Reilly

I measured them both last night. Its a trick of the photo. They're both the same length. The Meng turret fits the Tamiya hull. Had a look at your end result in the other thread. You've set the bar high. Not even sure I'll see it let alone get close. I like your answer to the anti-slip. On a lot of the pictures I have there is anti-slip on a number of the other panels. Not sure yet how I want to do that, probably Mr Surfacer. The Tamiya model doesn't have any anti-slip so that will take a bit of work. Bit of experimentation called for I think. I did some previously on the Tamiya Abrams with mixed results.

Right here's the choice fo the Tamiya Bradley. I have both the Tamiya ODS version and an older version with an interior of sorts. Here's the line up: (The MM113 is still kicking around the bench because part of it looks like it was sprayed with fake tan. Needs a bit of correction before finishing.) I\m going for the ODS version. Its the one on the RHS and I'll return the older Bradley which comes in European cammo to the stash. Basically they're both the same kit with a few extra sprues thrown in the later kit to take care of the extra armour. Here's a comparison between it and the Meng hull. If ever the expression chalk and cheese was appropriate. I added the rear of the Meng hull, some gentle heat and various clamps to take the warp out of the Meng hull. It worked rather well. Quick check to ensure that everything is going to fit as required. No problems. Engine and drivers compartments almost complete. A few odds and sods still required. I had dry brushed the seats to give them that bum on seat look but it looks like the brush was a maybe a little dryer than I'd anticipated. Time to move on the turret housing and aft sections. In the case of the Tamiya Bradley there is no internal detail so its just a case of assembling the basic box and fitting the externals. In the photo below I've fitted the front armour plate which needed a rather odd ridge at the front of the hull removed. It now fits as intended. One advantage of the Tamiya kit is that it can take a fair amount of punishment without bits flying off. I'll seal up the rear next but leave the top hatch hinged. That way I can rescue any of the little men later should they inadvertently fall inside the hull. I had some Eduard brass for the ODS version. I won't be using all of it as I don't see any need to cut off parts which Tamiya has actually moulded rather well to replace them with brass just for the sake of it.

Thanks all for taking a look. Crushkill: I followed Gremlin's thread; what a result! Thanks for the offer of help. Feel free to pitch in anytime. I have a few pictures to work from, they're a bit vague in parts but I was hoping to add some of the larger details that Meng has missed, at least in areas that are visible. I was tempted at the weekend to go for the other Meng Bradley. It was on offer at a local show. It's two kits, with a different exterior and interior compared to the complete kit. I also have a couple of Tamiya Bradley's and might be tempted to knock one together for comparison. They're not in the same league as the Meng kit in terms of detail.

Another Bradley, but not in the same league as Gremlin's recent effort. I wasn't sure whether I'd bother putting this up and considered waiting until I'd finished and then gently prod it round the door with a long stick and leave quietly hoping that nobody would notice. Before this I'd just finished the Meng Abrams which, in my opinion, is a bit of a dog. I wasn't sure if this was going to be the same in which case I'd probably not bother and kick it into the stash somewhere but I thought it would be fair to give Meng a second chance. I'm happy to report that apart from a couple of minor niggles its going together rather well with the parts fitting like they belong to the same kit. Here's the start. There's an M113 from Tamiya on the bench as well as the Bradley hull on its back waving its legs in the air. The Tamiya kit was an old moulding with a couple of extra sprue thrown in which are basically bergens, ammo and jerry cans and a dog to hang around the external parts of the vehicle. Although the Bradley has an interior I'm not sure how much will be visible once I'm finished. Thought I'd start on the wheely bits first as well as the track assembly. The wheels have separate tyres which I thought was to make painting easier (see later). Being Meng the fit between the road wheel and tyre is so tight that no adhesive was necessary. They're on for good! I've seen various negative comments about the tracks but with me being cheap I thought I'd give them a go. I can always bin them later if it goes wrong and order up some of the ones that Gremlin used in his build. Thankfully there are enough links in the bag to compensate for the ones that don't fit or are too loose. I might need to glue a few links before this is over just for some additional strength. Time to get them into paint along with the rubbers from the M113. As most of the M113 track is hidden under the side skirts the rubbers will be adequate enough. My choice of track may yet be my undoing. Here's the start to the hull interior. Time to add some grease an overall wear and tear before I go any further. Next steps is the engine, oh, one has just been delivered. Of course it wouldn't be one of my models if I hadn't screwed up somewhere. Thought I'd completed the wheel assemblies but that wasn't the case. At the bottom of the box was a piece of brass that the helpful people at Meng thoughtfully included for use as a mask for defining the extent of the rubber. Pity they didn't mention this in the instructions which were rather unclear about the extend of the rubber. I did have my reservations when I was putting them together. Oh well back to wheel painting. I've now discovered that there is a considerable warp on the lower half of the hull. With the back plate and some tensioning I should be able to fix it. I ran into a similar problem with the Meng Cougar when closing it up. This time I'll make sure the hull fits together before fitting the interior. That way I should be able to use the necessary clamps without damaging parts. I'd say with Meng it pays to build sub assemblies, continually checking for fit, before discovering that that serious fettling is required once everything has been glued down.

