8/10/2019 AFV-1

1/3

8

modle / model ch. / sca. fab. / man modifications / add ons

1/35e

Tamiyarf. 35510 US M1A1 Abrams1

Burn in Hell

M1A1 AbramsCojone eh

4

Model

1 2

4

Model

1 2

3 4

History

At a time when the rst American reports

on combat losses are published, Victory

in Iraq is far from being achieved. This

model of the Famous M1a1 Abrams named

Cojone Eh proves this. Far more than asingle combat tank destroyed , it is a true

symbol incarnated in Cojone eh, showing

US Army bogged down in a country more

and more hostile to the army which was

supposed to liberate it.

April 5th2003 in the suburb of Yarmouk,

a few days after the fall of Baghdad.

It was around 10.30 when re broke

out in the engine compartment of the

Cojone Eh tank. It was apparently oil

carried into some jerrycans and pierced

by Iraqi bullets that started the re.

Gis attempted to stop the re but invain, they had to leave the M1 to its

fate. Iraqis tried to tow the tank, but

didnt succeed. American command was

determined not to leave the tank in

enemy hands and called upon aviation to

nish off the Cojone Eh with Maverick

anti-tank missiles.

Assembly

The base model is the one from Tamiya which

is rather old. Details are quite rare on this

model even if there arent a lot on this type of

tank. Movable suspension arms or possibilities

to easily open the side bins would have beenwelcome etc... As I had the etched brass set

for the Dragon kit of the Abrams, I therefore

needed to adapt the parts, most of the kits

on the market showed differences. But with a

few little tricks, I managed to get to the end.

Bearing in mind that it would be a destroyed

vehicle, some artistic licence may be taken.

Eduard photo etched parts ref.: 35510 - plastic tracks AFV CLUB ref.: AF 3512

Materials replaceme nt and part fabrication:

1 The various tools and materials used for the

transformation and the replacement of the destroyed

parts. An aluminium sheet, a cutter and a sheet of tracing

paper.

2 The aluminium sheet is an indispensable allie for

this project. It was with this material that I was able to

reproduce and duplicate the destroyed parts. Using the

tracing paper, I copied the desired elements. I had used

aluminium on previous models because it is a really user

friendly material. It can be cut effortlessly with a large

cutter, and it can be bent easily.

3 Here is an example of what can de done withaluminium, one of the turret side bins. This will be heavily

damaged to suit the model.

4 Aluminium and the Eduard etched brass complement

each other very well, as can be seen on this photo. The

level of detailing is very high.

The wheels1 Most of the running gear was cut and separated from the main hull.

Using a sawing disk tted on a motor drill, the suspension arms were cut and

replaced by new ones made from Evergreen plastic strips. It looks a bit odd, b

it has no importance at this stage. What we want is a tank stuck in the ground

because it was demolished, it will allow you to hide these parts behind combu

residues and soil.

2 A big problem rapidly emerged when starting this destroyed Abrams. The w

are surrounded by a large rubber shoe, which had to be eliminated.

Each wheel was xed to a screw and tted into a large motor drill. Once tight,

switched the drill on and using a large le I removed the excess plastic.

8/10/2019 AFV-1

2/3

32

7

8

9

1 2

3 4

5 6

2/ Frame assemblyMost of the work will be concentrated on the

rear plate here. Eduards Pe Set for the Trumpeter

kit will provide the fuel drum supports

(strangely they are not in the Tamiya detailing

kit) and give a real plus to the kit

The 2 fuel drums in the kit were really too neat

for my taste, so Ive used one from an old Tamiya

reference (35026) while the other one has been

scratch built with lead foil in order to dent it as

I wish.

Because a burnt out vehicle really doesnt sit on

its tracks in the same way as an operational one

I have had to drill the holes for the wheel legs inorder to be able to move them as I wish later.

3/ The turret9 Tamiya have done a very good job here, but

once again, there is some room for improvement.

Ive replaced all the tie downs, hatch handles,

and grab handles with copper wire. Some more

details for hatches came from the Eduards PE

set. The support for the searchlight came from

the Eduards set for the Esci kit. The anti-aircraft

Dhsk gun is a little gem but some details by

Eduard (once again) will be added. The control

cable from the handgrip to the main trigger will

be made from copper wire.

The main gun is perfect as it is and really doesntneed any work, and I dont see why you would

need to replace it with any turned barrel.

The last detail you would have to add is the

coaxial gun, which is not in the box; I made

mine with a reworked MG34 that I kept in my

sparebox.

4/ The tracksI did chose to use the new ModelKasten ref on

my model, as the one provided in the box will no

longer t after I have moved all the road wheels

(anyway, I never use the vinyl tracks!). Why didnt

I choose the Friul ones? Good question! Ive read

on the internet that the MK ones were more in

scale so thats the reason for my choice. Finding

them was another story and after a kind of

internetothon took place to nd me the tracks

(thanks again guys !) its nally Jon Tamkin frommission models who sent me a set.

These tracks are really superb and I was surprised

to see how easy it was to build it. Ive used 88

links on the left side and 87 on the right. Once

built I immediately painted it with my usual mix

of gunmetal and raw umber.

PaintingToutes les peintures utilises sont des rfrences enamels de Modelmasters.

1 A rst coat of at black followed with Russian armour green will act as primer.

2 Then some Afrika Braun lightened to 50% with light skin tone will be applied in a very

order to let some green visible in all the recesses

3 Once dried the same mixture will be lightened with appreciatively 30% of at white a

in very thin layer.

4 The markings were done by hand with a 15/0 brush as per some pictures I have in the

magazine those markings are for the number 8647 in Arabic letters. Once this work has dri

future will be applied to the whole vehicle to protect the paint of the upcoming washes.

