Tamiya 1/35 Merkava Mk1 & Academy MK2

[brembo]

Here we go again...this time on one of tammys classics, the venerable Merkava Mk1. This kit must surely be pushing over thirty years old by now?....never the less im keen to eventually do the complete set of Merkava tanks and i was inspired by TRM's easy build on the old tammy Quad gun tractor.


merkava 009 by Brembo2012, on Flickr

As this is quite an old kit i wont get into too much of the build side as this really is all about the painting for me. This particular kit has been a bit of a shelf queen, having started it earlier this year. However i picked it up this week and spent about 3 hours doing alot of the clean up work in prep for painting.


merkava 008 by Brembo2012, on Flickr

Like many of these early tammy AFV's the Merkava is afflicted with the notorious 'battery box' and associated cut outs underneath the hull.....
Luckily i was able to nick an idea off Nemo (cheers dicky) and used some very thin PC sheet to plate over the whole lower hull.....Voila, no more holes!


merkava 007 by Brembo2012, on Flickr

The merks general level of detail is pretty good considering its age and apart from filling a few areas and adding the ID tarps for the TAC signs on the rear bin, I resisted the urge to tamper too much with the base kit.
Lets see how good we can make the stock kit parts look?


merkava 005 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
The completed hull and turret assemblies (seperate). A crucial decision is fitting the tracks which have to run under the sand shields. It's just too hard to retro fit them with these fitted, so they will get painted, in place, on the vehicle.

this will be a handy diversion while i try to solve my crew problem on the M51 project!

[eastrock]

Nice Strart Brembo, I guess we could blame T regarding Tamiya Old Kits LOL

[deafpanzer]

Oh boy, T has been a troublemaker recently... but I am OK with that as long as we are seeing more cool WIPs like this. Count me in!!!

[wbill76]

Looks like a nice little diversion to me! Looking forward to seeing the old kit come to life.

[wing_nut]

Is this the one with that crazy ball armor hanging around the back of the turret? Does that even work?

[bbd468]

Hey brembo, Off to a good start man! Lookin' forward to more of the old Merk.

Gary

[brembo]

cheers guys, i built a couple of these kits for a commision and thought at the time it was pretty good, so have finally got around to doin my own one ! it's pretty handy havin some prior knowledge on the build process.

dicky: re crew for super sherm; the miniart figs i got were not as useful as i thought (feel a little small) and the 5 piece heads are.....

so im casting around for a pair of figures for the top hatches still.....

wing nut: This original Merk doesn't have the ball & chain 'anti RPG' rear turret defence. The rear turret underhang is a bit of a shot trap and in urban environs there is a real likelihood of a rear attack. The chain system is good enough as a first line of defence against RPG's targeting this area.
The ball & chain started appearing on the mark 3 onwards ( im sure some 2's may have been retro fitted?) so looking forward to doin those....not

[Deleted]

Rich,I don't know how I missed the start of this,but I'll sit in for the rest of the trip,if ya don't mind?

[brembo]

Latest update: 25/12/12!

started laying in some primer coats on the tammy mk1 with XF1 flat black acrylic.


merkava 2ps 005 by Brembo2012, on Flickr


merkava 2 003 ps by Brembo2012, on Flickr

and now for a slight addition to the project....


merkava 2ps 006 by Brembo2012, on Flickr

the second Merkava is going to be the Academy Merkava Mk2 with KMT mine plow!

might as well get this one done at the same time....good way to start the new years builds off.

[Deleted]

Merk are a cool tank

[eastrock]

Keep it up, Brembo!!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

[wbill76]

2 Merks for the price of one! Can't beat that! Looking good.

[bbd468]

The Merk looks Bad A$$ in all black!

Gary

[brembo]

Thanks ER, mery xmas and a happy new year to you and your family too!

Cheers dicky, im likin those figs alot! they will do nicely.

Thanks Bill and gary, i should i say 'TANKS"...... ;D

[brembo]

Latest update: Pheww....haven't done an update since last year!.... ;D

actually, its been the 'merry season'....quite a few distractions going on in the brembo household, plus its mid summer here.....BBQ's, naked sun bathing and excessive alcohol consumption to contend with....it all takes away from the bench time

So i had to slap my self and say 'get on with it!" and here we all are now...


merkava MR 001 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
The sand skirts on the academy kit are more complex than the tammy kit and have a number of hangers to mount. There are 2 differant front hangers, an exhaust hanger and the remainder are the same, so its important to get the right ones in the correct positions. So a bit of forward organising is a good idea here.


merkava MR 005 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
I have to say i've gone a little off track with the 'keep it simple' part of this plan, merk Mk1 is ok for that but Merk Mk2 is a tricky little beast!
It's easy to say 'and now build the mine plow', it's actually quite a bit of work.
in a somewhat ironic twist i seem to have 'stepped on a mine' with this one ;D The rollers themselves are indivdual little kits, quite cool but time consuming to assemble. They have moving parts which i recommend retain that function, as later on when you need to do set up its handy to be able to adjust positions.
In this pic the rollers have a disclosing coat and a bit of sanding ( be sure and remove the paint from the mounting tongue....its a tight fit onto the fork!)

merkava MR 003 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
A test fit of the roller assembly on to the forks....all good...but dont add them till you've done all your chain work!

merkava MR 004 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
OK! a quick sneaky pic of the whole vehicle in disclosing coat with the rollers in place....but, time to pull it apart now.
It's best to think care fully about the order in which things get done on this kit, as jumping too far ahead, too quickly, will make it very difficult to do some of the assembly work (like the chains).

