Hi
I’m building Tamiyas early M3 Bradley. I’m a little confused about the 7,62 mm ammo stowage on the turret. In the kit there is racks for three boxes at the back on the stowage bin, and three on the side of the turret. Is this a prototype configuration , I can only find a few pictures of this set up.
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The turret side ammo stowage was seen on early M2s and M3s. By the time they were upgraded to M2A1s and M3A1s, these were deleted.
More detailed Bradley info and history here:
Another one (Exercise REFORGER, January 1985) ?
3rd Plt., E Trp., 2nd Bn., 6th Cav. 1983 :
H.P.
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I guess so. Looks like it was an early vehicles feature…
H.P.
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Maybe to notify when ramp was about to drop ?
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M2 Bradley of Co. A, 1st Bn., 41st Inf. (Mech.), 2nd Armored Division, Fort Hood 1983
H.P.
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Yes, 3 short horn blasts before dropping the tailgate.
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Any idea why they’d do away with what seems like a very useful feature?
Maybe they thought the horn on the front was sufficiently loud. Same system has worked for decades on the 113. You can see the bean counters now," 2 horns on one vehicle? Preposterous waste! Let’s equip the turret with a $700 Craftsman ratchet instead."
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Ha ha ! Probably.
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That makes sense. But obviously didn’t last long.
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Very helpful answers and pictures. Thanks a lot guys.
After going through the posted info; I’m going to put together a second turret for my Bradley build to represent an M2A1.
The conversion should be easy enough. Remove the front smoke grenade boxes, reshape the TOW missile launcher front plate, add the periscope cover plates and add the larger rear stowage rack; along with adding the periscope covers on the driver’s hatch.
The port guns are already plugged, so that’s out of the way. I think I might add the rear hatch guide in thf back as well.
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I’m about 99.9% sure those MERDC Bradley’s are pre production vehicles. I’ve never seen one in the field in factory MERDC. When I went to 45Kilo school at Aberdeen in 83/84, (my first MOS) there was one parked in our school building, behind a big long curtain, we got to peek at it every now and then. One day they brought in an M1, you would have thought a UFO was wheeled into the building
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I believe you are correct. Initial production vehicles were shipped in forest green and later ones were in NATO camo.
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We are talking about the three ammo can holders on the right side of the turret by the antenna mount. Not the ones on the turret bustle rear.
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Is it possible HH is refering to the forest green color?
Oh, and:
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