Burnt out M1 ABRAMS

This being my first Modern and also a US tank, I kinda had mixed feelings about building it. The kit used is the Italeri kit in 1/35. Although the Dragon kit is much better I went with the Italeri one because I got a good deal on it. Also I wanted to experiment with the model.

Part I 










The kit is typical Italeri, LOTS of ejector pin marks everywhere,so lots of filling and sanding. Now I remember why I stopped building there kits and stuck with dragon. To lower the tank's hull, I removed the molded on wheel swing arm axles and drilled new holes above these. The new axles were made out of pieces of the kits sprue.









 Well I had a couple of problems with some of the kit parts and had to improvise and do a little scratchbuilding. The upper two bars on the back end of the bustle rack were flimsy, didn't fit right and eventually broke. So I make two new bars using copper wire and added some battle damage to that area. Next the kit tow cables were crap too and also broke, had to make two new ones. I always have this problem with Italeri parts, needless to say the next kit will not be an Italeri kit that's for sure







Next is a quick toot on how I did the wheel hubs, or the lack of hubs.



The first step was to remove the hub them drill a small hole down the center of the hub. I have 6 pin vices which makes this much quicker. In this pic you can see the bits that I used.



Next I used two different Dremel bits, a flat ended and rounded bit. I first used the rounded bit to start the large hole, the smaller hole helps keep things centered.



After pre drilling with the round bit I " squared" of the bottom of the hole with the flat bit.



The next step was to glue a short piece of plastic rod in the center hole and it was done, quick and easy.Here is a shot of the completed hubs.



I've started the painting,Turret only. I wanted to start with the barrel to get a feel of using the salt and HS technique. OK here we go with a sneak peak of how it's progressing.







A primer coat using Wal Mart gray primer.






Next came my usual dark under coat I use on all my wrecks.



I applied a heavy coat of HS followed by some salt.



I then applied some green and brown, just to see what will happen.



The desert sand color was sprayed next.






Here is how it turned out. I still have to work on this new (to me) technique. in the future I'll let the paint dry a bit longer because it came too easy. Also the HS I used isn't the greatest so I'll buy a different one along with a larger grain type of salt. I'll continue with the barrel with some mapping(?), brush and sponge painting.The turret will be the fun part to paint.

The next experiment was with the side skirts, basically using the same technique. Hair spray, salt and masking fluid.



The base coat was applied first.



I then applied HS and while still wet I sprinkled some salt onto the skirt.



I then sprayed the white areas.



Using tap water I removed the salt.



I then masked the white area with masking fluid.






After the desert tan was sprayed on, the masking fluid was then removed.







I then painted the remaining skirts a dark gray/black with some white in areas. A light over spray with black finished them off.A light over spray with black finished them off. I still have to do the weathering to them, then they should be done.


Part II  In this part I'll be dealing with the main painting and weathering of the Abrahms.