IDF Group Build Mk. II 2010-2011

Looking good, Mike.

VC, I have a T34/85 almost ready, and the Magach I'm currently working on. I may also bring a late KT, not sure.

Guys, I'm calling the Tamiya Merk 1 done at this time. There are some fiddling details left, but they're more than I have patience to get into at this time. I just did the gallery photos and will post them tomorrow -- it's half after midnight here and I'm bushed!

Chjeers, Mike/TB379

Looking forward to the finals Thunderbolt!

Gallery shots, as promised! This is Tamiya's Merkava 1, almost OOB, finished in Tamiya Acrylics, oil wash and MiG pigments, with radio masts of .015" sping steel wire. RBaer, many thanks for the tracks that made it all possible!

There are a few remaining points I could have addressed. My marking choice has a divisional sign of two white stripes around the barrel, but I have no confidence the supplied decals will conform well enough not to stand out like a sore thumb against the paint job. I would have painted them if I'd realised at the outset, now it would be a more lengthy process of masking, and I'll look at that some time in the future. I could have outlined the driving lights with a lick of black wash to define them better -- maybe, but does the real tank show such a detail? The tow cables are missing, they're a sub-project for later. And I notice the engine grills don't look too hot here -- the oil wash looks pretty good to the naked eye, but very severe and uneven in pictures, so I might try evening it out at some point.

Okay, my third IDF build is ready for the display shelf (if I had such a thing...), and I'll finish the Merk II when I bite the bullet and buy some Isradecals, I shudder at their expense but if I'm going to build other Merks, which I am, and which will all be derived from Academy kits, I'm going to need them as the Academy decals really are the worst in the business.

Cheers, thanks for looking, hope you've enjoyed the build as much as I have. Next for me, a slightly problematic Sea Harrier, a StuH 42 with all the trimmings, fold PE for an AS-90, get a T-72 into paint, and move two Spitfires along to the painting stage... Oh, and finish at least one Phantom before midyear!

Mike/TB379

Awesome Merkava 1 build Mike

Everything looks great but I understand your own minor issue's with some of the weathering and washes , although it doesn't show in the pic's .

You mentioned about the radio mast , which is something I had over looked on my 1/72 builds ; So I'll be adding some wire as well .

All round excellent build Sir .

John .

Thanks, John, it was a pretty straightforward build, the only issues were really with things like the lack of fit on the right skirt, and some tiny parts with no positive location features. Other than that it was a very pleasant run through the standard suite of techniques.

I realise I've only done two armour builds which are more than single-colour schemes in the last two years, and they're both WWII German. The AS-90 coming up is a two-colour scheme, so that'll help rebalance things...

Cheers, Mike

Mike, uhhh..

That is an impressive looking machine, glad I could follow along. One of these days I'm going to have to try my hand at some armour. (I do have one one the stash) That's some great work.

BTW, I just checked out the profile for the original poster "White_R34" - no sign of him since October last year??!! Anybody know anything??

Thanks, Vance! Armour has become second nature, I guess, and in some ways they're easier than aircraft -- generally bigger and with less filling (none on this one at all...)

I was wondering the same thing -- White R34 had some stunning scratchbuild/conversions underway, but he's not been around for ages. I hope things are under control for him...!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Looks good, Mike.  Your builds are always well-executed and neat.

I hope to have some pics up of the finished Magach soon.  It looked good on the contest table last Sat but no show. No worries there, the class was rather large, and had a lot of very nice builds.

Helo H-34

It's good to see the IDF builds still rolling along .

My 1/72 M51 is stalled at the boggie assembly stage but the build is still on the bench .

I saw over at Tracks n Troops they had some 1/72 IDF equipment sets as well as a M113 Fitter and Command vehicle in resin . I placed an order and wanted to use paypal as my payment option but I'm yet to recieve a invoice to send the payment through . I don't want to make a nuisance and bug the guy about my order , especially if he's really busy doing ton's of orders  for other modellers . It's been about a week since I placed mine , so I'm not sure when it would be appropriate to contact Tracks n Troops about my order , perhaps I'll wait another week ?

Anyway , I'll try and make some progress on my M51 over the next couple of days .

John .

Are you making any progress on the IDF tanks?

Ken

Ninja-Viking

Helo H-34:

It's good to see the IDF builds still rolling along .

My 1/72 M51 is stalled at the boggie assembly stage but the build is still on the bench .

I saw over at Tracks n Troops they had some 1/72 IDF equipment sets as well as a M113 Fitter and Command vehicle in resin . I placed an order and wanted to use paypal as my payment option but I'm yet to recieve a invoice to send the payment through . I don't want to make a nuisance and bug the guy about my order , especially if he's really busy doing ton's of orders  for other modellers . It's been about a week since I placed mine , so I'm not sure when it would be appropriate to contact Tracks n Troops about my order , perhaps I'll wait another week ?

Anyway , I'll try and make some progress on my M51 over the next couple of days .

John .

Are you making any progress on the IDF tanks?

Ken

Hi ken ;

Welcome to the FSM Forum pages

My three Merkava builds are still waiting to be decaled and the M51 build only has the boggies attached to the hull . So sadly my progress has been a little slow . The Cpl Overby's M50 and M51 resin Sherman kits are fairly straight forward builds , It's just Dragon seem to over complicate their suspension parts for 1/72 scale . In any case I would like to try and make some more progress on them this weekend .

Unfortunatly my mother was rushed to hospital earlier this week and she is quite ill . so I haven't been able to do any scale modelling at all lately . Hopefully things will start to improve over the next couple of days and mum can be moved out of ICU and back to a ward

I did finish a 1/72 IDF M7 priest for Thunderbolt379's 'Have Gun Will Travel" GB . There's lot's of WIP pic's of the build on pages 2 , 3 and 4 . I used Italei's Fast assembly M7 priest kit combined with Italeri's M4 Sherman boggies , tracks and engine , here's a couple of the finished pic's ...

Hopefully I can get some more work done on the IDF Shermans over the next few day's .

John .

Helo H-34

Ninja-Viking:

Helo H-34:

It's good to see the IDF builds still rolling along .

My 1/72 M51 is stalled at the boggie assembly stage but the build is still on the bench .

I saw over at Tracks n Troops they had some 1/72 IDF equipment sets as well as a M113 Fitter and Command vehicle in resin . I placed an order and wanted to use paypal as my payment option but I'm yet to recieve a invoice to send the payment through . I don't want to make a nuisance and bug the guy about my order , especially if he's really busy doing ton's of orders  for other modellers . It's been about a week since I placed mine , so I'm not sure when it would be appropriate to contact Tracks n Troops about my order , perhaps I'll wait another week ?

Anyway , I'll try and make some progress on my M51 over the next couple of days .

John .

Are you making any progress on the IDF tanks?

Ken

 

Hi ken ;

Welcome to the FSM Forum pages

My three Merkava builds are still waiting to be decaled and the M51 build only has the boggies attached to the hull . So sadly my progress has been a little slow . The Cpl Overby's M50 and M51 resin Sherman kits are fairly straight forward builds , It's just Dragon seem to over complicate their suspension parts for 1/72 scale . In any case I would like to try and make some more progress on them this weekend .

Unfortunatly my mother was rushed to hospital earlier this week and she is quite ill . so I haven't been able to do any scale modelling at all lately . Hopefully things will start to improve over the next couple of days and mum can be moved out of ICU and back to a ward

I did finish a 1/72 IDF M7 priest for Thunderbolt379's 'Have Gun Will Travel" GB . There's lot's of WIP pic's of the build on pages 2 , 3 and 4 . I used Italei's Fast assembly M7 priest kit combined with Italeri's M4 Sherman boggies , tracks and engine , here's a couple of the finished pic's ...

Hopefully I can get some more work done on the IDF Shermans over the next few day's .

John .

That's Good,

BTW it's me........Cpl Overby

Bazinga! I actually got some pics uploaded.

So, I am calling the Magach 6B (early) done. I may or may not put it on a base, decision to be made later, as I have also a 6C (built for the first go-round of this GB, I think..) that could go with it. Stay tuned, if you're really patient, as I'm really slow. In more ways than one.

 I did manage to get this one to a local show (Squadron Scalefest) where it did not place, but it looked good, and that made me quite happy.

The pics:

Mike, John, looking good. And Mike, no prob, maybe we'll drop in you one day, have a beer.

Next: I dunno. I picked up a few choice items at the show (pic below) but also have a few on-going projects that I may jump back in to. Help?

Oh, and in regards to Vince (WhiteR34), I have seen a couple of posts on armorama in the last few weeks, but nothing like the amount we used to see here. I give up, maybe we're moving too slow.

