IDF Group Build Mk. II 2010-2011

Well, if you're all cool with that...? I'd love to! It feels like I've been on painting and finishing techniques for the last month or more straight and I'm aching to do some building instead. Here's the kit:

Dragon produced a competitor, then upgraded it, and Tamiya has just released a new-tool M51 which looks very nice and probably builds easiest of them all, but in terms of the look of the finished product I reckon this one is still very competitive. The box photos sure look good and whatever discrepencies there are don't seem to be screaming against research pics, so I'm happy and positive about it.

Here's where I'm at right now:

I built up these 31 subassemblies ages ago but never committed to the full build because 2011 was a crazy year for being busy. Last night I added six parts to the lower hull, and four of these assemblies will be added to it today. Hopefully, proceeding from this basis, the beast will fall together in a pretty starightforward manner.

I have the MM Acryl Israeli Sand, and while there will always be doubt over "Sinai Grey" there seems to be no doubt that the paints used on the Isherman were a buff/desert sand shade, certainly the one in the museum (Latrun?) is very sandy and not at all grey. These tanks served late enough for there to be plenty of high quality colour photographs from their service days too, so I'm happy to go with the sand as there seems no green or grey component to the shade in the photos I have.

Looking forward to bringing this one together,

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Absolutely! This GB has been loose from the git-go, why not keep it going?

My bench is a perpetual IDF GB all by my lonesome anyway. Speaking of which, I've got some more progress on the Magach, should get pics up soon.

Thunderbolt379

Hi all,

What's the official end of this GB? I'm about to the point where I can turn to finishing tht Merk II, and the M51 is in advanced subassembly stage -- it's a monocolour scheme, so not too hard a paintjob...

Cheers, M/TB379

Wellllll I think the official end date was Dec. 31, RBaer and myself are pretending we don't know any better!  I started mine just before Christmas and am about to wrap up; sounds like his armour will be going for awhile yet.  I don't think anyone would be insulted if you continued your project inside this thread though.

Hi all,

What's the official end of this GB? I'm about to the point where I can turn to finishing tht Merk II, and the M51 is in advanced subassembly stage -- it's a monocolour scheme, so not too hard a paintjob...

Cheers, M/TB379

Small? If I didn't need glasses before, I would after this one!

Yep, this is officially the smallest kit I have ever built. Very impressed with the kit detail though, very fine & accurate from what photos I've seen. The Israelis added more little bits & pieces to theirs than were standard though, so I've been adding as much as I can to it. Should be done in the next few days.

Nice helo........boy is it small!

My assistant got a little close the other day as well, wanted to see why I was using etch when he knows I hate it. Pics to come soon. No way I'll finish even by the end of this month, but I'm still moving along.

Nice looking builds in this G.B. guys !

Rotor assembled & dry-fitted, cockpit glass attached. I'm wishing I'd paid a little more attention to the fit of the glass, it's a little wide & left a gap I'll have to hit with some CA. Almost there though.

Rbaer - Niiiiice! I love the reactive armour on that thing. I made a valiant effort to push my project out before Christmas, but I'm still finishing up. This weekend should do it though. I present my first-ever chopper! A $5 purchase that was made mostly to use the rocket pods on something else, but it had an Israeli marking option that could be used for this GB.

The main body halves sitting next to a tin of Humbrol enamel...

Avoiding the airbrush I knew I'd need multiple layers of brush-coated. Didn't use any primer either in an effort to save all that detail.

All kinds of glass up front...

The cockpit before final touchups & some weathering...

Note the broken-off landing skid...

All better now with a reinforcing strip disguised as a boarding step. That's my story anyway! My assistant is downright peeved though, I think the comment was "No wings at all? I'm calling Mannstein..."

Five-bladed rotor. Assemby required math. Head hurt all day....

Mannstein sent Agent 003 to find out why I'm building a chopper. She's much more interested than the others, and likes biting things, as my P38 found out. (Now has some battle-damage to a propelor blade)

Anything is progress, right? No way I'm going to finish by the end of the year, but I'm still moving along.......

As of a couple of days ago:

I've added the latches and such inside the hatches, the Israeli boot over the US mantlet bellows, mounts for the Blazer amor, and headlights and guards. Still to do on the turret is finish the outside of the commander's cupola, antenna mount, MGs, ammo box racks on the turret top, and whatever else I can come up with to slow me down. The hull needs tow cables, return rollers, driver's hatch, tool box latche handles, etc. I plan to fill the bustle rack with stowage and cover it with an air ID panel.

Enf of the year -- argh! I'm aiming to complete an Abrams today, then I have a Phantom to do before the 31st 9it's at the painting stage so I'm confident, and my merk II from IDF 1 needs only some small stuff, the MGs, decals and dust, so I'm going to try to add it to my completion list for the year. I resprayed the jerrycan and ammo cans a day or two back, so that counts as progress I guess!

M/TB379

WOW! Nearly the end of the year - how'd that happen?!?! I've been lurking here but trying to wrap up some other GB items as well. I have officially broken open the box on my contribution for this GB though - my first-ever helo! I'll be building Italeri's 1/72 Hughes MD500 in Israeli markings. It's a small 2-seater with a pair of anti-tank rocket pods. Hoping I can find enough time to sneek this in before the end of the year!

I decided to stay with the Acad turret, based on the pic I'm working from of an early Magach. Pics of where I'm at as of today.

The searchlight will probably come off, not in the pic I'm working from. The only light I've seen on an early Magach appears to be of Israeli origin. I have the LoModel urdan cupola installed, detailing begun, and the Blazer armor installed on the hull and turret, bracket detailing begun. I may just leave the mesh out of the bustle rack, since it's the source of all my woes.

Between the camera, computer and photobucket, I can't pick which is the most jacked-up.  Anyway, pics of a sort. Still can't decide which turret, and I may have another parts kits so I may even try again. Seroius AMS. Rather than hurt myself I started the Blazer armor on the hull front. Lots of sanding since it's puddle-cast, just what I needed.

I like the mantlet, not the bustle rack, since I don't have a pic of a rack cover in use during the time period I'm modeling. Geez, I'm making myself crazy.

Lots of progress this past weekend, pics as soon as I can go to the store and get a "rountooit", but not totally happy here. I decided to use some generic Airwaves mesh in the turret basket, hated that, tried to use the kit nylon mesh, hated that even more, so made up a basket cover out of paper. The cover came out nice, but is probably not factually correct, so I may start over with another basket (again? Yes Mildred, AMS strikes again.) Another issue, the AEF turret I'm using is almost "square" at the back, and all the kit turrets are rounded, making the kit baskets fit poorly. If I stay with this turret, I will probably cover the basket with an air ID tarp anyway, so that may not be the big issue it appears to be now. I like the mantlet cover, and have the barrel and dust boot on, so it's decision time.

In the meantime, I've begun adding the Blazer packs to the hull front, done the infantry phone on the rear, and a couple of other details. Gotta come up with a camera capable of taking detail shots......

Here's where I am now: A pic of the turret as I had originally started, with the search light mounted, no mantlet Blazer pacs and the Blazer mounts:

I had begun texturing, the basket is on, as are some details. It is ready to start the installation of the Blazer packs. I then took a closer look at the pics in Michael Mass' Magach book (notably the cover pic...) and realized the Blazer conversion included a new mantlet dust cover, leaving the front of the mantlet bare. Well OK then. So I dug through my spares box, found an old Tamiya M60 mantlet from the original 70's release and an AEF M60A1 resin turret. The mantlet was heated in boiling water, flattened a bit to get the correct profile, then attached using styrene stock and the cover formed from Aves 2-part putty. Still to do on the cover is the attachment rail and fasteners, but here is is so far. The barrel is an Ital -A3 part, used for alignment puoposes only. I'll have to dog up an un-covered gun tube.

