A few 1/35 IFV's and AFV's

[Ramba]

Ukrainian scheme would look good...

Not a big fan of that Ukrainian pixel camo. I do have a Trumpeter T-80BVM I am doing as Ukrainian though but in overall green. It was captured and now being used against the aggressors. I have the ETA Ukraine flag set and Miniarm 4S24 ERA to add to the kit just like in the photo below. I also have the Meng KMT-8 mine plow. I haven't started on this yet though.

[Old Wombat]

Ukrainian scheme would look good...

Greg, you've just given me the prompt I need to finish my Academy Merk IV LIC, that's sitting stalled at the paint stage.

Was going to be Royal Australian Marines & some mod's were done with that in mind but, hey, maybe in my universe the RAM's donated some of their older Merk IV's to Ukraine.

I still have my Meng Merk IV to be a RAM's vehicle.

I'll re-commence work on it after I've finished the Mancaster!

[Buzzbomb]

Some really sweet work in all the Merkava builds. Flying sub brings back some memories though

[Ramba]

Some really sweet work in all the Merkava builds. Flying sub brings back some memories though

Thanks! The Hobby Boss kit is a bit fiddly but nothing you can't overcome. The Academy kit definitely goes together easier. Both have PE but Hobby Boss has a more comprehensive set. Hobby Boss includes actual metal ball and chain armor where Academy includes flat, 2D PE chains and plastic balls in halves that you need to cut from the runner. You have to cut the ball halves off then glue them together on the ends of the PE to make a complete ball. The person that designed the Academy ball and chain armor must have been tripping on some gnarly mushrooms at the time.

Here is the Academy Merkava Mk.IV LIC ball and chain instructions. No thanks!

[Ramba]

Hobby Boss Merkava Mk.IV Trophy ball and chain armor.



Some very nice PE frets also included.



Yesterday I worked on the exhaust. The housing is plastic but the vents are PE. I left off the mesh screen because if I attached it now, when I do the primer/paint, it won't cover the exhaust so I have to prime/paint the exhaust first then attach the mesh screen.

[Old Wombat]

Yeah, the ball & chain "armour" is a little bit daunting.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the Academy kit but liquid styrene is looking like a reasonable option right now. Maybe.

[Ramba]

Yeah, the ball & chain "armour" is a little bit daunting.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the Academy kit but liquid styrene is looking like a reasonable option right now. Maybe.

If you use regular ball and chain like what is included with the Hobby Boss kit and Legend set, once you get in the groove it isn't that bad. If you do it the way Academy has you do it, you will be in Arkham Asylum.

I wish Academy also made the Mk.IV Trophy too as their Mk.IV LIC kit was a pleasure to build. Might not be as highly detailed as a Meng kit but it is still a really nice kit. Overall though, the Academy kit was one of the nicer kits I have built. You should definitely build yours.

This is the Legend set I got for the Academy Mk.IV LIC. It includes the covered baskets and the ball and chain armor.


There is also the FC Modeltrends 3D printed ball and chain armor.
https://www.super-hobby.co.uk/products/Merkava-4-chain-courtain.html

[Old Wombat]

I have that set but I was going to try to use it on the Meng kit. You have pointed out the problem with that idea, so I'll see if I can wrangle it onto the build as she is.

Annoying but probably do-able.

I, also, have the following two sets;

IDF AFV GPS Device for Battle Management System (LF1349)


Merkava Mk.4 Heavy Duty Side Skirt Set (LF1187)


And Fruil Model tracks for the Mk.IV

[Ramba]

I have that set but I was going to try to use it on the Meng kit. You have pointed out the problem with that idea, so I'll see if I can wrangle it onto the build as she is.

Annoying but probably do-able.

I, also, have the following two sets;

IDF AFV GPS Device for Battle Management System (LF1349)

Merkava Mk.4 Heavy Duty Side Skirt Set (LF1187)

And Fruil Model tracks for the Mk.IV

Yeah, the regular Mk.IV turret basket won't fit on the Mk.IV Trophy turret because of the Trophy radar units. Well, it will fit but then you won't be able to fit the radar units.

Those are some nice Legend sets. I don't have the heavy duty skirts or the Fruil tracks though. I usually stick with the kit tracks.

I have the Legend GPS set. I think only the Mk.II and Mk.III used that GPS unit though.


I also have the Legend IDF .50 cal set too. I got it mostly for the brass catcher bag and covered solenoids.


