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Wish me luck! [Merkava]


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Have always been a 95% aircraft modeller, the other 5% going to targets, rarely cars, figures... and so on. The Seattle IPMS club is (was?) having some sort of something or other involving building Merkavas... Since I have little to no interest in Merkevas (yeah, not even enough to (mis)spell it the same way twice!) I didn't pay much attention to any of the details. However, an article in one of the mags that I read in the same week I saw some program about IDF armor got me very interested in the kit, and in a weak moment bought the new Academy one. I have oft read that armor modellers claim that they don't even open paint tins until the kit is all the way built, and I have never really believed them :whistle:. I mean REALLY? You don't paint as you go? Sure, and you can do 150 USMC push-ups in 15 seconds too. Pshaw!

But it keeps coming up. So the Merkiva kit strikes me as a good one for me to try this out on. I am posting that I plan to not paint it until it is built in the hope that making it public (whether anyone reads it or not) sort of shames me into going through with it. Jeeez, I am getting twitchy just typing it... not even the tools? Or do they just mean the tank itself, and the various flotsam that armor accumulates like tools, stowage, and so on can be painted separately? And the track links?! Surly y'all paint those before gluing them on.... right? RIGHT??

I suspect a knowledgeable and better focused IPMS Seattle member will appear and correct me... watch it be that the contest is the one where you can do whatever you want, but it had to have come from a Mirkeva kit, but if you can build a 1928 Green Bay Schoolbus out of it, you're in. Just not the tank. LOL

Ok... [deep breaths] here I go... to the model room! (am using the Legend back turret AM set because the chains Academy provided just seem severely too two-dimensional. I'll use the kit ones later when I build a model of my Ford Ranger... I keep threatening Jeni that I am going to get some of those Bull Balls and hang them on my truck, she goes sputtering apoplectic over those things... so maybe I'll sneak them on the 1/24th scale of my truck and stand back and watch the fun... mwahahahha!)

~ tracy

Edited by Clumber
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I paint tracks before they go on and then touch up and weather after that.

But all the stowage stuff and tools are painted on the model to blend in with the overall weathering and wear you impart to the finished subject.

:coolio:

MikeJ

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I've always painted stowage and such separate before gluing on, then weathering everything together. But seperate items such as tools, tarps, rucksacks, and so on I always paint as I assemble. Until now! MWAHAHAHA

I paint tracks before they go on and then touch up and weather after that.

But all the stowage stuff and tools are painted on the model to blend in with the overall weathering and wear you impart to the finished subject.

:coolio:

MikeJ

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It can be done. I builld everything on the tank that gets painted the hull color first and paint it all as one. This is usually about 95% of the tank. I leave the road wheels, tools, baggage, and track separate to be painted off the model, then added after it has been painted. For the road wheels, I leave them on the sprue and paint the whole thing, sprue and all, flat black. Then I use an artists circle template and spray through it to paint the inner metal wheel the hull color. This leaves the outer rubber tire black. The other items are painted separately and added before weathering. Once all the decals, smaller pieces, track, road wheels, etc. are painted and on, then I weather it all as one.

You can see some of my works and inprogress pics of them here.

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yep fully build then paint suprisingly it is quicker and simpler and a better method for armour

here is a leopard 2 i am in the middle of for a diorama

first in spray primer

primer.jpg

and painted and half way through weathering

leopard2002.jpg

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Well I'll give this technique this much... the build sure goes a lot faster! Just a couple evenings work in between other life stuff and have 4 steps done. that's closing in on half way. Had to stop at the "add everything tiny ever known to the top of the turret" step since my contacts were starting to annoy me and I was getting fatigued (have a bit of a cold, hits suddenly). I have far too much experience with "pressing on anyway" resulting in some egregious mistake. Like reversing the invasion stripes on a very well known Jug... DO'H!! That critter has sat in a box for 2 years now while I try to decide what to do about it.

Still mulling whether I want to do anything about the weird bumpy coating on the thing... not sure it would be visible at scale... also not sure what the best method would be if I did decide to try it... Some odd instructions as far as things to "NO GLUE!". Still twitching when I read "Paint flat black" or whatever... I am circling those steps in green marker so that I can come back and not forget to paint something... like the strange BRIGHT RED SQUARE on one side.

Pressing on!

~tracy

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I used this technique while doing AFV and I stuck to it with aircrafts. Apart from the cockpit I don't paint anything (Except air intakes and other inaccessible parts of course) before it's assembled for a few reasons:

_The plastic glue does not work on paint (Or looks horrible and gives weaker joints)

_As long as the model is not completed you may always want to add something/improve a seam... and if you already painted it that was wasted work as you will have to paint it again!

Moreover, as previously said by others, the paint is more homogeneous if you do it all in one go.

Good luck with your Merkava, getting the right colour might be the real challenge :D

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Still mulling whether I want to do anything about the weird bumpy coating on the thing... not sure it would be visible at scale... also not sure what the best method would be if I did decide to try it...

Here is an easy technique, and yes it is visible in scale. Some also use white glue with sand mixed into it to replicate the more random and thicker coating seen on Merkavas too.

... like the strange BRIGHT RED SQUARE on one side.

The red square is outlining where the pull handle is for the HALON fire suppression system.

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The Jug should go to South America and be redone as part of one of their air forces. Those are fun builds.

I'm going to try the circle template. Usually I use silly putty as a mask. Paint the whole road wheel the rim color and then cover the inside with putty and spray on the rubber color. Silly putty also makes a good mask for hard edge camo patterns on tanks. and you can use it over and over :woot.gif:

John

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I do this all the time with armour. Get it built 95%, paint it flat black, then lay down the base colours in light passes, as a sort of crazy preshade.

Before

Black-1.jpg

After

Sand-1.jpg

Details, tools etc are then picked out with a brush.

I usually keep the roadwheels and turret off and painted separately.

Cheers,

Matt

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Right color?!?! I'll probably just paint it whatever tan color I happen to have in anough quantity to airbrush.

Nah... I am trying to do it as an easy no-stress test of the technique... would have been OOB too except that the kit chains for the nifty "ball & chain" defense on the turret well... it sucks. The chains don't even have holes. So, it was either try to fiddle with drilling out holes on all the kit chains and still have them look remarkably 2D or buy the back-of-turret AM Legend set. I'll take some pics tonight for comparison and you'll all agree the 'real' chain will look PALLETS better.

Rustoleum Terra Cotta just got put on my shopping list! Great suggestion! I just ordered a spray can of the Mr. Surfacer for the same reason the author of that post decided to try the terra cotta paint - leery of putting it through my airbrush.

Full speed ahead! (Well at my normally snailish building pace, anyhow)

Thanks all!

~ tracy

I used this technique while doing AFV and I stuck to it with aircrafts. Apart from the cockpit I don't paint anything (Except air intakes and other inaccessible parts of course) before it's assembled for a few reasons:

_The plastic glue does not work on paint (Or looks horrible and gives weaker joints)

_As long as the model is not completed you may always want to add something/improve a seam... and if you already painted it that was wasted work as you will have to paint it again!

Moreover, as previously said by others, the paint is more homogeneous if you do it all in one go.

Good luck with your Merkava, getting the right colour might be the real challenge ;)

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