Merkava Mk. IV "LIC"
Legend LF1165 (Full Resin Kit)
I should first start by mentioning this is a “firsts” model for me…My first resin model, first modern vehicle, first attempt at making an anti-skid surface and many more firsts. You can reach the preview of the kit by clicking here.
This model is different than injection molded plastics in many areas. The first thing you notice is its weight and there’s no gap for the turret to fit onto the hull, the entire hull is a large and bulky piece. I first attended this problem; by taking measurements I found the center of the turret ring and the turret itself and drilled a hole. I then fixed a large metal pipe into the hull by epoxy glue. Now, the turret was stabilized on the hull and it could rotate.
Since the kit is made from resin, you have to cut off all pieces from their molding blocks using an appropriate saw or a handy tool like Dremel. Beware, resin particles are highly toxic and can cause cancer, be sure to do your cutting, sawing and sanding in a well ventilated area with an adequte face-mask to protect yourself.
The kit does not include the usual instructions booklet/pages, like the ones you can find in plastic kits. There’s only an A4 sized paper with couple of photographs of the model in various building stages. According to this, you have to start the assembly by fixing the rear fuel tanks onto the lower hull. Since this didn’t seem very logical to do, I decided to start assembly by first mating the upper and lower hulls. There’s a fitting issue here, these parts do not align. You might try forcing them into each other and use CA glue, but I guess that won’t be a long-term solution, these hard pieces can easily break the CA glue holding them together.
To solve this problem, I decided to heat the upper hull with a hair-dryer until it was soft enough to change its shape. You should be very careful not to damage surface detail at this stage. Then, I put the upper hull on the lower hull and started to apply pressure by pressing down with a metal ruler. The metal ruler is for applying the pressure homogenously, so that you don’t bend the part out of shape. When the upper hull firmly fit the lower part, I cemented them together.
Now it was time to fit the rear fuel tanks. I took one side as the starting point and progressed from there, taking measurements and checking my progress constantly.
I should mention that there were a lot of gaps at this stage; these will be filled later on. In the following stage, I cleaned up the suspension parts and assembled these. Be careful, the model is very heavy and you need extra care not to break suspension parts. Make sure they are properly attached!
After this, I took care of the road wheels and return rollers. I should also mention that the return rollers are very poorly molded and you need special care to make sure they are assembled properly.
The next stage is the assembly of the belly armor. However, to do that, I needed to solve a couple of problems first. The first one is the gap at the front that need filling. The other problem is the license plate, which is given as a raised detail. I needed to paint this as it would be left beneath the belly armor later on, making this painting task very hard.
After I filled the gaps, painted and masked the license plate, I assembled and fitted the belly armor parts.
I also started on the drive sprockets. Unfortunately, there are no guiding pins or any other aid to properly assemble the parts together. With utmost care I aligned the pieces and fixed them with epoxy glue. To ensure that the sprocket dried in shape, I temporarily wrapped some track links around it and fixed it in that shape by some clamps. After a long curing time, I filled any gaps I spotted with putty.
After that, I assembled the road wheels I have prepared previously. I often checked with a steel ruler to make sure they were properly aligned.
Then it was time to assemble the tracks. These are the worst parts in the kit! Unfortunately, there are no after-market track sets out there for Merkava IV, so I had to use these. Lots of patience, cleaning and regular checks to see everything fitted as they should and I was done with the tracks.
On the other hand, I also began the assembly of the turret. The barrel was crooked by about 1 mm, using the hair dryer method I solved this problem. I had to work a lot to properly fix the smoke launchers to their places, since there were no guide pins or any other means of aligning these easily. In addition, some of the parts are molded in reverse in their resin blocks; it was hard to remove these without damaging the parts themselves. Lots of care and patience required.
After these, I sprayed primer on the model to spot any mistakes and get things ready for the anti-skid surface.
When the primer was dry, it was time for the PE parts and the anti-skid surface. Unfortunately, this anti-skid surface, a known characteristic of IDF vehicles, is not molded on and you have to do this yourself. I tried out several methods to reproduce this anti-skid surface and chose the one I liked best for overall application. The material I used is called as “chinchilla bathing sand” and I found this in a pet shop. This is a pretty thin kind of sand, but I still had to sift this as it was over-scale. To apply the remaining thin sand on the model, I first applied a very thin layer of acrylic clear varnish on the model, then I sprinkled the sand onto it. I applied the sand bit by bit, moving from one place to another, instead of trying to do it everywhere at once.
I also assembled the PE parts for the turret. I should mention that the cylindrical part is not properly produced (or I made a mistake). The place onto which it should be glued is not straight. You either have to fill the lower part at the front for support or shape the part properly.
While completing the lower hull, I also took care of the accessories on the vehicle. The tow cable ends and MG barrels in the kit are of very poor quality. I tried to fix these as best as I can.
The holders for the sideskirts are made up of PE and thin resin parts, lots of time is required here.
And the most fun part, the metal balls hanging from chains that are fitted to the rear of the turret. There are 70 of these.
After that, I added on all the remaining parts. Side skirts, machine guns, rear antenna I made from brass rods, front antenna, exhaust parts, small parts under the mudguards, etc… The complete assembly was done.
In the painting stage, I sprayed another layer of primer on the model. Then I pre-shaded the model with Revell #9 and also painted the tracks. After that, by changing the tone of Humbrol #84 several times, I sprayed on the main color of the vehicle. I painted darker tones on the sides of the panels and applied lighter tone on the central areas.
Then I masked the barrel and painted on the squadron insignias and other small details.
After that was the varnishing and decaling stage. Since the kit does not include any decals, I had to use Bison Decals set, but I can’t say I was very happy about their quality. I encountered adhering problems often. Then I applied filters and local washes. Lastly, I weathered the vehicle by pigments and powder pastels. You can click on the photo below to see the photos at the galleries.
Special Thanks to Emre Efli for English Text!!
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Mart 2009 |