I finally rounded up enough in the way of partial kits and other bits to get going, so I'm after it. I'll be doing it without side skirts and front fenders, and still looking for pics (clear, showing the shocks, if used) but all is in place other wise. I got a start on the hull last night, had to take a hunk out of an old parts kit to get a whole part, part of what I meant by "partial kits", but sponsons are covered and exhausts done.
So far:


Idler mounts are closer than Tamiya's effort but not exact, will still look better than as-kitted.

Those would be the ones, kind of "double or nothing" units. Eureka makes them also, IIRC. I also have a whole Academy Merk2 kit that has a decent set but they're in hard plastic and tough to get a natural drape to. That part is down the road a ways, need to get some good pics of the bogies first, see if they have shocks or not. If not, I'm golden. If so, it'll be time to knock something up.
I remember back a number of years ago seeing a build of a Merk1 somewhere that included working suspension (contain yourself) complete with actual coil springs, but it's long gone, or at least doesn't come up on any searches I've done.
Still looking.....
And yes, Tamiya and their sponsons. Sigh.

I've had zero luck finding the pics I was referring to, or even pics of the actual 1/1 bogie units, but I'm still looking.....

Matt, both pics are helpful; similar to what I had turned up but the one is very sharp. Thanks much.
I have the suspension figured out, coke bottles are indeed shock absorbers, and do appear to be either not round or have dust covers over them that are shaped so as to allow a lot of fore and aft movement at the base of the shock mount/swing arm. This is probably because of geometry vs. packaging issues. I did a LOT of suspension work in my past life, and the second seems more likely. I'm going to get some bench time tonight and see if I can't noodle something up.
I do hope Mr Sheedy would be flattered by the fact that I printed most of the pics in that build log last week and am keeping them handy as I build.

Well, after looking closely at all the pics I found on the internet and a couple of really good ones I had in a book at home (doh!) I decided that the visible shock absorbers (dampers) were actually covers over a tubular unit, so I made a command decision and went ahead and whipped up some tube shocks. I had a bunch of 3" ammo tubes from Academy's M10, and a few minutes with a drill, file and razor saw yielded eight shocks. Bingo. Covers will probably be "missing" from my example.
I also cleaned up the bogie units, including the surprisingly good coil springs, and mounted them, adjusting the bump stops to be at the correct angles. While I was there, I sliced about a bazillion pieces of hex rod and started on the bolt heads for the idler mounts and final drive outers. Pics:



And the Friuls from the Academy Mk2 that's now in the parts bin;

Onward next week, off to south-eastern Oklahoma for the weekend, get some "woods-time" in.

Hi Russ,
looks like you've got something that works, here's a shot from PP that shows what looks like the shocks attachment points to the rocker arms http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/david_lueck/merkava_mk1/images/merkava_mk1_082_of_126.jpg

Sean

Matt, I missed your question, sorry. Yes, Mr. Sheedy used the Tamiya kit, and the gun is the IMI version of the British L7 105. As of today, it's still the only Merk1, plastic or resin, in 1/35. It could use a few improvements, and I keep hoping somebody like, say, Legends maybe, might get interested. Who knows, maybe Meng will do the whole thing. In the meantime, considering it's age and the fact that it was intended to be motorized, it's pretty good. From all that I've gathered, they got all the basic shapes right.
Sean, thanks, I'll take a peek on PP. I looked the other day but was looking for top, forgot to look at the bottom....

Thanks, Matt.
I think maybe that Mr. T made some more concessions to motorization than just the holes in the hull bottom. On both Tamiya and Academy kits, the placement of the shaft for the drive sprocket is too far rearward by about 2mm, or close to the thickness of the shaft itself, which means that the kit tracks would catch on bolt heads if they were there. T may also have wanted to use the front of the final drive housing as a "run" for the tracks. Only T himself might know. Anyway, I kind of cheated myself here, as the real part has a relief cut at each bolt to allow room for what I would imagine to be a fairly large impact socket to be placed on the bolt's hex; something I thought I could skip and still sleep at night.
More soon, I hope.
Edit: After yet more study, it appears as if the shocks themselves do actually have an ellipsoid cross-section. Hmmm. Must be a semi-external fluid reservoir, as I can't imagine anything else. At this point, I think I'm going to stay with what I have, since nothing else comes to mind as a way around this.
Hello Legends? A set of Merkava shocks might be a good seller, and an easy addition to all those Tamiya Mk1 and Academy Mk2 kits out there, even more so with Academy's new release.

I do so like Monday nights......
I managed to get some fun stuff done, like drilling 80 holes in the idlers, indexing them correctly and shaping the inner hub to make it look a little less over-size, cutting and shaping the mud holes in the sprockets, adding some texture to the front hull and hull sides, and making a few hinge halves for the upper rear stowage covers. Moving right along.....




I don't know how far I'm going to go on the rear of the hull, depends on what I feel like when the time comes, but Tamiya got a little soft back there, so I may try and clean up the stowed stuff above the rear fenders, and I'll certainly have to do something about the poor stretcher.
Thanks for peeking, as always!

Road wheels done, tracks test fitted, and a couple of bits:



And if anyone has an idea of what the part arrowed in the pic below is, I would greatly appreciate any info. Tamiya didn't quite cut the mustard here, I think.....

Thanks!

Eighty little holes to drill in the wheel, eighty little holes to drill, drill one out, clean it out, seventy nine little holes to drill in the wheel.
Continue. I broke my last .025" drill bit with six more to go. Argh!
Coffee is only for the VERY patient, and remember, chemistry students: do this only with un-pinned links, as you will find yourself removing a lot of semi-dissolved pins and cleaning up your links, again.
No coffee on these, Blacken-it about three years ago, then paint. These tracks were originally on a Merk2 that I was never happy with, so.....
Now I just paint Friuls, no longer a fan of corrosives.
I'm also a fan of the look of 1's and 2's w/o skirts. It's kind of neat to see a bunch of them ready for or undergoing maintenance, first thing that happens is that all the skirts come off.
Did I say that out loud?

Okay. I got some really good responses to my query about the details around the phone box, and here's my interpretation of that area, done last night in about 45 minutes:


I spent about 20 minutes removing the kit part and cleaning up it's mounting surface, then some work with .020" card, strip and sliced hex rod and I'm happy. Thanks again to all who helped!

That's a phone BOOTH!
And "half 6" is three.....
So back up a few posts, the pic of the back of the hull with the arrowed parts on the instruction sheet is a good shot of what Tamiya gives you, not terribly accurate. The detail on the door to the phone box is OK, but the rest of it is, well.... bad.

Hi, my name is Russ and I'm a detailaholic.

I just couldn't leave it alone.

Slippery slopes indeed.
I actually do have pics of those strange tubes, and I believe they're chemical fire extinguishers. And there is room for improvement......

I should hang that sign in my modeling room.....
Sad to say, IDF fire bottles are green.