Good job on the hippie curtains. Ah, base coat finally on

Finally:

Krylon gloss khaki, from the can.

Richard, doog: Thanks!

Karl, this color is so close to another period's sand gray, you'll see it again..   :)

Geez, Russ, that primer could be the base coat, it looks so good!

Great work, Russ!

Primer!

The "primer" is actually Krylon camo paint, "khaki" this time. My final color is also a Krylon color, should go on soon.

Thanks, Gamera.

I'll freely admit that a lot of my tribulation is due to my own ineptitude. The kit is better than I am, but I will finish it. Let's just say it won't be making any contest appearances.

A lot of work but she's shaping up nicely!

Me too.

Oh, wait a  minute......   :)

Thanks, Mike. I'm seriously anxious to get paint on, two reasons:

1) Assembly has been a bit troublesome, and I've been tempted several times to shelve this thing and do something easy, and....

2) I've got a new-to-me color that I think is going to nail the illusive IDF modern sand gray.

I can't wait to see how this turns out.  :)

Tool bags on the turret, and I started the spent-casing bag for the mantlet MG.

Paint soon. This weekend's weather is supposed to be great, so if it's not too windy, it will be a "colorful" weekend.

Thanks, Pawel.

I just paint them now, I used to use muriatic acid in solution, but it's just too easy to paint them.

RBaer - looking good, nice progress here! Are you going to blacken the tracks after they're done? Good luck with your build and have a nice day!

Paweł

So, after a short break to finish up the "Almost Super" I'm doing on the GB board, I manned-up and went back to this thing. Ugh, tracks. These are not the most finely molded tracks I've ever done, but not the worst either. I thing the worst were some Friuls for an M18 Hellcat, so bad I've probably permanently shelved that kit. Anyway, every other link or so has to have some flash removed, then I build sections of five links and go from there. Spade Ace wire actually works great, stiff enough to insert w/o bending, and soft enough to easily sand the clipped-off ends smooth. It's just Tee-Dee-Us.

This is almost enough to do one side, and about three-hours worth.

True dat, and thanks.

I'm going to be doing some re-thinking on the Merkava 2B I had plans for doing. There has to be a better way......

In the meantime, I'm sure glad Meng has some really nicely done injection b&c in their Merk3 kits, one of which is in the stash. I got into a discussion a while back about "generic" b&c pieces in DS-type material, but I suppose the tooling would make it cost-prohibitive. Then the discussion died, but I keep thinking Shapeways.....  I know I'd buy a 1/35 scale truck-load.

Looks awesome, Russ.  The only thing worse than ball and chain armor is the slat armor on all those Stryker and Buffalo kits I'm seeing out there.  I cringe at the thought of it.

That's an understatement, Mike. I came pretty close to shelving the thing. But, I moved on, and attached the whole hippy curtain mess last night:

I've got an idea on painting the chain, may help give it some hint of being 3D, but I'm over it.

More as it happens........

That part didn't sound like much fun. Don't torture yourself over it. You know as well as we do that it's going to be a spectacular looking build when YOU are done with it. lol

It's all fun and games till ya' gotta do the balls and chains.

In the interest of keeping this post "clean", I'll refrain from enumerating the many pitfalls I encountered while trying to assemble the Legends ball and chain RPG screen. Let's just say attempt number two didn't quite go as poorly as attempt number one from a couple of years ago, but it didn't go well at all. So, I ended up using the kit PE chains and plastic half-balls.

Believe me, it coulda' been worse.

Good news: I don't have that much more to do before it's time to paint.

"having Fun"  the most important 'parts' of any model kit

Yep, it's a process, a journey, a trek......

I got a fair amount of fiddly bits on last night, turned on the lights in the model room this morning to take a pics and got a phone call right then that made me forget all about pics. Hmmm.....

Perseverance,  Russ, perseverance... :)

Thanks, Richard.

I actually have some progress pics. I've gotten a few more bits on the turret, hatches, sights, etc, and begun "pre-painting" if you will, of the hull.

Not a contest model, but I'm having fun.

Lookin' good, Russ!

I feel better now......

And more bits:

I think I'm over the hump, until I decide to do the balls and chains.

Argh... still dealing with hull warpage. I straightened up the upper rear, and now it's pretty clear I still have an issue with the rear crew door:

I suppose I'll have to pop that out and have a look-see, but I envision some more remedial work there.  One step forward, two back......

I've also begun assembly of the fiddly bits around the T/C's hatch. The four hatch rests still need some cleanup, but I thought I'd better do that once they were firmly secured in their final locatiion, or I'd be making more sacrifices to the floor monster.

Now to get after the warpage issues. Yuck.

Pawel, thanks. I'm a sucker for any modeling magazine that has Merkava stuff in it.

Richard, I think I remember the email, been a while. I too think $50 is more than I want to spend for an event.  We'll have to say hey at the next SuperCon or ScaleFest.

And thanks, I will....   :)

Doog, I dunno, I have another droid, and I have to say I'm torn on whether or not to use it. You're right, It's hugely Star Wars, but to me that's part of the appeal of it, especially on a tank that has a turret that looks like the Millennium Falcon.....  I'm going to make the decision based on whether or not I want to go through the agony of assembling another one and what I find in my references.

And you're right, it's really big.

I was just eyening this kit on eBay too...cool. Can't believe how big that thing actually is!

One piece of admittedly opinionated suggestion--stay away from that "droid" thing. Correct equipment or not, they just look awful on a tank. Too high a profile, too "Star Warsy". The model will look better without it. Just my two cents..

Russ:  I just looked on the EagleQuest website and an event pass is $50.  That's a little much for me just to get in.

We've crossed paths at SuperCon a time or two over the years but I don't know we've been formally introduced!  You emailed me, since I'm the webmaster for our club's site, regarding what separated first place from second and so on.  Not out of jealousy I took it; but just how to improve your own craftsmanship.

Keep doin' whatcher doin'...

Hello!

I'll be wathing this one too! Nice work, as always!

Funny thing, just today I was browsing through the newest issue of the Polish modelling magazine called "Modelarz" and that issue has a set of scale plans of the Merkava.

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł