Does the 48hrs include the paint job?
Yes I have to build, paint and weather (lightly) it in the 48 hours.
Another reason Iām waiting is because I just bought a bottle of AMMO faded Sinai Grey, a new bottle of Tamiya Extra thin that Im waiting for to arrive. And last but not least a bottle of AMMOrphineā¦ 
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Build, PUT THE ANTISLIP on , paint and weather. I did the meng one a while back AVOID the anti slip it takes bloody ages. Good luck. I love doing speed builds. Mainly because Iāve got the attention span of a 4 year old.
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Luckily Iām saved, this is the newer Academy Merk kit so it has the antislip already molded on! 
Hey all, Im planning on starting the build at 5:00pm MST Friday (Today) and finishing at 5:00pm MST Sunday.
I should have the first update in about 4 hours. (providing I donāt hit any fit issues.)
Good luck!
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Best wishes!
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Thanks guys!
Build started 13 min ago!
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Tuned in. Gotta work early tomorrow so Iāll probably miss tonightās starting shots but will be back tomorrow afternoon again.
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Appreciate yāall checking this out!
In 4 hours Id say Iāve accomplished a fair amountā¦ the turret, lower hull and tracks are complete. The upper hull is about half done. The Academy kit goes together really easily with very nice details except in one place, the rear of the turret. I had a big step to sand down and fill.
Other then that its a really nice kit! The anti slip looks pretty good as well.
Also the ball and chains are a little pain is the ***, the fit is horrid and they need LOTS of Mr. Surfacer to look somewhat acceptable. I still need to add and sand some moreā¦
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How much modeling cocaine have you used to get to this impressive point?
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None yet, Im saving it till I have 2 hours left and the Merkava is only primedā¦ 
Thatās an impressive four hours worth of productivity!
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Imagine how much more modeling could have been under itās influence? Two kits could have been built!
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Going nicely! Makes me wonder how organised your workbench isā¦ everything in its place, ready for grabbing?
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All that in only four hours!!! 
Pretty impressive work! 
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Thanks guys!
Bert, my bench started out like that but now its a mess of sprues, glue, side cutters, ectā¦
Ive gotten to a point filling and sanding where the ball and chains look fairly good so im now down to last 150 parts!
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Small hiccup with the build. I just got a email saying my bottle of Sinai grey was delayed and will arrive Monday. So I will need to halt the build until then so Iām currently 18 hours and 49 min into the build. I will start the timer again on Monday when my paint arrives. (hopefully)
Right now the Merk is fully built awaiting some black primer. Priming it will be the last thing I do before halting the build. The ball and chains (which are my only complaint with this very nice kit) look good enough to continue, luckily some heavy weathering will cover what I missed.
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There should be some small plastic hemispheres on one of the sprues. A hemisphere goes on each side of the PE disk at the bottom on the chain. Thatās how you make the balls. There will be a small gap but it is barely noticeable.
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Maybe, if you have them, you can mix up Tamiya colours? On https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=242868&page=1 it says āthe following mix works best for modern IDF vehicles: 1 part XF20, 1 part XF27, 1 part XF49 and 1 part XF57. I blend this mixture with 4 parts X22 and finally dilute it with 8 parts X20A Thinner (I am quite sure that I retrieved this recipe from www.idf-in-scale.com (the predesessor site of www.idf-modelling.com)).ā
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