My first Amusing Hobby kit, and overall I’m impressed. A pic of the box:
IMG_4001 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
The price was good and I’ve wanted to build this tank for a while, so after finishing up the M48 and Magach’s, I dove in, moving aside the Magach6 I started a few weeks ago. First thing I noticed was that AH does not represent the ribs inside the road wheels at all. See below:
IMG_4003 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
Not wanting to hunt around for aftermarket parts, I chucked one up and cut the grooves, acceptable but slow. Then I remembered the Chieftain Marksman by Takom I had (purchased for the turret) and shortly after, I had the Takom outer wheels on, with my homebrewed wheel on one station, because somehow or other I lost one of the Takom wheels.
IMG_4002 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
The kit goes together quickly, good fit and detail. I’m happy. Then I remembered some tracks I bought off eBay, brown box specials, and again I was impressed. They’re polished so no burrs or flash, hoes area ll clear and the pins are perfect. I rather quickly had two runs of 102 links assembled, the number of links called for by AH, and I’ll be dipped if they didn’t drop right on. The idlers are all the way forward in the following pic so I may remove one link:
IMG_4007 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
This is so close to out of the box (for me anyway) that it’s flying together. I may see what the kit tracks look like on it, just for fun and because they go together easily.
Overall the only thing I can see that I don’t like on this kit is the road wheels. Fit is good, detail is good and it was about $45 in a retail chain hobby shop.
Copied from a post by Michael Mass on FB regarding his experience with the kit:
"Building a Shot-Cal (Alef) served in the YKW.
Before starting with the pro and con of the Amusing-Hobby Shot-Cal, indicated as a model from the Valley of tears, it is important to indicate that Shot-Cals were participating in the battles in the Sinai Peninsula as well as in the front on the Golan Heights. The 500th Brigade fought in both sides of the Suez Canal and after the crossing, it fought and destroyed AAA batteries in the Egyptian territory. The Brigade also took part in the failure within the attempt to clear the city of Suez.
The subject of the build is, therefore – Shot-Cal of the YKW.
The main kit, 35A048 is a COPY of the one from AFV club, where almost every single design and production was copied. The changes are not a strong point as the tracks are new and incorrect, and some major mistakes in the configuration were implemented.
It is always said that too much is Unnecessary.
• The kit includes an additional .30 Cal mg on the LH side of the turret, for the loader, a supplement implemented as a lesson from the YKW, so cannot be on the YKW Shot-Cal. (-)
• The Xenon search light + vertical holder is post YKW. But… it is a great item to use on Shot-Cal Gimel and Dalet. (-)
• There should not be a water can holder on the turrets basket. (-)
• Road wheels are simplified and incorrect. I used the AFV wheels with the rubber rim. (–)
• Track links are too narrow. They fit perfect and assembled in no time, but I preferred to use Friul kit ATL-65, drilled with 0.7mm drill. (–)
• PE parts are very good especially the mesh for the turret basket. (++)
• Rear communication box can be built open showing the hand set. (++)
• Location of air cleaners and support, on the RH & LH fenders is not clear. (-)
• I used 4 7.62 ammo boxes and holder from Accurate Armor kit A179 (highly recommended for all IDF subjects)
• 105mm L7 gun comes in resin and plastic parts. Fitting is very good. (+)
• There is no dust cover on the gun mantlet. (—) . I used DEF Model DM35059 resin part.
• Decals are very poor. Not recommended. (–)
• The towing cables are a horror task, so I used KARAYA 1.1mm metal cables with some modifications for the ends.
All in all it is a decent kit made of very soft polystyrene that took a short time to assemble."
I built this one a while ago Russ for the Cent campaign. Really enjoyed it. Dont forget, you will need a mantlet — I used the DEF one after a bit of turret surgery which was very easy to do … and the points from Nikos are a massive help 
Beautiful! Nikos, thanks for the list, I will follow it! I’ll have some extra parts too, always good. I’m stuck for tracks though. The metal links I have (San Xin) are the same width as the kit tracks, and a set of AFV Club tracks (#35102).
Johnny, I have the mantlet, plan on using it.
