Meng 1/35 Merkava Mk.3D Early

[alextheblue]

Well, I should be finishing my Challenger 2 for Nigel Well’s Buddy Build, but instead I decided to engage in my most favourite diversion – and that’s to build another kit! Having thoroughly enjoyed my foray into modern armour, I decided to have a bash at another one. I've also noticed that a few guys here on ISM have recently built Meng kits and everyone seems to be singing their praises. From here the choice was quite easy as I have always liked the look of the Merk as it’s quite a beast!

The box art is very nice and when you first lift the box you notice how reassuringly heavy it is. On lifting the lid you’re not disappointed as the box is stuffed with bags of plastic of various shapes and sizes. On first inspection everything seems to be very well moulded and I couldn’t see any flash and any pin marks seem to be kept to sensible locations. There is the usual seam here and there, but nothing untoward. There’s no PE with the kit as standard, but I have read that the quality of the detailing is such that PE is not required. I’ll reserve judgement on this until it’s built as Dragon kits are always very detailed and they always manage to squeeze in a small fret of shiny metal. There’s a small sprue of clear plastic for optics, a length of string and wire, plus the usual decals. The instructions are in booklet form, which I personally prefer and the steps seem very clear and ordered – are you watching Dragon! There’s a colour page at the back showing the two paint schemes and the colour call-outs are for Hobby Colour, Mr Colour and Vallejo, which should cover a lot of peoples paint manufacturer preference.






As with most armour kits, the build starts with the wheels etc. and the parts seem be very crisp and nicely detailed. Being my first Meng kit, the plastic seems to be quite “hard” compared to the usual Tamiya and Dragon kits that I build.


It is here that I notice the first potential problem. The main body of the wheel, A3 attaches right on the rim which is also quite thin – great for scale, but not so great when trying to cut from the sprue and clean-up. I’m sure for the majority of people this won’t be a problem, but for someone like myself who is clumsy and heavy-handed extra care is needed. However, my worst fears were realised and I did manage to damage the very edge of a couple of the wheels when cleaning them up, despite trying to be very, very careful. However, because of the way the wheels build together this damage is actually hidden by parts A1 and A10 once everything is assembled – phew!! A nice touch is that you get the choice of building the Merk with either all-steel tyre-less wheels, or you can go with the version with tyres.



It is here that I must relate a tale of such sheer stupidity, the only thing that gets close to it on the stupidity scale is me actually owning up to it. After damaging the first wheel rim, I decided that my scalpel blade must be blunt so decided to change it. Having done so, I returned to my workbench scalpel in hand and proceeded to pick up the next part with the intention of cleaning it up. With wheel firmly in hand I firmly grasped my scalpel and pressed down with the intention of removing the excess sprue material. At the point when I should have felt the firm resistance of the blunt edge of the blade, I instead felt the soft rendering of my skin as it meet the sharp fine edge of the business end of the blade. A thin inch-and-a-half red line instantly appeared on my finger tip, which quickly flapped open like the gutted belly of a freshly caught fish. What ensued closely resembled a cut-scene from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But luckily (or perhaps unluckily) I have very little feeling in my fingertips after years of boxing and martial arts. I’ve included a photograph which faithfully reconstructs the moment of sheer idiocy and for those of nervous disposition - please feel free to look!! Actually the photo is “post-wife-care”, after she had stopped laughing that is! For those of you who may have had the misfortune to read any of my threads etc., you’ll know that I’m left handed and you’ll notice that I actually use my right hand for anything knife related. This is so I can cut and build with my right hand whilst painting and weathering with my left – gets things done much quicker!!!!


Patched up and ready to continue the wheels, rollers, idlers and sprockets fell together.


The rest of the bits and bobs were added to the lower hull and then it was on the suspension parts. These again were a dream to put together and some of the parts fitted so well they would have been fine left friction fitted. I did however add TET as usual, just in case. Some great detail on the suspension and whilst there were many parts, it went together very well indeed.








I decided to go for the version of wheels with tyres, but there was even an option to mix them if preferred.




The rear doors and gubbings were assembled and added and these too just fell together.


