I bought an Acadamy M2 Bradley a few months ago for my stash and after studying the instructions after a while, I got dissapointed. On the interior steps (the infantry compartment) it didn't mention how to paint the thing at all! It just mentions to spray the whole thing white, and paint some seats! But the prototype pictures on the box show an olive drab covered interior, with black TOW missiles with blue lines (decals) encircling them? Anybody ever built a Bradley before could really help!

Thanks!

Alex

BTW, if anybody who has a completed version of the model send me pictures of the interior and exterior if possible. I'm more of a visual person unfortunately.

What about some pics of the real thing ? The interior color is called Seafoam green.

http://www.primeportal.net/apc/epifanio_becerra/m2a0+/

HTH

Frenchy

That's really odd, because the instructions seem to be telling me off white. I'm guessing it's because this is an early version of the Bradley. But thank you so much for the pictures! They'll help a lot with the accessories inside.

Alex

BTW, would light grey do the job?

Alex,
The colour recommended by people who have actually used Bradleys and are on this site is Tamiya XF-21 Sky.

Look in the 'Modern - USA' forum there's a buildlog for a M3A2 near the top.
TTFN
Tom

Thanks... I think Im convinced about now that the interior is a light Green. This model is going to get a real scream from me once Ifinish it.

Thanks, Alex

PS If antoje has further info that has not been mentioned, I'd be pleased with a reply. Thank you.

The interior is a pale green color called SeaFoam Green. The Tamiya Sky is a good match. Krylon has a spray color called Pistachio that is an exact match as well. The TOW tubes are dark green with a yellow stripe at the warhead end and a brown stripe at the motor end. The blue stripe denotes an inert practice round. The troop seat cushions in the rear are either OD green or a dark green-brown. The driver's seat is black. The 25mm ammo boxes on the side sponsons are black. Here are a couple examples of how to paint it.

M2A2 OIF




M7 B-FIST




By the way, Academy just got it wrong. The Bradley has never had a white interior. Don't always trust the model company's instructions on paint colors. 9 times out of 10, they are wrond. Reasearch always pays off.

Good luck.

Thanks, this will help alot, espescially with the accessories like the TOW's. I'll use these for good reference.

Alex

Pics are not that great. I built this many moons ago.

Off white was abandoned in the early-mid 80s in favor of the green shade (sea foam). I picked this kit up on sale a while back. I built the Tamiya version back int he 90s. The Academy kit lacks the interior decals that the Tamiya kit has. They really make a big difference. If memory serves, the Tamiya kit called for a white interior as well.,so Academy even cloned the error too. The Academy kit also leaves out the acetone antiaircraft sight for the canon. Not to be a complete downer, because the kit can build up pretty nice.

Thanks. What color is the exterior?

As mentioned earlier - Bradleys never had off white interiors. In fact as far as I know "off white" was never used as a interior color on US military vehicles. Up to the 60s gloss/semi gloss white (not "off") was used as a primary interior color, with the exception of open topped vehicles, which had visible parts of interior painted in exterior color (usually OD).
Since the 1960s Sea Foam Green was introduced as an interior color for most vehicles, although white is still used inside tanks (and a couple of other vehicles).

For example earliest gasoline engined M113 vehicles had white interiors, but M113A1 already had sea foam green interiors.

Pawel

Pawel is dead-on. The interior color of US APCs changed from semi-glosss white to seafoam green in the early '60s, not '80s.




That depends on when and where you want to depict it. The colors on early M2A0 Bradleys varied from overall OD Green, Overall Forest Green, MERDC camo, three-tone NATO camo, and overall Sand. You have a pretty wide range of choices.

Worded it wrong. Meant to post by early-mid 80s off had had been abandoned as in...it was gone from the interiors, phased out, and repainted. My dad worked for a company that did some of the repainting. They were still repainting some Gavins in the early 80s. Sorry if that caused any misunderstandings, I should have been more specific.

Don't go there. There is no such vehicle as the Gavin. It is an M113. The US Army has never called it anything else. It is not and has never been called the Gavin except by a crackpot who has a few websites hailing the "Gavin" as the one armored vehicle that can win all wars for now and ever and how it needs to be named after Gen. Gavin, how the Army needs to scrap all other vehicles, etc., etc., etc....

Sorry, but the guy is an idiot and I hate when people believe him and misname the M113.

Also, as Pavel said, it was the mid-'60s that white went out of favor for SeaFoam Green on US APCs. There may have been a few left over vehicles in the National Guard or Reserves, but pretty much all operational APCs in the active Army were seafoam green on the insides by the late '60s.

Now back to our regular programming.

Gino, whatever. It's not worth arguing, the name or the timeframe. I'm just going by what my father said. I figure since he turned wrenches on them in the Army in Vietnam and did some contract work as a civilian up into the 80s he might know what he's talking about.

