IDF GB 4/20/08 - 4/20/09

From some othere photos I have seen of it, has not interior in the dog house but under that there an interior. The interior you see in the first photo is in the kit. Now if some one were to scratch build the lower hulls interior that would add to that build a lot. As for your build it's coming along strong and sharp as a tack.

The one thing that stand's out in his photos is that he shot them out doors. I plan on doing the same with my MUTT and I hope to see some of the othere guys do the same. Out door photos some times makes the model look alot more real.

White_R34 wrote:

From some othere photos I have seen of it, has not interior in the dog house but under that there an interior. The interior you see in the first photo is in the kit. Now if some one were to scratch build the lower hulls interior that would add to that build a lot. As for your build it's coming along strong and sharp as a tack.

I'm sorry, I meant to ask how much of the interior will be visible on your Merk? Looks like you were blanking off sections of the floor, so I figured you might be adding some details in there. 

The one thing that stand's out in his photos is that he shot them out doors. I plan on doing the same with my MUTT and I hope to see some of the othere guys do the same. Out door photos some times makes the model look alot more real.

Depends on the paint job, I think. I use a highly stylised painting technique; My stuff looks terrible in sunlight, but awesome under multiple flouresents (like at a contest ).

Hay you all or yall I need all of you to vote to get our stars to be all gold. Have any of you like me thought that the stars should be all gold. An not half gold, there's a lot of stunning work and tips going on in here for this post to be looked at as if its not worth looking at.

 So get off your duff and "GO VOTE" Soldiers

I thought I read that they disabled the stars thingy.

So how do I do it?

Oh I totally agree, I just can't figure out how to do it.

Ok, I found it:

/forums/960051/ShowPost.aspx

"Cool man"!! you got it. As for my MUTT I poped some photos indoors and outdoors. You all tell me with ones look the best. [Indoors first then outdoors.]

Next post Outdoors photos.

They look about the same really.  Either way the color balance is off.  I'll go ahead and grapb those pics and fix the color balance and tone for them, make them jump out.  I can't do it today however, because I get to go crawl around under a friend's van.  GGGRRRR

Maybe tonight.  If not tonight then I can do it tomorrow.  The question is, afterI take care of them, where do I send them?  Photobucket and give you the link so you can grab them?

Wate I didn't show you all the build of the FAN MG did I. Well here's what I did to add the right MG. Ok once I got an IDF Infantry set that had the right type of MG. I started to cutt off the Modern US MG.

Ok ow that the gun is off I need to sepporate the MG from the mount and amo box.

Now on the Academy FAN MG I moved the MG's top mounted holder to the side angel so I would not be inthe way of a soldiers view.

Then I paited it and glued it on the MUTT. Now here's some outdoors photos.

Oh one thing stands out on the photos from that Resin model I showed you all, the guy shot the model on top of some thing with a sand or light orange color. An if I remember things right you can change the over all look of any photo by letting the Natural light reflect off a surface. So I think I may try this one last thing be for I try to send my Photo and info to the IDF Model site.

fantacmet wrote:

They look about the same really.  Either way the color balance is off.  I'll go ahead and grapb those pics and fix the color balance and tone for them, make them jump out.  I can't do it today however, because I get to go crawl around under a friend's van.  GGGRRRR Maybe tonight.  If not tonight then I can do it tomorrow.  The question is, afterI take care of them, where do I send them?  Photobucket and give you the link so you can grab them?

That sounds good, but first let me E-Mail the IDF site for info and I"ll let you know what they tell me. As for my MUTT looking the same it should , It's just I wanted my buld to be right . Like you did, you didn't use the rong MG like I did and your build turned out right the first time. Look how mini times I had to go back and re-do some thing. Well now it's fully done with all the right stuff on her.

Haven't grabbed and corrected the pics yet, things got hectic and then the weather turned south.

I am almost done with my MUTT. 

I picked up a second vehicle.  I FINALLY picked up a Merkava.  The price was right.  LHS had the Tamiya one for 28 bucks.

Ok I got some corrected versions of your MUTT pics.  You can compare them to the real deal.  They look great on my monitor, but I've had mine as close to being calibrated as I can without using calibration hardware.

Hi Fantacmet --

Truly beautiful work! It looks like it's ready to drive away with living soliders on board! The launcher ansd reload tubes came out especially well, and the dust in the treads is superb. This was a solid, expert build, and I think any modller could learn from your work.

Cheers,

Mike/TB379

fantacmet wrote:

This is actually White_R34's build, not mine.  I just took the pictures he uploaded on the last page, and corrected the color balance and white balance.  Did some tone and tinting work on them too.

Ah! Thanks Fantacmet (sorry White! All above appreciative comments are for you!!!) -- I thought it was familliar, bit it's so long since I've been on the thread... GRRR.

Sweet work, White!

