what would be the closest match for the green seen on Israeli armour, without mixing?

Hi Marek,

Yes the Merkava III is a very poor kit in terms of accuracy and just in terms of its basicness, the turret and rear bins are indicators for this, BUT if you have got it for a good price and you enjoy making models without counting rivets this is a good kit to build and to practice your techniques.

As for color let me tell you this the Merkava III featured on Israeli armor is the prototype built in the 1990's and was in fact painted that dark green. I made my dark green for this kit by mixing Tamiya Nato olive and Tamiya desert sand to approximately Green 4:1 Desert. Adjust with black and white to get fade.

Since this Academy kit closely resembles the prototype it is feasible to paint it this green color as this what it was painted as a non operational color straight from the factory in Haifa. It was this color for unknown reasons. This is not a light affect, the photographs are pretty accurate for colour, for instance I know that is Israeli earth, I know the black, and I know track color.

If you are building a Merkava as a combat unit armored corps vehicle then a sandy karkhi is abetter color to use.

I hope this helps you.