Ingo Degenhardt Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 (edited) Here's one of my rather rare builts of 1/35th scale military vehicles. In this case AFV Club's Sho't Kal, which is basically a british Centurion - amongst other things upgraded with an American Teledyne Continental Diesel engine that provided the tank with more than twice the range of the original petrol powered Centurions with their Meteor engines. All IDF Sho't tanks were upgraded from the Sho't Meteor to the Kal. Besides better range and reliabilty, the Continental engine was the same as used in the Magach (M48/60), also a major MBT of the Israeli Defense Force back in the late sixties and Seventies - with obvious advantages. Because of the kit's workable suspension I bought AFV's workable track links which are fine but do not hold together all that well. I think Friul tracks would have been the better choice. Other extras are the mantlet cover (AFV) and the commander figure (Legend) There's some strange lighting here - the turret is of course the same color as the rest. Edited January 18, 2016 by Ingo Degenhardt 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingo Degenhardt Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 (edited) The Diorama/Vignette is supposed to show this Sho't Kal at the beginning of the Yom Kippur war in October 1973 on the Golan heights, when approximately 1400 Syrian T-55s (+T-54 and T-62's) attacked the Israeli positions along the 'purple line' (marking Israeli-occupied ground there on the Golan). Hence may be the rather astonished expression on the commander's face - the IDF only had 177 Sho't tanks to engage the syrian onslaught in the first few days. I used Ammo mig MIG-067 (IDF Sand Grey 1973) to paint the tank plus various pastels for weathering. The ground is Lifecolor's 'Golan Earth', also a pastel powder. When I bought the kit I was happy with the rubber tires provided - but only until I found out that the rubber rings also form part of the wheels themselves. Not a nice thing to paint... I recommend some decent resin replacement road wheels. In order to put some pressure on the suspension I loaded the tank with some heavy iron weights - this worked quite well as the tracks now followed the moderate ground curves. Edited January 17, 2016 by Ingo Degenhardt 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingo Degenhardt Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 (edited) In the desperate and brutal fighting that followed, the IDF managed to inflict such heavy casualties that the Syrian army finally withdrew from the Golan Heights - and left ca. 900 tanks there, either destroyed, damaged or intact, but abandoned anyway. The IDF lost virtually all of the 177 Sho't tanks, but may be quite a number was not beyond repair and finally was recovered and repaired. The large amount of captured Syrian armour enabled the IDF to put a lot of them into their own service - either as the 'Tiran' MBT oder later converted to an APC - the Achzarit. Mainly T-55. The equipment on the tank comes from a Verlinden box with IDF accessories. The goat (very soon to depart the Golan for a quieter place) I received from a member of our local model club and I have forgotten who makes them (There was a cow included as well which he kept). I painted the goat in Humbrol glossy White and while this was still wet and sticky, I sieved some very fine Viscose fibers all over it and later sprayed the brown areas. Looks quite convincing to me. Edited April 10, 2016 by Ingo Degenhardt 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingo Degenhardt Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 Here's an overview of the scene with an Israeli flag sticker that I put on the wooden base with the groundwork applied around it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingo Degenhardt Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 Last picture of the Sho't Kal's frontal view. Hope you like it and every comment is welcome - constructive critic comments also. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackG Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Looks to be a great build as is the photography. My only peeve is the individual posting of each photograph ... though an ingenious method of garnering an optimum number of posts and likes from one completed build regards, Jack 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrancisGL Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Really well done, cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwality8 Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Superb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzby061 Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Nice work on tank & dio (and goat!) Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 Excellent model & dio! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batcode Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 looks great, nice job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boom.boom Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 I like everything about this build... Yours modeling skill, them, little vinet...and especially the goat ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Very nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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