Merkava

I decided to just go ahead and build an IDF early Markava as it would have appeared in June of 1982 during its baptism of fire in Lebanon. The kit being used for this build is Italeri’s 72nd scale Merkava I kit No. 7005 released back in 2002. This kit was originally released by ESCI as kit No. 8323. Date of original release is unknown to me. Donor parts from the Revell Merkava III kit No. 03134 will be used to update some of the original parts were needed on this build. For such an old kit it is very well detailed. Anyhow, I got this one started more than a month ago to join in on the fun over at Missing-Lynx’s Braille forums weekly update and to enjoy my favorite flavor - 72nd scale armor.

I already have two unfinished Braille build logs started here on this forum and I will be getting back to them as time permits. I’m also currently involved in a 35th scale campaign build but I just couldn’t keep myself from putting together one of my most favorite of tanks. I would like to share this build with all of you so here’s what I’ve gotten done so far.


Got the lower hull together without any issues other than to fill in the seams up at the lower front plate and drilled out three holes on each gear drive housing where it mates to the lower hull (this feature shown below). The upper hull is just sitting on top of the lower hull for the photographs, not ready to cement them together yet. I had to use a small piece of styrene on the exhaust shroud because it was too short in length (indicated with red arrow). Cleaned up the recessed panel lines and drilled out the lifting hooks on the rear deck (circled in red).


Replaced the molded on grab handles with brass rod and used super glue to fill the seam between the rear plate and upper hull (you could just see a small gap at the left rear corner – super glue becomes transparent when sanded and polished). Fitted the rear side stowage boxes to the upper hull.


Removed the molded on secured tools I plan on replacing this feature with the secured tools from the Revell Merkava III kit. Engraved the left side rear hatch opening where the molded on secured tools resided. Added mud flap securing straps to both sides where indicated on the photograph.


Enclosed the exhaust shroud opening at the rear with a piece of black painted sheet styrene. Fabricated two exhaust pipes from both brass and styrene rod.


Drilled out the lightening holes on the drive wheels, I know that these sprockets have at least four holes in each of them but the exact shape of these holes escapes me and they are not correct, but its better than not having them. I later attached the drive wheels to a Dremel rotary tool and with both a round and half round file I reshaped the inside surfaces and thinned down the side surfaces of the sprocket teeth to better represent the these surfaces as on the real vehicle.

The kit road wheels come as a single solid wheel and the rims are deeper than those used on the real vehicle so I replaced them with the Revell Merkava IIIs road wheels, unfortunately there are only enough of these road wheels in Revell’s kit to make 10 pairs, the other two sets come as spider wheels and these were not in use for the Merkava that I am modeling. Model Miniatures comes to the rescue with their cast resin wheel sets, so I placed an order via the Internet and had my hands on a set in less than a weeks time! The single piece cast resin road wheels are an exact match to the two-piece moled plastic Revell road wheels.

The kit idler wheels took me the longest to modify. With a needle fixed to a pin vise I dimpled all 80 holes at 20 per wheel and then attached a micro drill to a Dremel rotary tool and carefully drilled out each of the holes as on the real Merkava idlers. I then fixed the idlers to the Dremel rotary tool and using a course grit sanding stick I brought down the wheels thick dimension closer to scale thickness and polished the surface with a medium grit sanding stick followed by an old worn out toothbrush ala Alex Clark's Small-Scale Armour Modelling book. The center hub caps where then drilled out and replaced with a more to scale solid styrene diameter rod. The rod ends where shaped on the Dremel rotary tool with the medium sanding stick prior to inserting them into the idlers.

Wheel Alignment

When I test fitted all of the wheels on the lower chassis I found that the Revell and Model Miniatures road wheels where not in alignment with both the drive and idler wheels so a little modification was in order to have the road wheels line up with the drive and idler wheels. The supplied kit link and length tracks don’t have track guide horns or for that matter any detail molded onto the road wheel contact surfaces making it easy work to fit them around all of the wheels regardless of the misalignment between the drive and idler wheels and the Revell and Model Miniatures road wheels. But because I will be adding guide horns to the tracks it was imperative to have all of the running gear wheels line up. Let’s take a look at what was done to resolve this issue.


