M1A1 AIM

[David_in_Fremont]

Mike was correct in his guess about my unexpected upgrade to this kit.. I finally received my TUSK upgrade set by Legend Productions today. Nice bit of resin kit it is, too!

I've already begun removing bits from their pour stubs and installing some of it. Should have more pics tomorrow...

This is fun! I kinda like this armor thing. Go figure...

Edited August 4, 2010 by David_in_Fremont

[KLP Publishing]

Wow, Dave's building a tank! Good work buddy. Don't think she's gonna get off the ground though!

Kev

[andym]

Mike was correct in his guess about my unexpected upgrade to this kit.. I finally received my TUSK upgrade set by Legend Productions today. Nice bit of resin kit it is, too!

I've already begun removing bits from their pour stubs and installing some of it. Should have more pics tomorrow...

This is fun! I kinda like this armor thing. Go figure...

With regards to belly armour I think what is supplied in the Legend set is too long. If I remember correctly it should end at the fifth roadwheel, as it only protects the crew compartment?

HTH

Andy

[David_in_Fremont]

Thanks for the tip Andy! I'll probably leave it as is but it's good to know.

So I ran into a problem. I recently joined the Armorama site to help in my education for armor building. Someone pointed out a serious alignment issue with the mantlet of the main gun. It's supposed to look like this:

Mine looks like this:

A couple of the guys there gave me some good ideas for fixing it but they all seemed problematic at best. Major surgery would be involved. As of last night I was ready to just write it off as a lesson for the future but the more I looked at it, the more it nagged at me. Plus there are are some parts in the Legend set that go over this area and almost certainly would not work if the situation wasn't corrected. As to how it happened I simply have no idea! Everything about the gun installation was very straightforward.

This morning I had an idea. Before I could allow myself to think about it too much and lose my nerve, I started cutting. First I removed a small section of the upper hull just behind the gun. I was hoping this alone might allow me to realign the gun. Like so:

A step in the right direction for sure, but the gun is still way too low. Now what? Hmmmm. OK, more cutting! This time I used a snipper to cut away the mounting sections from the inside. I could just barely get the parts cut away without having to do any more surgery to the exterior. When that was finished the entire gun could be backed out of the opening at the bottom of the turret. From there I could reposition the gun easily! Like so:

The gun will now have to be fixed in position instead of moveable, but I'm OK with that. It'll be a bit tricky to get it secured in place but no real problem. I feel much better about how everything lines up now! Glad I didn't take the easy way out....

Thanks for looking!

Edited August 4, 2010 by David_in_Fremont

[Mike]

Dammit! I want one!

[David_in_Fremont]

Thanks Andy! Tips like these have really helped me keep this project closer to the real McCoy. Apparently the belly armor on the real TUSK upgrade only protects the crew compartment. The Legend set has two large pieces that cover the entire bottom of the tank. Looks to me like the Legend set could easily have been made with a one-piece casting for the belly armor rather than the two big pieces.

Since all that info was fresh in my mind, that's what I did next. The front part is slightly too small to use by itself and it has no clean end, so I cut off about an inch of the rear part and put them together. Just a small gap to fill and it'll be sufficient for my build.

Finally some shots with the tank mocked up. Starting to look like a tank to me!

Thanks for looking!

[KLP Publishing]

Whoa, awesome work Dave! You may inspire me to build a tank yet. Looks like you're getting comfortable with chopping up kits now! Looking forward to more.

Kev

[Stéphane]

Hello,

Really nice work on the M1, there. And the salvation of the gun placement is really brave, I would certainly have ditched the kit, although with the amount of work already done I can understand why you carry on !

Venturing meself a bit in the armor these days I'm also impressed by the number of parts involved in these kits. Now considering each tracks is one separate part, of course that raise the part counter a bit ...

Cheers

Stef (#6)

Edited August 5, 2010 by Stéphane

[David_in_Fremont]

Thanks Kev and Stef!

Last night I made a start on the area I was dreading the most: the tracks.

Pardon the lengthy post, and the semi-tutorial nature of it. I just thought some might appreciate the little how-to....

These AFV Club tracks are an absolute dream! I can tell you right now that I will seek these out for any future armor builds. If they aren't available, I might buy a different kit.

In this box you get sprues of tracks and links, like this:

There are sixteen of these sprues.

You work in small sections. In this case, I removed four tracks from the sprue:

They just slip together.

Then I cut a section of the sprue with three links. The cool thing here is that they're spaced on the sprue just right so you can use the sprue to get all the links onto their respective pins.

After that you cut the links free of the sprue and that's it! No glue required at all. I guess you could put a tiny drop on each pin but they fit nice and snug so I don't see why you'd bother. The completed sections are workable, just like the box says.

[Oddball]

That's a real beauty you're building there dave, good stuff!!

