1/35th USMC M1A1 Norway 2016

Another Abrams, this time I built Tamiya's 1/35th M1A2 Operation Iraqi Freedom kit into a USMC M1A1 in Norway for Exercise Reindeer II in 2016. Tamiya includes the Marine M1A1 as an option in this boxing. I added a bustle rack extension from the Academy TUSK kit (I didn't feel like waiting to order one and have it shipped), crew from Miniart, stowage from Meng and my spares, and the camo net is from DEF that I painted white. I scratch-built the Stabilized Commander's Weapon Station, a newer feature to Marine Abrams. Once again references were tough to track down for the new station so it's not perfect but looks the part. And when my order arrives, I'll swap out the too whip-like antennas for Leopard Workshop's nice set of aerials. This being a more or less out of the box build, I didn't bother with swapping out the tracks for the right "Bigfoot" versions, and I skipped adding all the Miles gear (FYI-the Tiger Model CB90 kit included BFAs-Blank Firing Adapters-for the M2 .50 CALs). I lightly weather the tank, and having really become enamored with the snow splinter camo I almost left off the camouflage netting. Maybe I will have to build a Swedish Stridsvagn 122 now to keep the geometric paint schemes flowing.

5 additional images. Click to enlarge.