Been spending time doing my usual, RCing a resin kit. This time is the new SOL Merkava Mk III Early type. I have never built a SOL kit before so have no idea what to expect. I have hope for reasonably strong resin cast. As it turn out, the details were exceptional as you can see in the close-up pics of the turret, but the lower was a very strong resin cast (I can swing it around and probably kill somebody with it) and it is a tub with no details molded on (everything has to be glue on). So instead of replacing it with a working hull, I ended up "skinning" the sides of a Heng Long Chally lower, and gluing the entire side (with suspensions and road wheels) onto the resin tub.
Gearbox has to be fairly low profile, so I also contemplated using DKLM's PDSGB but at the end settled with a simple Heng Long steel gearbox with one of the flange bended down to fit. One of the reason I ended up using the Chally wheels is because they were very similar to the Merkava ones, and as it turn out apparently they are both based on the Centurion ones which the IDF are very familiar with. Even the sprockets are virtually identical other than bolt counts. I managed to destroyed the stock resin idlers while trying to make it operational, so I have to sub in a modded Pz III early idlers which is very similar other than the number of spooks. All the hubs however are from the resin kit itself.
The upper is the usual fare, a metal rotation unit from DKLM is powerful and fast enough for the heavy resin turret and a modern tank, a simple servo recoil with no elevation however, TBU installed with IR emitter in the targeting housing. Barrel is not metal from the kit, so I have to replace it with the HL M1 metal barrel which is again virtually identical in look and length. Electronics is the new IBU2U Pro, with the sound file for the Leo II.
Lastly, the real reason I bought the kit. Uniform IDF tanker comes with the kit, and tank top one is extra.
