Hi fellows, I wish to show you my last work. Actually I've finished to build it and I'm ready to start with the painting steps.
I tried to add all the details I could, using old PE or scratching whole parts, as the rear hull baskets.
Of course the most binding job was the turret basket's construction. I decided to put off the resin one of the kit, building a totally new with an old Legend Merkava III C turret PE foil, plus brass rods. This basket was then dressed with a "Shimshonit" cover from a thin lead foil.
I added, as discussed on another topic, the tipical IDF anti slip, with hairspray method (first lacquer, and very thin sand on the wet model immediately after).
You can also note a new cal.50 from Lion Roar range, new Friul tracks and Aber small PE numbers on side hull panels.
Comments and suggestions are very appreciated.

Reworked position of return rollers (wrong position as per instructions foil) and new copper axels to strengthen all the beast's wheels:






My anti-slip layer:











the final result (the primer is important to better fix the sand)




Some details added


















New PE ammo boxes with lead strips






Coaxial FN MAG hole




The new turret basket with its details







the resin original one




The basket without the Shimshonit cover



and with it








The new cal. 50 with remote control wires










The rear hull baskets.

The resin original one



The new scratched ones






















A real Merkava tanker



and mine




Panoramic shots













Thanks to all of you, men.
As soon as possible I'll post new painting steps pics.
Cheers.


Guido

Guido. That is one big report. Great job on that texturing. Can't wait to see some paint on it.

My head is still spinning from the scratchbuilt rear hull baskets. Impressive work, as usual.

-YL

Guido excellent work with nice attention to detail, one question are the straps of the empty ammo storage areas long enough to strap down an ammo box. In the pictures they look a little short when compared to the straps on the stored ammo boxes, but it could be an optical illusion.

wow! that is some amazing work.
Love the new turret basket and rear hull baskets.
My first thought was the sand was too granular, too large, but the effect is really good.

Keep up the good work.

Mike

Thanks to all of you, men.
Darren I think you right: one strip is surely too short. I'm still in time to replace it.

Mike, if you could have a look to the model (not to pics), maybe you should have a different impression (maybe), as you're watching macro shots. However on next IDF AFV I'll use a thinner sand of 180 micron, that I think is closer to scale.

Great work....
Best Merkava I've seen...
Can't wait to see it painted!

I think your Merkava looks really nice! It's very nicely build. But I don't like the texture. It's way too large.

Lars

Super detailing and very sharp work! My eyes would be bleeding now from all that tiny work!

Can't wait to see paint on her and thanks for sharing.

Hats off Guido !!

Keep on posting such nice pictures. We are raising the level of details at a point we will hardly follow you.

Thank you Lars.
Until now I've found various ways of thinking about that anti-slip : who loves it, who doesn't.
I can affirm that it isn't in scale, of course. But in a general way, it doesn't seem so bad to me. I prefer that when you have a look to it, you can immediately understand what it is.
My two cents

Hi Olivier, how are you? Very kind words yours, thank you.

Awesome work, Guido!!

I have a question, where did you get the guy with the sunglasses, what set?

Marek

Blast Model both of them, but I replaced the head (Hornet) on the other one.

Guido if you are concerned about the grain size of the sand, go into a pet shop and get some chinchilla dust, it is a sand which is a constant grade that may fit your needs. As its name suggests it is very very fine sand. Due to the time and attention you have lavished on this build can I expect a feature any time soon?

Thank you Darren for your cons.
Feature? This will be an honour for me. Yes Darren, if you think it's good enough.

Some time to spend
I tried to make a comparison (nothing serious) between some "sands" I've, in order to help who wants to a create his own antislip on IDF tanks.
So have a look to this pic, please.



From L to R you have:

1) The same sand I used on my Merkava

2) The "chinchilla sand"

3) 180 micron sand

4) 150 micron sand

So, I think the biggest among them is the "chinchilla sand", but it's fantastic to make mud on vehicles or in a dio.
Mine and 180 seem to have the same grain.
Finally I think the 150 micron is really close to scale ( I still hadn't it when working on the Merkava).
The real problem with this last powder is that it's not easy to find (I think).
That one I showed you is for sandblasting metals and it's oxide of aluminium.
It's used by odontotechnicians. But you have to check in a good hardware store too. Maybe you can find it there.
Hope this can help you.
Cheers.

No 4 looks best scale wise, 1 and 2 lok the same to me I am surprised at the chinchilla sand as I thought it was finer but thanks for pointing that out. It is a very usful picture for anyone looking to add a texture to a vehicle, please include in your feature as a guide, and lastly of course I think it is good enough as this is a very good model covering a large number of elements to learn by.

Guido
I am trying to use for my stryker silica powder for column chromatography, particule size 0.040 mm to 0.063 mm and it seems to work nice.
Please check my thread on the stryker to see when I will apply it.
cheers
Seb

Darren, thank you once again. I'll include of course that pic.
Hi Sebastien, I looked at your Stryker - it will surely be a fantastic model - so I'll be waiting for your progresses. But IDF tanks have a very different kind of anti slip





While Stryker's one is much more uniform, thin, regular: it doesn't seem an antislip



Cheers.

Looking at the anti slip coating on the ref pics you have supplied, I would have to change my opinion and say that coat 2 and 3 best simulate the coat on IAF vehicles, and 4 would be the coat for US and Europe,

I said "it doesn't seem", not "it isn't".
It was to highlight they are very different, to judge by those pics.
And sorry for your skin

Guido fantastic model!
Do you have any close-ups of the .50 cal above the main gun on a real merkava?
Thanks
Evan

Hy everybody.
I started with painting.
First step: preshading with Humbrol 85 Semi Gloss Black



Then I prepared a quite dark tone with Humbrol 84, that is in my opinion the better color (enamel) for IDF tanks, plus 85 in 8:1 ratio.



Another mix above: the same colours as before, but 13:1 ratio



I tried to give several shadings to arrive to the 84 only










On the next steps I'll give it some random lighter tones, by airbrush always.
And then I'll start with weathering job.
Hope you like it