I received this kit as a gift, and all the bad things I'd heard about it appear to be correct. That aside, I jumped in anyway. The friuls were already bought for a future project, so they went on since the kit tracks were so horrible. I've tried to approximate enough of the small detail to get the look, hopefully paint will help. It has the look of a Tiran 5, I think...
Thanks for looking, as always.

Looks good Russel! Nice detail. I have this kit in the stash and sooner or later it will float to the top of the 'to do' list. Don't recall that many horror stories about it other than more oversimplified than reasonable. Still correctable by your example.
Keep us connected on the progress.
Rick

Nice work! I am in the process of finishing up one of these myself. Picked up 4 or 5 of them for $5 apiece a few years back, and are just now using them to relearn building skills. Haven't built a kit in about 20 years, so figured they would be good to practice on. Mine looks nowhere as nice as yours.

Thanks, guys. It's a real "skill-builder", in that almost every part is thick, heavy, and loose-fitting. I did more seam filling and sanding on this kit than the last ten combined. I'll put up more pics as soon as I get some paint on it, and the last little bits.
BTW, the dimensional errors I found were confined to the depth of the hull, the angle of the glacis (maybe) and for sure the shape of the rear of the hull, probably all due to the motorization of the original kit. What I've seen elsewhere (I think on another build log here) concerns the depth of the turret. The only correction I made is really an attempt to disguise the hull depth- I changed the angle of all the suspension arms to permit the tank to sit lower on it's suspension, giving the illusion of a shallower hull.

That's one good looking model, after hearing about what you went through to build it I was shocked because I couldn't even tell in the pictures. Good job all around!

Just curious, but what resources did you use (if you don't mind me asking)? I haven't been able to find a whole lot of info on the Tirans. Most of the changes I made were based on a few photos over on IDF IN SCALE, and T55 stuff over on PRIMEPORTAL. Didn't worry about the dimensional stuff, as I don't have any scale drawings to work from. I switched out the machineguns for ones from Academy, and attempted to scratch the piping and brackets for the fender fueltanks. As I said, I have a couple more of these to build, and hope each one can be improved on. Figure I'll build one up into a Tiran 4, and maybe make the others as regular ol' T 55's. Who knows? LOL

I used the old Verlinden book (by Michael Mass) on the Tirans at Latrun as my primary resource. An excellent backup was a build article in Model Military International from a few years back on a Lebanese Tiran, and one pic from a Concord book. Not a lot, but the Verlinden book was very useful.
I've still got to do the fender return/retainer springs, and I think I'll use the Acad .30's as well. The external fuel lines are there, but next to invisible in the pics....

Thanks. Will have to look for them.

Very elegant workaround. With a "rough" kit, sometimes it just makes sense to minimize the errors rather than try to fix absolutely everything. I think it's probably going to look sensational when it's finished.

Thank you. The painting should be pretty straightforward, since these things were in service with the Israelis right after a re-fit, and there will be minimal weathering. Seems like Israeli sand-gray holds up very nicely.

A little more done, been getting up early in the AM and spending 20-30 minutes here and there.....
I added the kit .30 for the loader, even though the mount and MG were one-piece, it's relatively usable. The commander's MG mount is from bits in the bottom of a spares box, and will get an Acad .50 since the kit's was a little rough. Antennae were made from those plastic "zip-ties" that hold tags on new clothes, with PVA glue "balls" on their tops. Front fender retainers are .020" wire, with bits of plastic stock for hinges. Getting close to painting time.....

Looking good! Those Fruil tracks look great! I used the kit tracks on mine. I just could not justify spending that kind of money on a $5 kit. May see about getting some for the Italeri T-55 I have in the stash...those tracks look really bad to me. Detail is decent, but the sections look like they will be difficult to get a nice sway on. I wish there were a cheaper alternative. I added the machine guns to my Tiran tonight. Slowly getting there on it. If you are planning to use the Trumpeter decals, be aware that some of them don't fit in the spaces they are supposed to. I ended up swiping another set from one of my other kits to mix and match.

I hadn't even looked at the kit decals, good point. I'm not sure what I'll be using, but I do have some stuff in the decal box. I may end up hand-painting the chevrons.
You're also making a good point about the tracks, kind of like a "diamond in a pig's a**" but I couldn't help myself, they were pretty reasonable, from the Tank Rat at a show. The Trump tracks were pretty horrible, stiff as a board.
I got some paint on over the weekend, MM SAC tan over MM dark green. I've used the SAC Tan for post-'67 vehicles before, over a light or dark green for a primer, and generally like the results.

Edit: Sorry for the crappy picture, I had a little too much coffee this morning....

The chevrons from the kit decal sheet fit pretty well. I went back and looked, and it is #7 (the decal for the box under the TC's cupola) that was too large. I swiped another #6 from another sheet, and it fit fine.

I painted mine with MM Israeli Armor Sand/Gray that I lightened a bit. I just could not mix a tan that looked right to me. In the process of trying to dirty it up some.

Looking forward to seeing yours completed.

Does that Sand/Gray come in a rattle can?

Not sure. My LHS carries most of the Model Master paints in the bottle, and a few Tamiya colors. I don't remember seeing alot of spray cans, except for car colors. I thinned the bottle paint and used an airbrush.

That's my issue, I don't have the room to use an airbrush, so I'm a "rattle-can man" through and through.
I did get a coat of clear gloss on this morning, so a pin wash is my next step, and painting the stowage.

I know what you mean. Back in the day when I was into modelling cars, the rattle-can was all I had available. One thing about armor, no two vehicles are gonna look exactly alike unless they just rolled off the assembly line together. LOL

That's for sure.
I'm getting kind of anxious to move along on this one, the Magach 6B Gal I went ahead and started is calling my name......

LOL I'm about T-55'd out myself for now. Got a couple of Orange Box kits and a KV-1 I want to try my hand at next, but I told myself that I am not going to start another kit until I finish this one.

This one made me laugh, I'll have to take a picture of my work area. I probably have at least a dozen in progress, in various stages. I finally actually finished a trump KV1 last week (patting myself on the back here). This T55 has been ongoing for about a year. A couple of Shermans that I just got a wash on, have been in progress for over 5 years. It may be a sickness. My wife concurs.

LOL. Believe me, if I had just a little bigger workbench and space...I'd probably have a few more underway. The real question is how am I gonna fit a 1/72 U-boat on the bench?

Russell another great Israeli piece. Great work on such a bad kit may I add. One thing can I say, could you possibly post some more shots of it painted please?
Your scratch building skills are adding some interest into the build.
Keep it up.

One thing don’t get into the habit of too many kits on the bench you’ll end up like me

Jaymes.

Thank you, Jaymes. As soon as I get further along, I'll get pics posted. I haven't been at the bench since I put the clear on it a few days ago. Hopefully this weekend......
Unless of course I start something else...

Thanks for the tips on the decals. I checked fit after I'd trimmed the film and you were spot-on. A little trimming and good to go. All the decals are on and a shot of clear gloss is drying right now.
I debated doing the white-edged-in-black air recognition stripe on the top surfaces but couldn't find any pics or even mention of such a thing on the Tirans, so I guess I'll not do it. Next is a pin wash, hope to have pics up before Christmas, since I'll be away from the bench until January .
If not, merry Christmas all.