[Ara1]

Originally Posted by Cavtanker

Tanks are never meant to look pretty.

Ah but the British Lee... The British added skirts just to make our General the beauty she was...

[dragon53]

CAVTANKER:

Thanks a lot for the detailed info on the Abrams. Your comments made me feel even better about me buying one.
I'm gradually bending the soft-plastic rack and machine gun into place. If I had known the rack was soft plastic, I wouldn't have had to visit several Targets to find a tank with a less bent rack.

I've always preferred planes to tanks, but the FOV 1/18 Abrams really impressed me. Now I'm thinking about FOV's 1/18 Sherman that's on the way.

I wonder about why FOV's 1/18 tanks are being limited only to Target and Foxhole.com....The 1/18 tanks aren't even on FOV's website.

[Cavtanker]

If FOV were to re-do their 1/32 mold with the necessary corrections, they'd have a real winner of a diecast.

[dragon53]

CAVTANKER:

Maybe this is it---maybe it's a new Abrams from FOV. I haven't seen it on any of the dealers' websites:

Product

[Cavtanker]

Originally Posted by dragon53

CAVTANKER:

Maybe this is it---maybe it's a new Abrams from FOV. I haven't seen it on any of the dealers' websites:

Product

Unfortunately, no, that is not a new product. That is actually the first 1/32 M1A1 that was released. For the time frame of the livery (depicting an ODS Abrams) the track CAN be correct, thus is acceptable in my eyes. According to Sarson and Zaloga's book "M1 Abrams: 1982-1992", about 20% of M1-series tanks in ODS had the new T-158 track installed for the ground combat phase.

I get a bit sentimental when I see that diecast as it was my first diecast. It lead to my current addiction.

[dragon53]

CAVTANKER:

I need your expertise on the Abrams again.

I was looking through a Tom Clancy book with a diagram of the Abrams in order to identify parts of the tank. Two parts I couldn't identify are:
1. The hatch-like object forward of the loader's hatch.
2. The upside-down, L-shaped object on top of the cannon mantlet.

[Cavtanker]

Originally Posted by dragon53

CAVTANKER:

I need your expertise on the Abrams again.

I was looking through a Tom Clancy book with a diagram of the Abrams in order to identify parts of the tank. Two parts I couldn't identify are:
1. The hatch-like object forward of the loader's hatch.
2. The upside-down, L-shaped object on top of the cannon mantlet.

The hatch like cover is often referred to as the 'manhole' cover. It was built into M1A1s in order to upgrade them to the M1A2's CITV. Unfortunately, a lot of funding shortfalls have prevented many M1A1s from doing so. IIRC, the L-shaped bracket has been used for mounting the Hoffman device, which was a tank cannon firing simulator. Basically, it made a loud noise and shot smoke out of it to simulate the tank cannon during exercises. However, I could be wrong as the Hoffman device can also be mounted on the bore evacuator. I'm for certain the Hoffman device is no longer used due to injuries it caused. Now, a simulator is used that is mounted on the left side of the turret, adjacent to the SMGL. It uses the same smoke-bang approach, but I believe is a smaller charge.

[dragon53]

CAVTANKER:

Thanks. If anyone knew the answers, I figured you'd be the one.
Both your answers make sense now---I've seen wargame simulators mounted on tank barrels before and I knew the M1A2 had the commander's thermal viewer in the same location as the "manhole cover".
Thanks again.

Also, I added an FOV tank commander figure to my Abrams which really completes the Abrams. I like FOV's Abrams a lot---it puts my 21st Century 1/18 Mustang to shame. That's saying a lot since I always preferred airplane models to tank models.

[Cavtanker]

Dragon, you are welcome. I try my best to answer questions according to my knowledge.

If we truly desired an accurate larger Abrams, Dragon would have to start producing diecast 1/35s with their plastic model mold. Take a look at some of the plastic-modeling forums and you'll find that the Dragon 1/35 M1A1 AIM and M1A2 SEP molds are second-to-none.