Using a sub-miniature punch and die set I fabricated disks to place the road wheels further away from the suspension arms and to center them with both the drive and idler wheels. I also used the punch and die set to fabricate bolt heads for the idler housings and replaced the molded on idler adjusting hardware with cast resin items. Solid styrene rod and the same diameter brass tube were used to replace the molded on gear drive housing shafts and track support wheel axle shafts respectively. As mentioned above I had also drilled out the gear drive housing attachment bolts on both sides of the lower glacis plate.


The reason for replacing the molded on gear drive housing shafts (inset photograph) with solid styrene rod replacements was because I moved the drive wheels a little further forward to shorten the distance from the end of the front fenders as per photographs in my reference books and also written material, photographs and coffee sent to me from fellow modeler and IDF enthusiast Joel Gewirtz over at Missing-Lynx, thanks Joel, it is very much appreciated. We’ll coffee together one of these days!


In this view you can clearly see the difference it made by relocating the drive wheel housing shafts just a bit forward. This will also allow the tracks some room away from the drive housings as per photographs of the real deal.


The now aligned running gear with the replacement Revell and Model Miniatures road wheels. From this view you are able to see how much closer the drive wheels now are to the front edge of the fenders.


Here you can see that the track support wheels are now centered over the road wheels. The original molded-on support wheel shafts where much to short in length and did not allow for any adjustment in placing these wheels correctly over the road wheels. I used Pedro Andrada’s method for cutting a groove into the kit supplied support wheels; these are cast as a solid single wheel. I’ve also added the Bazooka support brackets, these where usually removed when the Bazooka shields where not on the vehicle to prevent them from becoming bent and jamming themselves up against the road wheels.


The suspension detail in this old kit is very detailed and accurate.

Adding the Track Guide Horns


1) With a square ruler and Squadron’s scribing tool a series of grooves were made across the width of the road wheel side of the track link face. Each of the scribed lines is started between the V shaped portions of the track links outside edge. A faint scribed line was made down the center of the length of the track links to be used as a guide in placing each of the track guide horns.
2) A medium grit sanding stick was used to remove and smooth the raised plastic left by the scribing tool. A gentle scrubbing with a small piece of Scotch-Brite followed this.
3) The track guide horns were made from .015” T X .040” W (0.381 mm X 1.016 mm) styrene strip cut to a length of .043” (1.092 mm) long. Held length wise with a pair of flat nosed tweezers one end of each of the track guide horns were dipped in liquid cement, that had been placed in a metal tin, and carefully placed on the scribed center line of each track link. The liquid cement evaporates quickly so you’ll need to keep adding more cement to the tin as you work, I used a No. 2 paint brush for this task.
4) When eight track guide horns had been placed on the track links a set of calibers were use to align them before proceeding with another set of eight until all of the track links had a track guide horn fitted to each of them. The tip for the technique on using a set of calibers to align the track guide horns with the track links comes from Alex Clark’s book ‘Small-Scale Armour Modeling’ as does the inspiration for even attempting to add the guide horns to the track links in the first place, he makes it look so easy and as I found out while going through the process of doing the same for these tracks, it is!


5) To assure that the spacing between each of the track guide horns was at least correct I inverted a section of track links and placed the open cutouts for the drive wheel sprocket teeth over the guide horns to make any necessary adjustments before the cement has time to cure.
6) When I was satisfied that the guide horns were evenly spaced I applied Tamiya’s Extra Thin liquid cement between the guide horns and track links on each side of the guide horns. The cement was allowed to cure overnight before proceeding with the next steps.
7) Using a triangular jewelers file I slightly beveled the top corners of each of the guide horns.
8) A medium grit sanding stick was used to knock down and smooth out the fuzzy bunnies left on the guide horns from filing.


9) To round off and create a slight bevel nearest the top edge of the guide horns on the side surfaces I used the same medium grit sanding stick but slightly angled the sanding stick as I sanded.
10) Finally a gentle scrubbing with Scotch-Brite to polish and smooth out the top corner edges of the guide horns.

Several sections of track links, those running along the top, did not receive guide horns, as they would not be seen once the bazooka shields are fitted. Only a partial amount of guide horns were place on one of the top track link sections as I have planned on leaving one of the bazooka shields off the model.


