You may want to get the new FSM magazine.

There is an article about detailing an M2 as an Iraq war vehicle. It's a cross between Academy and Tamiya I think. Not a bad looking build.

Added bonus is an article on doing ruined buildings.

Also, the new Great Scale Modeling 2004 is out and has some good armor and a very nice tugboat. I like the tugboat for some reason...

Steve

Just a word of caution regarding the Bradley article: do not consider it to be a reference article on "how to build an accurate Bradley" (as I originally did, what made me highly disappointed with the contents of the article at first). It is not, and it was probably never the intent of the author, Ron Poniatowski. My guess is that FSM editor added some lines that suggested that article is a reference work, while in fact it shows Ron's personal, very succesful approach to the subject, but by now means fully accurate and complete as FSM editors seem to suggest.

I will soon prepare an article where I want to show what can be done to improve accuracy of Tamiya M2A2 kit - It will definitely not be 100% complete and accurate, but should allow to correct most obvious errors and omissions Tamiya made in their kit. My article will only concern exterior of the Bradley, not the interior.

Rgds,
Pawel

Would be nice Pawel if you included some interior work .... even if it was only very basic. Modern armor is not my main interest area, but I snapped up this vehicle lately and would like to have a real shot at it.

I'm currently building Lee Models M2A2 Bradley - it is a poor copy of Tamiya model and I have a lot of work just to improve it to the same standard as Tamiya kit (I have unbuilt Tamiya M2 and M2A2ODS kits to compare). Then there is all the extra work to accurize it. I just decided to build this model buttoned up and not even try to touch interior. I will try to improve the interior of the original Tamiya M2 kit (using new Eduard sets), but have not decided yet what to do with the ODS kit interior. And as I didn't have to research the subject of interior details for my current project, I obviously cannot include this information in my article. I simply do not have enough knowledge... yet

Rgds,
Pawel

Here was Ron's take on his model making the cover:



I've seen your work, it is outstanding. Have you tried to get your work published in any of the magazines?

Rob,
Thanks! No, I didn't try it yet. One day I may try, but for now I think my own website and Armorama is enough for me

Rgds,
Pawel

While not commenting on the accuracy of the kit, it does have some info and photos that would answer many of the questions asked here many times. How big is a CIP panel? How can I build a CIP panels? What stowage do I include? Etc. So I think it is good for that reason.

To be honest, the build is a bit sloppy for my tastes. The models in FSM often do not stand up to the rigours of macro photography!

Steve