This kit offers a wide variety of Abrams tanks to be built. The kit also allows you to keep spare parts to add to a different Abrams tank that you might currently have in your stash. There wasn't too much flash to clean up on the parts, and most of the ejection pin marks will be hidden with the rest of the build. The kit came with both rubber band tracks as well as plastic tracks. The only problem that I had with the kit was the instruction sheet. The instructions would have you jump from from front to back depending on with variant you were building. You have to be careful to either add or not add the required pieces for the variant you want.

Wow where to start! first the .First the good, both band and multi part tracks. plenty of mesh wire and chain for detailing. moldings sharp and detailed with nice texturing in places. What with all the options you will have about 40 percent of another m1a1 left over including a whole turret if you build a panther 2 ! now the only negatives -minor flash and ejector pin issues but nothing horrific.Instruction book and i do mean book is a bit hard to follow at times. great for experienced modelers but might be daunting for a youngster or beginner .

Trumpeter's M1A1/A2 is a nice basic kit with lots of options. There are parts to build several M1A1s, with mine plow, with mine rollers and with river fording equipment. You get copper wire, small chains and string to give you details for the mine removal equipment. You can also build an early M1A2, which is what I chose. If you want to get a bit more exotic, you can build the turret-less mine removal vehicle. You also can choose from rubber band style tracks, or link and length style. The rubber band tracks suffered from a bit of flash around the edges, and it was nearly impossible to remove, so I went with the link and length. These also required work, as almost every pad had an ejector pin mark that needed filling. Several other parts also needed filling where ejector pin marks marred the surface. Putty was needed in several other places as well, but nothing to serious. This is one of Trumpeter's older kits from the year 2000, and it shows. The parts are not bad, but Trumpeter's newer kits are much cleaner. The kit offers clear plastic for most of the optics, and it actually works. I glued these in place with white glue, them painted the backside to simulate the sheen that you see on tank optics. The kit also offers two figures: a full commander figure and a half body driver/gunner. The only part of the kit that I really hated, was the crummy vinyl wheel caps. These were impossible to clean up, and did not fit well. You get to choose from decals for about 5 different tanks, depending on which version you choose. The painting instructions were a bit sparse, but there are plenty of photos on the internet. There are many newer kits of more modern M1s, but for the low price of this kit, and the many options you get, this is not a bad way to go if you are on a budget or just want to have a nice tank kit without braking the bank. Plus you get a bunch of left over parts that you can use in other projects. I had fun with this kit, and I think it turned out nice in the end. Recommended.