idea of the kit's scope



Washee washee time





And yes since you're all bound to wonder this is one of my secret ingredients





I'll cover this one by exception rather than ease as probably many of you have assembled this kit.


Regards,
Mark

[reserve]

This afternoon I sat down and tangled with the orange box. In short, it's going on the shelf. It's not impossible to do, and with a degree of extra effort it could likely turn into something pretty nice, but I simply don't feel like dealing with myriad large ejection pin marks, certain ill fitting parts, etc at this time. I'll probably use this one for painting practice...sorry for being lazy.

Regards,
Mark

[Deleted]

Hmmmm .........so now an Abrams ?

[`Boots`]

Darn it Dicky...........ya beat me too it ((LOL)), shame about the kit Mark

[wbill76]

Mar 4, 2013 22:07:02 GMT -5 reserve said:

This afternoon I sat down and tangled with the orange box. In short, it's going on the shelf. It's not impossible to do, and with a degree of extra effort it could likely turn into something pretty nice, but I simply don't feel like dealing with myriad large ejection pin marks, certain ill fitting parts, etc at this time. I'll probably use this one for painting practice...sorry for being lazy.

Regards,
Mark

If it's not fun, don't do it! Nothing worse than forcing a build when you're not in the mood...it's day will come whenever that is in the future. I've got some kits in the stash that have been waiting patiently for several years now but they all know they will get built...someday!

[reserve]

Carl-Yeah, I seem to like to mix them up these days, a bit of variety and all.

Nemo-Yes, a sip or two of the Glen is surely more attractive a prospect right now than ejector pin marks

Boots-I knew there was a 50-50 chance with this one; the way it turned out I'm glad it was a messy kit rather than, let's say, trying to jump over a chasm

Bill-As always, your perception is razor keen

After the battle of the Tiger 1 I feel like doing a nice smooth build that will not fight me. To that end, Tamiya's M1A2 is enroute from ScaleHobbyist as I type this and I will smile as I assemble it with superb fit and no uglies to abrade my soul. The orangebox will likely follow and if it turns out well enough I may combine them on a base as an old/new type of a deal even tho such a thing will most likely not be historically accurate. I'll pick this back up again when the Tammy kit arrives...


Regards,
Mark

[bbd468]

Hey Mark, Im all over this one buddy!!! I want to build an M1A1 W/mine plow some time eventually. So I want to follow this and take notes...Orange box kits are usually in my price range too.

Gary

[rbaer]

What he said!

[reserve]

Well, every time I walked by the shelf where the orangebox sat I could almost hear it sneering at me so out it came again and I've been working on it while the Tiger dio has been in various drying stages. Here's as far as I've gotten













The kind of stuff I've been contending with








The major pain of this beastly molding is the cleanup. Pictures of the tracks above will give you an idea of the level of it.


What I've had to do to get this far:
Reduce the length of the outer roadwheel shanks (where it fits inside the inner wheel) to .100 so they fit together properly
Assemble the turret halves in four glue/dry stages the fit is terrible
Add .020 strip to the rear portion of the blowout panel hatches in the turret as the panels are a bit short
Add .020 strip to the bin lids on the turret side then file to fit as there is a gap that does not belong there if this is not done
Replace the turret side rail kitparts with .030 brass rod, I could not ge the rails off the trees without breaking them

There are a million substantially raised knockout pin marks along with some nasty flash. One can see where the machinist was not too careful when cutting the molds. Extremely thick attatchment points are the norm, but mold lines are actually not too bad. The plastic is of the harder, brittle sort. Dryfitting is a must with this, and as said before cleanup just takes forever this thing makes me feel like I'm back in the sixties again.

Lots of extra work but I think it'll probably turn out OK will keep ya posted on mousetraps

Regards,
Mark

[deafpanzer]

It is looking good already! Nasty marks on the tracks... you have my respect for tackling them... I would have given up in first attempt and order an aftermarket set. LOL Oh I forgot you have the special tool to help you coop with the kit track... that bottle of secret ingredient!!!

[eastrock]

its alot of work Mark, but you overcome this stubborn dog

[bbd468]

Mark, shes lookin' sweet despite the kits problems. YIKES....the tracks are hideous though. BUT, id work it out aswell buddy...got to work with whats in the box most times huh Mark.