Pics are poor, still using a lousy camera, sorry.

I know now why that turret shell was in the spares box, it's pretty basic, halves didn't fit well, no texture or surface detail at all. Also, the hole for the commander's cupola is HUGE, will need an adapter or something. But I can fix that......

Also, shot my hobby budget for a while, looks like I'll be using kit tracks. Some detail added on the basic hull, trying to decide how much I want to use from the kit(s) and how much to enhance or re-do. Trying to avoid AMS here.

Well, I do make myself wonder sometimes. I was well into making a tank from a particular pic, and started doing the mounts for the mantlet Blazer pacs, which are not present on this tank. A searchlight was mounted instead, in the place of the mantlet-mounted HMG. Apparently, the searchlight mount and Blazer packs interfere with each other, as I can't find any pics of the two together. Seems plausable, since that's the case with the kits parts for sure. Anyway, I had all the mounts on the mantlet, and got to thinking (big mistake) about how the mounting studs were installed through the mantlet cover, so I got to looking at some pics again, and realized the part of the Blazer kit is a new mantlet "cover", more like the dust cover on the very late Shermans, that does not cover the whole mantlet. Rats. This made me realize that both plastic kits of the Magach Blazer are wrong, as are all the models I've done as well. The Blazer packs hide this fault when used, but I'm dong somnething different here......

So, out came the M60 spares boxes, and an OLD Tamiya M60A1 mantlet, NO cover (but also no detail) and a resin M60A1 turret from a forgotten source. Slight delay, but that's AMS for you....

Pics to follow.

Thunderbolt379

 

"M1 IDF" -- has Israel bought Abrams???

Cheers, M/TB379

Israel referred to their early Shermans by the gun's designation, so the M4A1/76 with the M1 main gun was referred to as the M1. Although I have thought about an Israeli M1 Abrams as a "what if" before.....

Re. the Academy M51: The only fit problem I had was the mantlet/dust boot area, which I seem to remember being horrible. I was impressed with the rest of the kit.

It's the Academy -- it may not be super accurate but I've been very happy so far with the amount of detail and the ease of assembly. I've compared it as closely as I can to web photos and have no particular grumbles, but I'm no rivet counter. I have their M60 Blazer and look forward to doing it as well.

"M1 IDF" -- has Israel bought Abrams???

Cheers, M/TB379

"Other side of the world"? Sounds interesting........

M60 variants are probably my favorite build these days, next to Shermans. Seems like there are enough different variations on the theme to keep my occupied for a while, and of course I'm always trying to do a better one than the last......    The IDF variants alone are great fun, and I have the pieces together for a couple more in the stash. Another plus for me is the the kits themselves are plentiful, and very reasonably priced. Aftermarket parts are out there, but it would sure be nice if someone (Mr Tamiya, are you listening?) would do an up-to-date M60 A0.

As far as IDF Shermans go, I'm hanging tight, hoping the sprue shots of a Tamiya M51 shown on Tamiya's website were in 1/35, but thinking they were 1/16, since TMMI has a build article of "Tamiya's 1/16 M51" in the current(?) issue. I'll have to pick up a copy, satisfy my curiosity. I do plan on doing their M1 IDF kit soon, even though I bashed one up last year from the Italeri kit. I did the Academy M51 back when it first came out, not really happy with it. Which one are you working on?

I did pick up the MP Models M50 a while ago, may do something with that this winter, just have to see how my time works out.

In the meantime, this M60 will be relatively "clean" compared to the other two I've done recently, working from a pic in the Concord "Mideast Wars" book, from the early stages of Operation Peace for Galilee. I want to depict some missing Blazer panels, .30 cals instead of the FNs, no commander's mortar, no smoke discharger boxes, etc.

RBaer -- dang, that's one good looking tank! Can't wait to try my hand at an M60!