All along up to this point I had been singing the praises of this Meng kit to anyone who would listen (and that means mainly the cat in my house!), but I was soon to change my opinion. The next step was to assemble the engine cover and this is made up of several parts. There’s a small cover that runs parallel to the leading edge of the upper hull and this comprises of several small parts. All quite straightforward apart from the grab-handles that attach to B4 (apologies, I just managed to cut them out of the picture). These are very thin and whilst they came off the sprue ok, both snapped very easily under very light clean-up. No biggie though as after some careful placement and TET everything looked just as it should. With this all done I removed the main part of the engine cover and it was in dry-fitting this part that I realised that it was a long way off from being a good fit. I tried it again and again, each time offering up a different “edge” in order to try and get it to fit, but each time with no luck. After some trimming, a lot of filing and sanding, not to mention a string of obscenities, some of which even I haven't heard before, I managed to bully it roughly in position for long enough in order to get some TET down. Not a great fit, but with a couple of bits of filler here and there it should look ok in the end. I’m sure that some of this bad fit is down to my own skills, or lack of them and I’m sure that many of you will not experience this problem – but I would be very interested to know if anyone has built this kit and has had the same problem.





Very disappointing, especially after how well everything else has gone together, but with hindsight it wasn’t a massive problem and I guess I can put it down to just another way of helping to improve my overall building skills.

As always, thank you for taking a look and I would love to hear your feedback, especially if you’ve already built this kit.

[Rob]

Now that's what I call a great thread - beautifully described and illustrated. The model looks brilliant and it's coming together well. But, I have to admit that when I read about the new scalpel blade my knees went a bit wobbly!

More please!

[Ozzie21]

alextheblue, I only got mine last week. Some detail parts arrived today, PE and Fruilmodel tracks. I will watch with interest your build. I think mine is number 162 on things to do list

Cya
Charles in Queensland.

On The Bench: Tamiya Leopard 2A6, Tamiya Challenger II, Tamiya bf109E1, Dragon Hetzer.

[Donkeywalloper]

Alex
My wife is sat here with cat on lap listening to my gasps and laughs. I then had to read out you fantastic thread, you should write for a living my friend.
My wife is a tad squeamish but even she was laughing.
I have a Meng waiting to be built and I have to admit that this may have been my next build.
I am going to watch this real close and I have to admit I'm really looking forward to more write ups.
Please, please watch your pinkies (says the bloke who stabbed his finger with a Swann & Morton). You always know a bad cut when it does not bleed straight away
Take care Alex

[alextheblue]

Now that's what I call a great thread - beautifully described and illustrated. The model looks brilliant and it's coming together well. But, I have to admit that when I read about the new scalpel blade my knees went a bit wobbly!

More please!

Thanks Rob. It's a great kit and I would recommend it, especially to anyone looking for a first modern armour build.

[alextheblue]

alextheblue, I only got mine last week. Some detail parts arrived today, PE and Fruilmodel tracks. I will watch with interest your build. I think mine is number 162 on things to do list

Cya
Charles in Queensland.

On The Bench: Tamiya Leopard 2A6, Tamiya Challenger II, Tamiya bf109E1, Dragon Hetzer.

Thanks Charles. I decided to go completely OOB after I had read a couple of posts saying that Meng included everything you needed in the box. My first impressions though do lead me to think that some PE wouldn't do it any harm. And with regards to "To Do" lists, here's mine...........

To Do List
1. Ignore To Do list!
2 .......................

[alextheblue]

Alex
My wife is sat here with cat on lap listening to my gasps and laughs. I then had to read out you fantastic thread, you should write for a living my friend.
My wife is a tad squeamish but even she was laughing.
I have a Meng waiting to be built and I have to admit that this may have been my next build.
I am going to watch this real close and I have to admit I'm really looking forward to more write ups.
Please, please watch your pinkies (says the bloke who stabbed his finger with a Swann & Morton). You always know a bad cut when it does not bleed straight away
Take care Alex

Thanks DW for your too kind words! Although I don't think the unsuspecting general public are quite ready for the twisted ramblings of a scale-model building addict - here though, I feel completely amongst like-minded friends!!

And my scalpel is a Swann & Morton too - nowadays many large corporates are accused of having blood on their hands; Swann & Morton are one of the few companies that have blood on their customers hands!!

Looking forward to seeing your Meng come together!

[alextheblue]

Ding! Ding! Round 2!!

Well, after my fight with the engine cover, I feel that if I'm not ahead on points, I might just be able to sneak in a cheeky left-hook in this next round. Or, as a football manager once told me, for a particularly bad team I once played for, "lets get out there lads and try and equalise before they score!".

