Tank Beginner - - Merkava Mk. III Conversion

When it comes to military models, I don't have much of a preference.  I like Japanese and American WWII ships and planes since the Pacific theatre of war is the one that directly affected my own country.  But when it comes to military kits, ships and planes have to take a back seat to the king of detail:  tanks.  Admittedly you can get just as detailed on a ship or plane as you can with a tank with today's superb kits and addons but ground-based armor adds a dimension unique to itself...mud/dirt/rust/dust/sand/damage...in other words weathering.  Tanks get more banged up than ships or planes and they are usually covered in whatever is on the ground they're fighting on.

When it comes to tank modeling, the market is HEAVILY weighted towards Germany in WWII.   Dragon, especially, with it's super detailed kits seems intent on producing every single version of Panzer, Tiger and all German armor, real and even ones that never got off the drawing board.

I have a couple Dragon kits of German WWII tanks but to begin my tank building I decided to go for an easier kit.   Looking around at the impressive range of modern tanks, I found one that to me, is the coolest looking tank in the world:  Israel's Merkava.  Its awesome low-profile mean stance is matched by it's performance and equally impressive is that it's a vehicle designed and build by Israel for itself.

I picked up the much-maligned Academy Merkava III kit cheap and played around with it but a few things popped up to make me change my mind and rather than build a starter kit as I planned, the project has morphed into my first attempt at a conversion kit.  The issues with the Academy Merk III are well-documented on the net but the big ones are the tracks (rubber bands) and the turret.  As a result of my ambitition to get into resin and also my need to get some experience with making link-by-link tracks, I picked up a set of Fruil tracks and Legend Productions' Merkava Mk. III Detailing Set (Blk.III).  Fruil tracks are considered the best available and are made in Hungary; Legend Productions are a leader in resin conversions and kits, especially IDF kits.

Legend Productions Merkava Mk. III Detailing Set

Fruil Merkava III Tracks (ATL-49)

Academy Merkava III Base Kit

Tools Pt. 1 - Airbrush

Although I do handpaint some stuff, especially on cars and for detailing or touch ups, the majority of the painting I do is with an airbrush.  Its more expensive to start up with than either brushes or spraycans but in the long run it's cheaper than both and it just plain looks better.

I have 2 airbrushes, a Sparmax DH-103 and a Runway 13 Nozomi:

I broke the nozzle on the Sparmax airbrush.  I cleaned it and was putting it back together and tightened the nozzle too much with the wrench that comes with the airbrush.   The brass nozzle snapped in half.  Be careful, airbrush nozzles are very soft.  I used a nozzle scraping tool to get the threaded half of the nozzle out of the airbrush.   Ordered a new nozzle and a needle as well so I'd have a spare needle, the parts aren't too expensive, around 20 dollars (Australian) each.  One thing to look out for when cleaning airbrushes is the nozzle passage BEHIND the paint cup.   It's obvious that you clean the passage in front of it (between the paint cup and the nozzle) but if the passage behind gets blocked then the needle cannot pass through it.  This happened to me when I had the nozzle/needle out waiting for replacement parts.  When I went to reassemble the airbrush, the needle would not pass through the paint block.  Got the airbrush cleaner out (Tamiya) and soaked it a bit then cleaned it up with a long needle and blew the residue out (airbrush cleaner tastes crap).  I used a lot of Tamiya Metallic Grey on the model I'm working on (RG Aile Strike) and I find acrylic paint to be 'gunky' in that it leaves sticky residue behind, one of the reasons I prefer enamel and especially lacquer paints.

New Toy Alert! 

Decided to go all in and get one more airbrush, an Iwata. 

Iwata Eclipse.   This airbrush has a slightly larger nozzle than my S[armax, .035mm.  Made in Japan and carrying the best reputation in airbrushes, I'm looking forward to giving this a full workout.