Mike/TB379

Yeah his MUTT with TOW is a bit more in depth and better done then mine is.

His Merkava is also WAY better then mine will be.  I'm building mine out of box.

Hay hay dont put me out there like that my man your work in just as good as my work is. Love what you did with the photos. Here's my new base. Now that I'm down to only one WWII build I can now get back to work and keep my mind only on My Merkava.

Like you pointed out in your question post. Yes The IDF still use's older armor As for the sacks and stuff some of it's now made over there but a lot of it looks like US styled stuff. (Just all Olive Green). The Active sevice use mostly the Merkava MK IV and the Reservists use the older Merkava MK II and IIIs ect..... Most of what we all see on CNN and othere news channels are the Reservist Units.

Here's some new photos from the region, of the Active sevice and Reservis units.

As I get more from friends I will post what ever they let me.

Well for my Merkava I'm building Tamiya's older kit straight out of the box, with the exception of some stowage most likely.  It's actually pretty much done, I just need to paint it.  I still have hopes of getting that Centurian together, I just need to pickup an AFV Centurian and then add the IDF stuff to it from the IDF SHOT version.  The base looks great, how do you get it to gloss up like that?  I've tried varnish and such, but never can get them to look like that.  Granted I've been using styrofoam for bases lately, some wood on some things would still be preferable.

Fantacmet my man it's not varnish on the 3 bases I built It's Clear X-22 Tamiya acrylic hand painted strate from the bottle with a fat paint brush. I was planing on posting a how to do a cheap base Tut but once I had got'in all my work done I didn't thing any one would realy want to see my weard way of building any way. I know how to make stuff up that works. the cheap way.

Oh just one more thing the back pack of the more modern IDF soldier has changed and they look nothing like the old stuff. Now if your building an old IDF tank, you can still use old styed US stowage stuff. But I must say it's not so much the types of items it's how you paint them and place them. un like the us the IDF keep the stowage stuff more nealy pack on there armor units on the more modern tanks. Just thak the time to look at some old photos of them in service. I'm going to take some time to day to look up more photos of you build types. Can you once again point out what makes and models of tanks your working on. SO I can find some realy good photos to post.

An remember post so working photos. An I know every one want's to see what I have done on my "Mer" well I have a lot done and I will be posting new inprogress photos in 2 days or less.

Not a weird way, or rather no moreso then mine.  LOL.

Cheap is good.  I'm on a budget for a little while, couple of more months.  Then for building I'm gonna have to go with a good compact mobile workshop.  I'll be building in the sleeper of a big truck.  LOL.

Thanks for the photos, White_R34. Awesome. Dig that crazy sensor thing on top. They are much dirtier than I would have expected.

I wouldn't mind seeing how you do bases. I developed my own tricks, but I can't call any of them cheap (which is a shame, cause that's how I do everything else).

fantacmet: I saw some IDF stowage over at HLJ.com, but they are out at the moment:

http://www.hlj.com/product/LEGLF1054

It's got all sorts of interesting bits, but no stretchers tho'. I'm trying to find the same over here somewhere. Cheaper on the shipping, etc. If you know a store in the US that carries Legend stuff like that, they might have it.

I know I'm all late w/ new pictures. I'll try to get some up soon. I got a lot of progress, I just keep hitting these sticking points, you know?

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I've gotten a lot done, just none of it flashy or showy.

This kit is well engineered, but it does have a lot of seams that need to be filled and sanded.  Just about every part really. That's where a lot of my time has been taken up.

Here are some examples of what I'm talking about. In some cases the parts don't line up, or the seam runs over some molded on detail. In the case of the smoke launchers, they were hollow in the back. If their backs weren't visible, that would have been fine. They are however, particularly the ones mounted on the turret.

The apparatus for extending the rear ramp is a particular problem (look especially at the first image). There's no way to get sanding sticks down in there, so I'm gonna have to cheat the seams. I got a couple of options I thought of: A) cut some styrene into strips and glue those over the part, or B) cut one big piece of styrene and just cover it all up. B is easier, but might not look as nice. Any advice in this area would be greatly appreciated.

I filled and sanded all the seams I could find and get at, and I filled the rear of the smoke launchers w/ Aves Apoxie Sculpt, sanded to shape. I also had to replace some detail w/ styrene bits. Some examples:

I still haven't figured out yet what to do w/ the rear ramp. No matter how I decide to display the model, the ramp will be clearly visible, so I gotta do something.

Having set the precedent of replacing the handles on the sides of my Hell Hound, I also had to do the same on the top. While I was there I drilled out the headlight stations to accept some MV lenses. For the spotlight on the top, I added a brass tube, the end of which I opened up a bit w/ a dental burr. The resulting hole in the rear of the light mount was capped w/ styrene, sanded to shape.