RBaer -- superb work on the Magach! I love your builds, they look so used and tough! Nice haul on the show shopping too, I have that King Tiger, she's a beauty.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

RBaer

Bazinga! I actually got some pics uploaded.

So, I am calling the Magach 6B (early) done. I may or may not put it on a base, decision to be made later, as I have also a 6C (built for the first go-round of this GB, I think..) that could go with it. Stay tuned, if you're really patient, as I'm really slow. In more ways than one.

 I did manage to get this one to a local show (Squadron Scalefest) where it did not place, but it looked good, and that made me quite happy.

The pics:

Mike, John, looking good. And Mike, no prob, maybe we'll drop in you one day, have a beer.

Next: I dunno. I picked up a few choice items at the show (pic below) but also have a few on-going projects that I may jump back in to. Help?

Well done on the final/complete Magach - dirty & worn without going too far. Looks like you found a good balance.

That French B1bis looks interesting...

Maybe we are running slow - this is the IDF 2010-2011 GB after all!

Thanks guys. I really struggled with the paint on this one, even to the point of thinking seriously about stripping it and starting over. Glad I didn't, now.

I think I need to build a "clean" one next, whenever the next IDF bug bites me, just to see if I can. I have a couple of Legends conversions in the stash, and a couple more M60 kits also. But next build will probably be something completely different, for me anyway. Or maybe I'll finish this:

RBaer

Thanks guys. I really struggled with the paint on this one, even to the point of thinking seriously about stripping it and starting over. Glad I didn't, now.

I think I need to build a "clean" one next, whenever the next IDF bug bites me, just to see if I can. I have a couple of Legends conversions in the stash, and a couple more M60 kits also. But next build will probably be something completely different, for me anyway. Or maybe I'll finish this:

Completely different? There is an all-Saab group build going on....

Like, cars or flying things?

If  I want to get really off the beaten path, I have an OLD Matchbox 32nd scale Lysander in the stash, maybe with about four parts glued together.....

Well, just for the sheer fun of it, I pulled  the Super-duper Sherman off the shelf and got after it. The lousy M1 tracks came off and I re-did the idlers and drive sprockets, using Tamiya parts. The rear hull is extended out to accept a bigger engine (of course) and today I started on a different turret. Pics (and a semi-possible story which I will firmly stick to) are to come.

RBaer

Well, just for the sheer fun of it, I pulled  the Super-duper Sherman off the shelf and got after it. The lousy M1 tracks came off and I re-did the idlers and drive sprockets, using Tamiya parts. The rear hull is extended out to accept a bigger engine (of course) and today I started on a different turret. Pics (and a semi-possible story which I will firmly stick to) are to come.

The Sherman-palooza continues!!! (Saab flying things GB, btw)

Speaking of Saabs, there was a guy named Carlsen (I think) that used to make Saab cars fly....

.

Unless I'm mistaken, it was a Saab flying car in a James Bond movie back in 1975 (The Man with the Golden Gun). It looked a darn sight better than the roadable planes they keep coming up with for real...

M/TB379

I guess if Saabs can fly, Fords can float?

More Super-duper Sherman progress, time to get the camera out.

Well, camera's not totally co-operating but here's a teaser or two....

i1236.photobucket.com/.../SD530311.jpg

i1236.photobucket.com/.../SD530315.jpg

i1236.photobucket.com/.../SD530309.jpg

This one is actually making me giggle.

Jeez, RBaer, it looks like an Academy M51 hull, but I'm seeing parts from three or four more sources -- kitbashers of the world unite! This will be a doozy of a build! Careful, you'll give me the Israeli bug again. I'll be pulling out that black Spitfire from the '48 war... or the Mustang. Can't ... build ... another ... IDF ... Must work on the other ten on the roster for this year -- it's July already!

M/TB379

Luke, come to the dark side.........

Yep, Acad hull, and turret, ancient Tamiya bogies, Mr T Pershing tracks, drive sprocket, and Merk idler mount, M48 road wheel for an idler, and a few other things too. More work (fun) done yesterday, no pics yet.

RBaer - I love the cast steel texture work you've got going on there.

Thank  you, sir!  I'm going to post progress only on the "armor" forum, keep it simple. New pics up today.

Thunderbolt379

Unless I'm mistaken, it was a Saab flying car in a James Bond movie back in 1975 (The Man with the Golden Gun). It looked a darn sight better than the roadable planes they keep coming up with for real...

M/TB379

Hey, their planes look.... okay, they're probably an acquired taste. But seriously, the Drakens just look impressive: