There are 298 plastic parts in beige plastic well molded with a minimum of pin and sink marks, but there is some minor flash on a few parts while they have nice details included such as full non-skid surfaces on the hull and turret and link and length T-158 track plus a square of mesh, clear plastic and decal sheet.

The Lower Hull:
This has the lower hull panel and side panels as separate parts that allow good detail definition on the hull side details such as axle mounting plates and axles although there are a few pin marks to be removed from the sides and axles fixed in place.

The road wheels are the usual separate inner and outer wheels with nice hub bolt details while the drive sprockets have the lightening holes included although not the right shape due to molding constraints but at least they are there for starters.

Also included is the outer drive sprocket disc seen on some USMC A1s but no snorkel gear or other USMC parts are included and these discs are usually seen on Army A1s.

Upper Hull:
This is one large part with separate engine bay panels and rudimentary engine compartment without any detail on the walls as well as separate doors for the battery compartment and separate drivers hatch.

The detail on the hull top has all the A1 features of side NBC panels, non-skid surfaces and x stamping of the front fenders and correct head light guards as well as separate side skirts with the front panel also separate so can be shown swung open for maintenance if required?

At the rear the engine exhaust louver panels are all separate and there is the optional APU originally mounted on the rear hull panel before being relocated to the turret basket.

The Turret:
This has the usual upper shell of correct size and lower section and again includes the non-skid panels and correct Commander cupola for the A1 which includes optional clear sheet for the optics or solid ‘lenses  which you paint the color of the optics. The cupola also has a separate four part hatch and the three small lifting eyes. The loader hatch and main sight also have clear sheet optics and the blank off disc for the CITY mounting in included.

The main 120mm gun is in the usual two halves with separate muzzle reference device while the mantlet is in eight parts with the co-ax MG tube being hollowed out with rudimentary ribbing on the inside.

The rear turret basket has separate lower and rear frames with the mesh provided for the lower surface after being cut from the sheet using the full sized template included in the instructions and there is a basic EAPU for the basket but this lacks defined details. The Commander.50 cal MG is also rather basic by todays standards while the smoke grenade clusters have separate mounting plates and there is a selection of additional equipment such as 20mm ammo boxes, back packs and jerry cans to be added to the side and rear of the turret as required.

One thing to note is that there are no additional parts for DS or OIF vehicles as with most other Abrams kits released these days but these should not be too hard to find if you wanted to build a Gulf M1A1 from this kit?

The Tracks:
The tracks are link and length T158 track which have nice details but a few pin marks on the inside shoes and minor sunk marks on some pads which should not be difficult to remove and while the instructions show to install the track early one advantage of this type of track is it can be fitted after the top hull and side skirts are installed by just fitting the track you can see and eliminating the top run as well as leaving the skirts off till last for more options on fitting the track.

Decals:
The small decal sheet has markings for three vehicles, one in three color NATO cam for a Germany based M1A1 in 1990 or two overall sand vehicles from Kuwait 1991 with additional DS markings although as mentioned there are no parts such as CIP panels for Gulf War vehicles included in the kit.

Overall this will build into a respectable M1A1 with all the basics there and as with most Italeri kits it offers good value for money but not having any OIF parts in a kit released today leaves it feeling a little dated.

Common Parts with updates

Abrams Main Battle Tank M1A1 and M1A2 Museum Ordnance Special #9 Darlington Productions Inc.	M1A1/A2Abrams Mini Color Series #7502 Concord Publications ISBN 962-361-638-4
M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank Osprey New Vanguard 2 ISBN: 185532 283 8	Abrams Company Europa Militaria No.28 The Crosswood Press Ltd. ISBN 1 86126 285 X