Most of last nights progress was getting more of the detail parts onto the upper hull. No fit issues this time and it looks like we're back to the great fit that saw this build begin. There are some fiddly bits and one bit in particular that is very delicate, but nothing to frighten off your average ISM member. I did have one casualty thanks to that voracious beast that is the carpet monster. I do normally pride myself on my tenacity when it comes to looking for lost parts, but with this one I had admit defeat - man, down, man down!! Picture fades to the poignant scene of a distant battlefield bathed in the light of the setting sun and with the haunting melody of a bugle playing The Last Post in the background!

Here is the offending article, B39.


And if it were one of those town centre street maps, it would look like this.


However, on a more serious note, some of the details on the Merk are really quite good and I must say I can't wait to get to the painting and weathering stage.




I did mention earlier that there is one particularly delicate part, so I can't sign off without showing you the piece in question. It is C6 which is part of the rear light assembly. It attaches to the sprue in two places, one of which is the handle part and this does flex an awful lot as you cut it off. Even being especially careful, I noticed that this part started to bend and whiten, but luckily it didn't break. If you look carefully you can see that it does have a slight bend to it - the piece, the piece!!!


And here is the light assembly once constructed, phew!


Thanks as always for taking a look and if any of you guys that have this kit want to join me, please feel free!

[Ozzie21]

Alex, "Roger ignore to do list" Bugger where do I start ignoring

Here's the PE I got for mine and a set of fruilmodel tracks

Ignore the M7 bits.

Cya
Charles in Queensland



Thanks Charles. I decided to go completely OOB after I had read a couple of posts saying that Meng included everything you needed in the box. My first impressions though do lead me to think that some PE wouldn't do it any harm. And with regards to "To Do" lists, here's mine...........

To Do List
1. Ignore To Do list!
2 ....................... [/quote]

[Donkeywalloper]

Alex, I told you mate....write a book. Your killing me.
I have been at work this morning and my boss came in and just as he was talking I had been doing searches on the Meng Merkava
Thank God you never went for the Hobby Boss version cuz that is getting a right old trouncing on some reviews.
This build is awesome mate.
Lovely detail. Like you said a nice bit of pin wash and some weathering and it will look da bomb.
Charles, those Frui Tracks are nearly £30 here in the UK.....
Are they worth getting though?
I am salivating at the though of having a bash at this lovely beast.......

[Nige1958]

The Merkava looks like its coming along nicely will look forward to the next part of this one Ive got one ready and waiting in its box I might just have to break it out onto the bench as Ive never built a Meng kit but the quality looks stunning.

[alextheblue]

Alex, "Roger ignore to do list" Bugger where do I start ignoring

Here's the PE I got for mine and a set of fruilmodel tracks

Ignore the M7 bits.

Cya
Charles in Queensland

That PE is really going to add to your Merk and you can't beat Fruilmodel tracks - I've only used them once, but absolutely love 'em!

[alextheblue]

Alex, I told you mate....write a book. Your killing me.
I have been at work this morning and my boss came in and just as he was talking I had been doing searches on the Meng Merkava
Thank God you never went for the Hobby Boss version cuz that is getting a right old trouncing on some reviews.
This build is awesome mate.
Lovely detail. Like you said a nice bit of pin wash and some weathering and it will look da bomb.
Charles, those Frui Tracks are nearly £30 here in the UK.....
Are they worth getting though?
I am salivating at the though of having a bash at this lovely beast.......

Yeah that is the downside to Fruilmodel tracks - the cost. Having said that they are soooo good though. Take a little time to prepare and put together, but they're pretty straightforward and look the business.

[alextheblue]

The Merkava looks like its coming along nicely will look forward to the next part of this one Ive got one ready and waiting in its box I might just have to break it out onto the bench as Ive never built a Meng kit but the quality looks stunning.

Thanks Nige, it is a great quality kit. I must admit to having had a few issues with mine, but I suspect that's more down to "operator error" than the kit itself.