Meng has a set of covered baskets for their Mk.IV Trophy kit. The covered basket set is as much as the kit itself though. HLJ actually has it at a lower price than I normally see it but still expensive.
https://www.hlj.com/1-35-scale-israel-main-battle-tank-merkava-mk-4m-fully-loaded-rear-baskets-mensps-056

[Frank3k]

The various Legend IDF .50 cal sets are great; really good castings.

Did HobbyBoss just include a bag of brass colored pins and had you remove the balls from the ends?

[Ramba]

The various Legend IDF .50 cal sets are great; really good castings.

Did HobbyBoss just include a bag of brass colored pins and had you remove the balls from the ends?

Here is a close up of the HB pins. Seems like they were pins. Looks like they snipped off the pointy ends. Still better than what Academy gave you for their Mk.IV LIC kit though.


Here is what Academy included for the ball and chain armor. You have to cut the ball halves off the runner and attach them to the PE chain. This was the only bad thing about the Academy kit. It was a really enjoyable build until you get to this.

[raafif]

Here is a close up of the HB pins. Seems like they were pins. Looks like they snipped off the pointy ends. Still better than what Academy gave you for their Mk.IV LIC kit though.

Quite silly of Academy ... a visit to the local beads & baubles shop I think.

[Ramba]

Quite silly of Academy ... a visit to the local beads & baubles shop I think.

Yeah, the Academy designer must have been having a really bad day when they decided on that idea.

[Ramba]

The HB side skirts were of the older design so I tried to fit a set of Academy skirts which are the type seen also on the Trophy version but they didn't line up properly.



I went back to the original HB skirts but they have the wavy pattern at the bottom.



I removed the wavy pattern and replaced them with some that I cut from plastic sheet. I curled the new scratch built lower rubber parts.




Image showing a mix of side skirts. The one to the right is the one similar to what HB includes in their kit. I cropped the second image to show that I modified mine to look somewhat similar. You can see some of the lower rubber parts are a bit bent.

[Old Wombat]

 

[Ramba]

Did more PE work yesterday.

Not much PE on the glacis plate.


The bottom and rear of the hull baskets are PE but HB includes plastic parts as well. I had already started the PE baskets before noticing the plastic parts so continued on with the PE. I changed them to the plastic parts (not shown) as I kept knocking the PE baskets off.


Some PE to represent the tie downs on the back of the turret basket cover. There were three PE parts for the main gun barrel, two by the MRS (collimator) and one bigger piece in front of the fume extractor.

[Ramba]

The two Merkava kits are set aside for now so I started on a Tamiya M1A2 OIF kit. The kit includes parts for both an M1A1 or M1A2. I got the kit from a friend and it was already started. He started it as the USMC M1A1 version but I am redoing it as a US Army M1A1 deployed in Iraq in 2008 with the TUSK I armor.


Another friend of mine gave me some Meng M1A1 TUSK parts but to get the complete TUSK parts I also had to buy some from Meng. Meng was very helpful and the parts were quite inexpensive from them but the shipping was more than expected.
Here is one of the Meng TUSK parts trees showing the belly armor and TUSK I ERA and the Meng decal sheet.



The Meng belly armor is too wide for the Tamiya lower hull so it can't be used. I had a Voyager USMC M1A1 update set sitting around which has the belly armor. It says for Dragon but it didn't fit the Dragon kit and actually fits the Tamiya kit fairly well. The Meng belly armor won't fit the Dragon kit either as the Meng belly armor is also too wide for the Dragon kit. Anyway, the Voyager belly armor was a bit too short as seen in the first photo. Second photos shows I had to lengthen it by adding some sheet plastic to make up the difference. Not perfect but good enough for me.



Here are the Meng TUSK parts fitted to the Tamiya kit, not all parts shown as I am still working on them. They are either taped on or dry fitted. The tank itself will be painted in the NATO camo scheme and the TUSK parts will all be in sand so I will leave off all the TUSK parts to paint them separately. The Meng parts needed some minor adjustments to fit the Tamiya kit but some parts fit decently without any adjustments. The bustle rack extension is from the Dragon M1A2 SEP parts tree which  I got separately.




This is the version I will be doing, Bad Blessings.



Tamiya makes an M1A2 SEP TUSK II kit that includes both TUSK I and TUSK II parts which would have been better to just get the Tamiya parts. I messaged Tamiya asking if they had those parts trees but they were out of stock and said to try back in late February but I didn't bother. I already had all the Meng TUSK parts from my friend and Meng so decided to just kit bash the Meng parts on the Tamiya kit to save some money.