I've got a Meng Merkava IIID Early on the way, and I'm wondering what upgrades would it have received by this point? It's been around for a while, but it's still a very, very capable piece of armor. I hear the acronym "LIC" tossed about, but have all Merkavas received that upgrade, and I've also heard that the underbelly armor is a separate ting altogether. If it is, should all of them have it?

I want to model this as accurately as possible, but I don't exactly know how to sort out what models get what upgrades. I know that the diorama I'm planning would be a "LIC" type setting (clearing out insurgents) but I don't know exactly what the tank would need to make it properly outfitted for that role.

Additionally, I've seen two upgrades that I don't think belong to either of those categories, but they exist in the field, and that's the Windbreaker setup and the sniper port in the rear door. It would make sense to me for an urban setup or dealing with very unpredictable people that a port in the rear would be very useful for dealing with say a person looking to firebomb the turret. It would give an easy back-looking gun to an already well-armed machine.

I want to be as accurate as possible, and I have all the time in the world to work. What I don't have, however, is the direction in which I should be working. I already have two of the robots used in clearing houses, etc. but I'm still looking to possibly add a Talon, if it's a proper addition for the IDF, as opposed to solely US forces.

This will be a large scale diorama-think scale city block or so, and including other vehicles-hopefully some more IDF armor, possibly the Akrav (which would be an awesome scratchbuild, it would) in a fight with insurgents, including one of the Syrian homebuilt tanks. I have the time, just have to know how to modify my IIID Early to update it to begin with.

I'm curious to see about the responses you get here. I am having a very hard time finding out any information about the Windbreaker droid that is available in 1/35. The best that I can tell is that it is some sort of radar piece, but I don't know how it is able to kill incoming missiles. I understand the radar can find the missiles but what takes them out?

It is not part of the Trophy anti missile system as far as I can tell, nor the Iron Fist system.

I look forward to more answers you get.

It works in conjunction with a small shotgun style launcher to fire pellets at an incoming RPG. It mimics a hit, causing it to explode early and not hit the tank at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophy_(countermeasure)

The interesting thing is that the "droid" is not shown on that tank, but there is a definite cluster of stuff on either side of the turret. This leaves more questions, not fewer-is this the fire control upgrade they said could kill a helicopter, or is this an all in one kinda jobbie that was superseded by the trophy install on that IV? I'm pretty sure we'll break OPSEC if we knew the truth, but with so little info on the equipment I feel like we don't even know enough to make the models sometimes.

I'm no expert but I've only seen Trophy/Windbreaker on Merkava 4's. The 'droid' thing is a separate system and to my knowledge only seen on Merkava 2D and Merkava 4. The Merkava 3D kit really doesn't need any 'upgrades' unless you wanted to scratch-build one of the various engineer adapters that it uses. There are metal track sets available from Friul and Spade Ace. AFAIK there are no LIC bits available for the Mk.3D. The belly armour (if you scratch it) can be seen without the other LIC bits (protective grills and such). I suggest looking through the Merkava 3 thread on IDF Modeling here for some ideas. More in the Merkava 3 thread too.

Jim

http://www.idf-modelling.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=1047&start=180 I'm making the "pusher" on the front of this one, after I saw it on a few in said thread, but there is a IIID LIC model, apparently... http://www.flickr.com/photos/94408637@N00/219225967/sizes/o/ That was posted in said Merkava IIID thread as an LIC variant. So apparently, the cupola, the underbody armor, and then I'm choosing to add the "pusher" and rear sniper port to this tank. I've not seen a "droid" on any Merkava III variant, but I'm still looking too.

Anyone who knows, let me know if I'm way off base or I'm on the right track. This isn't easy with my only knowing Biblical Hebrew and being out of practice of everyday translation. Lots of language drift.

Almost forgot, antennas and the "marker" antenna things at the corners should probably be on there for LIC.