I'm still hoping to get back to my M51, it's complete to subassembly stage but there's been no time, with study, work and crises. I'm on a plane to the other side of the world next weekend, I get back Nov 20th, so hopefully I'll get some bench time from that point on.

Cheers, M/TB379

Man, that's a lot of itty-bitty pieces. I'm interested to see the M51, one of my favorite Shermie variants.

I got some pics of my M60 loaded, basic hull and running gear, basic turret structure. The hull is Academy, only because I had an extra and had it started. I would have used the better ESCI parts, but such is kit-bashing. I am using the ESCI turret, and probably the Blazer packs, since I want to save the Verlinden parts for an M60 slick that'll be next. I spent Saturday morning adding the shocks, moving the idlers down and forward, and building the turret basket. The turret is textured with Mr.Surfacer 500, and I will clean up the basket pieces later. I like to do this after the basket is built, otherwise I break too many of the delicate parts. Still to do on  the running gear is make the mud-relief holes in the drive sprockets, then I'll start the hull details. Road wheels are ESCI outers, Academy inners. This seemed easy at the time, in retrospect I would have used the entire ESCI part, but once again, it's what I had around at the time, left over from another kit that I used the inners to make spares from. Tracks fitted now are Tamiya, but will probably get exchanged for AFV Club workable later on. ESCI barrel is in primer to check for seam traces.  Enough words, here's the pics:

Started trimming all the bogie pieces off the sprue from Dragons M4A3 HSVV kit for the M51 Sherman ;

There's eight parts to each bogie unit ;

It will probably take most of this evening to get all six bogie units glued together ......"lot's of fun"

                                   John .

The Cpl Overby 1/72 scale Israeli Sherman resin conversion sets just arrived at the front door ;

I'm going to start with the M51 build first using Dragons M4A3 HVSS kit for the boggies and tracks .

Included are some nice resin jerry cans and stowage gear ;

I also have the 1/72 scale Retro Tracks resin conversion Ambutank VVSS along with Calibre 72 resin Dozer blade which I'll use two Italeri M4A1 kits ;

Just like Cpl Overby's resin Israeli Shermans the detail of the Retokit resin Ambutank is also extremely good ;

So I'll start with the M51 and the Ambutank first and hopfully some WIP pic's to follow shortly .

                          John .

Sweet transporter. Looking forward to seeing some Sherman stuff, too.

Hi RBaer , nice score on all the Magach goodies and I'm looking forward to seeing your build come together .

I finished the Revell 1/76 M19 Transporter...

I'm still working on the 1/72 Italeri M113 (Early) and should have her finished by the weekend .

I recently tracked down some of those 1/72 scale Cpl. Overby , Israeli Sherman resin conversion sets ;

M50 IDF Sherman , M51 HSVV Sherman and another M50 (late) Sherman .

So I'm looking forward to those arriving at the front door shortly .

                   John .

Scored the old ESCI kit at Supercon, and a Legends Merk III turret for the Acad kit of the same in the stash. Good weekend. I also picked up the really old Verlinden Blazer set in Boston last month. Anyway, the Magach is on the bench, basic running gear well along, turret started. I'll probably just order the tracks from Squadron. No pics until yet, soon I hope. I got fired up again due to my Magach 6 Gal pulling a second in the comp. Funny what it takes sometimes......

White, Mike, looking good!

I'm still collecting parts for my early Magach, need the old Esci/Italeri Blazer kit for the wheels and Blazer packs, and a set of AFV Club tracks, but admittedly not looking real hard right now.....

White -- I got them from "3DVerlinden," which is VLS's online store at eBay. They have most of the range and there are rolling discounts so if you keep watch you can pick up items at great savings as time goes by. For instance, I've bought two of their ceramic diorama ruins lately at 30% off, and am watching others.

Swing by eBay, search on Verlinden and you'll find the seller -- I've bought more Verlinden items this way than ever before.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Hay thanks for the comment, an please tell witch or were on or off line., shop did your armor marking sheet comes from?