IDF Group Build Mk. II 2010-2011

They probably do.... but my Japanese isn't all that good!

I did that also . Its a common mistake . Tamiya should put a warning on the label , "do not use staight from bottle " .

Yes, my mix must have been too light on the flat base. I just didn't want to go too heavy - I hand-brushed the stuff on a seat the first time I used it, unfamiliar with what it was really supposed to be used for. (Luckily I scrubbed it off before it was un-fixable!)

Vance the helo lloks good . I use the Tamiya flat bas + Future also . Sounds like you didnt mix in enough flat base ? I thin mine with glass cleaner , windex or something similar .

Alright, not happy with the pics, I'll probably take some more for myself. And my home-brew of Future + Tamiya flat base didn't flatten out as much as I'd like. I may still use a little Humbrol flat varnish before I put her away. Here we go:

And a "scale shot" with my little buddy Yoshi. He's in the wrong era & location, but he shows height! (Whoops - seems he's also been into the Sake....)

If anyone spots something in the "touchups" category, feel free to point it out - and feel free to leave any comments or questions. Had a great time with this one.

Thunderbolt379

The colour looks good to me. Is that moulded-in texture there? It really helps to break up the monotone scheme.

Thanks, guys! H-34 -- that does look a fun kit!

The Isherman moves along apace, I sprayed the shade (buff and brown) and fade (buff and white) coats yesterday, and made a start on the brush work on the tires, doing all one side's worth, now mostly done the other side, plus I've almost finished the first round of oil wash weathering. She's starting to look the part!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Thunder , this color does look better

I'm glad to hear the paint scheme has worked out for you Mike .

I grab this kit out of the 1/72 IDF Armor stash today as I was looking for a quick build for the Tanks on Wheels GB ;

It looks like a fun kit with not too many pieces ;

The kit comes with rubber tyres and a small PE fret and has a nice 90mm gun up front .

The Israeli's used the French made Panhard AML-90 supporting Paratroopers in the Jordanian Front during the Six Days War 1967 . It appears they were not overly popular and may have only had a short service history .

Anyway , I'm looking for a quick build , so I'll add the AML-90 into the mix

Hi guys,

I picked up the necessary paints today and mixed the 1973 shade against the ratio given on that excellent website. I mixed a large batch, and then another half the size to finish the job. I sprayed everything, hull, turret, suspension, wheels, jerrycans (the holders get masked, then the cans themselves put into black), spotlight, drivewheel assemblies... Here's the lineup of parts now:

That looks a lot more like it! The colour is a bit washed out on-screen here, it has a more earthy tone in reality, but feels much closer to the mark than the Acryl shade. Detail closeups:

Compared to the pic I posted a few days ago, it now looks like a tank. Well, detail painting now, an overall black oil filter, then a standard rust job. I need to spray the tracks, cans, muzzle break and spotlight lens, brush-apply NATO black as a second coat on the tires to correct overspray (the templates are rarely correct fits) and overpaint the sprue gates. Then I can start to get the running gear installed...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Thunderbolt379

Hi guys,

Progress, I started painting the main scheme today, using MM Acryl Israeli Sand. Hmmmmmmm, I dunno... It looks great on Vance's chopper but a satin-finish mustard yellow on a tank just looks wrong. Here, what do you think?

...

Looks like you've already got the feedback you need - just call this a base-coat & add another layer! I actually used a Humbrol enamel on the chopper (pics to follow tomorrow).

H-34 -- great experiment! It looks like Israeli sand grey has been getting greyer over time, from 1967 to 1982 each formulation was trending greyer. I'll pick up the 59 and 20, possibly tomorrow, and see what I can do. The more I look at the Acryl the more I'm sure it's either the wrong era or the wrong application, or something... Too yellow and too bright.

Many thanks for putting me on the right track with this!

Mike/TB379

As a bit of an experiment I airbrushed the parts of a Revell M48 A2 in the Six Days War (Israeli Sand Grey) of 50%/50% Tamiya XF-60 and XF-57 . Then compared it to a M19 Tank Transporter with the 1973 Yom Kippur (Israeli Sand Grey) of 33% XF-57 , 33% XF-59 and 33% XF-20 ;

Unfortunatly the camera flash is a bit of a nuisance and doesn't help showing the slight difference between the two ;

The M48 hull top on the left with 1967 paint mix has a very slight yellow appearance as compared to the M19 cab chassie on the right , which appears to have a greyish appearance .

I doesn't show all that well in the pic's but by eye there is a difference .

John .

1973 is looking like a good bet... Will need to pick up two of those XFs to mix the shade. M/TB379

H-34 -- thanks for that link, I didn't know about this page! That looks just the ticket, now I just need to determine exactly which era this tank was serving in. It's a "late" example, with details like the rear stowage bin and track plates on the turret sides, so I'm guessing 1973; the Shermans were withdrawn in '84, I believe, and would have been probably in a training role at the time of the invasion of Lebanon...?

Okay, let's tie down that date!

Cheers, and thanks, Mike/TB379

You may already know about this site ;

http:/idfmodelling.free.fr/article01.html

There's two options for Israeli Sand Grey

HTH.

Well as far as the "shine" you could spray a dull coat over it after you do the decals . I dont know about the color for sure but it looks close to some pics i've seen .

Hi guys,

Progress, I started painting the main scheme today, using MM Acryl Israeli Sand. Hmmmmmmm, I dunno... It looks great on Vance's chopper but a satin-finish mustard yellow on a tank just looks wrong. Here, what do you think?

