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Meng Models SS-003 Achzarit Early Heavy APC - now with photos!


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Hi folks,

 

I am newly returned to the hobby, after a number of years away. Until now I have always modelled British armour - most from WW2 and the first Gulf War. But I fancy a change. I have always been interested in the Israeli Defence Force, and their unique methods of acquisition and engineering of their AFVs, so as to end up with vehicles which suit their particular needs, and 'supply chain'. So, I'm starting out with Meng's Achzarit Early HAPC. It's a very interesting vehicle, and a typical Israeli 'product' - old Russian tank, plus a lot of ingenuity and components acquired from all over the place resulting in a unique kind of vehicle.

 

I'm intending to build it pretty much 'out of the box' - without going into a lot of detail about why, I need to keep life simple.

 

So, the beginnings... I've got a copy of the 'Desert Eagle Publishing' book on the vehicle, and access to lots of images on the interwebby thing - hopefully that'll suffice for research materials!

 

I've started at the beginning, as stated in the instruction sheet - though, knowing me, I'll probably find a 'better way' and deviate significantly. But wheels are usually a good place to start.

 

The sprockets and idlers went together fine.

 

Road wheels 'A' (four off), not so much - two of the 'blind' holes (part B6) are far too shallow to fit the poly-caps as moulded, though two are fine. I'm away on holiday, so only have access to a limited selection of my tools... This is a lathe job and, unsurprisingly, I didn't bring that with me! So road wheels 'A' will have to wait a few days... I wonder why none of the on-line reviews (and build logs) I've read haven't run into the same issue.  

 

Ah well, onwards and upwards, now for road wheels 'B'.

 

Cheers,

Phil

Edited by PhilHendry
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Today has been a day of chilling, swimming, walking around with the camera photographing birds - great spotted woodpecker, coal tit, bullfinch, chaffinch, wren, blue tit, great tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, buzzard. I've also done some modelling - added most of the details to the lower hull, so I'm virtually finished with page 1 of the instructions.

 

Photos of progress will follow, but I'm not set up for model photography here, nor do I have a good enough connection to upload photos anyway. Once I get home, I'll try to work it out - this forum seems to do things a little differently to others I belong to.

 

 

 

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I didn't get anything done on Monday - too busy swimming, packing and travelling home, but I got a fair bit done on Tuesday - the lower hull is almost finished, apart from parts (like spare track links) which I'm leaving off deliberately. Fixed the problem with the two road-wheels - a quick job deepening the holes with my lathe. I've started sticking some bits inside the underneath of the upper hull too.

 

Nothing will get done today (Wednesday), because there's a trip to the zoo in the offing!

 

Trying to decide whether I really am going 'OOB', or whether I'm going to redo a few of the bits which look slightly overscale.

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I am still making progress, albeit slowly - too much real life going on at the moment. I must take a photo or three of how it's going. I am deviating, a bit, from the order suggested in the instructions - largely because I want to make airbrushing easy.

 

I am resisting the temptation to 'superdetail' the thing and, so far, building it out of the box. That is going to change slightly though - I'm going to replace the 'hinted at' tie-downs with scratchbuilt items - largely because I want to make 'proper' straps and ropes to tie down the baggage, and the slightly raised 'lines' which are as near to tie-downs sas the kit gets, just don't cut the mustard. I'm going to replace the tracks with Model Kasten. Oh, and there's a weld-seam halfway along the hull sides which is missing - I'm going to add it.

 

Today's progress was interrupted by me suffering a total dexterity failure and first juggling my #3 scalpel and then stuffing the Swann Morton #10A blade into the top side of my thumb just behind the nail - cue swearing and loads of red leakage.

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It ought to be said that this is a really nice kit to build. The parts count is not high, and the fit is superb (not counting the early 'hiccup' with two road-wheels). It is very reminiscent of Tamiya in that regard.

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Today's progress, so far, is the arrival, all the way from Oz (and no duty or Post Office 'handling fee' to pay - YAY!!), of a set of Modelkasten  T55 tracks - SK-59 - the 'working' version. I'm not a big fan of 'rubber band' tracks, particularly on tracks which need a lot of sag (like T55). I know the upper run of the tracks on the Achzarit are mostly hidden by the skirts, but they aren't entirely hidden, and I would know that they were wrong if they weren't sagging properly. So these, whilst a bit of an indulgence in some ways, will enable me to do a 'proper job' of the tracks... 

 

Though quite what effect cutting out, cleaning up, and assembling 88 x 2 links will have on my (in)sanity remains to be discovered! It's not clear why half the sprues are labelled A and half B; other than the labels both appear identical, with 'inner' and 'outer' trackpins on each sprue.

 

Having recovered from this morning's exertions, and got the dinner sorted out, I'm going to go and stick some plastic together; hopefully without continuing the 'death by a thousand cuts' suicide I started the other day!

Edited by PhilHendry
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I was going to build this with the rear crew 'access ramp' open. But I think I'm changing my mind. I like this kit so much, that I think I'm going to build it shut - though probably with a couple of crew in or around the hatches...

 

...and then, at some point, obtain and build the 'late' Achzarit kit, which has (more or less) full interior details, as well as late equipment and 'Western' wheels and suspension.

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I need to think about some aspects of the model, and how I'm going to tackle them...

The smoke dischargers for instance: the kit ones are 'open' showing the heads of the grenady things, but every photo I've seen shows them with a zipped canvas cover on them, or just the empty rectangular 'can'. I probably 'ought' to sculpt covers from greenstuff or similar, but can I be bothered?

Some of the early vehicles don't appear to have anti-slip texture on the upper surfaces & the kit doesn't have it. I could add it for a more 'typical' appearance, but then that's getting a long way from building 'out of the box' - and it opens up a whole can o' worms as to what material to use and how to apply it...

And there's the matter of how much more actual assembly I do before reaching for the airbrush. And then paint itself... I'm not fussed about the actual IDF colour(s) itself, but am I going to prime it (I never used to), and if so, with what (tempted, it has to be said, to 'squirt' grey from below and white from above)? And am I going to 'pre-shade', or not? I don't want to overdo the 'paint effects' on a fairly new vehicle - which will get heavily 'grimed up' - the IDF, because of water shortages, rarely wash their AFVs, relying on brushing them down if they get too bad. So a lot of dust accumulation is in order, but perhaps, apart from some chipping and a bit of rust, I don't want to 'age' the paintwork too much.

So, given that I need to think, I need a mindless task. Today's a 'day off', with only minimal chores, and I'm intending mainly to rest. So track-bashing seems like a good choice!
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Sculpting smoke dischargers covers from Greenstuff. Long, long, time since I sculpted anything. Used to 'dabble' a little in 1:35 scale figures and bits for them. It's going well so far. The knack, as always, is not to do too much at once - sculpt a bit, bung it in the oven to cure (sticking the uncured GS in the freezer at the same time), then add the next bit, and so on, so that the later bits can't ruin the earlier bits.

 

Yesterday was spent replacing the 'tie-downs' with brass ones, because I want to be able to 'strap down' the baggage, and the little moulded plastic strips just don't cut it for adding straps. I 'just' did the most visible 30 or so. But at less than 0.5mm wide and about 2.5mm long (once bent to shape), they were an awful fiddle. I only lost one to the carpet monster though, which I thought pretty good going. Oh and I sorted the cable runs - they're ready to fit once I've got the big bits done and the hull top and bottom stuck together.

 

I still haven't done any track-bashing! Keep finding other stuff which 'needs' doing. Now though, I think I'll bash out a short run of links while I'm waiting for the GS to cure.

 

So much for building it 'out of the box'!!!

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Second lot of GS setting. Then there'll just bit a spot of 'carving' to do to neaten up one or two corners, and the smoke discharger covers will be finished.

 

The Modelkasten tracks are easy, though the bits are small. The sprues are cleverly designed - each link has only one connection to the sprue, in an easily cleaned up area. There are two jigs for assembly, each holding 10+ links. And then the pins... The pins are tiny 'stubs', but the sprue each pair are attached to acts as a handle - so you stuff one pin in, twist to remove the (incredibly tiny) attachment, reverse the 'tool' and track and stuff the other pin in the other hole. The pins are 'handed' - one on each link has a 'head', the other doesn't - T55 tracks are 'handed'. Lastly you run a tiny drop of liquid poly over each pin, and the job's a good 'un - 'working' (but delicate) track. I reckon each link takes less than a minute to complete.

 

This project is going well and I'm enjoying myself. There's enough interest in a 'new' vehicle, belonging to an army I don't know that well, to keep the grey matter interested, and a sufficient variety of tasks for the physical side of building it to be interesting and enough of a challenge to my skills, without it being impossibly difficult.

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36 minutes ago, PhilHendry said:

Thanks, yeah, I figured that. I was being lazy. I'll fire up the camera this evening and take some. Then I'll have the 'fun' of uploading them to Photobucket...

I gave up on Photobucket some time ago. Got thoroughly pi**ed off with the slow service, so now I use Village Photos. Job done.

 

John.

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Here are a few photos. First of all the upper hull, with a whole lot of replacement tiedowns, and most of the details fitted.

 

UpperHull.jpg

 

And the lower hull:

 

LowerHull.jpg

 

Various 'odds and sods' which I'll leave separate until after painting:

 

Bits.jpg

 

Tracks:

 

Tracks.jpg

 

And the smoke dischargers, corrected and with the covers sculpted - just a little bit of neatening up to do:

 

SmokeDisch.jpg

 

And that's it for now.

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YAY!! I've finished trackbashing; tedious, but not the grubby, heavy, work it is in real life. Each track is 89 links - one more than I believe is 'standard' in reality, but that gets the tension right. Anyone who can be bothered to count them is welcome to tell me I've got it wrong.
 

The modelkasten tracks were, actually, very easy to use - each link has only one attachment point, which is easily cleaned up and in an almost invisible place. There's almost no flash and no mould-lines anywhere it matters. The trackpins work well on their little sprue 'fitting tool'. Colour me impressed - the job was quicker than I expected, and they look great - even before paint and weathering.

Edited by PhilHendry
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I got the plastic bits finished yesterday - everything that's going to get stuck on before painting is now stuck, and I'm left with a few minor 'sub-assemblies' to paint separately and add later.

 

Next up is towropes and etched brass. I was hoping to get that done all done today, but I've come down with the 'dreaded lurgy', and that's 'sparked off' my atrial fibrillation, so I feel like crap and am reduced to lurking on the sofa with a book and my iPad. Oh well.

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On the subject of painting, I bought Mig Jimenez's 'F.A.Q. 2' on a whim when it came out. I've been reading it... Having last painted an AFV back in 'Verlinden days', I come from the 'oil wash and dry-brush' school... And now I'm as confused as a very confused thing.

 

Heck, I never even used to prime models - I'd just fire up the airbrush and squirt Humbrol enamels at them! And now I seem to be confronted by a zillion different options, and that's only the primer! Weathering-wise, I'm going to keep it simple - a lot of dust, a little wear/chipping and the odd rusty spot (like where the hatch stops hit).

 

So, priming? A 'rattle can' (with attendant potential issues of getting too much on) or a 'dedicated' acrylic primer applied by airbrush? The 'top coat' is going to be Lifecolor UA902 Israeli Sandgrey 2.

Edited by PhilHendry
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Back from seeing the quack. At the time I saw her, the ticker was behaving quite oddly - 1,2,3,4,miss, 1,2,3,4,miss, and so on. But by the time they'd got me hooked up to an ECG, it had returned to a completely normal sinus rhythm. Flippin' typical! Anyway, feeling much better again; hopefully, it'll be months before it misbehaves again.

 

Now to work on the beastie again!!

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