Today I proudly present yet another new page showing better imaqe quality than ever! Now the films, not the prints, were scanned. File size has doubled from 70-80KB/file to 150KB/file, may take longer to load, but you get better quality!
Academy’s Merkava II - by “Art Instructor”:
Have fun!
great looking model brings me closer to getting one for myself, curious about the balls hanging from under the turret are they a way to protect the engine deck fro hand grenades or rpgs?
sorry about the double post,my brain actually worked faster than my computer for a change[D)]
RPG screen.
that’s what it’s for, but it’s to protect the shot trap at the turret, not so much the engine deck, because the engine is in the front of the tank!
Very nice.
Slightly off-topic, hopefully not off-color: I wonder if the Israeli’s ever saw a product called “Truck Nutz”?
Oh my god, I know exactly what you’re talking about; I saw the photo in USA Today…I was mortified![yuck][|(]
Couldn’t help it…every time I see the ball-and-chain RPG screen on those things, that’s where my mind goes. Or, remember the hair on the alien in “Predator”?
Many thanks for your kind comments. I made a mistake by double posting this topic. The two posts were 3 minutes apart because of connection problem, I thought the first time didn’t get through.
looks great. i had this kit, and after many attempts with the ball and chains, i just gave up. i shoud blow off the dust and try again. nice looking build [tup]
question, what is the purpose of the .50 cal in the front. is that a coax? there is a ammo can on it. who in the world is going to climb toward that main gun and change the ammo can, and how does it fire is the ammo is external?
The gun acts like a coax, but you can sight through the main gun optics and it gives more punch than a .30 cal M240C. It is bore-sighted to the main gun. The gun is fired with an electric servo from inside the tank. Changing the ammo is not really an issue, you just crawl out on the top of the turret. The US is installing a similar system (CSAMS) on Abrams in Iraq. They are great for urban fighting when you don’t want to level the whole building, but just put well aimed .50 cal rounds through a window.
Very very nice Merkava indeed!
Im sure this was not a straight OOB build so care to share what aftermarket options were used on this beast?
He has no idea since he doesn’t build them. He just buys them and shows them off here. It is OOB though, his builders don’t use AM stuff, it takes too long. It is O.K., but has some problems as well. Check out the duplicate post by the same name to read what is wrong with it.
I’ve always liked Art Instructor’s work because he doesn’t use aftermarket stuff. It just shows you that some good stuff can be had straight from the box.
I almost always look at MM’s posts for the same reason, to see what someone else is doing OOB-wise. I have a commonality with AI, I build jeeps for people who never touch them themselves, yet still manage to call them “their own”…works for both of us, and that’s kind of what’s going on here. Of course, I really enjoy what I do, and consider myself fortunate to earn a living from something I get enormous satisfaction from. I hope AI feels the same way about his product.
Many thanks for your kind comments! roosterpelo, Jazza, subfixer and RBaer! You comments clearly reflect the majority view of this site about Art Instructor’s work. I also got a personal mail from “Joe” who admires AI’s work, wanting to see more, asking me not to be discouraged by some hostile comments. That won’t scratch me, I told him. I’ll continue my mission - to share my collection to the world. You can rest assured!
It’s true that almost all of his work were built out of the box, and this Merkava is no exception. He loves building models, there’s no doubt he gets full satisfaction in what he’s been doing. How he was glad and smiled when I told him that at least two foreigners said that his lastest diorama “Luftwaffe Air Defense” is his best dio ever. He only said “Again?” (his German Afrika Korps dio got the same praise not much earlier). I think his best dio is yet to be built, these are some of his best.
I’ll photograph his 6 new pieces tomorrow and will present yet another new page on Monday.
Hey Model Maniac, it would be great if you could consolidate those posts into one so you don’t knock all the other recent posts down by 6 spots! You know, once they hit the “2nd page”, those posts don’t get many responses…I hope you don’t interpret that as “hostile”; it’s not intended to be, just thinking of the reality of the way that posts seem to fly off the “top page” when there are multiple posts on any given day, and then someone may not get the answers or tips that they desperately need!
Wow i didnt realize the kit out of the box would produce such a stunning kit with that much stowage. I definitely will be more motivated to build this same kit sitting in my stash.