It doesn't look much like the shades in research photos, is definitely not the shade the Shermans are sprayed at Latrun today, and I've never heard of shiny tanks. I'm sorely tempted to mix something, starting with Tamiya Buff, adding a touch of grey and seeing what I get. I was intending to use a black oil filtre overall but even that won't tone this down...

Hoping for wisdom from the more experienced IDF builders!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

I should be putting  the finishing touches on my "Defender" tonight. Just need to seal in the weathering, a quick touchup on the tail rotor (now that it's in one piece again ) and add the doors.

Thanks, Shellback! I got the tires blacked up today, and masking is well underway. I hope to be putting the desert scheme on tomorrow.

M/TB379

Thunder , thats a good looking isherman kit .

Progress on the Academy Isherman -- not bad for about three days, most of the work was done in two:

Now, 46 localities to be masked...

I didn't get the mesh into the two small intakes. I blanked them with styrene and not even superglue would make the supplied mesh stick. Nobody sells an M51 grills-only PE set (at least not that I could find in the time I spent looking...) so mehhh.

I might possibly get to the tire black today...

M/TB379

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 .

RBaer

Thanks guys. VC, a 177 is kind of big, right?

Lots of scratching. Both the Esci and Acad kits are pretty basic. Lots of Mr Surfacer for texture, and yeah, all the Blazer armor is spaced off the turret sides a few inches, not much and probably less than what I have depicted, but I wanted the "look".

Mike, I'm putting Tamiya's M51 on my short list, and then I can "re-cycle" the Acad model I did a number of years ago. Watching yours with interest.....

Yep, even in 1/72 the He-177 measures roughly 17" wingspan, 12" length.

Thanks guys. VC, a 177 is kind of big, right?

Lots of scratching. Both the Esci and Acad kits are pretty basic. Lots of Mr Surfacer for texture, and yeah, all the Blazer armor is spaced off the turret sides a few inches, not much and probably less than what I have depicted, but I wanted the "look".

Mike, I'm putting Tamiya's M51 on my short list, and then I can "re-cycle" the Acad model I did a number of years ago. Watching yours with interest.....

Amazing work RBaer -- I must use these images as references when I tackle this subject. I have Academy's kit as a starting point, and can see me adding on some AMs and scratched materials.

CA glue at the shops today, then on with the Isherman, I might even be ready for masking tonight!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

RBaer

Good start, Mike. Moving fast, too....

VC, looks great! Still amazed at the teenienessof that thing. Makes me want to tackle Dragon's 1/35 kit, almost.

OK. as threatened, pics:

Oh I know, officially the teeniest entire kit I've ever built. Just for contrast's sake, one of my next projects is a 1/72 He-177 "Greif"!

Great detail work on this, a lot that I didn't notice until I zoomed in on the full-size pics. All of that reactive armour is offset from the hull?!? And lots of putty too, I assume that's more for texture than anything else? I suspect you have a few hours invested in this one. Very nice work!

Good start, Mike. Moving fast, too....

VC, looks great! Still amazed at the teenienessof that thing. Makes me want to tackle Dragon's 1/35 kit, almost.

OK. as threatened, pics:

Hatches, mortar mount. I won't be mounting the commander's 60mm mortar, wanted to show this thing "clean", like in the pic I'm working from.

Rear deck additions, just need the gun travel lock here.

Turret top, showing external hatch detail. I tried to show the detail present on the commander's hatch lid a little better than the kit parts. No one makes the effort to represent the pivoting feature of the lid.

Mantlet, start of loader's MG mount.

Not a lot left before primer, time is my only hitch now.

Mike, sneaking in with the Super Sherman! Good looking piece of machinery, can't wait to see it come together.

A couple more steps toward the finish line for me over the past few days. Decals are on - all 6 of them!   and the TOW pods ans attachment arms are now on. Gaps around the windscreen have been filled with white glue. I was kind of disappointed with this solution, but then I saw some close-up pics of the real thing - my solution looked cleaner than some of theirs!

Apparently 12 Canadian pennies are good for something after all...

And from the front, with some extra work done to the sensor "eye" on the nose. That silver spot is a piece of reflective metallic confetti from a gift bag or something - attached it to the pack of a piece of clear plastic sheet, backed that little sandwich with flat black paint, then superglued it in place with the black towards the back. The photo doesn't show it all that well, but you can actually tell that there is some depth there (it is tiny after all!). I liked the effect but I wish I'd found a smaller sparkle, or had a tiny hole punch to work with.

The spotlight on the lower nose - painted the inside of the clear windscreen bright chrome where the light lined up, then painted the interior colour to hide the chrome. Added a drop of microscale masking liquid to the outside before painting the tan, now it looks like I have a proper light in there.

And an overhead view - I added some plastic bits and wire from a twist-tie to the topside of the tail boom to replicate some of the goodies that the Israelis added.

Up next, some touchups around the glass, the tail rotor & weathering!

Update on the M51 -- I enjoyed some building today and have worked with 40 new parts. I need to pick up some CA glue tomorrow for a number of assemblies, from joining the hull to attaching tiny, delicate parts, so I think I've gone as far as I can tonight. At this pace construction will be finished tomorrow and I'll be masking. I think I'll paint the HVSS units before attachment, and use the template method for the wheels.

Academy seem to have done quite a good job on this one, I'm certainly having a great time putting it together!

Cheers, Mike/TB379