[Ozzie21]

Donkeywalloper, The Fruil tracks cost $44 down here and I will use them if they are available. I like a bit weight in models, I usually add 1oz lead fishing sinkers to tank models, plus the weight of the tracks stops them from getting knocked over on the bench. Of course it's no help if you knock them off the stand I'm building a Hetzer and a Stug and both have Fruil tracks plus 3oz's of lead in the hull.
I'm going to wait to start mine just to see what problems Alex runs into.
Cya
Charles in Queensland

Alex, I told you mate....write a book. Your killing me.
I have been at work this morning and my boss came in and just as he was talking I had been doing searches on the Meng Merkava
Thank God you never went for the Hobby Boss version cuz that is getting a right old trouncing on some reviews.
This build is awesome mate.
Lovely detail. Like you said a nice bit of pin wash and some weathering and it will look da bomb.
Charles, those Frui Tracks are nearly £30 here in the UK.....
Are they worth getting though?
I am salivating at the though of having a bash at this lovely beast.......

[Ozzie21]

Nige, you should check out the Meng Models Tortoise. Now that is one awesome kit and the quality is right up there.

Cya
Charles in Queensland

The Merkava looks like its coming along nicely will look forward to the next part of this one Ive got one ready and waiting in its box I might just have to break it out onto the bench as Ive never built a Meng kit but the quality looks stunning.

[Donkeywalloper]

Donkeywalloper, The Fruil tracks cost $44 down here and I will use them if they are available. I like a bit weight in models, I usually add 1oz lead fishing sinkers to tank models, plus the weight of the tracks stops them from getting knocked over on the bench. Of course it's no help if you knock them off the stand I'm building a Hetzer and a Stug and both have Fruil tracks plus 3oz's of lead in the hull.
I'm going to wait to start mine just to see what problems Alex runs into.
Cya
Charles in Queensland

Alex, I told you mate....write a book. Your killing me.
I have been at work this morning and my boss came in and just as he was talking I had been doing searches on the Meng Merkava
Thank God you never went for the Hobby Boss version cuz that is getting a right old trouncing on some reviews.
This build is awesome mate.
Lovely detail. Like you said a nice bit of pin wash and some weathering and it will look da bomb.
Charles, those Frui Tracks are nearly £30 here in the UK.....
Are they worth getting though?
I am salivating at the though of having a bash at this lovely beast.......

Yup Charles, your right. Alex is doing an ace job so my eyes are watching closely (Engine cover already noted as problematic).

[alextheblue]

Seconds out! Round 2!
I decided to keep up with the boxing analogy as last night’s bout with the Monster from Meng really was quite a duke-fest. I came out quite confident with my fists up, but after a few body blows that took the wind out of my sails, my guard dropped and I took a thumping blow to the head that had me reeling!

Things started off quite civilised with the right-hand light assembly and that all went together quite nicely.


Next it was onto the barrel-lock and the instructions indicate that this lies flat against the upper hull. On offering it up though, it is clear that the latch that holds it in place is in the way. I tried using a bit of body-English on it, but stopped when the cross-member of the lock started to bend and go white! On investigation, it looks as though I should have attached the latch “lying down” as well and it would have then been out of the way. Alternatively, I could attached after the lock was in place, but you know what they say about hindsight. No biggie though as all it means is that the lock sits proud of the deck slightly and I quite like this – it adds a bit of interest.



After adding a couple of tools and hooks etc., it’s time to fix the two halves of the hull together and get this thing buttoned up. I held my breath as I dry fitted it, but it was apparent that there was going to be no major issues and before you could say, Tamiya Extra Thin, the hull was together and this thing was starting to look like a tank!




However, this is where we were to dispense with the Queensbury’s Rules, as the fight was about to move into an underground car-park and the gloves were off for some unlicensed bare-fist fighting! The next stage was to attach the two light assemblies to the rear plate. The left-hand side went on fine without any dramas, but the right one just wasn't playing ball. I wondered whether I had fitted the fuel tank covers incorrectly, but going back through the instructions everything appeared to be as it should be.



I had always wanted to fly across the Grand Canyon in a helicopter, but after seeing this gaping chasm I think it would only leave me feeling disappointed. Hey-ho, nothing a bit of filler won’t fix, but like many other, I hate filling and sanding. If I wanted to spend my spare time filling holes I would have taken up dentistry as a hobby!
Still, it was onto the gun now and scanning the instructions I couldn’t help but think that I wasn’t out of the woods just yet. The barrel is in two halves and there’s quite a lot of parts which screamed of alignment problems, not to mention yet more filling. I was to be proved wrong though as everything went together very nicely and there’s only a couple of small spots that will need a smidgen of filler.