Gary

[reserve]

Andy-Everything's rosier with a bit of the secret ingredient to be sure but my girl looks at me funny if I smell like it at nine in the morning

ER-The inspirational outcome of your ESCI LAV is one of the reasons I'm forging on with this

Gary-Yes the tracks are awful and at first I was tempted to get a set of AM replacements. This, however, usually results in more problems as replacements never seem to fit the drive sprockets quite right and there's also the possibility of having to resize the roadwheels to fit. Who needs that. As it is, even the kit supplied tracks are not going to be quite right as the end connectors are rigid thus not allowing the indy links to form a correct radius. With all that said, tracks on an M1 are largely covered up anyway so perhaps this will be largely moot. Wish someone made rubber band replacements.

Things I neglected to mention:
The turret bustle is an excersize in patience hang with it tho it never seems to end
Be careful when gluing the front section of the turret halves it's easy to get the levels off
Be careful when fitting the turret side bins as the locator slots and pins are a whole lot less than positive
Check the mantlet for side to side level before gluing as you may have to deepen the retention slots in the turret lower half
There's not a snowball's chance I'm going to do the interior included on this

I hear woof woof from the bench, time to go see what it wants

Regards,
Mark

[bbd468]

Mar 12, 2013 11:09:23 GMT -5 reserve said:

Wish someone made rubber band replacements.

Mark, that pretty telling when ya wish there were rubber band tracks intstead!

Thanks for the extra notes too...will be most handy.

Cheers brotha,
Gary

[wbill76]

Nice to see you're giving this one another shot Mark! Man over plastic every time! Have to agree with Dicky though, you won't be sorry for going that route vs. all that ejector mark clean-up.

[reserve]

Afternoon gents

Gary-You're perfectly welcome

Nemo-Yes we can blame ER, we have not blamed him for anything lately have we. Thanks for the encouragement

Bill-All I needed was a little time to whine and cry, then I was ready to tackle this

My plan for using the kit supplied tracks has not borne fruit. I cleaned up a few links as best I could, which was not very good, and found they don't fit the drive sprockets either. Thus, on the strength of this finding, Nemo's and Bill's suggestion is going to take place as long as I can find a retailer who has them in stock.

The good news:
Today I noticed the kit includes a CLAMS system complete with the mounting set so I have included it. There's also a box on the right rear hull, anyone know what that is?





Another bad item
The axles on the suspension arms measure .110 in diameter while the sockets in the roadwheels measure .142. I had an elaborate plan to fix this using styrene tubing and the correct size drills only to find out that the drilling needs to be done before the roadwheels are assembled. Guess I'm relegated to the thick CA and eyeball method.

Something I found that I got a laugh out of





Regards,
Mark

[bbd468]

Mar 12, 2013 19:23:33 GMT -5 reserve said:

Something I found that I got a laugh out of

LMAO!!!! LUV IT....priceless!!!!!

BTW, nice update Mark.

Gary

[deafpanzer]

Thanks for the chuckle!!! Ditto to Gary's comment... nice update!

[eastrock]

Mark I'll I point you to Nemo his the one to blame for lol well I'll build right along with you
The MATV Panda is back on the Bench Nemo is right get the bronco tracks its tedious but its worth it


cheers!!

[Tojo72]

Looks good so far,a real challenge indeed.

question:is this kit based on their superb AIM or SEP,or does predate those ?

[reserve]

Thanks for the nice comments guys

Tojo, I think this is one of the first kits Dragon was ever involved in offering; I recall seeing it in the hobby shops in the early nineties. Rumor has it that Revell was somehow mixed up with it also, at what level I do not know. Make no mistake, the term superb and this kit do not belong in the same thought.


Regards,
Mark

[reserve]

Been playing mine plow today. The nifty color but miniaturized instruction sheet posseses an infuriating lack of detail concerning where assemblies are supposed to be located but happily I found some good pics on Prime Portal. If one pays attention there are no mousetraps here, could be the best part of the kit. Here it is sans some small detail parts














Since the kit tracks did not turn out to be useable I'm sort of stuck. Perhaps a bit of scratch detail here and there but no more major progress 'till the tracks get here from The Barrel Store. Everyone else was out of stock, and I had to go with AFV Club as they were the only set available. Prolly the same stuff in a different box anyway.

Gonna try preshading so I may lay that down in the meantime. I've heard of different styles and lean toward an overall flat black for this, any ideas or comments?


Regards,
Mark