No offense meant, but maybe he or you have the dates and facts a little confused. I have been on active duty in the Army for the last 17 years and an amateur vehicle historian for longer. I kind of know what I am talking about too.

Not that it really matters, but Tamiya's painting instructions call for a mix of 4 parts of XF-2 Flat White to one part of XF-5 Flat Green. making a pale green colour.

Note has been made about Academy omitting the aux. gunsight. They also omitted the clear piece for the primary gunsight. Should you choose to build it with the primary gunsight "doors" open, you will have to find a suitable clear insert for the gunsight windows. (Also missing from the Academy kit is the mesh for the open sections of the trim vane).

I'm just going by what my father said. We were talking about a couple of m113s I was building. One was the old Tamiya kit, the other the Academy Vietnam kit. I was actually getting some feedback on the ACAV field kits. My dad learned to weld fabricating these.

He was looking at the interior, suggesting stuff to add (sandbags on floor, etc.) and complaining about the low ceiling height. Dad is not a big fan of the M113s for a variety of reasons. Anyway, he asked if I was going green or white. He remarked that his were all white. He then added that the changeover took years. He then told me about working with a company that was repainting some m113s back in the early 80s. I can only go by what he said.

I've since talked to him and got more details. There were two batches of vehicles, maybe a dozen each. They were a mixture of gas and diesel powerplants, and they never cranked any f them up. They towed them when they had to be moved. Most had the four color scheme but some had overall OD. The interiors were a mix of white and green. He said they were brought from a storage facility and they were US Army. He said that he suspected they were being sold overseas or bumped down to National Guard units.

Their contract was to repaint all the interiors and to mount some sort of brackets they were fabricating to be mounted on the inside after painting. He said that was to be done elsewhere but he thought it was to hold communications equipment. He also said there was a M577 in one of the batches, which I would have loved to have seen. He was not a painter. His job was to oversee the strip down, catalog the parts, and prep work of the interiors due to his experience with them while in the service.

As far as the name Gavin, I'm not a big fan of it either. However, when used it does serve the purpose in identifying the vehicle you are referring to. And it seems to have been accepted as an unofficial designation. I tend to refer to vehicles by their nicknames...Bradley, Abrams, etc. If I am referring to a specific make I'll go with the numeric designation...M113A2, M3A1, M88A1, etc.

Phil, As far as the Tamiya color call out. You're right they do call to mix to make a pale green. I don't have the instruction sheet anymore but that's a mistake on my part that I should have caught since I have a completed Tamiya M3 Bradley sitting about five feet from me. Well I did say "if memory serves". My Academy Bradley did come with the mesh. It was a smaller piece than I had expected. No room for error at all. Mine is missing an idler wheel though.

Oh one other thing I was going to ask Alex. How does your kit look? Mine showed alot of flash and it really looked like the molds are worn out. I had alot of cleanup and I'm missing an idler wheel. I still have to send off for replacements. MRC has always done me right on parts and I got the kit cheap so I cannot complain too much.

That sounds about right now. Old, worn out vehicles being sold overseas to some thrid-world country would be my guess.

I still don't know about calling them Gavins. No one in the military does anyways.

Is it the rear idler wheel you need? I may have a spare. Let me look at home and I'll get back with you.

I also agree that the old Academy M2 molds are getting worn out. I had one a while ago that was really bad too; full of flash and soft deatils.

Their new M2A2 OIF kit is pretty nice though. The full upper hull is all new. Some of the old M2 parts still show their age though, so its a mixed bag. And, as usual, they screwed up and put the old triangle block tracks in the kit. So you still need new tracks for it.

Gino, thanks for the offer but I've got a few other parts that I'm going to need replacing. In particular one of the Sprue As has several damaged parts. A couple other parts are basically unusable. It looks like they were damaged while being packed as the box is intact. I figure I'll let MRC handle it. The few times I've had to make a claim with them they've treated me well and promptly.

http://home.comcast.net/~genericdad/m113gavin.html

Sorry for the digression, but I think it's worth the read

Frenchy

No problem Bluestab. Good luck getting all the parts you need.

Frenchy, thats the nut I speak of as well. I'm not the only one who thinks so.

I am currently building a M706 Commando and had to research via internet pics as to the authentic interior color. Seems as some were in white and some in sea foam green. Maybe in this case it does not matter. Also lots of different opinions about the exterior color from OD green mixed with black or just black. But as for the Bradlys, could there be some white some green? A couple of weeks ago , I saw a Bradly up close at the museum at Fort Benning and the lighting was very dim. Hard to tell but the Bradly looked more like it had a white interior than green. But like I said the lighting was colored in such a way as to depict night time, either sundown or sunrise dimness . It is always a pain in the patootie to get the colors right as there are always so many opinions and all think they are right and the other guy wrong.......Al