[David_in_Fremont]

That's a real beauty you're building there dave, good stuff!!

Thanks Oddball!

In between sessions of putting all that track together I've continued on with some of the small bits and the TUSK conversion. I may end up regretting installing some of these small parts prior to painting but I lean in the direction of doing as much construction as possible before paint. Something tells me that some of these bits may end up getting attached more than once....

[David_in_Fremont]

A bit of progress from yesterday....

I find that, the more fiddly bits there are, the slower I move. I can only do so much before I have to step away for a while and regain my sanity! With the TUSK conversion and all the details already in the kit that means frequent breaks.

Anyway.. Here is the .50cal completed and installed with the resin camera(?) added:

Sure is getting busy on top of this turret!

Then I encountered a bit of a problem. The TUSK conversion includes a second .50cal that gets mounted on the main gun. The two main parts of this gun had some serious warpage. I tried the hot water trick which corrected it somewhat, but the darn thing still has a droop to it. This is a bummer since it's a focal point of the model but there seemed to be only so much I could do. As it is the gun could use a little blue pill.

I also filled the gaps on the belly armor and gave it a test coat of primer. I'm pretty happy with the result there as it looks like one piece of armor now:

I should have some more to post later today!

Dave

[Doug Rogers]

Was wondering if you could cut the barrel off where the bend starts, and reposition it with a bit of wire reinforcement or something David.

Depends how brave you feel!

[Mike]

It's a nice set & no mistake - what about getting an AM .50cal to replace it with? RBM do one, and they're available from Lucky Model as RB Model

[David_in_Fremont]

Was wondering if you could cut the barrel off where the bend starts, and reposition it with a bit of wire reinforcement or something David.

Depends how brave you feel!

It's a nice set & no mistake - what about getting an AM .50cal to replace it with? RBM do one, and they're available from Lucky Model as RB Model

Both very good ideas, although in the case of cutting the barrel off there is warpage in both parts. Considering that this build is more about the process than the result for me I'm going to live with it as-is. By the time all is said and done there will be several areas that are 'incorrect'. I'll be using kit decals for instance and have no way of even knowing if the tank depicted ever had a TUSK upgrade. My two main goals with this build are actually finishing an armor build (never have as an adult) and learning about weathering techniques.

I did manage to finish the turret assembly yesterday and got it primed. Nothing quite like that first primer coat to start pulling everything together!

[KLP Publishing]

Looking good Dave! I was surprised in those last two shots how big this thing appears to be!

Kev

[Screech]

Looks great David. Like how you corrected your own mistake. A great bit of ingenuity on that one!

Cheers,

[David_in_Fremont]

Now the fun stuff begins!

I'm still figuring out the side-skirts due to the tricky bit of building needed to adapt the TUSK modifications to them. While that continues I got a first coat on the turret. Note that I've already knocked the smaller MG off.. Easy enough to fix and actually helps with the painting process a bit. Happy accident I guess.

This first coat is MM Acryl Desert Sand which is a bit yellower and darker than the final scheme will be. Some lighter coats of Gulf War Sand will go on tomorrow to fade the colors somewhat.

Should have another update tomorrow!

Dave

[David_in_Fremont]

Main paintwork is complete, except for those skirts I'm still wrestling. It has been given a lighter shade but I'm not sure if it made much difference. Obviously the key to giving this any realism lies in the detail painting and weathering. This will provide me my first real opportunity to completely wreck the project.

Cross your fingers for me!

[KLP Publishing]

Any updates Dave? Looking good so far. Remember, it's just paint; you can always paint over it!

Kev

[Mike]

Looks good David - I think I spy a stray hair on the base of the IR pole (is it?) at the back of the turret

[David_in_Fremont]

Any updates Dave? Looking good so far. Remember, it's just paint; you can always paint over it!

Kev

Nothing since this stage, Kev. Not for lack of desire but I've been feeling the tug back towards some aircraft that are long overdue for some work. And that new PCM Hurricane to start! I've got a 6-day stretch of days off coming up soon so a lot will be getting done then.

Looks good David - I think I spy a stray hair on the base of the IR pole (is it?) at the back of the turret

Mike, I had to stare at those pics for a long time to find that! But I believe you are correct. I must've taken some cat hair into the room with me. Thanks for spotting it, Eagle Eyes!

[David_in_Fremont]

I finally got started on the weathering stages today. Bear in mind I'm an aircraft builder so I started with some post-shading. I like how it turned out on the turret but the main hull is too heavy handed. I can always knock it back down later.

Its since had a satin clear coat so I can start with washes tomorrow.

[Mike]

I wouldn't worry unduly about the post shade - if the washes don't knock it back, as you say, you can always mute it with some more desert sand

Keep up with the good work

[AnthonyWan]

If it's not too late, you could try to source an ArmourDepot barrel for the .50 on the main gun..Mike used one on his here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29332