Not another one! 1/35 Merkava III

[gregg136]

Evening everyone, well it's a Saturday night so it must be time to finish another one. 
This is the Meng 1.35 Merkava Mk.3d Late LIC. Having just done the Namer I quite fancied another Meng kit, and since I've already got the paints, the Merkava was an obvious one.

 

The quality of the kit is excellent, the relief of the moulded ball and chain (unlike HobbyBoss' that will die on the shelf of doom) was quickly tempered by the lack of anti slip texture on the hull. This I thought was an odd omission since the Namer had it and the gorgeous photo album included in the kit shows just how noticeable it is. I didn't quite like the idea of building it without so I had a quick look around and found VMS' hull texture. It's pretty simple to use it's just like those awful kids glitter pictures you have to put on the fridge (6 weeks maximum). It's by no means perfect but I'm quite chuffed with how this has turned out. 

 

Unfortunately it did get dropped at one point so the aerial mounts on the hull are somewhere in a hoover bag now. 
All Brush painted with AK Acrylic IDF Modern Grey, AK's Nato black (a first for me using Lacquer) and weathered with the Tamiya Sand and Flat earth stick (which thanks to the texture really wasn't easy. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking. 

[Stef N.]

Nice work Gregg. Liking the texture effect, it works well. Shame about the aerials but that doesn't distract away from a good looking tank.

[FrancisGL]

Hi Gregg,

I really like the last photo, you can see the texture better, it's one of the reasons why my Merkavas from the stash are still there...lol

Cheers and TC

Francis.

[Keeff]

Nice work!  I like the textured finish .... very realistic.    

 

 

Keith  

 

 

[gregg136]

Thanks, I was really worried about getting it all evenly coated like in the tutorial video, but from what I could see in the photo examples with the kit is that it's rather rough and ready. It was fun to use but it gets everywhere. 

Also if you do go to blow on it to clear the excess, don't do it a) too hard and b) right in front of you.  That's the last of the IDF armour for a while, there's a half built Leopard and the Tamiya Comet I'm itching to get a start with. 

[LeeM]

Nice work. I too used the vms texture on my Merkava too. I think it works well and is fairly easy to do. 

[bissyboat]

Amazing work on the Merkava. I like the sand patches on the chassis.