So I have had five weeks by myself and a fair amount of time spent working on the Merkava.
I am pretty happy with the revised drive train, the motor mounts are solid and the cross bracing has provided me with a solid esc mount that doubles as a large heat-sink.
This has also freed up some space in the front compartment for me to fit a smoker, planned to be a water based fogger, with a fill point under the drivers hatch and the exhaust on the front right hand side.
The micro servos driving the headlights has been replaced by a single standard jobbie, incorporating a micro switch to control power to the LED’s. I just need to do the final connection to the servo arm, and wire up the headlights, and make the headlights and fit the headlights and, and, and.
In the centre compartment, I’ll be fitting a control box, sound board and RX along with the two speakers that were scavenged out of a home theatre system.
I may change the speaker setup somewhere down the line, if I am not happy with the results.
The rear compartment will house the lipo batteries on either side as well as a little internal diorama, which will be viewed via the rear door. I still haven’t decided what to do and a lot will depend on info and photos I obtain via IDF forums and sources.
The door itself has changed considerably over the summer, internally I ripped out the original mechanism and have fitted two micro servos (previously driving the headlights) with a mixer/servo slow unit. Along with finishing the external detailing, I added two micro switches to the mechanism. One will turn on an internal light (red) and the other will trigger the sound card with some radio messages.
Heading back around to the front, I installed the drive sprocket covers, carved some tow hitches and detailed the top deck with hinges and latches.
The right hand side received some additional detailing to the side skirt mounts, along with completing all the rivets to the skirts themselves.
At the rear I completed the stowage bins and mud flaps on both sides as well as fitted the baskets either side of the rear door. I also added two track links to the bottom half of the fuel cells, but you’ll have to look closely to find them.
On top, I added a shovel and a few more latches and bits of detail, so all in all quite productive.
I have left myself a week to work my way down the left hand side and get that finished before the wife and boys return home and I am forced to remove the Merkava from the living room coffee table and return it to my workshop!
Jd
. My model will be based no the paper plans from polish GPM.
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