FINALLY back from my trip. All three of my Magic Factory Bradley kits have arrived. I have a day and half of build time before heading out for vacation with the ex girlfriend.
I had mentioned twelve shortcomings, not fatal flaws, in the Magic Factory 3 in 1 kit. I’ll address those as they come up.
I’ll be building a an M7A4 BFIST out of Ft. Cervezas, an M2A3 in Korea, and a Linebacker in Iraq, all using my own references I’ve collected over the years.
First up (although I’ll probably build concurrently when time allows) is the Linebacker, based on one in Iraq in 2005, I have a somewhat tenuous relationship with this particular one - more on that later as time’s a tickin’. It should be a fairly straightforward build.
Even in the early stages those shortcomings start to rear their ugly heads - right off the bat you can see the wheels are incorrect with their raised rims. This has been the bane of every Bradley kit since time immemorial. But an easy fix. I’ll have those fixed in a jif.
Next is the side armor plates. Of course the first thing you notice is that the lower armor plates should be doubled. . It doesn’t seem to matter to most of the Bradley modeling community, but it bothers me, so I’ll start that now since it’ll take some time,
Moving on - the large bolts on the armor are ridiculously undersized. They’ll have to be replaced. Let’s see, that was issue number three. Issue number four - on all of the new A4 models coming out of TACOM, the lower plates are held on with a series of three bolts along the top of every single plate. Yes, I have an example of a plate that has been switched out for the older style, but that is very rare. It’s up to the modeler to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze here. To me it is. And while we’re at it, the plates are missing the bolt holes that mount the channel for the BRAT. A small thing admittedly, but they should be there. How hard would it have been to add them?
While we’re still on the side plates - issue six: they are devoid of detail on their inner surfaces - there are bolt heads, joints between armor plates, aven a footman loop - all missing. Just because they’re on the inner surface doesn’t mean no one will notice. Apparently not many did, so I stand corrected.
And finally, since I’ll be working on correcting the plates today, I’ll address the rear armor panels, (over the idler) which for the vehicle I’m modeling have been flipped upside side in a manner that’s very unusual for Bradleys.
And as I said a while back, I welcome any and all critique. I’m wearing my big boy pants today. 
