RC Tanks Australia Forum

Hi Chaps,

I recently bought this Bradley IFV. I can't take credit for the conversion to RC, which has been done very well by somebody. It is based on the 1/18 21st century diecast bradley hull which has been mated to a narrowed H/L PzrIII chassis. The conversion has been done very well and even has a nice and simple quick release system for access to the internals. When I received it it had plastic gears and H/l 2.4Ghz electronics, which to be honest was ok. But I wanted a little bit more functionality so this also got my usual upgrade choices.

IBU2 Pro with custom sound set.
Tarr1 Smoker.
3.1 black steel gearboxes.
3s LiPo battery.
Toggle switch.
Taigen speaker.
360* turret ring.
Lights front and rear.

I really like the original 21st century colour scheme on this vehicle. It is taken from a a scheme dating to the 1st Gulf war. Apparently it was either an experimental scheme which was not widely adopted, or the unit was used as the opposing force during training, and this scheme was used to distinguish them as Opp For vehicles. It reminds me of the desert cam on the M3 at Bovvy which I have always liked.

Lots still to do externally, detail painting, washes, weathering etc... So far I have modified the side firing ports to look better as the originals stick out too far and have rifle barrels which are far to big. I can't find any pics of these ports in use, apart from demonstrating the use of the ports, so I went with empty ports. I did not like the big black chevron which was on the hull, so I overspray this and matched in the paintwork. I also removed the barrel of the CoaxMg which again was oversize and replaced it with a scale barrel from a spare 1/16 gun I had kicking around. Decals used are from the H/L Abrams sheet, and aerials are made from guitar strings.

I will be adding a slip ring to the turret for continuous rotation, and replacing the tracks, sprockets, and idlers with better items from AFC. If anyone has any suggestions for alternative road wheels without the cutouts in them I would appreciate any info. I have looked at Pzr IV road wheels, but they are a tad small.

anyway, enough waffle on to the pics.











Comments and ideas as always welcome.

Filter coat of Mig modern US vehicle wash added.




next is a pin wash

Pin wash has dried(apart from the engine grills). so here are the pics.










Pin wash was executed with Mig track wash. This is a dark brown which I find works better for desert and light camo schemes. The blacker washes seem to harsh on this sort of thing.

Next step detail painting. Looking at picks from gulf war I which is when this version dates too a lot of the bradleys still had their tools painted in dark green, so I will be doing this as well. More pics to follow when the detail has all been picked out.

Detail painting is now done, the items have been painted, and then given a filter of Mig US modern vehicle wash and a pin wash with Mig track wash as needed. The whole vehicle has had a quick blast of Tamiya flat clear.








next step will be some Tamiya weathering pigments.

Thi Scalawag,
Again very nice looks like the real thing even with the P III running gear, mate you must be permanently retired in the tank factory punching these out at a great rate of nots LOL, keep EM coming

Would (without seeing and measuring them) T 34 or Z99 wheels work?

The first lot of pics aren't showing

Cheers
Gra

_________________
Gra's Heavy Tank Regiment
HL Tiger 1 - El Mod, Tiger 1, K T Porsche turret, Panzer III & IV, Stug G & E, Panther D,
Matorro KT, Jagdtiger and Sturmtiger, HL Sherman and T - 34, A7V (WIP)
Panzergruppe South Member

Hi Gra,

Glad you like this one too. Funny you mention it, I am just about to retire on the grounds of ill health so I have lots more time now.

I reposted the pics in the first post, I moved them in photobucket and forgot to change the post.

I know that the ZTZ wheels are quite a bit larger, but I don't know about T34 I will have to look into this.

I was lucky with this vehicle that I was able to pick one up where someone else has done all the hard construction work on it, and all I have had to do is a few enhancements and detailing/finishing.

all the best

Paul

Ok chaps not much left to do now on this one.

Periscopes lenses are now painted. I used Tamiya XF-50 field blue, and once this dried I overpainted it with X-19 smoke. This gives a dark look with a sheen to it which also looks bluish at some angles.
Various Tamiya pigments have been used to achieve a weathered dusty look.















There is only really the hatch interiors to do now.

Fitted an amp to the Bradley. it piggybacks nicely on the back of the speaker.




also fitted a slip ring to give continuous turret rotation.



The tape around the slip ring is spare connections which may get used in the future.

here is a quick video of the Bradley to show the controls and sound set.

I have added an LED flash to the TOW missile launcher to simulate a missile being fired.



It was all relatively straight forward to install. The cable run into the turret was easier to hide than I imagined, and because I had installed the slipring 90% of the cabling was already done. Just 2 solder joints and it was working. Even the top of the Launcher hinges open so access there was easy too.