The single shield that won’t be getting fixed to the model is the right rear bazooka shield so I placed the top section of track links with the guide horns on that side (indicated with red arrow). I also did not place two of the separate individual track links on either of the drive wheels (circled in red). This will not be noticed once the mudguards are in place with the bazooka shields. The kit only includes enough individual track links to complete the track runs with two pieces left over for use on the turret sides. I would like to model this vehicle with two spare track links up front on the lower glacis plate and two track links on each side of the turret base, so without having to go and cast these links I now have the quantity that I will need. Hihi!

Track sag on the Merkava is very minimal to non-existent on these vehicles, at least from the photographs that I have seen, but I wanted to add a small degree of track sag to the vehicle that I’m attempting to model here so I think that a slightly warn look from use during the hard fought armored battles of the Lebanon campaign would not be out of place. Although once the bazooka plates are fitted, with the exception of the right rear plate, you’ll not be able to notice this feature anyway.


This is as far as I have gotten on the project to date. But I’m happy with the results and can now move on to the upper hull.

Feedback and comments are welcome, thanks for stopping by,
~ Eddy

Fantastic job Eddy! And very nice updates also. I will be following this. I will be looking forward to your detailed ball and chain armour.

The tracks/sag looks amazing and I loved how you created a good tension on the drive wheels and the natural sag on the top. The tension is sometimes overlook at this scalebut yours is spot on.

One suggestion though, we usually (including me) use a coin to represent scale comp to show how small the things we are doing in braille. This is ok if you are familiar with the coin used but most often than not this is a difficult gauge for other modeller not familiar with coin size from other country. So I myself have stop using coin as size comparison instead I use more familiar tools/things (pen, tweezer, CD, paint bottle, etc.) we use or even as simple as your fingers this way you can picture in your mind straight away the size. Again this is just my suggestion.

Keep posting loads of pics as this is going to be an awesome build!

Cheers,
Val

Stunning improvement job! You have done things I won't dare at my favorite 1/35 scale!
Keep on this excellent job.

Olivier

@Braille - Eddy,

Nice to finally see you back at it with your impeccable style of presentation. I fully can appreciate the amount of work a post like this takes and I am sure that others do also. (Hint- would make a GREAT Feature!)

I unfortunately have to suggest that you may have caught a strain of the dreaded Magnusrivetcounterosis. Now at this stage it may not be terminal but definitive medication therapy may be warranted to inhibit its progress. Until you can see a specialist might I suggest a standard dose of 8 to 10 oz (236-295 ml) of Jack Daniel's serum to temporarily subdue the symptoms.

I'll be watching and thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Jan

You are making an excellent work!!!!!
Nice....

Wow! Fantastic work and presentation Eddy! I have several Merkava's in my stash and had been scratching my head on how to tackle some of the problems this particular kit has. You have given me some great insight on how to get this Merk up to speed.

A Merkava from the Lebanon huh? Will it have the ball and chain armor or will you model one prior to the upgrade?

Looking forward to seeing the rest of this beast done!

Oh Jeova i fill so small.
A very nice work.
Some lessons to learn
Thaks
Eddy

Hi Eddy,

I am very impressed with your build and your patience. Your doing mods to that thing that would be tuff in 1/35th scale. I love your detailed SBS too. SUBSCRIBED!!!

Awsome work Eddy,
Gary

Not only stunning work Eddy, but excellent presentation and SBS. Thanks!

Very nice progress Eddy

@r2d2 – Val, sorry, no ball and chain on this early unmodified version of the Merkava. But, glad to hear you liked the track sag, it’s very difficult to find photographs of this vehicle with any sag showing on the tracks, these fellows take a lot of pride in their tanks and maintain them better than I have ever done with my car and I maintenance that old machine as often as I can (at least 3 times a month).




Your suggestion is on the money (pun intended) so here is a photograph with, what could be considered a universal item in our modeling world – a No, 11 X-Acto blade.



@bison126 – Olivier, from your aviator I see (again pun intended) you wear, as I do, a set of spectacles and at my age its getting harder to work at this scale for any length of time before my eyes begin to tire. But the improvements are what sets the model closer to fooling the eye into thinking its real, after all when we are finished with our model we can hold it in our hands and gaze upon a replica of the real prototype as it once existed or still exists in the real world and that for me is why I do these improvements. But I suggest that you don’t begin this desperate endeavor for you’ll find yourself locked away alone in a room strapped to your chair with a knife and glue in your hands and a 40 lb. (18+ kilograms) magnification device attached to your head for many, many hours at a stretch and all you’ll be looking at is plastic, resin and brass!

