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Once you get you Bradley built and painted, you might want
to give it some stowage. Pictures show
various amounts of duffle bags, sleeping rolls, back packs, tarps, spare road
wheels, ration boxes, etc. Since the M2 Bradley was home to eight guys,
they need a lot of stuff and not much room inside. The M3 has less crew, but
even less space due to the extra anti-tank missiles it cares.
One thing I have noticed in today's kits that differ from my
early days of Monogram Tank kits in the 1970's is that most manufactures are
loath to supply stowage outside of a few extra Jerry cans. If your kit is
lacking in this area check out the following aftermarket items with my comments.
1/72 Scale
There are two good sets by Legend.
The first set is for the Revell M2 (LF7203) but would be
helpful with any Bradley in this scale. It is a little light on stowage items,
but does come with a PE set. Unfortunately, the PE part for the bottom of the
turret basket did not really fit my Revell kit. And as a replacement part, if
you plan on putting anything in the turret basket why put this in when it won't
be seen? The side stowage cage may test
your PE skills. So I give this set a B Grade due to having fewer resin parts. This item is available from
Spruebrothers or on eBay for about $8-$9.
The second set (LF7205) does not list a kit, but the Dragon kits are
most likely the one it was meant for. Many of the parts would still be useful
on any M2A2. There is no PE with this set, but lots and lots of stowage items. To
offset no PE, this kit has a large part which represents the large side basket
full of stowage. No need to assemble the frame as in LF7203. I give this set an A Grade. You can find this
on eBay or Spruebrothers and the cost is $12 or so.
The Legend sets are well molded and have great detail. Not a single air bubble in my two sets. It
will take some heavy sawing to remove the the pour gates as most are rather large compared
to the actual part.
1/35
Verlinden set 1969
This set is out of production and Verlinden is out of
business so you'll have to search eBay.
It contains a very robust PE fret with two side
baskets and one large side stowage cage. These will take some work in bending/folding/soldering/gluing, but should
be easier to work with since the PE is much thicker. The resin parts contain
about anything you have see riding on the outside of a modern armor vehicle
(except for an Igloo Ice Chest). It includes Infantry and Tanker helmets. The Jerry cans are the water version. My set
was purchased used from eBay and a few pieces had chips from rattling in the
box. But there were NO air bubbles, the pour gates are small and all the parts
look very nice. I give this an A Grade. Expect to pay $24 or more.
Legend
Legend makes several Bradley related items including road wheels, ERA blocks and stowage in 1/35.
While I have not seen these in person, I would say
they are worth buying as all the
other types of Legend items I have
bought have been very good. Be warned, the cost of some of these sets can be about what your kit cost. It may be worth hunting eBay for the Verlinden set.
-Bob Walls
If you have Group Build photos or updates feel free to email them to IPMSRICHMOND@GMAIL.COM
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