It was onto the lower turret now and out of the corner of my eye, whilst the ref wasn’t looking, I noticed the Merk slip on some brass-knuckles and I had a feeling that I would be spitting teeth before the night was out. There’s some very small parts involved at this stage, but having built a couple of Dragon kits I didn’t see this as being a problem. After all, some of their parts wouldn’t look out of place in the Large Hadron Collider in Cern! The real problem lies in trying not to knock any of these bits off once they are attached. There’s quite a few and they are spread around the back edge of the turret on both sides. In hindsight I should have left these until later into the build and unfortunately I was to knock one bit off, never to be seen again making the tally of MIA’s for this build so far, 2 – not good!



Now the fight really steps up a notch and the eye-gouging and head-butting starts in earnest. It’s time to assembly the basket that attaches to the rear of the turret. The ball-and-chain armour is actually moulded as one piece and there is a separate piece of sprue attached to the balls to prevent any parts snapping in transit. You have to be quite careful when cutting this bit away and whilst it doesn’t look quite as effective as some of the PE offerings I’ve seen, it does take a helluva lot less time. The rear basket all goes together quite well and it is now that I think that I should leave everything to completely cure and call it a night. But that little devil-voice pipes up and says, “go on, fix it on now, you know you wanna!”



Boy am I glad I listened to that voice as it was to save me in a short while. As I offered the basket up to the rear of the turret it was apparent that there was no way this was going to fit. If you aligned the side rails to the rear, the floor of the basket was a good distance from the rear of the turret, leaving a huge gap. If you offered the floor up first, it would bend the side rails in an alarming way that had my eyeballs popping out of my head like out of an old Tom & Jerry cartoon. Luckily I was able to carefully pry apart the rear basket and after much cutting, filing and re-attaching I managed to get it attached. Not ideal by any stretch, but if you squinted it didn’t look too bad.


I pushed the result of my efforts across my workbench away from me, dropped my knife to floor and wiped the beads of sweat from my furrowed brow. I slumped back into my chair blooded and bruised, but satisfied that I had got a few good licks in of my own.

Thanks for taking a look and apologies for the meandering ramblings of a madman – what I lack in building skills I try to make up for in quippery and tomfoolery!

[Donkeywalloper]

Seriously Alex, your pictures and words are starting to make me think Coen has a real contender (did you like the Boxing analogy there ).
I thought this Meng went together like a dream according to all the reviews on "other" sites (what was going on with that Rear Box?). Meng, No...Sort that out
Obviously, they are way off the mark a sniffing Mr Hobby Surfacer.
Your really doing this site a justice Alex and you are a king now in my eyes
It has not put me off the build of this metal clad lady, but to future builders you are giving insight and knowledge par excellence.
Keep it up mate.
John

[Ozzie21]

Alex, top job mate I see you can adapt and overcome The thread and pictures are excellent especially those little close ups.
I also found out Life Colour have an Israeli colour set so I've ordered that.


Cya

Charles in Queensland

[alextheblue]

Seriously Alex, your pictures and words are starting to make me think Coen has a real contender (did you like the Boxing analogy there ).
I thought this Meng went together like a dream according to all the reviews on "other" sites (what was going on with that Rear Box?). Meng, No...Sort that out
Obviously, they are way off the mark a sniffing Mr Hobby Surfacer.
Your really doing this site a justice Alex and you are a king now in my eyes
It has not put me off the build of this metal clad lady, but to future builders you are giving insight and knowledge par excellence.
Keep it up mate.
John

Thanks John appreciate your kind words, although I have a looooong way to go before I can be considered a contender for Coen's title - he is a scale modelling deity and I am a mere serf, plebeian in comparison.

With regards to the problems that I'm having, I'm probably over-egging the pudding a little as I think some of these problems could have been prevented with better forward planning - never a forte of mine!

[alextheblue]

Alex, top job mate I see you can adapt and overcome The thread and pictures are excellent especially those little close ups.
I also found out Life Colour have an Israeli colour set so I've ordered that.


Cya

Charles in Queensland

Thanks Charles and thanks for the Life Colour tip - I love their paints and I'll have to see if I can get those!

[alextheblue]

Ok, enough already with the terrible fight analogies and onto to some straight-forward model talk!