@tread_geek – Jan, I may take you up on the Feature, we’ll see how it all turns out in the end. I don’t know about that JD serum, at my age it would knock me out and completely subdue this life form altogether. Instead a nice warm sponge bath with a hot Asian nurse here at home and small cold glass of chocolate milk with a side dish of chocolate chip cookies is in order.

@SHAKY962 – Jose, glad to hear you are liking this build. More coming!

@Panther64 – Kerry, your Merkava III (posted here in this forum) is most excellent, especially the non-skid surface with the Future floor wax and baking soda combo concoction. BTW congratulations on the AMPS IC ‘Gold’, well deserved. First Braille Merkava with mine roller that I have seen, too cool! Good to hear that I have been of some help to you on your future Merkava I build(s). Hope you’ll be posting them here for all of us to see and enjoy. The vehicle that I am modeling is one that would not yet have been upgraded with the ball and chain.

@rf1964 – Rui, I am sharing with everyone the things that I have learned from others throughout my many years of scale modeling and just giving back in hopes that others will take with them a little something to enjoy this most wonderful of hobbies. Stay tuned more coming.

@BBD468 – Gary, you monster of 35th scale modeling madness it is good to see you here. One of these days you’ll have to post a Braille build log here, hint hint!

@c5flies – James, thanks for the kind words, I just want to give back so that others will enjoy this hobby as much as I do. Once knowing the techniques it becomes a matter of building on to them hence more fun building = more builds. I do spend a good amount of time doing the presentations but it is all part of the fun. I know that you do understand just how difficult that can be at times but worth it in the end when you are able to convey the idea across without to much text.

@erhntly – Erhan, glad to know that you are enjoying the build. You’ve been busy posting here and now it’s my turn.

For all whom have left a comment or just stopped by to take a peek in silence I want you to know that it is all good and much appreciated, here’s hoping that I have sparked enough of an inspiration for you to join in on the fun and post your builds here at Armorama. There are no insignificant large or small builds as there are no perfect models just interpretations of art form each of you for all of us to see and enjoy.

More coming . . .
~ Eddy

AH! Not to worry my friend, a 1/72 build is just after the GREIF.

Gary

Excellent detailling and step by step. It is a pleasure to see your works here. We always can to learn new things.

Regards.

Pedro.

Well, I’m back with a new update. This update covers the modifications on the upper hull to bring the kit up to current molding standards. The detail on the upper hull is very well rendered but there are some areas that need a little attention to bring it closer in detail to the prototype vehicle. Let’s take a look and see what that is all about . . .

Upper Hull


Upper left hand corner photograph – One of the first things I did was to scribe a recess channel around the graded hatch, to the right of the drivers hatch, and add a couple of .0135” (0.3429 mm) diameter counter sunk screw holes, to the left of the drivers hatch (red arrows). Next I added three rectangular periscope covers to the periscopes that I made from sheet styrene. I thought that the square cover, to the rear left of the driver’s hatch, was much to short and soft in detail so I removed and replaced this with a piece of styrene strip and made the four securing bolts from stretched sprue (the four securing bolts are hardly noticeable in the photograph).
Upper right hand corner photograph – I added the other half of the hinge detail that is missing on the kits storage bins from sheet styrene. These were cut to match the already exiting hinge detail on the upper hull.
Lower left hand corner photograph – Here I added a couple of bolts straddling the right front lamps guard, that sits just in front of the right side fender, that I fabricated from sheet styrene using a sub-miniature punch and die set. I also added the lamps cover hinge and half round lampshade from pieces of stretched sprue. The lamps guard is a separate piece on the prototype so I scribed a recessed channel around it.
Lower right hand corner photograph – Using strips of Tamiya masking tape to protect the sounding area I brushed on a little putty between the strips. When the putty began to harden I used a sharpened round toothpick to indent the putty and create a weld seam that is missing on the kits hull.


