Dragon M1A1 AIM FINISHED!!!

[mz3]

I waited until the change over stuff was done to make my first wip here. I actually started this about 5 years ago or so. I can't remember the reason I set it aside. I'm not really going for accuracy on this, I just want it to look nice. I added the old Voyager M1A1 AIM update kit, AFV Club tracks and a barrel that I can't remember the brand (it's been way too long).











I scratch built the co axial mg barrel thing, the photo etch on was bad. I soldered wire in to give it the look of the real thing. There is wood toothpick deep in there stuck. Use that to hold the wire in place.

Paint, Tamiya NATO black, NATO green and Nato brown over black primer-







Got wheels, tracks and weathering this weekend. Comments more then welcome.

[bbd468]

Hey MZ3, im glad you blew the dust off and got back at it. Great build and the camo rocks! What paints did you use? Thanks for posting and keep it comin' fella!

Gary

[deafpanzer]

Fantastic camo job! Great deal of PE work on it too... looking forward to see more of this. Welcome aboard by the way!

[TRM]

Great job on the forget-me-not! I like all the extras and the paint!! Time to finish this up!!

[madairbrush]

Great clean built with nice pe work.

[Mence]

Makes a nice change to see one in the three colour cam, looks good!

[robbo]

Thats looking very smart, nice PE work too

[Leon]

MZ3 nice job on the camo and pe work

[Deleted]

very nice indeed I'm with Dicky in preferring a 3 tone scheme instead of desert very nice work

[wbill76]

Nice work on the camo pattern, look forward to seeing this one progress!

[mz3]

Thanks everyone. I really like the 3 tone camo with the dessert CIPs, I originally started this to do it like that. I think there are too many dessert schemes being done. When I was researching online, it seemed like there were very few non dessert scheme M1A1 models anywhere. I also am building a Merkava 4 and didn't want to do basically the same paint job on 2 models at the same time.



I started the detail painting. I also managed to break off the fender. The 3 Dragon photo etch parts flew off in different directions. I found 2 of them. I remade the last one from a part that looked close enough.



I also redid the smoke dischargers. I glued the smaller parts in place before I painted them, not thinking. They were too hard to paint and looked like crap after I tried.



When I do small parts like these, I drill a hole and glue wire into them so I have something to grab/hold. I do this with normal smoke dischargers. It makes it 100 times easier.

More to come!

[Leon]

MZ3 job well done on the camo.Nice save on the fenders

[ceresvesta]

Very good looking m1a1 MZ. This is an eye pleaser with the 3 color camo. Very well sprayed. What AB do you use and at what psi?

[mz3]

Feb 10, 2013 18:31:52 GMT -5 ceresvesta said:

Very good looking m1a1 MZ. This is an eye pleaser with the 3 color camo. Very well sprayed. What AB do you use and at what psi?

Iwata Revolution and an old, OLD Testor compressor which I think is stuck on about 12-15 psi.

[ceresvesta]

Nice choice, Iwata are just great.

[mz3]

I had an Iwata HP CH, but had too many problems with it. The Revolution is like 5 or 6 years old. It was/is my workhorse. Never had any problems with it at all. The compressor is 10 years old. It was my first compressor. Then it was my back up if something were to happen to my last one, which died about 5 months ago.

[ceresvesta]

Rip the compressor! I got the iwata hp plus and an old badger crescendo 175t(20 years old as my badger compressor)both of them never let me down. Any update soon MZ?

[guderian]

Great construction and painting job friend,congratz...

[mz3]

Update time.....

I kinda suck at updating WIPs. I just got a much better phone with a good camera in it, so I might start updating straight from my bench.

Anyways....

this is why I drill holes and glue wire into smaller parts...


It made redoing the smoke dischargers SOOO much easier.

I also decided to redo the CIP's (I really hope that's what they are called) on the front of the turret.


I just didn't like the way they looked. I removed the PE corners and replaced them with Tamiya tape.



And since they were off, I went ahead and did the repair painting under them. Some of the dessert color got on the side of the PE parts and I couldn't get to it with a brush with out getting whatever other color on the CIP.