I was going to leave it for one night and let everything dry and cure properly, but you know what it's like - the family are watching the usual bilge on the telly, so you wander out to the workbench, just for a quick look of course and before you know it you've got plastic in one hand and a craft knife in the other.

Had a quick check of the destructions and I only had a few more bits to get onto the lower turret and I could call it done. so with that in mind i pressed on.




Some lovely little details on there and they all fit as snug as the proverbial bug. I also decided to dry fit some of the parts of the upper turret, especially after the problems that I had already encountered. It looks as though Meng have tried to replicate how these tanks are made for real (well, as real as you can for a scale model) as the upper turret comprises of several parts. I won't go into too much detail now as I'll save that for a future update, but I'm pleased to say that everything appears to go together very well. Here's a couple of pics showing the main three bits roughly in place.



I have to say though, as mean as this beast looks, I still don't think its a patch on the Challenger 2 - so i decided to do a quick side-by-side comparison. It's the Chally for me - what do you think??




Thanks for taking a look!

[Donkeywalloper]

Alex

Your Chally is a killer. Lost for words.
Its odd though. The Chally is more Tank and the Merk is more.....well Millennium Falcon.

[Ozzie21]

Alex, I agree with donkey definitely millennium falcon material. The Challie is a beaut though. I wonder who'd win head to head Naw no contest Challie hands down. Nice progress on the Merk.

Cya
Charles in Queensland

[alextheblue]

@ John, Charles - you're both definitely right, there's more than a touch of sci-fi about the Merk!

I was hoping to get quite a bit more done to the Merk over the weekend, especially with the all the lovely rain we've had, but alas, things didn't quite pan out as planned. I did manage to get a bit done and the upper turret is pretty much there or thereabouts now. It seems as though everything is back on track and I'm back to singing the praises of the Meng in terms of both the build and fit quality. The armour plates of the upper turret comes in different sections and it would only have taken for a couple of the bits to be out by the odd millimetre here and there and the whole thing would have been way out. Happily though, everything just fell together.

There is some great detail here on these armour plates and this is just added to by the myriad of parts that you add. There's some very small bits, nothing unusual in that, but I found that the slightly harder nature of the plastic that Meng uses, means you need to be a little extra careful when removing these bits from the sprue.



Parts H41 gave me particular concern and I decided to cut these as far as way from the actual part as possible. This would hopefully cause minimal flexing and should prevent any unwanted snapping. I could then trim off the excess sprue material and hopefully the job should be a good 'un.

Here's a couple of pics in true "Before & After" stylee - "after trying the super-duper pro-celebrity weight loss plan, I managed to shave off all that unsightly excess material!"



After some careful dry-fitting the armour plates for the upper turret all went together very nicely.





Only a few more steps to go now and it's onto the painting and weathering - oh, happy days!! Having said that, there's still quite a few steps (about 6 or 7) as there's a lot of "stuff" on these modern tanks - not like the good old days of WW2 tanks - an MG and a couple of grab handles and you're done!

Thanks for taking a look!

[AchtungPanzer]

The piece of good work. Well done mate !

[Coen]

I must have fallen in a hole to have missed your thread here Alex!
Damn. This is one of the kits that I have on my "must have" list for a while.
Seeing you build this has been awesome now that I've read it all.
Can't wait for more now.

[Donkeywalloper]

sweet Alex.
Your thread is eagerly awaited each time and the photos, build and words never fail to amuse, delight and want that model.

John

[FishBowlMan]

Loving this thread, Alex. The Merk is coming along very nicely (and your Chally is top-notch as well).

Great work on highlighting the little issues and foibles that are presenting themselves. Its going to be really useful for anyone following in your footsteps with this kit.

[Ozzie21]

alex, looking good sport. Those grab handles for the turret side looked like an absolute pain to get right or are you just joshing an old bloke about you skill level

Cya
Charles in Queensland

[alextheblue]

The piece of good work. Well done mate !

Thanks AP!

[alextheblue]

I must have fallen in a hole to have missed your thread here Alex!
Damn. This is one of the kits that I have on my "must have" list for a while.
Seeing you build this has been awesome now that I've read it all.
Can't wait for more now.

Thanks Mike, it's a great kit and I would highly recommend it. And I know what you mean about falling into a hole -there's so much great stuff on ISM now, not to mention You Tube, it's a job keeping up with everything!