Upper left hand corner photograph – The detail, just passed the storage bins on both sides of the upper hull, is not well represented. On the prototype vehicle there is what appears to be hinged panels that are missing on the kit. On the kit these areas are represented as one long solid panel. What I did was to place a piece of Tamiya masking tape, as a guide, vertically over where the end of the hinged panels would be. Then using a jeweler’s file I carefully removed enough plastic (approximately .010” – 0.254 mm) along the unprotected sections of the long solid panels to create a depression. Once the masking tape was removed I now had the missing hinged panels. Using .005” (0.127 mm) thick sheet styrene and the sub-miniature punch and die set I added the missing hinge panel securing brace with its securing bolts as well as the surrounding bolt detail. I also fabricated the small square protruding fire extinguisher pull handle housing frame from the same thickness sheet styrene (red arrow).
Upper right hand corner photograph – A mirror image of the hinged panel and bolt detail on the right side of the upper hull.
Lower left hand corner photograph – Here I scribed around the base of this protruding crew compartment exhaust ventilation cover (at least that is what I think it is?).
Lower right hand corner photograph – I fabricated the three securing tabs, to the rear right side of the vehicle, from a narrow piece of photo-etch brass fret (red arrows) that are used to fasten the rear bazooka panel as this panel would not be installed on the finished model. The width of the photo-etch brass fret is approximately .015” (0.381 mm) wide.


Upper left hand corner photograph – Here the left rear storage box and infantry communication box have been separated. These boxes come molded as a single box and are actually two separate boxes on the prototype. I filled the open sides on each of the two boxes after separating them with sheet styrene. I also filled the open cavity on the rear section of the right rear storage box with sheet styrene. The detail that represents the two raised strengthening ribs, just to the rear of the hinges on top of this storage box, is almost lost due to the quality of the molding. So I carefully removed the excess plastic with a No.16 curved X-Acto blade to create the two ribs (just visible in the photographs). I also thought that the hinges were a bit to pronounced so I removed them and filed that area flat with a jeweler’s file and replace the two hinges using .005” (0.127 mm) thick sheet styrene.
Upper right hand corner photograph – Here you can see the three separate boxes. The detail on the rear left side section of the communication box is not correct but the installed fire extinguisher bottles will hide this area so I didn’t bother with it. The rear tail lamps on the storage boxes are not well rendered so I carefully drilled them out and fabricated a couple of disks from .005” (0.127 mm) thick sheet styrene using the sub-miniature punch and die set. I will try to create the lens openings on the disks with decals later in the build.
Lower left hand corner photograph – I added a piece of 005” (0.127 mm) thick sheet styrene (red arrow) to the rear portion of the right rear fender to help keep both boxes floating evenly above the fender as there should be a visible gap between the bottom of the boxes and the fender.
Lower right hand corner photograph – Here you can see the visible gap between the installed boxes and fenders as on the prototype vehicle. I also added a set of disks to the hatch handles (red arrows) from .005” (0.127 mm) thick sheet styrene using the sub-miniature punch and die set. You can see that the rear towing hooks have also been installed.


Upper left hand corner photograph – Using a micro drill I drilled out a hole on each of the four kit towing hooks for accepting towing shackles as on the prototype vehicle.
Upper right hand corner photograph – Here I’ve added two track links (seen on some early vehicles) to the face of the lower glacis plate using .020” (0.508 mm) thick sheet styrene to represent the hooks that held these links in place. The towing hooks have also been added and I permanently borrowed the footstep from Revell’s Merkava III kit. There is actually a cutout for the footstep on the lower glacis plate but no part is provided for it in the kit. What appears to be a visible gap between the upper and lower glacis plates in the photograph is actually gap filling liquid cyanoacrylate (super glue) that was cured with accelerator and sanded smooth leaving a transparent appearance.
Lower left hand corner photograph – I removed the two short and soft molded securing bolts that sit above the left side armored engine cover and replaced them with hex shaped styrene rod. I also added the four bolt heads that reside just in front of the left side lamp doors from .005” (0.127 mm) thick sheet styrene using the sub-miniature punch and die set (red circle on right side in photograph). I added some detail to the main gun travel stand (red circle near center of photograph) and also replaced the molded on mounting hardware on the upper hull for the travel stand with scrap pieces of styrene strip (I actually failed to note the sizes of the styrene strips that is used for this so I’m trying to sound like you know what I used – hihi).
Lower right hand corner photograph – Overhead view of the installed storage and communication box(s).


