Welcome to the site. Always good to have another Redleg aboard.

on the M1070/M1000 HETTs, I have built the Accurate Armour kit. It went together pretty well with no real issues. It came out really nice-looking. The interior is really well detailed.



More pics here.


On the Strykers, AFV Club's are better detailed and look better overall to me. Trumpeter's are close behind them. Here are reviews of both from PMMS.

AFV Club
Trumpeter

Both have a small PE fret. There are numerous Stryker PE and AM sets out there that cover all sorts of features on them, including the SLAT armor as seen on deployed vehicles. Black Dog just released a resin and PE interior set for the M1126 as well.


For the Bradley, there is really only one kit by Tamiya, and the others have been modifications of the original one. Tamiya came out with the M2 (M2A0) Bradley in the mid '80s with a partial interior (driver's area and rear troop compartment). Academy quickly copied it (with interior as well). In the early '90s (after ODS), Tamiya updated theirs to an M2A2 (and deleted the interior). After OIF began in '03, Tamiya added another sprue to update it to an early 2000s M2A2 ODS version. Academy did the same with their M2A2 OIF Bradley.

Here is a rundown between the two kits:

Tamiya's M2A2 ODS and Academy's M2A2 OIF kits are about the same in quality. They both represent M2A2 ODS Bradleys from about 2003-2005.

The Tamiya one represents a rebuilt to latest standards M2A2 ODS version as used by 3 ID in the initial invasion (March '03). It has most of the ODS mods that were seen at that time, but still shows parts that were removed or changed as well. It also has you adding obsolete parts such as the flotation system rods on the rear and left side of the hull.

The Academy M2A2 OIF kit represents a new-build M2A2 ODS from about the same time as Tamiya's. It has many newer features that Tamiya left off, like the new driver's hatch hinge, anti-foul bars in front of the driver's hatch, new lower front glacis plate, etc. It also has nicer side armor, sprockets with lightening holes, and better details in some areas. It has incorrect, old-style, triangle block track in the kit though. The triangle block track hasn't been used since the mid-'90s. Furthermore, Academy molded the track incorrectly as well, with the pads being molded 180 degrees from how they should be. AFV Club makes a great set of indi-link, square block, plastic track for them though.

Even with the need for replacement track, I prefer the Academy kit over Tamiya's.

Reviews of both from PMMS again:

Tamiya M2A2 ODS
Academy M2A2 OIF

Neither comes with PE. Eduard does a few good PE sets though, one being a full turret interior. Legends and Voyager also have PE sets for them.

The M2A2 and forward kits deleted the interior that came in Tamiya's and Academy's M2 kits. For an interior, you can find either older M2 kit on eBay pretty cheaply and use the interior out of it for an older M2A2 ODS w/out interior seating mods (changed to long seats along the hull like an M113 with full mods), or use it as a base for a new interior.

Legends has a great M2A3 Bradley upgrade set on the market too.

For the Abrams, as stated above, Dragons M1A1 AIM and M1A2 SEP are the best kits out there. They go together great and are full of extras,metal barrels, PE, great decals, etc. You will need nothing more to build a great kit from them. options, etc.

The M109A6 Paladin is only made by Italeri and reboxed by Revell. It comes and goes in production runs. It can usually be found on eBay, but can be pricey there too.

The M992 FAASV is currently not available in kit form. There was the old Nimix resin kit which was very nice. It is hard to find now and can go for over $200.00. Rob has hinted at a new M992 kit, but won't give any details yet. I am currently building one (will post a build log thread on it soon) using laser-cut parts for the superstructure that I had made by Pololu Laser Cutting using a CAD drawing made by a friend. He may be planning on making a conversion set from them. We shall see. The laser cutting is pretty cheap (about $30 a set), much cheaper than any resin conversion or kit. Its up to how much scratch work you want to put into making it.

AFC Club also makes a great indi-link track set for the M109s as well. I highly recommend them.

Good luck.