well, the kit is kinda disappointing: details aren't as bold and crisp as i had expected - luckily the voyager PE set replaces them. I can't wait to the hobby boss merkava IV.

The turret alone, come form Star Wars !.

BTW, Hobby boss quality, between Dragon/Tamiya?

Regards

Hi Matan, great progress so far, every build you post up here has AM sets in onew from or another, it just makes me wanna get some AM off of ebay and build till i die LOL . But i wouldnt say the Academy Merkava 4 is dissapointing, just a few things , like the mis aligned gun barrel and the tedious ball chains. What happened to that sherman of yours?
Alvaro, i would say hobbyboss quality is pretty good. I built their lav-150 and it was an good build. But some kits like the Hobby boss Leopards, have poor detail in some spots, bad innacuracies and the usual fit problems. Other than that most models ive built like the 1/48 t34 were good in terms of build -ablility

yep AM stuff is pretty great, though you don't always need it. in this kit's case, you do. the details are just so lame. my sherman is sitting on a shelf, waiting for the paint booth to arrive

anyway, here are more pictures. the details from voyager are, again, excellent, PE quality is superb and so are the instructions. data plates on the turret are from legend's detail kit. I just hope that when i paint them, the paint won't clog up the carvings.

Happy New Year Matan - I am working on the same kit too but just an OOB build. The PE really does "spiff" it up though. Anyway how are you going to do the non-slip surfaces ? And can you recommend a couple of figures to go with it ? Thanks, Tom

@Ivan
re figures: non I can really recommend. the academy ones are suitable for APC more (they are definitely NOT tankers). the legend offering looks good, but I haven't built it.
for the anti slip I will use this paint. it's a "texture paint" and has these small grains in it, which i think will do the trick


and to the pictures - build going on slowly, due to the extensive PE work. in fact, I didn't even touch the sprues for couple of days

Thanks Matan for the tip. I can probably find this stuff at the local craft shop. Keep posting ! Tom

Interesting build log, Matan.

I don't think the kit details are as bad as you make out to be honest, but I do agree that the PE set bumps up the kit to another level and improves the overall "look".

I'm building this kit myself at the moment (one of several ongoing WIPs on my bench in various stages of completion) and have replaced the stowage baskets with the resin ones from the Legend set.

I have assembly of mine more or less complete, with only the side skirts and the balls & chains to go. I'm going to use the Legend balls & chains as well. How are you going to tackle them? I don't much care for the kit solution, whereby the balls are moulded onto the sprue and you have to slice them off. The kit-supplied PC chains are too flat and two-dimensional also.

- Steve

as i have the legend baskets kit's ball n' chains and the voyager PE set ball n' chain I still need to choose which to use

more work done, most of the details are finished on the turret and it's starting to look like a tank also, did the 0.5 MG and to my surprise the academy offering was BETTER then legend's detail kit 0.5 MG, so i took just the resin cartridges bag from it, PE is from the voyager set. gun is from the legend detail kit

in preparation to doing the balls n' chains bit i've glued legend's turret basket on the turret. used epoxy glue which serves as a filler. also done some work on the front and back mus flaps on the hull (no picture though )

Hi Matan Nice start to your Merkava IV. I am about to start mine too. What are you going to use for the paint? Any idea's? I've bookmarked your thread

Great work keep it up.

well, I've ordered DOA IDF colors from Brian, and I'm going to see how they look. probably use them or try and test my mix of 3 parts xf-57(buff) 2 parts xf-49 (khaki) 2 parts xf-51 (khaki drab) and 1 part x-2 (white) though it would probably need some working on

started on the balls n' chains today. as it appears, voyager's instructions calls for too long a chain, so I'm going to follow them, and then shorten as per need:

I remember that Legend intructions on my resin mk4 said that I needed 2 chain links on the sides and 3 on the back. The "connector" you glued in the ball looks a bit big, adding unwanted length to the chain.

I remember cursing for 2 days when making the balls and chains on my Merkava

yep, that connector "adds" another link, but it's really easy to connect it to the chain, so i'm just going to "bump" the balls one link up when i'm done
edit: i've decided not to be lazy, so i have cleaned the CA glue with tamiya acrylic thinner (it's quite good for that) and i'm "bumping" the balls one link up

the turret is done. shame the 'balls n' chains' look like that


commander's hatch:


tried to solder PE, first time so go easy on me :


cables to work the 0.5 cal MG:



frontal view:



and in case you thought the PE madness was over... voyager's side skirt PE set:

the end is near:

Lovely build Matan, the PE details are excellent. This should look great when finished. Have you thought which paint/marking scheme you'll be using?

On another note, love your display pic! ) .

well, I was kinda thinking of making it on par with "my" tank (if you follow me )

thanks for the positive comment. this build is hectic! I've started 29th december 2009...

anti-slip + overall paint job + future. Looking for comments on preshading / fading. I'm trying to master it, so tell me what d'you think (and tips on preshading are much welcomed)

finally, the beast is (almost) finished!!!
now the weathering and detail painting (and putting better antennas on) can start wooooohooooooo
BTW, the fruil tracks were great and are a must have giving academy's bad kit tracks.