Who makes the best of M60 and Merkava in 1/35 scale?
Mike

M60 - Italeri (Old ESCI)

Merkava:

Tamiya makes a quite accurate Mk1

Academy does a Mk 2 & 3, but they need work (a lot in the case of the MkIII) - IIRC Legend do upgrade kits for both.

Legend does a Resin MkIV kit.

Hope this helps.

Mike, The answer to your question largly depends on what you want from the kit(s).
For the Merkava if you're looking to go out of the box then both the Tamiya Merkava Mk I and the Academy Merkava Mk II are good kits. However neither one represents a Merkava as it would be in service today. They have all had numerous mods and upgrades through the years. The Academy Merk III is not a very good representation of the Mk. III at all. It was based on the proto-type and not a production Merk 3. Even taking that into account there are a number of things wrong with the kit. If you are feeling ambitious, as Eric mentioned above, Legend Productions makes several update and conversion kits for the Academy kits. They also make a full resin kit of the Merkava Mk. IV, and have a full kit of the Mk. III due out soon. I'm working on the Mk IV right now and it is very nice, but like most resin stuff it's more difficult to work with than plastic. Also, all the Legend stuff carries a high price tag.

As for the M60, I would agree with Eric, the Italeri/ESCI is probably the best of the ones available, but the Academy and Tamiya kits aren't that far behind either. Here is a comparison of the three kits done by Jim Carswell over on ML that you might find helpful.

http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/modern/jcm60/jcm60.htm

Best,
Mike

Like you Mike, Im also eyeing one of these kits for my future projects and at this stage, im leaning towards the Legend Merkava full resin kit.

Sneak previews can be found here:
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/news/2291&mode=&order=0

I assume you are talking about the M60A1 series when you say the M60. I have had ESCIs kit and Tamiya's Marines M60A1. I used the best parts of the two kits. What I found was that Tamiya had the better turret and the hull of ESCI was best. The smaller parts that fit on the hull came from both kits, I used AFV Club track. I was very happy with the final product.
Cheers, Greg.

I agree with Top, unfortunately, it normally takes two kits plus some sort of aftermarket accessory to get the "best" M60-series tank kit.

While the Esci/Italeri/Revell of Germany M60A1/A3 kits are the best, they have older finned aluminum road wheels. Not necessarily wrong, but a mixture was more common for later vehicles. I believe Desert Storm USMC M60A1 tanks had almost all smooth steel wheels.

The Esci/Italeri M60A1 Blazer and the Esci/Italeri M60A1 both only contain the early style side loading air cleaners. Because of the early road wheels and early air cleaners, you can't build a late Desert Storm era USMC M60A1 OOB with these kits. And unfortunately, the late style tracks prevent you from building an early OD green/white star M60A1 straight OOB as well.

The Esci/Revell of Germany M60A3TTS gives you the later air cleaners with early finned wheels. Again, not wrong, just not the most common type of wheels on the tank. Additionally, the kit only includes the A3's thermal shrouded barrel so you cannot build a late A1 unless you buy an aluminum barrel.

They could have really scored with a 3 in 1 kit here.