Current work in progress is Nitto’s Krote redone from 1/20 to 1/35 with the addition a Merkava 120 main gun with tissue mantlet cover in place of the the kit’s 4 barrel Gatling style gun along with a .50 coaxial gun, a set of three missile launchers from an AMX 30 by Heller and an M113 turret to house a pair of .30 Brownings. Various other parts have filled up what appeared to be a pace for a radio in the original configuration. I added several spotlights to the turret and body, leaving off the huge one in the kit. At this point, I have airbrushed Model Master gunmetal on the engine parts and the .50 and its hardware.
Fantastic work! Love the up-gunning of the Krote, which you’ve made to look even meaner and more deadly than ever!!
Are those bomb/missile pylons mounted on the port side of the Krote?
How do you plan to paint it and do you plan to set it in a diorama?
A word of advice from someone who’s got a Krote (original Nitto release) awaiting paint: the footpads themselves are susceptible to splitting, so if you can, I would recommend re-enforcing them!!! Mine split apart more than once and I ended up re-enforcing them with thick CA… This was .a very scary and angering experience, considering the amount of work up to that point…
Thanks Jonny B for the insight to this problem, of which seems to be a problem with numerous kits as mfg’d by Nitto. I understand the poly caps split into as well. Would it be possible for a photo of this mod you are talking about. Many here have and will build the Krote and I believe any that are from Nitto will suffer the same fate. Thanks.
[dto:] I was wondering, with the amount of extra material you have added, did you have to add any weight inside to get the Up-Gunned Krote to set/stand up-right? Look forward to your painting this monster.
Wish I could call what I did to my Krote, a “mod” — it was literally a Hail Mary pass, and a very messy one at that… I literally pulled the split foot pieces back together as best I could, then applied CA and Zip Kicker. Planning on tackling the damage to the feet with weathering, dirt, etc.
Will add that one to my list of models to take pix of when the opportunity presents itself.
So my advice would be to seal and reinforce those ankle joints when you’ve got your pose figured out and if possible, reinforce the foot’s “arch” with sheet styrene, epoxy putty, etc.
Arg! Now you’re making me want to finish my Krote! Arrrrrgh!
Keep up the good work on your Krote, A — love the turret and riser from the M113/132 flame track, dude!
As a fan of both the Krote and the Merkava, I like this build. [H]
Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the seam running up the Krotes “belly”, and what a nightmare it was to remove it… [:(]
This is pretty cool.
I didn’t have trouble w/ the foot splitting, but I did have one of the shocks suddenly snap off about two weeks after finishing it. I had flexed one of the legs a bit, which put a little compression on one of the springs in the leg shock absorbers. After awhile that tension got to be too much and… POP! Sheared the plastic pin right off.
I fixed it by drilling through the shock mounts on top and bottom, and pushing some brass rod through into the leg, then replacing the plastic hex bolt over the brass. The repair has held for about 6 years now.
Did you have trouble getting the seams off that merkava gun barrel? [:D]
OK, so I was wondering, does the foot pads split down the middle of the main part (the foot itself), or I thought like so many other older Nitto kits, the area you put the poly cap joint connectors causes the little round part @ the top of the foot to split as the poly plastic expands from the effects of paint/thinner being applied to it? And just for the record what other little gremlins showed up??? I just received a Nitto Ma.K ZvB 3000 version of this kit that I very much want to build, but I do want to know what too look out for as well. And I was wondering, we have the Sf3D version (NItto), the Ma.K ZvB 3000 re-pop (Nitto) something to do w/copy right problems between Kow and HLJ?, and now the Wave Ma.k version. So just which version has the feet problems or is it all of them???[:S] And about this up-gunned monster we have the pleasure watching the building of, ? are you going for the autonomous or since you added a copula, a maned version? To carry the main gun, missile system and 2nd dairy armament and maned, would make this thing BIG in true life scale. I guess one could add 1/35 figures and get a good scale effect for that size? Keep up the great work.[:D]
My Ma.k. mishap occurred a couple of years ago, but as I recall, the ankle joint split as well as the curved metal plate (think of it as the webbing between the metal support struts or toes) nearly disintegrated as well. Not a happy scene! Wish I knew about this before hand — so beware, A, as you finish your Krote…mind the feet, dude! Hopefully, Wave fixed this nasty little issue.
