Purely for my own entertainment, and because I had an unused Meng Merk3 hull in a box, I got motivated after an afternoon of rooting through a bunch of old Museum Ordnance magazines and seeing something I hadn't thought about in a while. What I saw was this, the article on the Sholef, or Slammer:
IMG_1359 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
About that time Sprue Bros had a Meng sale, and the AUF 1 was pretty cheap, so I thought to myself: "What if the IDF had gone with a less expensive alternative to the Sholef or M109 and again collaborated with the French and produced this:
IMG_1870 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_1871 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_1872 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_1873 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
All I had to do was mate the Merkava turret ring to the base of the AUF 1 ring which also gave me the spacing I needed to clear the raised rear deck of the Merk hull.
IMG_1358 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
I scratched a big gun travel lock for effect, removing the dinky travel lock on the turret, and even though it's not visible unless I get a pen light out, there's some interior that I scratched up just for fun (?).
IMG_1366 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_1365 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
It looks good on the shelf with the other IDF what-ifs I've done over the years, but next to the Merkavas I have in the case, it looks right at home.
On another note, I really wonder why Meng didn't go ahead and finish out the AUF 1 turret interior, maybe even as a separate kit or accessory, like they did with their Bradley kits. A lot of it's already there, and with all the doors in the turret, it seems like a no-brainer.

Very nice!!!!

Thanks! It was more fun than it should have been.