Great "how to" on Tiger 1 exhaust shrouds - caught it last night, brilliant dude!

[alextheblue]

Loving this thread, Alex. The Merk is coming along very nicely (and your Chally is top-notch as well).

Great work on highlighting the little issues and foibles that are presenting themselves. Its going to be really useful for anyone following in your footsteps with this kit.

Thanks FishBowl Man!

I fear that it will only be useful to someone as crap and as clumsy as me though, but hey, if it helps anyone I'll be happy!

[alextheblue]

alex, looking good sport. Those grab handles for the turret side looked like an absolute pain to get right or are you just joshing an old bloke about you skill level

Cya
Charles in Queensland

Thanks Charles and no joshing about the skill level - at best I'm an experienced beginner who is slowly creeping towards mediocrity!!

[alextheblue]

Whilst it may not look as though I got a lot done judging by my latest post, but this update took me the best part of an hour to do. The next three steps all show the assembly and placement of the drivers and loaders hatches. At first glance I thought, "pah!, i'll have these bits licked in no time!" - and then I saw the size of the bits involved - pass me the electron microscope!


Seriously though, there's nothing too small and the instructions are very clear as to where everything goes. I did get another MIA at this stage, but this time it's not the usual "miniscule fragment pinging off of the end of your tweezers incident", but more the case of "the gaping hole on the sprue where the part is supposed to be". The instructions called for G41, but when I picked up the sprue, there it was - GONE!!!!


MISSING!! - One small latch handle last seen in the vicinity of it's box, but whereabouts now unknown. We believe the suspect may have absconded and could possibly be wearing a disguise. Any information on it's whereabouts may be ignored as I'm currently rooting through my spares to find a replacement!!


I had a good search through the box and sprue bags, alas to no avail. I can only think that as it is on the edge of the sprue, it caught on something as I was lifting it out of the box, snapping it off in the process - I'll miss that little guy!!

Still, no point crying over spilt latch handles - both hatches now built and dry-fitted into place and I must say that the time taken to add all the little details really does pay off. Another big tick to Meng methinks!



Thanks for taking a peek!

[Ozzie21]

Aw well pain in the arse things happen. You should sacrifice a Heller kit to the carpet gods I bought my Father a 1/400 Heller bought kit of the Dunkerqe. He has now disowned me
Had to buy him a Trumpeter HMS Belfast to get back in the good books and on the will

Cya
Charles in Queensland

[MrModelling]

Nice Work so far There is a video made by a Spanish program that might help you on the Merkava! There is the link if you are interested. It includes some very nice info for various Armor building issues as well ^^

[alextheblue]

Nice Work so far There is a video made by a Spanish program that might help you on the Merkava! There is the link if you are interested. It includes some very nice info for various Armor building issues as well ^^

Thanks MrModelling, appreciate that - will definitely be watching this later!

[alextheblue]

Aw well pain in the arse things happen. You should sacrifice a Heller kit to the carpet gods I bought my Father a 1/400 Heller bought kit of the Dunkerqe. He has now disowned me
Had to buy him a Trumpeter HMS Belfast to get back in the good books and on the will

Cya
Charles in Queensland

Didn't think of a sacrifice - that might just work!

[alextheblue]

I know that I'm definitely not alone when I say that sometimes there's just isn't enough time to get everything done. Or perhaps I'm just trying to do too much - nah, that can't be it! I've still got the figures on the Chally 2 BB to finish up, the landing craft is about ready for primer for the D-Day GB and the Jagdpanther is finished and ready for primer for the Dangerous Cats SiG. Plus, I have a Toger1 that needs the final weathering done, KV-2 that needs a Matt coat,not to mention a T34 that is ready for its winter cam. And don't get me started on the Chinook that keeps laughing at me from the shelf-of-doom!

But before I get into any of that, I want to get some more done on the Merk, so on with the primer.




The primer is Vallejo grey spayed neat through a H&S Infinity at 20 psi. I was going to use a brown for the pre-shading as I thought this might tone better with the base colour, but decided on Vallejo black primer instead. I'm not intending on a lot of it showing through, just a hint so as to not take away from all the details. When it came to the base colour I did a fair bit of research as I have no clue about modern IDF vehicles. Most of the stuff that I read seemed to indicate that there isn't a definitive colour, but there was a mix of colours that kept being mentioned - all Tamiya, XF20 mid grey, XF57 buff and XF59 dark sand, three colours that no self-respecting AFV builder should be without!