5 A rst light wash of burnt umber will be applied to the whole vehicle and immediately

darker one, but this time focusing on all the recesses only.

6 The chipped paint effect was the next step and has been done with gunmetal, some ru

liberally applied with raw umber artists oils.

8/10/2019 AFV-1

3/3

58

Neubaufahrzeug

sfocus

focusfocu

sfocusfo

cusfocus

History

In 1933 Rheinmetall-Borsig was ordered to build a

multi turreted tank. By the end of 1934 two light

steel prototypes were ready. While the chassis

passed all tests successfully, the turrets did not.

Thus Krupp has been requested for redesign and

new construction. In 1935 Rheinmetall nished

three armoured hulls and Krupp their turrets.

These three vehicles were assigned to special

purpose detachment 40 (PzAbt zbV 40 ) and were

shipped to Norway in April 1940. After their

rst employment against British forces one

Neubaufahrzeug bogged down near Lillehammer

and had to be blown up by its crew. The remaining

two vehicles remained in the fortress of Akershus,

near Oslo, until the end of 1940 and then returned

to Germany. They were again sent to battle during

Operation Barbarossa, but were destroyed on 28

June 1941 from hits from KV I tanks. The mild

steel prototypes were used as training tanks.

The kit...

...is full resin. The parts are moulded in yellow,

odourless material. The resin for the turret and

hull is of very strong consistence with large,

difcult to remove moulding blocks. I damaged

the bow quite heavily during clean up and had to

rebuild the area with putty. There are only a few

air bubbles to claim on the surface of the parts.

Some of the round parts ( exhaust pipes, gun

mantlet, gun ) suffered from resin streaks on the

surface, which were difcult to remove due to

the strong material they are made of. The quality

of the parts varies from very good to average

(road wheels, support rollers and their support).

Many hatches can be positioned either open or

closed, but no interior has been provided. The MGsare beautifully detailed, each muzzle has been

drilled out already. Thos who intend to provide

moveable turrets should consider installing the

hooking system well known from plastic kits as

nothing similar is foreseen in the kit. The turrets

are simply put on and are liable to fall off as soon

as the model is tilted (presentation, transport). It

seems that the master modeller used photoetched

weld seams. They look too regular and thus not

realistic. The surface of the vehicle is even, no

armour texture has been represented. The kit

provides a very nice PE Set from polish company

PART. The rear side of these PE parts is covered

with a layer that allows one to use household

superglue for mounting them. Thus I only used

superglue liquid and gel from Loctite for this

project. The instructions consist of only three

pages . One page, format DINA4, giving short

explanations in English/Polish about the vehicle,

how to work with resin, which PE parts must not

be used and how to paint the vehicle ( Humbrol

32 ! ) On the return side turret construction and

adding the tracks is described. For constructing

the hull only one DIN A3 page with one explosion

template has been provided. There are neitherdecals nor stencils for adding the markings

available. The instructions do not reect on

markings at all. One small headlight was missing,

but some additionally tools and wheels were

provided. A small hatch was unusable due to bad

moulding and I had to built one from scratch as

replacement. As this kit was built for a customer

I had to agree on certain compromises which I

would not have done if this would have been one

of my projects.

Construction

I had to analyse the instructions quite often and

studied drawings and photographs a lot until I

was ready to start this adventure. Before I used

any glue it was time to clean up all parts and to

store them in small boxes. During this process it

became evident that the road wheels and returnrollers suffer from relatively large moulding

blocks which do not provide a separation area,

like it can be seen on products from other

companies. In this case the clean up results in a

partial damage of some wheels. Normally I would

have corrected these errors with putty, but as

I do not get paid for such extra work I have

hidden the damaged wheels by positioning them

towards the lower hull. The quality of the support

frames for the support rollers also caused some

troubles as they are very delicate to handle. I

had to built one from scratch because it was not

moulded correctly. The construction of the hull

is straightforward. The parts are very thick, but

as a result, they are not warped. For my taste

the panels between the engine hatches were

oversized in depth and therefore I lled them upwith Tamiya putty, smoothened them with a brush

soaked in Italeris liquid glue and engraved more

realistic panels after the putty was dry.

As the turret parts did not t as expected I had

to ll and sand a lot. Although or because of my

highly sophisticated storage system I managed to

loose one of the lateral turret hatches. So I had

no choice and built all two of them from scratch,

using plasticsheet and hatches from an Italeri

Panzer I. So far, so good. For the further steps I

had to rely on different references frequently

as the instructions were simply not sufcient

enough.

After completing the turret I started with the

running gear. This is the most complex area

and requires a lot of concentration. Each bogie

consists of ten resin and two etched parts. Butrst of all I added the springs to the underside of

the armoured belly. They help a lot on positioning

the bogies. Then I built the bogies, except for the

etched parts and swing arms.

The latter have plugs to t in the suspension,

but there are no plug ins available. Thus I had to

remove the plugs which makes the test tting

even more complicated. While the hull was tilted

over, I placed each bogie on a spring and gently

glued one swing arm to its suspension.

a temporary x I turned the hull and pla

a at surface and adjusted the bogies

running wheel touched the ground. Afte

I added the second swing arm and then

time to take care of the bogies dress. I

them gently with a hair dryer and place

into position, using a ruler as a guide. Fafter rechecking that all wheels still to

ground, I glued the bogies to their sprin

added an extra drop of glue to the swin

Then I completed the running gear. I ad

etched parts shortly before painting as

that they would break off during constr

next tricky thing was already waiting be

corner: adding the fenders! They are mad

parts, which have to be assembled accor

scale : 1/35th- Armo ref 35025 - Jadar Models,