Earlier in construction, I did some damage to the front hulls anti-skid texture. To repair this section, I took a tip from redleg12 for re-creating the damaged area. I carefully masked off the sections in the front and used Krylon Texture Spray Paint to re-create the surface. I didn't want to go through the hassle of masking and painting the whole thing this late in construction, so I just did the front. It looks a little different than the rest of the model's AS surfaces, but until I get paint on it, I can't tell how much. It definitely looks a lot better than it did damaged.

The rear hull was also received some brass wire tie-downs, and a strip of styrene to cover some gate marks that I somehow missed in the construction process.

The engine mounts are interesting. They have quite a lot of movement to them. I don't see how that would help the vehicle, but could make for some interesting display options w/ some minor work. If I decide to do another one of these, I might use this feature to build it w/ legs instead of hover fans.

So that's where I am. Except for the rear ramp, the model is ready for paint.

"Man"!! that baby looks good. Your going to need some Tactical Markings so here a link to some info I posted to day on the Merkava TMs. /forums/1073145/ShowPost.aspx

Now I have images of what the decal sheets look like, if you want to see them lst me know.

Cosmic I'm still "drooling"   over your detailed work. It realy brings the project to life.

Here's some pix from the Israel, Gaza Conflict III. Day's from Jan.9th to the 12th of 2009. First photo was take'in over looking gaza from a top a Merkava Mk IID.

These next shots come from a Merkava Mk IV battle group starting to move a cross in to North Gaza from south Israel.

Ok now I don't have the 411 on that sensor array. I see that some compare it to a "Doppler Ranging Radar or sensor" but don't quote me on that as I still have not ask about it. I will ask an IDF tanker that knows. After I have seen all the new photo-pix from the combat zone, I see that I will be adding to new things to my Mk IIID. An don't think this will take long, as the items are small in size any way. It's just some upgrades to keep my Mk.III up to date.

Here's a Mk II on patrol at the Israel border., It's call the Mk. IID for the armor added to the turret and sides of the upper hull.

Some IDF ammo crates if any one want's to see what they look like now at days.

"Night time over Gaza"!

An one last thing I wan to show you all the IDF D9 an D9R Catt, this thing is truly a beast. They use thing to help push there way over built up hills and man made obstacles.

Now I'm not saying I wont build one but not yet I need a lot of time to tryscratch building it in 1/35. I know the D9 is in 1/25 scale and is a Diecast model as well. I don't know as of yet if any one has in in a resin kit in 1/35 or plastic.

I love this thread.

fantacmet:You're right about the engine mounts, of course. On the model, the linkages are keyed to only fit one way, so flexing the legs only moves the engines more toward a facing one another position. This doesn't mean they couldn't move independently if the vehicle was "real", and modifying the model's part to swivel freely would take about 3 minutes tops. I guess I was just grousing.

Now, I'm actually thinking about moving them into various positions for dramatic effect. Lean them a little to one side to make it appear like its swerving, all engines forward for a sudden stop... I  haven't decided just yet.

 White_R34: Thank you, and thanks for the info. I have the Verlinden sheet of IDF transfers (I prefer them to decals when I can get away w/ it), I'm just not sure how or when certain marks are applied. The Chevrons, for instance; I've noticed some pointing forward, and some pointing up... would they even put any on a truck? I've been thinking about what markings would look appropriate (and where to put them) a lot lately.

The photos are fascinating. In some, the Merks look almost dark blue-grey, while others look green. Are there variations in the painting, or is it just an effect of the film? I'd read somewhere that Israeli tanks were painted different colors depending on whether they were deployed in the north or south. Anyone know one way or another?

In the seventh photo (just above the ammo crates), the vehicle has all sorts of nice variations in hue because of the weathering. That's the sort of thing I'm aiming for.

Ok "C" if thats ok to call you Cosmic. Your right on it with the different types of paint colors. Some of the tank units in the North have bean painted a mid to dark "Olive Drab" color, wile in the south the tend to use a sand type or mild or light "Khaki" some time they would just paint over the OD color with mild sand and the khaki looking color would apear. (Much like my MUTT).

The Blue-Gray looking color is from the time the photos wer shot. "Early morning" hours bfore the move out. Ok as for the markings the, The white Bold Chevron ">" at the front  on both sides skirts and stands for Company, an are found on Tanks. As for your hover craft I think you would only use Israeli Language of Hebrew. Now I know you may not be able to read it, but you can hand paint?, can't you? Ok what you will need it a platoon an company markings. But I will ask some of my friends that are from there. I would like to ask you if I can repost you HC so they will know whatI'm talking about. Oh I will give them your name and give them a link to this thread. Oh here a photo I left out your going to love this view.

I'm building that sencer but I don't yet know where to mount it. So that any your question I must ask the IDF guys & Girls to day., but first I need your permission to post your images on a Message bord othere than this one.