It took me longer then expected but I've added a few more extra detail shots to my Flickr page for those who need the gregory's. Here's an example. Now its time for work on the Meng Bradley. Linky: https://www.flickr.com/photos/113106574@N02/albums/72157686453590304/with/37507017596/ Cheers John.

Thanks Francis. The M1A2 had indications for hole drilling marked M1A1 so it looks like Meng are also planning earlier versions based on the same basic kit. Cheers John.

I used the Tamiya rubbers on the Tamiya model, partly because half of them are hidden from sight and because the definition of them was pretty reasonable. I was prepared to ditch them but I was happy with the paint job and the end result. True enough I could use the jpg function on the camera but I'm so used to RAW now that I just live with it. I use the iPad camera for the construction shots, its surprising the quality it can produce given the size of the lens and sensor. Cheers John.

Hi Lloyd, Thanks, re colours, see my comments above to Gremlin. I still have the models on the photo table so I'll see if I can come up with some close up shots and maybe do something about the colour in the conversion process to jpg from the Nikon format. Track assembly is for those days when your fed up and just want to have the brain cruising in neutral, bit of music, beer and some track bashing. The Meng track had quite a few pieces but it was one of the few parts that went together without too many issues and at the end of the day I think looks just as effective as aftermarket would. Cheers John.

Hi Gremlin, The colour of both kits is maybe a little lighter than they are in reality due to the photo lights. At higher resolution the colour is a little better. I've been following your Bradley build. I have the same kit in the stash and have been playing with the tracks for a couple of evenings. I think I might give them a go but will bin them if they give me too much trouble. Those were good looking tracks you had acquired. Interestingly I have a photo of a Bradley and a Abrams parked next to each other. The Bradley has the darker colour of my Tamiya Abrams and the Abrams is closer to the Meng paints. I'd put it up but it isn't one of my pictures and I don't know who to credit it to. I also suspect that the sun bleaches the paint over the course of time. I've seen panzers with varying shades of sand colour, probably also dependent upon where they were operating. A good many looked that they had been properly sand blasted. Your Bradley is coming along nicely and from what you've posted it doesn't seem to have the issues that the Abrams had. If it does then its down to my poor skills rather than the kit. Good luck with the Rye Field Abrams. I considered it due to the interior but for the time being I've had enough of the Abrams. Cheers John.

Right, I'm calling this finished. This hasn't been as much fun to build as I hoped it would have been mainly due to having to rebuild parts that should have, given the price of the kit, fitted in the first place. I finally got the loader's 240 completed by simply glueing everything together rather than having the machine gun move freely. As a result the loader's hatch will remain closed as will the commanders due to the unintended spring loaded hatch construction. I've added a tow cable to the rear turret bin. Normally the Tusk II version doesn't have a tow cable mounted on the side of the turret as it would be inaccessible or difficult to get to at best. I haven't filled the bins up with the usual coolers, boxes, water bottles, bergens etc as all the ones I've seen in the streets were only out for the day and were generally clean. I could maybe have gone further with some of the chipping but didn't want to overdo it. When I was assembling the Meng tracks I spent quite a while weathering track pads and wheels and basically its invisible,probably could have saved myself a bit of effort there. There are more higher resolution pictures on my Flickr site at Meng Abrams M1A2 Here's a comparison between the Meng and Tamiya models I used Vallejo paints for the Tamiya model and the Meng/AK Interactive set for the Meng kit. Is one better than the other? Not sure but I have pictures where both would resemble the colours shown. The antislip later that is already embossed on the Meng kit is far better then my own attempt on the hull of the Tamiya where I used an antislip layer manufactured by Mig which would have been more suitable to a Russian WW2 panzer. Using Mr Surfacer for the Tamiya turret gave a result closer to the Meng version.