Looking at the colours lined up in front of me, I started to have my doubts. Mixing them to equal parts as instructed, they did look a little better, but if couldn't help hunk that they looked a little too "yellow". After applying a couple of thin coats, I definitely thought that the colour was wrong as to me it looked far too yellow and there was no hint of greeny grey.


Now, as I mentioned, I'm no expert and I wouldn't know IDF Sinai Sand if it knocked me down in the street. One bit of advice that I did read was that this particular colour never the looked the same in any two pictures, so the best bet was to mix up something that you thought was right and go with this instead. Now that's my kind of modelling - make it up as you go along!! So I decided to replace the dark sand with field grey instead and hopefully this would give the greeny grey I was after. Also, I thought the yellowy initial colour would be a good base and hopefully give the overall colour some depth.


And a couple more thin coats later and I'm quite happy with the result.





And that's where I'm at. Once I've got a wash and a filter down, I think this colour should work quite well, but I guess time will tell.

Thanks for taking a look!

[Coen]

I so want one of these Alex... you're terrible.
Can't you do a slightly terrible job? At least I wouldn't be so inspired by your work.

[Donkeywalloper]

Blimey Alex, thats a neat job.
I would say from the pictures that you have gt that colour right.
The Tamiya Desert Yellow always (to me) looks to bright and yellowy (not a word...is it?) anyway.
I can't beleive how many projects you have on the go as well.
My tip to you is, for this morning.........More shelves mate
Love watching and reading your threads and you do write a great blog
Keep up great work.
Love and Peace.
John

[Ozzie21]

looking good Alex. Bugger being a busy boy so much on the go

Ozzie21

[alextheblue]

I so want one of these Alex... you're terrible.
Can't you do a slightly terrible job? At least I wouldn't be so inspired by your work.

Thanks Mike! If you take a slightly closer look, it really is quite a terrible job I'm doing there!

It's a great kit though and this beast would really come alive in your magic modellers hands!

[alextheblue]

Blimey Alex, thats a neat job.
I would say from the pictures that you have gt that colour right.
The Tamiya Desert Yellow always (to me) looks to bright and yellowy (not a word...is it?) anyway.
I can't beleive how many projects you have on the go as well.
My tip to you is, for this morning.........More shelves mate
Love watching and reading your threads and you do write a great blog
Keep up great work.
Love and Peace.
John

Thanks John, appreciate the very kind words!

And if you stick a "y" on anything, it becomes a proper word. And as for the multiple projects, it's all ISM's fault - and for that, I can't thank everyone enough!

[alextheblue]

looking good Alex. Bugger being a busy boy so much on the go

Ozzie21

Thanks Charles!

I do like to be busy - and I even squeeze family life, some work and other hobbies into the mix!

[alextheblue]

"When I'm de-calling you-ooooooooo-ooooo-oo!"

I must confess to being a little worried when I saw the decal sheet included in this kt as it did appear to be quite thick. Upon further investigation it was hard to tell whether it was just the backing paper that was thick as the decals themselves seemed to be fine. Time to give them a warm bath and see what they're really made of. It's at this stage that I feel obliged to put up my standard picture of Micro-Set & Micro-Sol......


As with most armour kits, theres not a huge amount of decals and they seem to lay down quite nicely, although they do seem quite thin. Even taking extra care, they did split a little as I was applying the decals to the track skirts. Rather than gently conform to the small bolts, they actual split around them. Nothing that some touch-up paint and weathering won't fix.

Before


After


Couple more decals at the side and back, plus I painted in a few details like the mud flaps and light reflectors.



Now onto the stripes on the gun barrel. There are two decals for the short stripes that go round the barrel, but the long stripe that runs the length of the barrel has to be painted on. This seems a bit strange to me as I feel that difference in colour and texture will be quite noticeable. So, I decided to mask up and try painting these stripes on first.




I used Vallejo Model Colour ivory, rather than white as I though the latter would be just too bright. Think I prefer painting these on, so just got to let it dry and I can paint the thin black pin-stripe and crack on with the rest.

Thanks for taking a look!

[Tiger131]

your doing a cracking job on this kit think i might have to build another one of these and especially this kit..keep the pics a coming

[Donkeywalloper]

Nothing more to say Alex,
John