MERKAVA MKIV מלחמת חרבות ברזל WAR OF IRON SWORDS,GAZA

[MrChef]

This one is really coming along well here. I look forward to seeing chipping and weathering as the single colored tanks are sorta bland and need that special touch to pop.

That site for the reference pics is a gold mine. Are ya gonna model a tiny bird for the barrel too?

[HERMAN BIX]

Agree single colours are plain to start with.
The dust these things seem to accumulate is astounding, so that’s the effect I’m going with.
It’s almost Vietnam red in some pics .

[HERMAN BIX]

Not much action other than an odd commentary on the name of this thing.

Its a Merkava (Chariot) this we know. Yes?

My Misso seems to think that its called a MacGyver......................
Now It may be my quite messy Kiwi/Aussie accept that is diluted very badly over 20 years here, or it may be that she is more familiar with the old TV show, or, shes a raving lunatic with poor hearing and even worse training in such matters

Maybe I will never know, but tarpaulin & stowage is the mission, not the correct pronunciation of the Hebrew name for an MBT
Back to the mission

[Pavel]

I bought my chariot strong horses!

[MrChef]

Ahhhh just go with=
מַכְתָּת הָאֱלֹהִים (makhtat ha-Elohim) God's Hammer

[HERMAN BIX]

I reckon if them motors are red, it automatically makes it go faster!!

Heres my next mini-project. Trying to make ration boxes.

https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science ... /ryfgbzwtp

Can get Menot Krav ration boxes in 35th scale of course, but nothing in 16th.
Rather than hash up a resin wooden box I thought I might have a go at a bit of Origami & make a couple.
You may find the contents interesting Mr Chef....................and the extent the support crew go to for the benefit of the Soldiers.

[MrChef]

I reckon if them motors are red, it automatically makes it go faster!!

Heres my next mini-project. Trying to make ration boxes.

https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science ... /ryfgbzwtp

Can get Menot Krav ration boxes in 35th scale of course, but nothing in 16th.
Rather than hash up a resin wooden box I thought I might have a go at a bit of Origami & make a couple.
You may find the contents interesting Mr Chef....................and the extent the support crew go to for the benefit of the Soldiers.

Definitely was an interesting read, damn I'm learning again

I've had quite a few MRE's over the years.My cousin was an Abrams tank commander and used to bring home and share them after training exercises.

Found this video but doesn't show the items described in the article you linked-

phpBB [video]

[HERMAN BIX]

Note the date on the lower line of test on the box. 2021 I think.
After reading the info in the link I posted I reckon the ingredients have been changed since that video?
I used to live on MRE's when out hunting or at gun-nut weekends, just to add to the effort.
Got pretty good at creating things out of unlikely ingredient combinations.
One of my mates was a Kiwi born but grew up in South Africa, served in the motorcycle recce units. He had a lot of well out of date but still palatable MRE's from there that we used up too. Those were good with Boerewors on weekends away but jeez made ya thirsty!

Back in the day when I was a very dedicated Russian Gun Collector I also created a rough reenactor copy of a typical WW2 Russian soldiers meal ration. Just to see if I could and what it might have been like. Bloody horrible - thats the only description !! Cooking it in a winter in New Zealand, at altitude & raining damp was just depressing.

I found a close menu :

Mid 1942-Late 1943

With the stronger involvement of the British (trying to persuade Stalin that the time for a second front has not come yet), food stuffs of British or Commonwealth origin start filtering through. These initially consist of shipments of tinned meats, such as luncheon loaves or Brazilian bully beef, biscuits and compressed soups/broth cubes. Secondly, Britain is also delivering older U.S. made supplies to Russia, such as chocolate bars during the Winter of 1942.

With limited resources, the Soviet military is in many cases not re-labeling the supplies at all, but is merely passing them down to the troops, which initially leads to some confusion what is what, as the British also had the unnerving habit of either color coding or simply leaving un-marked tinned goods destined for specific ration packs. To avoid misdistribution, Soviet planners decide to begin applying small paper slips with one-word description of the contents to most tins, even to those were labels exist. Thus, it was not unusual to find British meat tins with a small buff paper label pasted on the front declaring its contents in Russian. Oddly enough, much of the tea supplied by the British actually came in small cello bags for shelf-life, yet the Soviets decided to expend effort and materials on this by boxing the 1.75 ounce bags in small cardboard boxes labeled "Tea".

This must truly been decided upon back at the institute on the all the efficiency experts were called to the Kremlin for some "information exchange" with Comrade Stalin!



FOR THE REENACTOR THIS MEANS

In addition to the early war items, the following would be appropriate:

Tinned Beets--200-gram to 400-gram tins (7-14 ounces) with period labels. These were one of the few things canned throughout the war.

British meat tins--Bully Beef or Luncheon meat, along with the various colored British meat and fish tins (6 ounce ham, chicken and fish round tins as found in British ration sets)

Broth cubes--These were larger and drier than your average bullion cube. Ethnic stores carry them, or Knacker Squaddies actually has a very good replica made to their specs.

British or British over-wrapped Chocolate. These include the small .75 oz bars and American Hershey and Nestle brand bars in British outer wrappers or morale-support Pink wrappers

Sweet Biscuits--Various Russian-made biscuits appear in small packages which are handed out as a morale-support item, and, obviously to help with fending off cold temperatures.

Barley--Small pre-packaged rations of Barley are issued to troops in front-line units. This was an essential item for squad-level preparation of food in areas where no hot rations of other kinds could be provided, either due to remoteness or enemy action

Sugar tablets ("Cubes") in wrappersAnother British Lend-Lease Item that fast became a favorite of troops. Both regular (white) sugar tablets and molasses sugar (brown) tablets were provided.

Sweets--Both Western ally supplied sweets and Russias "homegrown" varieties came to the front in larger numbers. While the western allies generally had military pre-packs, Russian candy (normally more properly called a confection, as much of these were chocolate truffle or filled miniature bars) came in wax wrapped varieties similar to pre-war products, and no opportunity to hand these out for propaganda purposes was missed. Check your local ethnic store, or use Brit/US candy repros.

Tea in 50 gram (1.75 oz) pre-packs. This British morale builder was most appreciated and jealously guarded by the frontovik. Both small boxes and printed envelope varieties existed, both having a cellophane or wax-paper liner. If fresh out of vintage boxes, wrap about a cigarette pack sized amount of leaf tea in brown paper.

A small amount of sausage, not the whole pig, rather a section about 4 inches long, very dry, but most often this was not available.

[Pavel]

Red motors are the 390 series
Regular (silver) 370 series.
The Red ones have a fan inside to cool the rotor winding and in principle it has better characteristics.
There is a 400 series, but it simply won't fit between the gearboxes.....

[Pavel]

Installed it... haven't tested it yet.....