Bradley Fighting Vehicle

This is a post of a previous build of a tracked military vehicle. Yes, I do build something else besides cars/trucks!

First a short history. Before I worked engineering big trucks, I worked for a little over 5 years at FMC Ordnance Engineering Group. I worked extensively on several  versions of the Bradley. We called it different things back then, but this was it's final name. I first worked on a version that had a small weapon station, and then the military changed it's mission. We then redesigned it for a two man station (gunner and commander), the larger 25 mm cannon, a co-axial 7.62 machine gun and added the two missile TOW launcher.

I built a model of it, with no weathering, from the Tamiya kit. Everything fit great, and it is basically box stock with just the addition of music wire antennas. This kit was up to the usual high detail standards that Tamiya is famous for. This was built in the original olive drag paint scheme, before everything was painted desert sand (for obvious reasons). It also has the earlier space laminate armor on the sides. Here are a couple of overall photos:




On the real one, I designed all of the TOW missile launcher mounting, guide and armor systems. Here are some turret detail shots:




And lastly, here are some shots looking inside the hull from the rear ramp, showing the seating and interior outfitting:




In summary, just a fun, no drama build!

Looks great Pete. Nice to know you build different stuff.

I like it. Looks really good

ive got an Academy Bradley to do sometime, its a Gulf War version..its nice to 'know' someone who help build the real thing

When I posted this completed build of the Bradley, I forgot to post a couple of very interesting photos that I have from the days when I worked on this tracked vehicle.

The first picture is of one of the test vehicles "flying". Pretty amazing considering that this is not a light vehicle, and it had a top speed of around 45 mph:



The next photo shows the firing of one of the TOW anti-tank missiles. Real cool photo caught at just the right instant:

I hope that thing came with a kidney belt. lol

You've had an interesting life Pete. I hope they paid you well, I know these vehicles weren't cheap LOL.

Hi Pete,

Very nice Sir...

Andy...

I was wondering about the landing as soon as I saw that Picture. Good Stuff Pete.

Good looking model Pete. Just a bit too clean!! LOL

Looking good Pete.

Nice tidy build.