Chariot of Fire- Meng Merkava IIID

[papa 695]

That look fantastic

[Road of Bones]

Steve, Jim, Allen, Ian- most kind of you, gents! :flushed:
Wouter- that’s a beauty, though I do prefer the more cluttered asymmetrical lines of the Mk IIID :nerd:. You’ve always had a lovely touch with your weathering- thanks for sharing those pictures:thumb2:
Mike- thanks sir, read on...

Time to start bringing out the details on the beast then! I decided to eschew the usual AK or Mig ready-mixed washes, as the ones I have don’t quite work on Sinai Grey. I decided to mix my own using a combination of these:

I used a low-odour thinners to make a wash, and a fine brush to start picking out all that lovely hull detail- here I have done about half the front glacis area:

An hour or so later, I had completed my first pass over the whole tank:

I’ll let this dry for a day or so, and re-assess for a possible second pass. I turned back to the crew, and used light washes of Payne’s grey and burnt umber on the uniforms, and worked on the faces, using more oil paint. I blocked in the eyeballs with a tiny spot of white, and will go for the irises when the white is more dry:

Happily enough, the boom mics are still intact! :smiling:
Thanks for looking chaps,

Alistair☠️

[Mr Bowcat]

Just had a catch up Alistair, the Merk is looking awesome.

[boatman]

HI Alistair she lookin great this tank is to me its design looks like something out of S/F but I love all the low angles whoever designed this tank certainly knew what he was doin an as for clanky noway I bet she runs like a R/R as to me she is the R/R of the tank design id even go as far as sayin she's beautifull she has a lovley figure on her GAWRD im getting carried away over this tank I mustant go over to the dark side lol :smiling:
chris ps I think its the shape of the turret that does it for me beautifull

[boatman]

I wonder if there is one of these tanks in a big scale big enough for R/C ?
CHRIS

[scottie3158]

Al,
The washes are really making the details pop. The figures are top notch.

[Road of Bones]

I wonder if there is one of these tanks in a big scale big enough for R/C ?
CHRIS

I had a quick google Chris, and it doesn't look like it, sadly. Any amount of Tigers and Panthers though :rolling:

Bob - thanks, glad you think so!

Scottie - the figures are coming along pretty well, I think. The oil-painting method makes going a little slow, but I reckon the results are better than using basic acrylics. The matt varnish will really bring them to a finish.

Currently sat in a near-empty office at work - most of the sales & logistics team are working from home, but it's a bit difficult for me to work from home in a rolling week - the mill needs to be able to call me out to look at hot bits of steel now and again!

Stay healthy everyone:thumb2:

[Guest]

Alistair
Looking better, both vehicle and figures.
Mike.

[Jim R]

Hi Alistair
The oil work on both the tank and the figures has worked a treat.
Jim

[Guest]

its design looks like something out of S/F but I love all the low angles whoever designed this tank certainly knew what he was doin

It may interest you to know that the turret armour is a stack of thin plates, all at that angle:

[ATTACH]377064[/ATTACH]

(This is a Merkava 4, but I doubt the 3 is very different in this respect.)

[boatman]

THATS instresting Jakko no wonder its a thin turret an at that angle it should defleck any round comin off the tank turret thanks for info though
chris

[BigGreg]

YES YES YES.... the weathering..

[Guest]

at that angle it should defleck any round comin off the tank turret

The angle won’t help against HEAT rounds, though, and that’s why it’s all thin plates. They’re probably mounted flexibly so that they’ll move when they get hit, and so put more material in the way of the shaped-charge jet than a single, thick plate would.

[boatman]

The angle won’t help against HEAT rounds, though, and that’s why it’s all thin plates. They’re probably mounted flexibly so that they’ll move when they get hit, and so put more material in the way of the shaped-charge jet than a single, thick plate would.

YEA Jakko so like I said help to deflete any round incoming

[Road of Bones]

Evening all.

Spent tonight working with ground pastels to add a patina of dust to the beast, as well as some diesel soot around the exhaust grille. I scraped the tips of some yellow, pale cream and Indian red pastels and mixed the resulting pile of dust with a knife blade, before using a dry brush to work it around the side skirts and wheels, and a little over the top of the turret. I also made a tow cable, using the kit cable ends and a 150mm length of brass picture-hanging wire. The cable eyes needed hollowing out slightly to fit over the forward towing hooks, but that was not too difficult. I painted it in metallic grey, and then dusted it with the pastel dust mix, followed by a wash of IPA to blend and set the dust into the cable. Here’s how it looks now:


Starting to look the part now...
Thanks for looking chaps,

Alistair☠️