Yes, I was right. This Bradley kit has many, many parts making up a complex of subassemblies. I suspect this is reflective of how the real vehicle was designed and built. So far, with the exception of the working suspension assemblies as noted before, this is going together very well. Building the Meng Bradley is an exercise in patience though. There is a lot of modeling to do before the vehicle begins to assume an identity. But now, with many of the small assemblies brought together one gets a sense that a outstanding representation of the Bradley is emerging.
I still have a way to go before starting the interior and exterior painting. That has to be done before the detailed interior painting and decals are applied. In fact, I have been saving the tracks for last. I made a few forays into assembling the links and decided to break that up over a few sessions. Along with the overly complex and rather stupid suspension design, the tracks are the worst part of an otherwise well done kit.
Why in God’s name model manufacturers think that they have to supply multi-part tracks, or, even worse, multi-part track links is beyond me. I suppose there are a few obsessive-compulsive model geeks out there who insist on flagellating themselves with unnecessarily complex track assemblies in the name of extreme accuracy, but the rest of us would like to be freed from this abomination. Please, Meng (and the rest of you armor kit makers) give the majority of us modelers one piece tracks. Include the little baggie of a million track link parts if you must, but just throw in a couple of completed, one-part tracks. I would certainly buy more kits that have this feature. Frankly, there are many AFV kits that I would like to buy but won’t because they have these stupid and frustrating multi-part track assemblies, and I don’t care to spend half again the amount of the kit to buy after market tracks that are easy to construct.
Here are a few photos of the work so far. Again, the detail is amazingly good and, with the exceptions of the issues already noted, this kit goes together very well. It is time consuming but I think in the end it will be well worth the time.
Very nice build so far Michael! I recently finished two DML 1994 issue T28-E1’s and the individual track links were unbuildable. I robbed the DS tracks from two of the Cyber hobby kits since they came with both DS and linked tracks. I decided to finish off my early 1990’s DML American tank kits and am currently building the M46 Patton from 1995. While the track links look better than the 1994 DML links, they again proved to be workable as they are very thick. I found a set of AFV Club tracks I had purchased some years ago and thought my problems were solved. Released in 2000 and long out of production, I’m going to spend far more time assembling them than building the model. The detail is crisp and so delicate that they can’t be assembled without breaking unless the builder modifies every single piece. I have to sand one side of the track for fit, ream both sides of the guide horn as the opening is to small to slip over the track pin without breaking the pin. Very slow going. I’ve lost 8 pieces so far to breakage but there will be more than enough to complete both sides now that I have a working method for making them fit together. I was going to buy a set that Sprue brothers had left in stock but was lucky enough to find a set that I already had in the stash. I can see why AFV Club discontinued this set. Fine in detail, to tight in tolerance for the average modeler to work through. Wish I had bought a Cyber Hobby M46. Perhaps it would have two sets of tracks as well.
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Thanks. It is slowly coming together, which is fine. I need to finish the suspension, paint the lower hull and road wheels then finish the tracks. I’ve decided to not build any further AFV kits that require painful track link assembly. I may get the Meng A7V because it is WWI and the tracks look fairly reasonable, but I will probably stick to Tamiya kits. Hopefully we will see continuous run tracks from others.
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Some of the more recent Tamiya kits have a really nicer DS style type track that looks as good as most link to link tracks. I’ve put together probably 3 or 4 sets of workable tracks for my Abrams builds and like them very much however, I’m becoming a DS track fan and Tamiya new style track fan more and more everyday.
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I agree. The pain involved is just not worth the result. Take the Bradley, all of the return rollers and 80% of the road wheels and track will not be visible. I could, in fact leave the rollers and all of the upper track run off. May do that.
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cool …. Plastic is getting better and better and I am sure the this is reflected in models.
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