We’re at the detail stage now, I suppose. Here’s a jerrycan holder, based on the type on the M1 (not M1A1 or later) turret:
This is completely different from the familiar, standard American jerrycan holder, so I couldn’t just use an etched one. Luckily it’s relatively easy to build from some thin card and strip. The trickiest bits were the diagonal braces, and trying to glue it on the turret side behind the basket
20 mm ammo cans on the back of the stowage basket (“bustle rack” in American terms):
Just some from the AFV Club set of 7.62 mm, .50 and 20 mm ammo cans. The ones from
Tamiya’s Modern U.S. Military Equipment Set are slightly sharper in detail, but I only noticed that when I had already put these together, and in any case the difference is very minor.
Then the smoke grenade launchers:
The actual launchers are from an ancient
Tamiya Chieftain (ancient as in: one I built 30 or so years ago, and have since mostly taken apart again for various parts of it), which is whey they are two different colours. I drilled out the launch tubes and inserted 2 mm rod so it extends out of the tubes, which replicates the double-loading American crews sometimes do: two smoke grenades in each tube, to thicken the smokescreen.
The mounting brackets are from the same
Tamiya M1A1 that supplied the gun barrel and mine plough, but thinned down and with bolt heads added. After doing so I discovered that on the M1 these are socket bolts, not hex-head ones, but who is to know besides me? Well, you, now you’ve read that, of course …
Everything else is scratchbuilt: the wires are copper wire from an old computer monitor, the angle iron protective channels are inspired by the Abrams again, and made from L-profile plastic with rod and strip for the brackets. Those were a job and a half to get on because they’re so tiny
The number on the turret is from digits I shaved off a
Tamiya sprue, again replicating a detail of the M1 Abrams.