1/35 Academy M2 Bradley

This was one of the first kits I bought when I restarted my hobby back in January and did the initial build and painted the interior but sort of lost interest in it and had it stashed away. I finally got around to completing this right after the M48.

The M2 Bradley is one of my favorite modern AFVs and this is actually the second time I've built this kit. The first Bradley I built was a Tamiya kit back when I was in high school around 1987. The Academy M2 Bradley was first released in 1994 and to my knowledge, it was copied from the Tamiya kit.

Despite being an old kit, the build isn't difficult at all and the parts fit fairly well. There are some minimal flash and ejection pin marks but those can be taken care of easily.

This was the status of the kit when I reopened the box. I had built the interior, painted it and most of the upper hull was completed as well. I didn't have an airbrush back then and I used a paintbrush to paint the interior compartments and parts.

I don't have any photos of the build process as I wasn't thinking of creating a blog back then and just went ahead with the painting and weathering process without taking any further photos of my progress. The whole model was airbrushed with Tamiya's XF-59 Desert Yellow but I feel the color is a bit too dark. I'm also not too happy with the mud color as they look rather too reddish/pinkish. I should've readjusted the color of the pigment before applying but just went ahead anyhow. The weathering techniques are pretty much the same as the M48 Patton tank, only different colors.

Here are photos of the finished model :