Decals were placed.


After all this time I still suck at decals. So this time I took my time and did them over 4 nights after work. There aren't a lot of them, but I wanted to make sure they all set properly before I sealed them in. I sprayed a layer of Future on the spot for the decal and let it set over night. Then placed the decals with Micro Set and Sol. Let them set over night. Then went over each one to make sure it set properly. After I was satisfied, I sealed them in with Vallejo Satin.

I took a little liberty with some of the left over decals on the gernade storage boxes, just for fun. I build Gundams too

Can't see it very well in that pic, but it's there.

At this point I saw something I just had to do. I was looking at Abrams pics online and found one with the marker on the side sprayed over and a new one in a different direction on top of it. So I did it. At 11:45 on a work night  It was worth it!

Tracks were painted Vallejo German black brown on the metal parts and black grey on the rubber parts, I hope. Some places it was hard to tell where the metal stopped and where the rubber started. Then a very light dry brushing of Testors steel on the areas where the tracks make contact with the sprocket.

Pin wash was simple black and raw umber oils in odorless turpenoid. I figure most of it will be cover anyway with the sand and dirt I plan to cover this in.



I just did paint chips, even though most of them just disappeared into the camo. No pics of them yet, they are still wet. I use oil paints sponged on then hit them with the turpenoid. I like the results of this and I'll get pics later, I hope.

[ceresvesta]

I just love that paint job! Nice decal work MZ. Are you going to pinwashe this beast? What is on the weathering menu?

Phil.

[eastrock]

Awezome paint Job,

[dupes]

Looks great to me! I agree - need more 3-tone Abrams builds.

[deafpanzer]

Echo guys comments... great paint job! Always loved those 3 tone camos!

[wbill76]

That's some nice work you've got going on with this one. The CIPs look good as do all the decals.

[multicam]

Lovely work indeed MZ! Great building and paintwork on a super cool tank.

[mz3]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I really like this forum!

Update....

A few nights ago I felt like I was getting bored with this. When I get bored, things go to shelves, like M1A1 AIMs a few years ago. Then I started the scratches and the sides on under belly. That got rid of my boredom.



I usually do scratches like these in two steps. The first set of scratches is done right after painting is finished and before any top coats. I lightly scrape a file or needle where ever I want scratches. Once I like what I see I give it a pin wash, raw umber again. The second step happens after top coats. This is where I get a little more aggressive. I use files to scratch the paint down to the plastic, trying to only take off the paint. Then I fill the scratch with whatever color I choose. I tried to use burnt sienna oil paint, but it would not stay. So I opted for burnt sienna Model Master enamel.



Once these dry, I hit them with Vallejo Satin. I will again pin wash these deeper scratches with the same raw umber once everything is set. The MM burnt umber is showing up really nice against the camo colors, so I might redo/add a few more chips here and there.

I realize the decals are still showing a little. The flash makes them show up like crazy and I still have a few more coats to go.

[wbill76]

That's an interesting technique for scratches, have to file that one away to try sometime!

[deafpanzer]

Nice work!!! Those scratches look pretty good just like ones on my wife's car.

[Leon]

MZ the Abrams is looking sweet.Nice work on the painting all around.

[mz3]

Mar 8, 2013 21:27:55 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Nice work!!! Those scratches look pretty good just like ones on my wife's car.

Update...

I wanted to try something different with the way I weather things. I'm always up for trying new ideas. It's also something I've wanted to try for a while. So I did it. I'm not to happy with the results. I sprayed oil paint on to the tank with my airbrush. No problems anywhere, just need to play around with it more before I start messing things up.



The main problem was the mix wasn't close to being thick enough. I usually start with a lighter mix and add paint to it as I go along. I was afraid to make the mix to thick and have a mess on my model.



At the very least I got a nice, light basecoat of dirt on it to start. I was actually a little worried about starting the weathering on this one, I really didn't want to mess it up or go overboard. Hopefully by my next update it will start looking the way I want it to.