merkava MR 008 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
The rollers have 4 chains per side, plus one longer chain that connects both rollers together, so thats 9 lengths in total that have to be connected at both ends.
For this task i selected a suitable sized chain and some ultra fine lead wire (fly tying wire) for attaching the chain links to the rollers and arms.
This is a bit of a ball aching job but once you work out a system its quite straight forward.
The chain had to be cut to exact lengths (3 cm) so was care fully measured out before being attached.

merkava MR 009 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
The front 4 chains are completed in this pic....4 more to go!..best tips for this job:
1. Use a wire much longer than you need. it makes it easier to attach and knot.(then cut away the excess)

2. Long needle nose, angled tweezers are much better to use than sausage fingers.

Now i know why doctors use em for doing stitches


merkava MR 010 by Brembo2012, on Flickr

And here we have the mine rollers with all four chains attached. The rear links are still to be connected to the fork arms and the long connecting chain is yet to be done.
This is one of those 'think about the order of process' steps i mentioned earlier.
It's best to do these 8 x 3cm lengths with the rollers detached, then attach the four rear links once the roller are mounted to the forks, then do the connnecting chain last.....pheewww passs me a drink


merkava MR 006 by Brembo2012, on Flickr

And lastly we have the sand skirts being attached. i used a bit of sprue runner to act as a support to hold the skirt in position while the glue set on the top mounts. I see we have some holes to fill in the bottom of this chassis as well !

coming soon.....Hair of Hebron ( another battle ) and those pesky turret tow cables...

merkava MR 007 by Brembo2012, on Flickr


cheers, and thanks for lookin!

Rich

[brembo]

Jan 6, 2013 13:19:32 GMT -5 @dickyf said:

glad to hear the naked sunbathing season is drawing to a close...... Phew!

Cheers Dicky!.....I've had my fill of 'Scorched Almonds' ..... ;D

[deafpanzer]

Those mine rollers look just GREAT! Have fun with those cables!

[eastrock]

Love the details on the roller, Rich

[wbill76]

Some nice progress there Rich, those rollers looke like they would be a lot of fun to assemble!

[bbd468]

Shes lookin' real nice Rich...the rollers are killer and will look sweet on the Merk! Nice job man.

Gary

[bullardino]

Wow, what a nice Merk, Brembo

[wing_nut]

Looks good. Nice pile of the ball and chain. Hmm.. reminds, I need to call the wife ;D

[brembo]

Thanks to all for the positive comments and feedback, much appreciated!
Its been interestin for sure doin this side of the build but i have to say i have steam poppin outa ma ears

Lots of test fitting and making sure that things happen in the right sequence. its not unlike clearing a mine field....one false move and....

But i am pleased to report that the mine roller has been fitted up...


merkava mine plow 002 by Brembo2012, on Flickr


i've made the Abrams mine plow at least twice now and this one rates ahead of that one in difficulty, but both are quite challenging. I took a whole day to do the Abrams plow, its been 2 or 3 at least on this one.


merkava mine plow 001 by Brembo2012, on Flickr

ive now glued up the entire assembly solid so that it will be less fragile to move and so things like the strop cables dont get damaged. it will also assist in the painting process to have everything secured.

Now its onto the turret for tow cables and rear chain armour...

[modelfreak72]

Looking good Rich! I like addition of the mine rollers! this is gonna be fun to watch!

Pete

[bbd468]

Oh yeah Rich...that plow looks sweet on the Merk! Now the old BALL-N-CHAIN armor....or as i call it the old wife armor.

Gary

[brembo]

Pete: thanks mate, the mine rollers will be worth the effort when they're all done and painted. its one of those experiences best remembered retrospectively.....at the time....much gnashing of teeth ensued ;D

Gary: cheers mate, i like this IDF kit. it will be a good warm up for the meng mk3 with MR!.....i know.... a sucker for punishment

Nemo:plowing thru this one mate, that explains the furrowed brows then... ;D

[Deleted]

great work on the kit adding the mine plow makes for a different looking model

[brembo]

cheers Smudgey, lovin the Mk3 Meng pic you posted too.

Latest update: Good progress in the build process over the last couple of days...
First thing to tackle was the turret mounted tow cables. For this kit i decided to dispense with the straight sections of premoulded placky cables and replace the centres with real wire(retaining the stock eyelets)


002 by Brembo2012, on Flickr

First cable in place, just as well i attached the mounting lugs securely as the real wire placed an amount of presure against the lugs at the bend point.

001 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
Drilling 2 small holes into the eyelets to connect the towcables was a tricky proceedure....another one of those fiddly time consuming tasks. but its worth taking the time to do it correctly.

003 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
once both cables were mounted up and secured it was onto job #2....the dreaded ball & chain rear turret armour -aka " Hair of Hebron".
another one of those fiddly diddly-icous jobs which requires you to pre drill mount holes, cut down the chains to length, clean up the ball ends and then individually mount each item.
This was a task best done in batches, as it is some what tedious, and requires max concentration, so i spent the best part of a full day- (on & off) just picking away at this job 2 or 3 at a time.

merkava 2 turret 001 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
What you eventually end up with is this.....a complete set! at the end i ran a bead of cyno around the entire mounting area to act as a stabilising element. Should provide some extra strength and reduce the possibility of losing any... plus its hidden under the bustle so cant be seen.

merkava 2 turret 002 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
Rear view of cables and chains- the conn link had to be pulled in to the basket with some wire to give it the right position and sit.

merkava 2 turret 003 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
Hair of Hebron peeking out from under the bustle....looks pretty cool!
They actually give you enough to do 2 sets so i've squirreled the rest away for another merk!

merkava 2 turret 005 by Brembo2012, on Flickr
Ready to hit the paint shop for undercoat!

Thanks for lookin... back for another episode soon!

Rich

[eastrock]

kinda tedious task Rich, but all in all looks great

[wbill76]

Nice work on the cables and ball&chain arrangement! Tedious work but you make it look easy!