This picture kind of under-represents the complexity of the machine gun mount and other stuff on the M1A1 commander's cupola.

Reference pics from a site that is really handy for model builders:
http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/marc_peters/m1a1/images/m1a1_28_of_71.jpg
http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/marc_peters/m1a1/images/m1a1_39_of_71.jpg
http://data4.primeportal.net/tanks/jeff_derosa/m1a1_details/images/m1a1_details_210_of_435.jpg

HawkeyeNFO said:

This picture kind of under-represents the complexity of the machine gun mount and other stuff on the M1A1 commander's cupola.

Reference pics from a site that is really handy for model builders:
http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/marc_peters/m1a1/images/m1a1_28_of_71.jpg
http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/marc_peters/m1a1/images/m1a1_39_of_71.jpg
http://data4.primeportal.net/tanks/jeff_derosa/m1a1_details/images/m1a1_details_210_of_435.jpg

To be fair it was a really overcomplicated mount and the M1A2 got rid of it.

Woozle said:

To be fair it was a really overcomplicated mount and the M1A2 got rid of it.

The military developing something overly complicated with no input at all from the warfighter requiring years and billions of dollars to fix... wow, color me surprised. </sarcasm>

Woozle said:

To be fair it was a really overcomplicated mount and the M1A2 got rid of it.

The M1A2 cupola certainly had some tradeoffs of its own, which have been largely resolved by adding the CROWS II remote weapon station to the vehicle.