History

The M3A3 Bradley w/BUSK III CFV is the very latest model fielded by the US Army. The Cavalry Fighting Vehicle’s (CFV) primary duties are reconnaissance and scouting. The CFV Bradleys are normally assigned to Tank Battalions or Cavalry Divisions. The Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV) Bradleys are used to transport troops into battle and out.

MENG has followed their kit of the successful M2A3 Bradley (IFV) w/BUSK III with the new M3A3 Bradley (CFV) w/BUSK III. They have separated the main vehicle and the interior into two kits and packaged both separately. This gives modelers the option to build the vehicle kit without the interior at a cost savings.

This review covers MENG’s M3A3 Bradley w/BUSK III Interior Set. The vehicle itself is reviewed separately at: M3A3 Bradley w/BUSK III

Kit

The Bradley interior kit comes on multiple frets molded in different colors. The parts for the driver’s, passenger’s, and turret compartments are molded on six light green plastic frets, and the engine parts are molded on two gray plastic frets. Also included in the kit are a PE fret, decal sheet, and two soft-plastic seat belts. The instruction booklet has 27 steps with color cut-away drawings and a painting color reference chart for Vallejo paints. I used Tamiya paints and did my own conversion. Any paint brand can be quickly converted to their respective colors by using this guide as a reference. The parts have very little to no flash and are very crisply molded.

Build

First and foremost, I must inform you up front that you will need to paint and apply decals as you go in every step of this build. Some parts will be impossible to reach after assembling if you do not do this.

Using a razor saw or hobby knife, Step 1 calls for the removal of several attachment point for seating that was used on the IFV kit that are not used on the CFV version. Steps 2 thru 7 deal with the floor plates and side walls, along with the installation of their respective equipment. Steps 8 thru 11 cover the engine, transmission, and air-intake system assemblies. Steps 12 thru 18 deal with the driver’s compartment and the passenger’s compartment. The 10 extra TOW Anti-Tank Missiles are assembled individually and decals are provided for marking each one. Steps 19 thru 22 move on to the ceiling detail and roof armament.

Steps 23 thru 27 deal with the turret detail assembly. MENG provides a molded, hard-plastic bending jig for the turret basket PE mesh screens, which comes in very handy and will make the process seamless. There is excellent detail on both the commander’s side of the turret and the gunner’s side.

Conclusion

MENG has done an excellent job engineering and providing excellent detail for this interior kit. It will greatly enhance their M3A3 Bradley CFV kit. I highly recommend this kit to all modelers.

I would like to thank MENG Model for providing this kit for review and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.