Upper left hand and right hand corner photographs – Here you can see that the storage and communication box(s) sit with a notable gap between the fenders and storage bins as on the prototype vehicle.
Lower left hand corner photograph – Here is a comparison view the kits over scaled thickness bazooka side panel that I won’t be using and one that I thinned down to scale on a sheet of sand paper. I cut sections of angled styrene strip to match the width of the photo-etched brass fret mounting tabs to secure the bazooka panels.
Lower right hand corner photograph – The five finished bazooka panels together with the unfinished left rear panel. I had also separated the side front mudguards from the panels to thin them down to scale thickness. What is difficult to see in the photographs is a piece of .005” (0.127 mm) thick sheet styrene that I added to the bottom section of the open footsteps on the bazooka panels to represent a small lip that protrudes away from the face of the panel.


Front side chassis view.


Rear side chassis view.


Right side chassis view. From this view you can just make out the hex rod bolts on the right side edge of the armored engine cover.

All of the above mentioned upgraded details that I made to the kit could be seen on walk around reference sites such a Prime Portal. I will be adding the anti-slip coating after I am finished with turret. So next up is the turret. Any and all comments are welcome. Thanks for stopping by and having a look.

~ Eddy

Hey Eddy,

My goodness! That is fantastic work right there my friend. Very impressive. Let me ask a question, just between you and me. This is a 1/35th Merkava huh? Ssssh, i wont tell anyone.

Gary

@PedroA – Pedro,

It is always a pleasure to have you drop by to check out our builds, after all you are one of the great small-scale master builders here and we could all stand to learn something new from you, making this hobby of ours a much more productive and happier pastime. I just wish that more modelers visiting this site would join in on the fun and log in and share there works here, for in the end we could all learn a great deal from each other no matter how insignificant the build may appear to be to the builder posting his work, in sharing we can all find something useful to use on our next projects and together become much better modelers. For me it is not the quality or quantity that counts but the motivation and inspiration that I get from seeing other modelers share their works and ways to build, as you do for us, that keeps me dreaming of my next work.

~ Eddy

@BBD468 – Gary,

I just recently purchased Tamiya’s 35th scale Merkava I and was very surprised to see that the 72nd scale Merkava I that I’m putting together here looks like a scaled down version of that Tamiya kit with a few minor exceptions. Anyhow Gary, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

It’s always good to see you dropping by Master Windo!

~ Eddy

Mmmm... Tasty.

@Chillidragon – John, thank for dropping by, hope you’ll get something out of this madness. Here’s a little bit more to chew on!

In this update we move onto the turret. Sorry about the long delay in posting but I’ve somehow gotten myself bogged down with an interior on a 35th scale build and as Jan aka ‘tead_geek’ Etal mentioned to me, that can turn into a monster – EXACTLLY!


Here are three views of the kits upper turret half, which is quite nicely detailed right out of the box but is missing many items that are not included in the kit; I’ll be adding some of the more prominent details. I went ahead and removed both personal weapons stowage racks on the turrets roof, as these were not always present on the earlier Merkava’s (red arrows).


The gunner’s housing was built up using thin pieces of strip styrene along with rod for the hinge on the lower portion of the gunner’s housing front armor flap. I also fabricated the large turrets lifting hooks from sheet styrene and added two rectangular plates to the left side of the turret as seen on many of the early Merkava’s. The hinge detail for the stowage boxes along the edges of the turrets roof are missing on the kit so again using pieces of strip styrene I added them according to my references. The hinges pieces have not yet been cut to the correct shape. The hatch handles on the turrets rear roof were replaced with brass rod. I also reduced the length of the molded on antenna housing to better resemble the cast one on the real vehicle (inset photograph). A large weld seam was scribed near each corner of the turrets sides as found on the real deal, you can faintly see them in the photographs but they will show up when painted.


Using a small ball shaped cutter in a motor-tool I randomly removed shallow amounts of material along the sides of the turret in preparation of adding Mr. Surfacer to replicate the casting texture found in this area of the turrets sides. The turrets rear stowage basket has been added and a piece of copper screening material that I found embedded within a flat ribbon cable was cut to shape and used for the baskets mesh screen. The cover for the commander’s turrets periscope was then added using both sheet styrene and brass rod.


The Mr. Surfacer has been applied and slightly smoothed out with a sanding stick. Adding this material along with the removal of material (previous photos - above) gives the casting a better and more realistic 3D effect. This will become even more evident when it’s painted and weathered. Gussets and bolts were added to the turrets basket brackets to match those found in my references.


