I painted my Merkava with a custom mix of Tamiya acrylics. The turret bustle rack is scale thin sharply molded ball-and-chain sections attach underneath. On the other hand, all of the hatches are movable and have detail on inside surfaces. The cannon’s elevation is fixed because the mantlet is fixed in the turret. At first glance, the main gun split in halves seems like a throwback, but the fit is spot-on and the thermal jacket hides the seam. The majority of the turret builds from upper and lower halves that perfectly nails late-variant Merkava shapes. The molded antiskid texture on upper surfaces looks scale correct. The upper hull built up quickly without any real hiccups as most of the parts seemingly fell into place. The links in my sample were marred by flash and ejection marks that needed to be removed for the tracks to assemble properly. Designed to be working with the suspension, each link comprises two parts. The individual-link tracks presented the kit’s biggest challenge. Unfortunately, most of this terrific detail won’t be visible after the skirts are fitted. The kit’s parts, including slide-molded springs, provide for a convincing working suspension. The Merkava’s suspension is a neat combination of torsion bars and external springs. The seams on the hull virtually disappear with many components joining along welds seams. Despite the relatively high parts count, the kit builds rather quickly. Meng’s Mark IVM packs in the details, including crisp, slide-molded machine-gun barrels and perfectly formed V-shaped belly armor. The latest tanks, Mk.IVMs, are fitted with the Trophy active protection system that can intercept incoming rockets and missiles. Since then, the design has undergone several updates leading to the Mk.IV with enhanced protection and modular armor for quick repairs. Israel’s current main battle tank, the Merkava, (chariot in Hebrew) entered service in 1979.
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