The only thing missing is the right panel on the bustle rack and the antennas but I had to share this with someone since the Mrs. looks at it and shrugs
It's my second Armor Kit and I'm very proud of it.
Hit me !!







Is this MoM material? Should I submit it?

Beautiful work Antonio, for only your second armor model you have done a fantastic job! Now do the rest of us armor guys a favor and go back to building things with wings, you're making us look bad. :-) :-)




Most definitely, you would have my vote.

Cheers,
Mike

Turned out REALLY nice Antonio, beautiful job....congrats!!!! definately put it in for MoM.

What is next for you?

Adam

Amazing piece of work António. Love the weathering.



You should be proud. It's beautiful.
Only your second armor. I have almost ten afv's under my belt and mine doesn't look half as good as yours.

Don't forget to submit for MOM.

A fantastic job in my books! Looks like you have been doing armor for quite some time now.

This looks like the Academy kit. Did you have any issues with joining up the tracks?

Very good weathering!
Which kit did you used?
And what about the base colour?

Thanks guys.

The kit is the Academy Merkava III with the Legends conversion (Turret, upper deck, side skirts and all steel wheels)

The color is Xtracrilycs Israeli sand but mixed with a little Xtracrilycs khaki drab and Tamiya Medium gray)
The proportion is something like (10 drops of Israeli sand + 2 green + 1 gray).
The color is so dificult to reproduce that I was counting on weathering to make it look more credible.

The tracks are Friul (although the original ones were quite nice, but a bit too hard, and they would fit with the all steel wheels that have a smaller diameter). With the original wheels they wont fit by 3 or 4 mm

The rear bins and tarp were made with metal (the protection that comes on wine bottles) that has a certain amount of lead in it and folds like heavy canvas. Every time I go out for dinner I ask the waiter for that part. They look at me and think I'm a Wine conaisseur and I keep that protection for some strange reason :-) :-)

The weathering was done with Mig and CMK pigments and the darker spots on the side skirts were made with oils and turpentine (raw umber and black).

I learned as I went along.
It was a slow process. Every time I had a doubt I would come here, browse the gallery, the features etc etc and went back to the table.

Since I am new to armor I just don't do much at a time. If I mess up I can allways go back.

The next projects on the bench are a M113 OIF, a LAV25, a M1A1HA, Chally II Telic, Warrior Telic, Marder 1A2 not necessarily by this order.

And a Dragon PzKpf IV D is ordered.... I need to have a go at WWII armor. I didn't feel qualified to do it, but I guess I have to try.

looks fantastic... a little ligh.t in colour as the real ones are more of a olive colour to it, but this will be the debate for eternity on this vehicle! And you are close to it IMHO. I am not going to nit pick on it because you did great for your first AFV, and a Legend conversion to start with WOW... The only suggestion I can give is to add the lightening holes to the drive sprockets. There are five tear dropped holes in each sprocket. I am just about ready to paint my Merk III D, I just finished the ball and chains, now just the track run are left aswell as side skirts. Thank you for sharing this piece!

Wow real nice mate! It turned out very good indeed and its been nice to watch it progress.

For a second armor model this is amazing, id be very ashamed to post pics of my second armor model. I would definately put it in MOM.
Those other projets sound very nice indeed, as a modern armor fan I look forard to seeing them progress aswell.

Good Work!!!I'm doing the same model....but with complete conversion of Legend...I would to add the anti-slip surface..and I want to realize a merk with a green shadow...(like my photos)..How do you realize your Anti-slip surface?!the best I've seen is of the Adam o'brien Merkava IIId LIC...simply superb.

Regards

Ciro

I added the anti slip but it's kind of subtle... that's one thing I would change if I could. It works well on the M2A2 but the Merkava have a very coarse anti slip.
And the sprocket wheels!!! I cant believe I overlooked the pictures I had for reference. It was so easy to do ...

Thanks for you comments guys.
It was an amazing (and somewhat crazy) project.
Working with resin.... trying every trick in the book from oils to pigments... and not messing it completely.

When I looked at the pics I was amazed to see that in the end it was a nice model to look at.

Thanks for you encouragement guys (and to Rob in particular that was always "present")

I'm getting addicted to this. I guess I'll have to start the next one

I am working on this model at the moment, tomorrow I will be putting the first coat on. However it is AEF designs Merk III D, a little bit more of a challenge as quality is not good. To get a decent looking anti slip there are many ways to do it, I used mr. surfacer 1000 and mixed baking soda for baking cakes. It makes a nice gritty surface, and the mr. surfacer holds it all in place... i will like to put my pics up soon!

Not to worry about the lightening holes my friend, it's easy to over look!

one of the best merkava i've seen. thanks for sharing.