Nice work Lloyd. Seems a pity to lose the internal detail other than knowing that its there. Difficult to display the internals of a panzer unless its some kind of cutaway. Cheers John.

Just the three machine guns of the secondary armament to add, or so I thought. The commander's .50 cal wasn't too bad although I made some adjustments to fit the shield. The coaxial .50 cal required some adjustment of the mount to make it fit and line up properly. The loader's 7.62mm is no fun at all and is shown below. The 2 part counterweight was awful so I remade it so that it would fit and not look like two random pieces of plastic. Its not as neat as the other parts but at least it fits. Next the shields have to be fitted. The only thing supporting the weight of the shield is a 1.4mm thin finger of plastic which is supposed to be glued behind the aperture shown about 2 mm above the lower pivot point. There's no way it can support the weight. I've tried a couple of different adhesives but as yet nothing works. I think I'll just glue the whole lot together and forget about any possibility of movement.

Oops that doesn't sound too good. I have had a look at some of the other Trumpy 1/16th kits of the Kind Tiger and Panzer IV, been tempted, and then seen what some of the experts here have gone through to correct a catalogue of simple inaccuracies. I'm not in their league. Good luck with it. Cheers John.

Same info here on the 1/16 M1A1. Didn't realise that it was going to cost close to a grand. That's not worth it if its only static. Needs to be RC to work outside in the summer. Great when mates are round. Give them the Panzer IV or even the King Tiger and then fire up the Leopard from behind the shed and wallop them. You're now starting to tempt me with the Rye Field version. Must resist..... Damn there's one on the shelf at a store near here.

Lloyd I've often wondered if there are kits that hit the shelves before anybody has actually built them. I've definitely had a couple of them, thankfully not too many. I had a look at the Rye Field Abrams with interior but gave it a miss in favour of the Meng version. This is my second Abrams, the first one being the Tamiya Tusk which had a couple of issues. I've another Tamiya A1 in the stash but I'll leave it for a while. I had seen that Tamiya were bringing out a 1/16th scale version and for a moment thought about it but its not fully RC just an empty shell at the moment. Sorting through the trash bag is a bit like archaeology as you carefully go through layer by layer trying to piece together last weeks activities in the hope of finding the emptying of the workshop bin between the smoked haddock age and the Chinese takeaway age while hoping that emptying the vacuum cleaner was a couple of days earlier. Mind you -25C is a bit nippy but at least the takeaway will have been frozen rather than being moist . Cheers John.

Thought I could get the construction finished on this over the weekend and that all problems were behind me. Not a chance. Just the three machine guns and their screens to fit. Having spent some time fitting the screens to the commanders cupola it surprises me that Meng ever thought that ring carrying same could ever freely rotate. Had to remake the glass inserts for the gunners machine gun screen as the double glass provided was too thick. Fitting the coaxial gun to the mantlet is a bit tricky as it has to fit in three places and unlike most of the other parts the defining fit point is as wide as a barn door allowing for various possibilities in getting it wrong. Spent an hour going through the trash last night trying to find the traverse release for the gunners mount. Its about the size of one of the sprue ejector pins and was consigned to the black bag as a piece of sprue. Kept telling myself to make a new one but refused to give up. Eventually found it and rewarded myself with a gin. Final push now to get this finished. Still toying with the ideas of making a tow cable for the rear. Oh and I lost one of the front light protection bars. No idea where that went, probably came off while trying to fit something else. Need to cobble together a new one.

Have completed the basics on the bang seat. I had a choice of three, the original from Tamiya (LHS) and a smaller one from Aires (RHS). The one painted up is a latter version from Avionix and still needs some finishing for general wear and tear. On the right hand side the picture are the rails from Avionix that the seat is supposed to slide into. Their moulding hasn't worked out too well and you can see the distortion in the picture. Fortunately the rails from Aires are a little better and with some adjustment should work well enough.

Hi Francis, Turret got another all over coating of desert sand. Planning to add a lighter shade over the top surfaces to give a bit of the bleaching effect from the sun. Sides of the hull are a little darker and I tried to blend the different shades there. Cheers John.

I hope so. It beats Tamiya's version on detail however it has put me off anything Meng for a while which is a pity as there's a Meng Bradley in the stash with a complete interior. Just needs some cable work added. I was also eyeing up some of the WW1 era machines but will leave them be for a while. Local model shop has a nice stack of shiny Meng boxes calling out for attention. I must resist.....I must resist.....I must resist.....

