Academy 1/35 Merkava Mk.IV LIC

[JamesPerrin]

We await your Spring collection of armour-piercing earrings with bated breath.

[flakmonkey]

We await your Spring collection of armour-piercing earrings with bated breath.

Coming soon to Etsy.

I have created a basic jig to simplify final construction and painting of the ball and chain sections. You want to use gel superglue for this; nothing else is suitable. Liquid superglue will run everywhere and gue up your chains. That's not a good thing.



You can, of course, build as many sections at once as you like. I am just showing one here for clarity.

Once the paint is dry (and yes, they are a nightmare to paint) you can just clip them off and use the same gel superglue you used to assemble the sections onto the carrying wire with to attach them to the turret.



Dolly the safety duck is lurking in the background there, keeping a watchful eye on things.

I have prepainted some very thin plastic card strips to attach as the mounting plates, which neatly finishes the job.



Just the rear run of armor to do now, and then the final detail parts need to be attached. Might be able to finish this tomorrow.

[Clashcityrocker]

Nice. (that's all I'm going to write!)

Nigel

[B4en]

Amazing work! She's turning into a proper Jezebel.

[Cardinal]

Love this so far. The turret is so big it makes the gun look small!

[flakmonkey]

Thanks for looking in and following along.

I think we are done here.













Other than the ball and chain armour, which isn't all that difficult or even expensive to DIY, this is an excellent kit right out of the box. It addresses all of the issues of previous Academy Merkava kits, notably the vinyl tracks and the lack of any anti slip coating on the upper surfaces, very well.

Much of the kit has been retooled to accomodate these changes, and as such is slightly more expensive than the other Merkavas in the Academy range, but still very reasonably priced.

Other than the ball and chain armour, the only thing you really need to do is to drill out the antenna bases for the many antennae that are characteristic of the type.

Definitely recommended for any modern armour builder.

[general rocket]

Impressive

[B4en]

Excellent finish, Flak. She looks great.

[Bissyboat]

Absolutely top drawer!

[David Silver]

Amazing work, the ball & chain stuff is outstanding.

[beany]

Another Masterclass - brilliant!

[ShaunW]

Lovely build, Mr Monkey, you certainly know how to turn out a great looking tank.

[flakmonkey]

Thank you gentlemen for looking in and following along, and for all the comments and heckling. And if you ever need 66 pieces of ball and chain armour assembling, please don't hesitate to contact somebody else.