Just as a toss-out, if anyone has a set of the Friul ATL-65 links and could possibly measure the width of a link, that would be very helpful. I have a bid on a set on eBay, only place I could find any…
TBH I do not understand the track comment… 
Some photos of the Mass build
Link to FB post: Michael Mass - Building a Shot-Cal (Alef) served in the...
I do like Mr. Mass’ work!
Re the tracks: In Michael’s fix list, he says the kit track links are too narrow and that he preferred the Friul ATL 65 set. I’m curious as to how much of a difference there is between the Friuls and the others (Amusing Hobby’s kit, AFV Club and San Xin).
Also, I’m going to shop for the stowage, looks good!
Track width should be 24 scale inches = 17.41 mm or 0.686 inches. So I guess you need to measure the ones you have.
I might have a Friul set somewhere to measure (I might have exhanged them at some point) need to search the stash.
If you need photos of Shot Cals I can post some 
Nikos, you’re a prince, scholar and a gentleman! All the links I have are 17.5 mm in width, so I can relax. I also ordered up a massive stowage set off eBay, lots of stuff that I won’t need but some I will.
I have a few pics of Sho’ts in the YKW but they’re not great. Anything you’re willing to post I’m sure to be grateful for. Mostly I would need pics of stowage since Michael’s pics and fix list are very clear. On his model, I did notice what looks like a green part on the left turret side, between the rear kit bin and basket (from AFV Club?) that looks like a shallow stowage bin, different than other pics I have. That’s the only thing I might need to come up with, unless it’s not a standard item on all Sho’ts…
I have this beaut’ in the stash with all of the appropriate aftermarket accouterments.
Flicker Album here:
The box on the left side of the turret is the searchlight stowage box and was factory issued.
@gtdeath13 @rfbaer
Could it be possible that Mr Mass was referring to the measurement along the red arrow in the image above instead of along the blue line. Language barrier issue?
I would normally think about width as the blue line when discussing a whole track, the red measurement would be the pitch of a track.
What happens when viewing a single link?
Would blue be the length of the individual link (the bare metal casting without track pins or anything else) and red the width? It feels slightly weird to call the shorter measurement the length and the longer measurement the width …
The pitch is (according to Nikos image above) 5.5 inches → 3.99 mm in 1/35th between the centers of the track pins.
Edit: My calipers went to work on the AFV-Club “rubber” tracks from one of their Centurion kits.
The 5½ inch pitch results in 3.99 millimetres in 1/35th (one inch = 25.4 mm → 139.7 mm for 5½ inches → 3.991 mm pitch in 1/35). The distance between the same points on a track link measured over 10 links (front of guide tooth for instance) should therefore be 39.9 mm.
I set the calipers at 39.9, measured and got a near perfect match (the measured distance was lightly more than 39.9 mm).
If Amusing did indeed copy AFV-Club then the track pitch should be correct
Amusing Hobby kits are SO excellent.
I’m quite happy with this one, seems like it’s flying together.
Thanks Nikos, you da man! I see quite a few with the search light mounted… hmmm.
It gets better when you realize what types of searchlights they used…
I will ask him and get this cleared out. He might be referring to the track link thickness, usually plastic links are thinner than the metal equivalent. Takom merkava kits are a good example of that.
Agreed. It’s common, dunno why.
I’m guessing either the same French-sourced light from the M50/51 or something from a T-55. I haven’t looked at the light in the kit yet.
Both actually, you can see US, French and Soviet searchlight mounted. Also notice in some photos that have the searchlight covered with canvas. Most of these are AN/VSS-3 similar to the one used on the M551 Sheridan
One is a L-2 Luna IR light, sourced from captured T-54/55 tanks.
lots of good info in these posts. I have the AFV kit as well as the AH somewhere. Also have the Aussie Vietnam kit someplace.
gary
Several neat options here, as long as they’re YKW time frame. I’ll be starting the turret in a few days (probably) and can decide then what (if any) light I’ll use.
A have the Miniart YKW crew fig set that, if appropriate, might be neat to use too. I heard it’s from a specific picture somewhere, have to do some research there.
In the meantime, I have some more work done but I had nasal surgery done yesterday and wearing my modeling glasses is kind of touch and go.