I've been adding the various parts to the turret or at least that was what I thought I'd do. Not so fast there. Started with the gunners hatch and I couldn't get it to fit. Tried filing away the inner rings of the hatch and moving the hinging but I only got as far as being almost shut. Next the commander's cupola; looked good in the instructions, not so good when it comes to the parts. Nothing fitted with anything else. I had to file away more than 6mm of plastic just to get the periscopes to fit. Thats difficult as there's a limit to what can be taken of the periscopes while still retaining a frame around the glass. The rest had to be filed off the already thing segments between the scopes. The top of the cupola wouldn't fit at all so I ended up starting again and completely making the commander's cupola from plasticard and some of the spare parts provided in the kit. I used the original parts for the commanders hatch as the curved bracket was too difficult to make myself. If I tried to open it the bracket bends and the whole lot collapses like a bad pudding. I had wanted the commander's hatch open but now it looks like it will be the gunner's hatch open inadvertently which isn't exactly SOPs. I now have to add the ring for the machine gun and no it doesn't fit either but its probably just some filing and scrapping that's needed. Meng think that it can be rotated once assembled, I think not, at least not without cutting away too much on the parts concerned. The camera turret and the camera cover needed a bit of modification to make it fit but that didn't present too many problems. I don't mind having to put in the work if I've been adding resin or brass and general clean up of parts can be expected with any kit. That's just part of the game but for a kit of this price I'd expect the basic fit to be good, not perfect but at least good. I still rate the detail on the kit. They clearly paid a lot of attention in that area. Any rivets or stamped numbers visible on photos can be seen on the model. I've been using the Meng colour set for this one which is from AK Interactive. As I said earlier the colour is good but compared to Vallejo I'm not happy with them. After adapting my airbrushing I need three or more coats to get any coverage. Applying too much at once has the usual consequences of puddling. Of course with more coats the bottles empty pretty quickly, and just to help, the required colours are only sold as part of a set rather than individual bottles. I had hoped to get a 113 and a Bradley out of the same paints. I can scratch that plan.

I hope you have a bit more luck with your kits than I've been having with this one. Regards John.

Indeed nothing else quite effectively says STOP at a road block than an MBT quietly purring as its electrics bring the main gun to bear.

Thanks for the likes. I thought about the Rye Field Models version with interior and engine. I don't think I want to do another Abrams for a while once I've completed this one. From Lloyd's description of the Rye Field version without interior I think I'll give it a miss. Meantime I've managed to complete the hull apart from finishing the paintwork and I'm now on the turret. Turret baskets completed and were relatively straightforward. I fitted the brass before securing the sides which made things a little easier when it came to fitting. Now working on the two cupolas. With the commanders cupola there are three rings which are intended to fit together to allow the gun traverse to operate when all is in place. No chance, at least not out of the box and even after extensive filing its not going top happen. I'll just fix it in place. Compared to Tamiya the detail on the Meng kit is extensive. On the hull I cut of the pack panels of the side skirts. Often they were left off to gain access to the drive sprockets. I couldn't get them to fit along with the panel which goes across the back of the tracks in a short of L-shape so cutting was the easiest. I've been using a paint set from AK Interactive specifically for Meng US vehicles. The sand colour is the closest to the original colours I've seen. I don't like the paint though. Its intended to be competition to Vallejo but I prefer their Air Colour and Tamiya's paints. I've tried adjusting the pressure settings on the air brush but it doesn't spray as well as the others. Maybe I just never hit the right combination of settings. Just thinking about it a smaller needle might help. I currently use a 0.4mm needle but my 0.2mm needle may give me a better result.

Minor update. Side skirts fitted but what a challenge that was. The fit was far from good and needed quite a bit of adjustment. Strange as for most part only two parts are involved namely the hull deck and the backplate for the skirts. The points that are required to be fitted do not correspond with each other. Even now the fit isn't perfect but it should work. I managed to break off most of the parts fitted previously including the track and some bogies but most of that has been fixed. I tried improving the fit of the turret which wasn't sitting properly. I'd already cut off the two lugs which normally hold it in place. I milled the inner turret ring and well as the raised ring. The latter had to be thinned quite a bit. Unfortunately the turret suffered a fair bit and has currently gone back for maintenance. Even with these issues along the way the level of detail that Meng have included is considerable compared to that of the Tamiya kit I built earlier.

Thanks Chris.