Heng Long Merkava IV mods

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tankme
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Heng Long Merkava IV mods

Post by tankme »

I broke down and bought a Merkava back in April so this will a mix of a catchup thread if you are on Hobbysquawk. Toucan had them for $70 off the normal price for the all metal (minus the hull) version. I decided to start off by build a cope cage for it as seen in the recent conflict:

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I found one on Cults3D to print:

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various ... -35-panzer

Unfortunately no matter what material I tried to print it in, it failed to print in either version. Tried it in ASA, PETG, and ABS like resin. The mesh or the bar version was just modeled too delicately to print right in 1/16 scale. The bars and mesh got distorted as it would detach from the resin printer's FEP or the supports on the FDM printer were too difficult to remove eventually breaking the bars or the mesh. At that point, I took the bad PETG print, cut out all the center sections, found a free scalable plastic grill mesh on Printables, printed it out, cut out the sections I needed and glued them to the cope cage. As you can see, even a few of the squares broke getting off the build plate as they are like less than a mm high.

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And my Frankenstein results:

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Next task was to magnetize the lower hull. It was a little more difficult than some as the lower plastic bosses in the front were pretty short. I had to cut a little off the tow hooks before I could glue them in. I also removed the front hooks as they will probably dig into the dirt when running the tank. I may add some removable 3D printed ones later.

Front magnets:

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Rear magnets:

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​I didn't like the look of the fake rubber skirts so I 3D printed some TPU skirts as replacements. The skirt pieces I printed are 1mm thick which might be a little thicker than I'd like, but I can always print more later. Each piece also has a thinner mounting tab used to glue it to the back of the armor skirt. I had to remove the fake piece so I scored along the seem line and bent them off using a needle nose pliers. Quick and simple with minimal cleanup.

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Pulled out the razor chopper and cut them into 40mm sections. The sections on the slat armor and the first and last 40mm section were printed with an angle per the real ones.

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Just used some CA to attach them and they looked like this from the inside:

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Not a fan of the Philips screws that came with everything to mount the dangling balls and the engine grate so I replaced them with mini bolts:

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And the final results:

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Continued in next post...
Last edited by tankme on Sun Aug 04, 2024 3:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
Derek
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Re: Heng Long Merkava iV mods

Post by tankme »

After consulting some more reference materials, I saw that the front and rear mud flaps also needed some attention. I printed some more flexible TPU and cut out some mud flaps for the front and rear. I still need to add some fake fasteners to the faux mounting strips. I also blued the tracks to get rid of that nasty silver color:

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In the first post, I didn't show how the front magnets were attached. They will eventually be covered with the plugs that came with the tank like the ones in rear. I have had glue fail so my magnets are usually mechanically attached using fasteners.

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Speaking of magnets, I decided to magnetize the turret together as I've done on other tanks. I also started work on a mount for the LegoDEI apple. I 3D printed the mount and found a junk piece of ABS to put the mount in securing it temporarily with the screws for the BB chute which has been removed. I haven't ever shot a single BB through any of my tanks. I've only installed 4 magnets, but I think I will be adding at least two more to ensure the turret stays closed.

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Remnants of the BB chute as it had part of the barrel mount attached. I had to cut it down that much to clear the new elevation and recoil unit.

The hatch can still mostly close when I'm not using the apple.

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Speaking of the new elevation and recoil unit, I had one of the metal units in the stash so it was installed and the BB recoil/elevation was removed.

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A couple of M4 stand offs and some failed ABS print material was used to create a support for the servo and the platform for the servo to sit on.

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Mounting the barrel in the new unit took some brass tube, two M2.5 set screws, and removing a bit of length from the back of the barrel. I had to then drill/tap the hole for the set screw in the barrel and do the same for the plunger on the metal recoil unit.

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Being a modern tank, I wanted modern tank speed so some Taigen 390 motors were installed:

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Since my local battle club tends to have more HL tanks than Clark based ones like I typically build, I decided to try installing the CS-TK6.1 unit I had bought a long time ago. Everything was going well with the unit until I tested the battle functions. It took hits just fine, but unfortunately after using both the HL IR emitter and an Osram emitter, I couldn't get it to give hits. Using the my phone camera I could see the Osram unit light up, but I'm going to assume it wasn't lighting up for the required length to register a hit. The Open Panzer TCB had that issue until Luke increased the pulse length of the IR LED.

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Being me, I wasn't happy with the end result of the way the dangly balls that Heng Long supplied. I had spent hours on the HL units only to not really be all that happy with the way they looked. Visually they were lacking, plus since adding the turret magnets the HL units were actually magnetizing up to the rear magnets. So back on AliExpress and Amazon I went. I found some 4mm chain (Amazon) I liked and some 4mm brass balls (AliExpress) that are used in making jewelry. Since both the chain and the balls are non-ferrous, no more magnetism issues.

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You can see a comparison of the HL units on the left and the new ones on the right. Much better IMO.

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And after hours of playing with these little balls, this is what I got:



A very satifying result:

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I'm currently waiting on a HL 7.1 controller to show up so the project will go into hold status until that arrives.

That's all for now...
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Re: Heng Long Merkava iV mods

Post by Ecam »

That is one heck of a first couple posts on your catch up thread! Love your Frankenshield. The new skirts are a big improvement.
Last edited by Ecam on Sun Aug 04, 2024 11:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Heng Long Merkava IV mods

Post by HERMAN BIX »

Get some O that says Mr Tankme !!
Hell of a resurgence mate :thumbup:
The brass balls are a magnificent addition. I will get looking for those for sure.
HL JAGDPANTHER,HL TIGER 1,HL PzIII MUNITIONSCHLEPPER, HL KT OCTOPUS,HL PANTHER ZU-FUSS,HL STuG III,HL T34/85 BEDSPRING,
HL PZIV MALTA,MATORRO JAGDTIGER,HL F05 TIGER,TAMIYA KT,HL PANTHERDOZER,HL EARLY PANTHER G,TAIGEN/RAMINATOR T34/76,
HL AN-BRI-RAM SU-85
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tankme
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Re: Heng Long Merkava IV mods

Post by tankme »

Thanks. School is done so it's time to get to building and getting projects done around the house.

Being brass, they have a nice weight to them and act better than the HL ones also. The HL ones tended to get tangled sometimes and these don't. The little plastic balls also fall off pretty easily since the loop holding them on isn't completely closed. I bought enough of the brass balls to also do my 3D printed Merkava MK3.

These were the balls I bought in the 4mm size: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/22518326 ... pt=glo2usa

This is the chain: 33ft 4mm Width Stainless Steel Rolo Cable Chains Findings Fit for Jewelry Making &DIY (SC-1027-D) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FS ... =UTF8&th=1


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Re: Heng Long Merkava IV mods

Post by Herr Dr. Professor »

Good grief, Derek: you do remarkable work remarkably fast! Thank you for the URL on the ball-and-chain curtain armor. One thing can be said for those Merkava tankers: they've got...
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Re: Heng Long Merkava IV mods

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Herr Dr. Professor wrote: Sun Aug 04, 2024 8:28 pm Good grief, Derek: you do remarkable work remarkably fast! Thank you for the URL on the ball-and-chain curtain armor. One thing can be said for those Merkava tankers: they've got...
Receiving those fresh, shiny balls in the mail just inspired me to get back to work on the project...

The Merkava has been sitting on the bench behind a lot of my other tanks so it was just time to move it to the front for a bit. The HL anti-slip texture is...OK. I might add some additional texture to get it to look better. There is just A LOT of masking to do on that tank.
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Re: Heng Long Merkava IV mods

Post by BarryC »

Nice work Derek. :thumbup: :thumbup:

I have one waiting in the wings. I shall be "stealing" you magnet mounting process. ;)

I have collected at least a hundred pictures as a result of the conflict in Gaza.
The one detail I have not found in a good photo is the attachment points to the Turret for the Overhead Armor.
I also have several Desert Eagle publications covering the Merkave IV still no luck.
I want to install the parts for the Trophy System as well.

Thanks for the links to the Ball/Chain Armor. :thumbup:

Keep up the great work!
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Re: Heng Long Merkava IV mods

Post by tankme »

BarryC wrote: Sun Aug 04, 2024 10:35 pm Nice work Derek. :thumbup: :thumbup:

I have one waiting in the wings. I shall be "stealing" you magnet mounting process. ;)

I have collected at least a hundred pictures as a result of the conflict in Gaza.
The one detail I have not found in a good photo is the attachment points to the Turret for the Overhead Armor.
I also have several Desert Eagle publications covering the Merkave IV still no luck.
I want to install the parts for the Trophy System as well.

Thanks for the links to the Ball/Chain Armor. :thumbup:

Keep up the great work!
Barry

No problem. The front magnets were really, really tight in there. Took a lot of fiddling to get them to fit. The Merkava mounting points are really shallow so it is a bit of a challenge. I had found a pic of a Merkava where the cage was mounted into some square mounts, but at the moment I can't seem to find it. I've been loosening up a bit with my rivit counting. It seems I'm not getting usable tanks by doing too much research. I'm getting to a point where I'm going to hit the high points and accept some of the low points.
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Re: Heng Long Merkava IV mods

Post by Jib »

Hey couple of questions?

What magnets do you use? I got some beveled north and south rare earth magnets that fit inside the original HL plastic screw standoffs, but the screws are too small compared to the original screws, so I have to put something inside for the screws to hold.

Also, where did you get the bolts you used here? Would love to do that inside of the screws. Did you use blue loctite so you could get them out again, or just glue them down?

I got my hands on a HL Merkava a little bit ago and I’m looking into what I want to do.
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