Forgive me for not having the time to re-type all this, but take a look at this link, just my very quick, except for my typing, first look impressions. Cheers!
http://modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/thread/7052/academy-magach-batash-first-impressions
Poor etiquette, I realize, but I'm out of time and I thought this may be interesting.

Having just got mine, a friend brought to my attention that the rear lower part of the turret will hit the engine deck, which it does and cants the turret forward. It's going to need at least .030" spacer between the turret ring and hull to bring it up some. The new parts look pretty good. I assembled the turret before I thought of trying the new top turret shell on an older M60A1 lower turret part - just to see if one could make a regular Magach 6B Gal.

Jim

Well considering I have the Academy's (Tamiya originally) M60 Blazer sitting on my desk just waiting for the weathering and it has the same problem (Turret scraping engine deck)can say I'm surprised since it appears not to be a 100% new tooling.

I've built a couple of "Tamademy" M60s that had a slight touch there, some that didn't. I did have to put a brace between the upper and lower hull pieces one time to slightly raise the back of the turret ring due to warping of the upper hull.

got mine yesterday. all in all. it looks pretty decent. the turret went together well enuff and looks really nice. only prob is fitting it to the lower hull. the 2 boxes just beneath/behind the turret rear I thought I might try to cut the tops off, thin them a bit and reattach to level out the turret, but the center underside will still make contact with the raised forward upper edge of the engine deck. and one know of a way to take care of that? the alternative is something mentioned here somewhere. that's to put a full size shim on the turret ring, which would result in raising it more that it's meant to be.

the remaining parts seem to be showing a bit of age, but nothing that can't be dealt with. gonna be really nice when it's done

I haven't test-fitted anything yet, too much else going on with not enough time....
I am curious about this turret/rear deck interference issue, though. I don't remember it being that bad on other Academy M60s. Possibly due to the new lower turret part?
Some in-progress shots would be welcomed if you can get to it....
I'm also going to have to look at the Friuls in my stash, can't remember exactly which ones they are. Rats.

yeah, got no pix of it, but the lower turret half seems too rounded outward behind the ring. not gonna look right with a 2-mm shim in there

Full build review:

http://www.amps-armor.org/ampssite/reviews/showReview.aspx?ID=2912&Type=FB

Hi Russel, as I am absolutely no expert on Israeli vehicles I'm going to ask a dumb question:
The tracks seem to resemble the Merkava Mk. 1/2 set (ATL 63), is this so ?



Paul

O.K. question answered. I missed the track thread.





Paul

turned out rather nicely. odd tho that he didn't mention the turret rear being raised

I agree, and you can't tell if if was an issue in his kit due to the angle of the few pictures.
Mine is in the rotation, but I've got an IDF M579 going and a Sherman parts collection waiting for something to happen, so it's going to be a bit before I get into it.
If anyone here has one of these in progress, input would be very welcome. All I've seen so far are a couple of built examples.
I did take a look at the Friuls I have in the stash, and they're the earlier type, so I'm going to be shopping for tracks as well.