Abrams!!!

Okay,  a new post. Recently I grabbed the new Tamiya 1/48 M1A2 Abrams for my 28mm modern US troops. It was on the shelf of my local hobby store, so it was one of those rare impulse buy. Of course being a Tamiya model it is a quite safe impulse buy.

 To make a long story short, it was a nice build and an impressive model. Much more detailed than the former Imprint, now Empress, M1A2. Of course you expect this from a collector model. There are a lot of nice detail, like the anti-slipping surface on the hull and turret ,the APU in the turret bustle rack, and the opportunity to position the shutter of the range finder open or closed.  Interestingly enough Tamiya gives you decals for the periscope windows, CITW visor, and the laser range finder. I decided to simply paint them my usual way.

Even more interestingly, while building it I found plenty of closed holes on the sideskirts and the turret sides making me thinking they are planning a TUSK version too... 

Anyway too much writing... too little images...

 You can see the rear mounted APU.

 Side by side with the Empress.

 Nice thing, while there are two points of scale difference, they look compatible together.