Front view of the turrets top. The main gun which is very well detailed right out of the box has also been added, other than slightly drilling out the gun tubes opening to better match the real deal nothing else was done.


Rear view of the turrets top.

Next come the commander’s hatch, tools, tow cables, fire extinguishers, a figure and spare track links. Any and all comments are welcome. Thanks for stopping by and having a look.

~ Eddy

Hello Eddy!

Man...you are the Braille Master...mister! Very precise, clean, and...well...AWESOME!!!!!!

Fantastic work my friend,
Gary

Oh, Eddy, Eddy, Eddy!!! I fear that you have finally "rounded the twist," as our English cousins say. The nice men in their pristine white uniforms should be knocking at your door shortly with a nice new comfy jacket to wear.

Seriously though, this one should end up a "show stopper" at the very least. Looking at my old shelf queen of this kit, I am sorely tempted to have it occupy the circular "filing cabinet" on the workroom floor. IT could NEVER come close to your build but I may just use some of your detailing examples here to at least partially enhance my old pathetic beast. Great job and can't wait to see what more you have in store.

Cheers,
Jan

Wow Eddy. Excellent detailing. The model and your step by step are outstanding. A great guide if you want to detail this model. You could to do a little book.

Best regards.

Pedro.

@ tread-geek - 'Oh, Eddy, Eddy, Eddy!!! I fear that you have finally "rounded the twist," as our English cousins say. The nice men in their pristine white uniforms should be knocking at your door shortly with a nice new comfy jacket to wear.'

I think the expression you are looking for is "gone round the bend", but I do like your version as well .

Hi Eddy,

Another masterclass in fine detailing, I admire your work greatly and get so much inspiration from it. Keep up the good work, it motivates me to do better.

All the best,

Paul

I doubt that I'll ever be able to build to this extreme extent but it's addicting to see and inspirational. I appreciate that there are those like you that are so wlling to take the tIme to share. Just wondering what you used for the base of the turret basket (PE?) ?

Thanks,
AJ

Thanks for dropping in and having a look – see. I am late in replaying back to all of you and that is because I have been encountering issues with being able to stay connected online. I believe that I now have that problem resolved, hopefully!!! Anyhow it is much appreciated to have so many of you reply to my post, this really helps me stay motivated. I will continue to update this project as time permits.

@BBD468 – Gary, thank for dropping by and for the kudos, it is really appreciated. I’ve got a long ways to go before I can see myself as a master; my two Chihuahua’s don’t even look up to me this way! LOL Oh great Master Windo, your comment does give me great inspiration to continue on in this long and wonderful journey.

@tread_geek – Jan Etal, I for one would like to see your beast of a shelf queen grace the posting here on the Braille forum one of these days. I’m sure your rendition would not be that much different from mine. Practice makes perfect and you’re way ahead of me on builds. Thanks for the comment and for always posting your work here, I always manage to get something to use or add to my skills via your build logs and reviews.

@PedroA – Pedro, like you I enjoy the sharing part of building kits and try to do the best that I can in hopes of helping out others interested in this wonderful hobby. I don’t know about writing a little book at this time but I am considering submission of a Feature when the vehicle is finished. At the current build rate that I am putting into this project that won’t be anytime soon as I have gotten myself bogged down with adding a detailed interior to a 35th scale build (hush your mouth boy).

@spacewolfdad – Paul, I do appreciate your comments but I also think that you’re an excellent builder too and I like your more recent builds, especially with you adding them together with a complimentary base thus placing the vehicles in their own unique environment, providing both action and realism. I will need to get more involved with that aspect of modeling on my future endeavors.

@weathering_one – AJB, never doubt or underestimate your ability to do things that others are doing. Give it your best shot and set your standards and goals as high as you wish to go. Only then can you be what you have aspired to become. The difference between you and everyone else around you is your will to succeed.

If your asking about the copper mesh screen that I used at the bottom of the turret basket, it came from the insulation jacket of a multi twisted - wire paired ribbon cable. I always search for things that I could use for my modeling projects. I have a 20 X 20 X 20 sized cardboard box filled with lots of small things that I have collected over the years and now I am just beginning to dig into that box.

~ Eddy