In my never ending quest to never complete a model, I’m going to bash together an M1E1, in particular the one displayed at the Battleship Alabama
My question is, did the E1’s have the access panels on the rear engine deck?
My question is, did the E1’s have the access panels on the rear engine deck?
No access panels I thought.
Photo courtesy of https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar-usa-120mm-gun-tank-m1e1-abrams/
- If this is an accurate photo of M1E1 on that site.
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I’ve got that pic and was leaning towards delete them, just wanted some confirmation.
I do know there were several different variations of the E1 and I’m assuming there was none on any of them, thinking the panels came out when the A1 was fielded
I think you’re right about the panels not being there. I just looked at David Doyle’s book, “Images of War M1 Abrams” - It’s not totally clear from the photo but I am not seeing them.
Thanks, I’ll go with delete them 
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All set to go with the three panel blow off panels configuration, then I found this.
Does this look like the two panel blow off panels set up? Really took me by surprise
AFAIK the switch to 120mm necessitated the double raised panels because of their increased diameter. The top row of rounds are held in swing tubes that pivot downward so the base of the round clears the edge of the ammo door bulkhead.
Edit: you can see that even with the 3 panel setup shown in the photo James posted they are mounted on a raised panel.I have some drawings on my computer at work I’ll add tomorrow that may be helpful
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Interesting, luckily I haven’t done any work on the turret, I have a Panda M1 IP coming in the mail and I also found a couple plain M1A1 blow off panels in the M1 parts tote, should be an easy conversion.
Hull is most complete, I had an old A1 hull that was in good shape and required minimal conversion
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Hull is pretty much done, hard to tell from the pic but there was a lot of filling and sanding done to the front fenders and deleting the access panels on the rear engine deck.
Also moved the fire extinguisher pull handle into the overpressure system area and added the exhaust port to the front left fender.
I usually don’t prime but that 25/30 year old hull went through a lot and I needed to make sure all was good. It’s an old Tamiya hull, but it’s the only A1 hull I had to play with.
The turret should arrive today in the mail
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Panda M1 IP arrived today, made quick work of the blow off panels.
Next up will be the extended sponson boxes.
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Might I ask where you found the Panda M1 IP? They’re pretty pricey on eBay…
Squadron, $44.99 plus shipping, wasn’t cheap there either, but it comes with two turrets, plain M1 and IP, so I still have almost a full IP kit leftover
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Is that the M1 IP kit then? Two turrets sounds good.
Yes, the Panda M1 IP comes with the plain M1 turret, you can build either version from the one kit
https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/11171555
Um, lots of useful stuff there.
There is, there is also lots of flash, short shots of soft plastic, lol
And the tracks are a living hell.
But if you’re careful, it’ll build up to a decent model
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Looking good. I’ve taken the obligatory photograph of that same tank on every trip to Pensacola, b ut never did a proper walkaround of it.
I did get this though:
Don’t remember where.
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Thanks!
I’ll post pics later tonight, turret is coming along nicely, may have to replace some round stock on the bustle rack, poor molding on Pandas behalf. The extra sponson boxes are also coming together pretty nice.
Could have used that pic months ago!
Looks like the XM1 FSED, early pre-production, I have that all scratch build and ready for paint
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Since you haven’t painted it, if you need more let me know.
Appreciate it, but I think I’m good, unless you see a glaring error that I missed! 