Hi all

not nearly as good as others I have seen so far, but I would like to contribute as well.

I like the captain's rear loaders hatch big time; I have photos of it, but they're too dark for any good detail. I'll want to do what he did though.



So, I am doing only minor scratchbuilding on it. I bought the Tamiya M2A2 Bradley ODS, two spare kits of Tamiya's M2 Bradleys (for the interior), Blast Model's running gear and new track, Legend Productions two kits, both the M2/3A3 update kit and the A3 detailing kit, and a buttload of eduard pe; two Big Ed kits and the M2A2 hull kit.

I like the details of the Blast Models track & suspension kit and the resin parts are easy to work with, but much more fragile than their polystyrene counterparts.


I'm halfway done with the eduard hull exterior pe, and I am finished mostly with the A3 exterior conversion. Halfway done w/ the A3 detail kit.


Please look at the periscope caps on the rear sides of the hull. IIRC on my A2 they were there; but not on the A3? Any help would be great.


PS - people are always forgetting the dbl panels in the side armor skirts!!!

Looks like it is coming along well. A couple pointers. The interior of the hatches should be the same color as the outside of the hull. The interior color is too dark. It should be SeaFoam Green. Tamiya Sky is a good match, or Testors Model Master Pale Green with a few drops of white added to it.

Nice job so far. Yes, delete those other periscopes as well. And the Legend replacement doghouse isn't quite right, but somewhat of an improvement over the one in the kit.
As you say, there ARE some very good builds going on right now. Sadly, my is not one of them, but I did get a good start on it.

Here's a link to my build. It's not as good as the others, but the photos of the hatch may help you:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/123326#1016707

WOAH - awesome!!! I will definitely use your post as a guide!!!! That's what I want to build, with Kim's rear cargo area!!!!

Man, doing all these Tamiya kits all into one, and adding in the PE and resin update kits is tricky but fun. I ended up buying dbl kits on the fine, small parts . .. .

Awesome - thanks again for the info.

I totally agree with the color of the interior. It's Tamiya Green Zinc Chromate, and in the hobby shop while I usually act like a kid in a candyshop, it just looked like the right color at the time.

Oh well.

Thank god I use acrylic - I'll just chalk it up to a good base coat lol.

Yeah - it needs to be lighter - more of a cream cheese green if there's such a thing.

I use Reaper Master Series acrylic paints (brush & airbrush) for all my junk.

More help please - any links here for tips on pro PE bending/ forming? etc?

Any and all help would be wicked awesome!!!

looks good so far mate, keep it up

Grate job M8.

New pics of the loaders' hatch; WIP. I am using Captain's awesome ref pic, some "green stuff" kneadtite, and some old Testors modeling putty.

I am making a 3D CAD model of the finished thing, once I get all the measurements uniform. I will include a template for the top "add on armor" surrounding the hatch after. I have two contradicting pictures - some weird drawing for the template, and an actual photo of the surrounding armor. I will go with the real thing in my CAD model.

enjoy - not too impressive tho so far!

Please see the rough red dots for the out line - WIP - the tip of the triangle edge looks like it has an aspect ratio between 5:8 to 2:3 MAX. Plz refer to the outstanding A3 rear hatch that captain posted:

http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/128327&page=1

My WIP so far: