Academy 1/72 Merkava Mk.III

This is a crisp 2024 release Academy armor kit. It has very good fit and nice detail for a small scale kit. I built it OOB with the exception of the tactical marking sheets on the rear of the turret and the canvas covers for the aft stowage bins that I fashioned from paper. The markings themselves are decals included with the kit. The trickiest part of the project was the chain ball pieces. They are fragile and break off easily.

The most interesting part of the project was picking the proper color. I used the AK 3Gen IDF AFV Acrylic Paint Set that includes 3 colors based on historical periods. The darkest shade, Modern Grey, which would likely be the most appropriate is very brown though and no hint of grey. I did some deep internet pictorial research and found many IDF AFV shades ranging from sand yellow to sandy gray to olive green. Basically, I concluded that you can probably justify doing whatever you want. I went with a blend of the set's too brown Modern Grey and the Sand Grey 1970s-1980s. I later acquired a bottle of Vallejo IDF Grey Sand which I think is closer to the drab tone I've see most freqently. I think that's what I'll go with in the future.

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