Well, my ship has finally came in and my wife was so nice to let me get a big order from Lucky Models. I've had the Tamiya and Academy ODS Bradley's in my stash waiting to get my hands on the Legend M2A3 conversion, and it's finally here.

I'm mainly using the Academy kit. As you can see from the start, I had to add all the missing armor panels on the hull. I still need to add the panels right in front of the drivers hatch and all the nuts and bolts on each panel.

Looking good so far Pete. I have the Legend set as well. It looks pretty nice.

Been thinking about getting the Legends kit as well. What are your opinion on the best base kit? I though the Tamiya Brad was considered superior?

John

The Academy kit is based on the Tamiya Bradley kit, but the M2A2 ODS from Academy is bit nicer and more up-to-date then the Tamiya M2A2

I agree with Scott on the Academy kit. The Academy kit also has the dfernt type of side skirt mounts. Plus there wasn't to much to take off the hull in order to add the missing panels.

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:

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.

Hope that sheds some light on it.

I've got one myself pretty much done, except... I saw recent pics of Bradleys with those big air conditioner packs on the back in place of the storage boxes. Do you plan on doing the storage boxes or the air conditioners, if the latter, how do you plan on doing them. I'm stuck!

James,
I'm just going to add the regular boxes. I have some extra photo etch ones left over from a photo etch set.

Grate work man keep it up.