Hi everybody,

this week I started with the build of the Dragon 1/72 Bradley M2A2 ODS.

This is the boxart:



Updates will be posted soon!



Jelger

Anticipates you can make a excellent work!
-Foyled

Hi everybody,

does anyone have information on this Bradley? Dragon is not very informative about the vehicle. For example, where in Iraq was it deployed and which regiment?

Thanks in advance,



Jelger

It was a Bradley from A Company, 1-15 Infantry, 3 ID during the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003. The unit was in action from the Kuwaiti/Iraq border all the way up to Baghdad then patrolled Baghdad once the government fell.

Thanks Gino for your quick reply,

this is very useful information.

Do you know if there are more pictures of this particular Bradley or (of other vehicles) of the company or division?



Jelger

Is this a case where the box label does not match correctly? Should it be marked OIF instead of ODS?

Just curious,
Tony

No, the label is correct. M2A2 ODS is the version of Bradley. After ODS, the Army compiled lessons learned from ODS and incorporated them into upgraded Bradleys, calling them ODS since they had the ODS improvements on them.

Thanks. That makes sense.

Tony

Hi

all the pics show that bradley to be from A cpy 1-41st infantry. 3 Bde. 1 arm div. they went with 3ID during the initial invasion and had with them 2-70 arm.

1-41st and 2-70 arm were split into Task forces and used for many a different ops with mainly 3 bde 3ID but also with 82nd and 101st airborne.

in special ops vol 27 from concord 'victory in baghdad' it has a bit about the bde and has the picture that is used on the box (Yves debay)

i have a few pics on file if you want them, just send email and i will forward them

mark

Thats right, Mark is correct. 1-41 IN also had the 70 series Unit ID #s, same as 1-15 IN in 3ID.

Hi everybody,

thanks again for your replies, it really helps me to put this Bradley in some context. I have almost finished the build of the tank, only a few parts need to be attachted. According to the instructions, the (commanders) right hatch has to build closed, however, with only a little efford I have made it open and I will put a Preiser US Tank Commander figure in it to give some sense of scale. I've have build the Bradley is several separate sections for ease of painting, the pictures are a dry fit.







Jelger

First of, its not a tank. The Bradley is an Infantry Fighting Vehicle, or IFV. It is mainly an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) with a gun and turret. It is employed very differently than a tank and used to take the infantry into battle, then support them once there. It has lighter armor than a tank and can't really take on larger armored vehicles.

The model is coming along well so far. Keep us posted.

Hi Gino,

thanks for your quick reply.

Foregive me for generalising all tracked military vehicles as being tanks

As soon as I painted and dusted this little beast, I will post another update.



Jelger

Hi everybody,

it has been a while that I started this post, but my Bradley has been on the shelve to long unfortunatrly due to having no time to airbrush. However, during christmas holidays I have painted this little beast and now I'm busy working on painting the details.







I've seen other 1/72 bradleys in which the large square ventilation grill on top of the vehicle is nicely painted. However, as these grill lines stand out only very little above the surface, I wonder how best to paint them? Will a dry brush work on such fine grill? An example is the nice Bradley of Terry Barrow of which picture I used for showing what I mean:





Jelger

Jelger, I had almost forgotten about your build, it's been a while. It appears to be coming along very nicely and your detailing of the tools and such is well done. As for the engine grating, I usually use a very thing wash of flat black or dark grey for those type of areas. Something in the order of 10 to 1 thinner/paint applied sparingly with a fine brush so that the wash flows into all the little crevices. Be careful as it takes some experimentation to get the correct mixture.

Cheers,
Jan

Hi Jan,

thank you for the useful information. I will try this.



Jelger