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Abrams Tusk

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 7:51 am
by DeadLlama
Hello all, currently working on the abrams tusk 1 for painting and was wondering if anyone knows if the model is meant to mount all 3 top turret machine guns? I'm seeing photos of the actual thing with either a commanders MG box mounted or a crow system mounted.

I'll post photos once done but found 2 really awesome painting effects to use on these things for glass and the anti-laser optics.

Re: Abrams Tusk

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 8:59 am
by Hoth_902
There is a thread where this was discussed and I posted pictures to back up what I am about to say. Just not sure if I can find it now.

looked into this for the SEP TUSK 2. I would say no way. If you look at 5he photos on line, the remote turret is mounted in front of the command turret and not between the two hatches. So I doubt you could mount the remote turret and have the command hatch setup at the same time. I have not found one photo supporting the ghq configuration. Furthermore, the box that they have mounted the remote gun turret, between the two hatches, does not exist in any picture.

What I have done, is plug, the remote mount, with glue and paint over it. Even though I am ** CENSORED ** as all get out, I have chose to live with the box even though it's not really there.

Re: Abrams Tusk

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 9:12 am
by Hoth_902
Found it,. See M1A2 SEP TUSK II thread. I found it and bumped it to the top so you could read through the discussion.

Re: Abrams Tusk

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 9:45 am
by DeadLlama
Awesome, I really appreciate you answering that question and bumping the post on the subject. I guess that model gives a lot of options. I wonder why GHQ went that route. Personally I kind of like the 3 MG's as it says overkill urban kit to me on tabletop, but I can see why that would bug other people. I'm working on one for a prior tanker that was medically discharged so I guess I'll have to ask him how he wants the setup now knowing that information. Kind of a crappy story all he wanted to be was a tanker, finally makes it, and gets whacked in the head by the turret. Pretty sure the person that rotated the turret went to jail over it.

Imageabrams tusk by levi thaut, on Flickr

Note model not finished, not great photo, and needs clean up but you can see some effects for optics and glass. For the optics I've used a metallic color shift from turbo dork called 'laserface'. In the future I'll probably use a couple different color shifts. For the glass I've been putting 1 drop of transparent dye with AK interactives glass crystal (plexiglass acrylic) and painting that over a gunmetal base color. The color dye in this case was by color pour resin 'sky' for a greenish bullet proof glass.

Re: Abrams Tusk

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2022 4:06 am
by panzergator
After all that work on the glass, which looks good, the 50cals and M240 should be a dark blue gray. Only the M60 mg was black.

Re: Abrams Tusk

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:09 am
by DeadLlama
Thank you for the comment panzergator. In this case I went with a weapons set from 'ammo mig' to just do a gunmetal base highlighted with polished metal. The other method I know (tabletop) is using vallejo german grey for the blueish tint and highlighting with oily steel which would probably be similar to ammo's polished metal. I may switch back to the miniatures method. What kind of method do you use?

Re: Abrams Tusk

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2022 9:53 am
by chrisswim
Dead Llama, you TUSK look great.

I posted 2 pictures of Abrams TUSK 2.
Here is TUSK.

Image

Re: Abrams Tusk

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2022 10:15 am
by panzergator
Apologies, Llama, the guns looked black. It's hard to tell in photos. I used to use Humbrol color, but those all changed a long time ago. It's been quite a while since I've been able to paint. I will have to start all over again learning available paint colors. Liked wgat yo did with the glass.

Re: Abrams Tusk

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2022 11:38 am
by DeadLlama
Thanks for sharing chrisswim, I really dig the camo pattern you have on that thing.

No worries panzergator, it is a bad a picture. I think I will try that miniatures blue grey version on one though; I'm still narrowing in on my standard. I've seen professionals mix some kind of blue into gun metal to get the blueing effect. I'm glad you like the glass effect. Do you think it is a realistic representation to use a greenish tint for bullet resistant glass?

For anyone reading this that's interested I've found that using the glass method (described in the first post) using the color dye transparent 'Jade' by Color Pour Resin looks great for aircraft canopies.

I'll post better pics of the tusk here once complete.