QRF M2 Bradleys "The Wall"

Among the many lessons taught to American military planners during the Vietnam War was the need for a better infantry carrier. While the M113 was hardy in its own right, it was essentially a giant box mounted on tracks with a machine gun. And by box, read "mechanized death trap." With the 1961 invention and subsequent mass proliferation of the Soviet RPG-7 and its shaped charge round, the protection offered by most American and NATO armored carriers became alarmingly ineffective. Thusly, in the post-Vietnam era of the late 70's, the Pentagon set about developing a new carrier for mechanized infantry forces which could keep up with the new advanced M1 Abrams MBT.

In 1981, the M2 Bradley was first introduced to American combat forces. Plagued with mechanical and structural issues, it would take another four or five years before an actual operable version of the Bradley was deployed with American forces across West Germany. Sporting a 25mm Bushmaster autocannon and accompanying two-tube TOW Missile Launcher, the Bradley was able to effectively engage Iraqi vehicles during its combat debut in the 1991 Gulf War, and consistently in engagements throughout the late 1990's and  2000's. While slated to have been replaced several times over the course of the early 21st Century, each project was ultimately cancelled in favor of modernizing the US Army's existing fleet. 

The models themselves were actually pretty good in terms of casting. Naturally, there was some flash that needed to be removed, but the individual pieces all fit together perfectly and without much of a hitch. There was none of QRF's telltale "gooeyness" that is frequently present on the sides or skirts of their armored vehicles, and all lines were nice and sharp. My only major gripe, as you'll see down below, was that the turrets seemed to have divets in their rear walls. I referenced plenty of pictures to reinforce the fact that this was indeed a casting issue and not a Hands-issue. However, with enough paint and lighting magic, even the most obvious imperfections can be disappeared.

So, a little background about the process of painting these guys. I'm a big fan of the video game series Wargame. I love it, both for its realism and the fact that its surprisingly the only strategy game that runs decent on my laptop. A friend of my younger brother began playing Wargame with me and my Bro, and I would frequently make mention of the fact that I painted miniatures. I forget how the path followed, but we ended up agreeing to a model swap. He traded me two larger kits, both 1/35 scale, and in exchange I would paint him up some models of his choice. He ultimately chose two Bradleys and three M728 Engineering Vehicles, which are among other things his favorite units from Wargame.

The M728s are still in the process, but to prove that I'm a man of my word, I passed off the Bradleys to him over Spring Break. BUT... not before conducting a late night photo-shoot with some of my terrain back home. 

When asked, he told me he wanted a desert kind of camouflage paint scheme. "I'd love to see some kind of digital camo, maybe Desert MARPAT," he told me over text when asked. Its really ironic, but I have minimal experience painting desert-type camo. Typically my camo schemes are grass or woodland-styles, as it fits in better with the theme of a European war, so painting this one up was a much appreciated challenge.

The first major issue I bumped in to was the fact that Desert MARPAT is a digital camo scheme for uniforms, and doesn't translate well onto vehicles. In 15mm scale, the individual squares would appear so small that even any semblance of it being digital would be lost to the viewer. Thusly, I made an executive decision and decided it would be cool to enlarge the squares and create a disruptive rectangular pattern as my best approximation to digital camo. I was quite happy with the results. As best described in the words of my brother, "That Bradley looks like something straight out of ARMA 3." 

Suffice to say, my friend really liked the camo too and was quite excited when I handed them over to him.

One thing I do enjoy about commission work is being able to add unique customizations to each model. I feel it adds a bit of character to both the figure or vehicle in question, as well as create interesting conversation starters once displayed. In this case, he asked me to make sure that "The Wall" was written very plainly across some part of each model. The point being was that he was trying to represent a stylized version of one of his Wargame armies, codenamed "The Wall." Let me tell you, I've fought with "The Wall" on my team several times... and they are very, very good at holding the line. Like... they'll be completely encircled around a town, napalm on all sides, and still hang on until reinforced. 

The only downside was the limited space. While I could have easily painted it on the track skirts, I didn't out of fear that it would ruin the camouflage I had so painstakingly created. The rear of the turret presented the only other relatively flat surface for which to write, and I figured if you're driving an IFV into battle, you wouldn't want your enemies to see a bright red emblem emblazoned on the front of your tank.

Seeing as I'm having to type this on the tiny screen of my cellphone with enormous thumbs, I'm gonna call it quits for tonight. Stay tuned for additional updates once I get my laptop fixed.

-Hands