Now when I was throwing all this together, and I got to the main gear well and part of the air intake tunnel - once fitted, there was an obvious gap at the front end leading up to where the gear well should of met up with the fuselage… It didn’t !
I hoped the insertion of the landing gear and completed well area would hide it but no such luck.
Time to fettle lol.
Cut out a template from card
Transferred that to plasti card - the small area under the pencil outline is the part I need.
And then began sanding and test fitting…
In the end, I cut that part into 5, the outer curves, then 3 small lengths in the middle part.
Luckily the plasti card melted just right once it was glued so it blended in nice. It just needs some gentle trimming and sanding then some Mr Surfacer 500 to join it all together
Then some white paint to finish it.
Also completed all the weapon/fuel/equipment load and pylons and missile rails.
Have test fitted all those and everything sits straight and true… Phew 
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Lots of great work going on here!
I know I said I was going to build the Meng 1/48 F-35 for this campaign, and I still might. But with all the armor builders building aircraft, and all the Magach talk going on, I’m starting to think I might want to move outside my comfort zone and go with this:
Since armor is not generally my thing, it would be an out of the box build of a '73 Magach 6(?) from Ugda Adan.
Feel free to tell me why it won’t work!
Michael 
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Probably late to the party, but I already have a couple of IDF builds in the works.
First one is an M-113A1 Nag’mash Command Vehicle, 1973.
Followed by a bother M-113A3 “Nag’mash” APC.
Still waiting for parts; it’s a Tamiya M51 Sherman.
Also waiting for parts, it’s this Meng Models M60A1 “Magach 6B Gal Batash”, late 80s to mid 90s.
My hands are full with these kits, along with other non IDF builds, so it’s slow going, but hopefully, the Command M-113 will be finished soon for display.
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It will work. Painted in Sinai Sand. Fresh off the C-5; recent delivery as part of Operation Nickel Grass.
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Go for it!!!
You can do it OOB or with the following changes
0.30 cal machine gun on the cupola.
Did not use part B4 (bildge water ejector?)
Used all four parts D26 on each side of the suspension (lifting eyes).
The infantry phone goes on the fender not above it on a mount.
Did not use photoetch parts GA12 (extra triangular brackets for the rear stowage bins).
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On a side note: contrary to the popular belief, tanks delivered during Operation Nickel Grass had practically zero impact as far as the end result of the war was concerned (their moral-boosting effect can not be questioned however): only 4 out of the 29 units delievered between 14 October-14 November arrived before the end of the hostilities on 24 October, and I’m not even sure that they made it to the front lines.
Now, as far as I know, none of the 29 tanks delivered by air were Magach 6s; all such resupply tanks arrived to Israel by sea, after the war ended. Oddly enough, on 14 October, a single Magach 6 was flown to Tel-Aviv onboard a C-5. It was driven off the plane, photographed and flown back to Germany immediately, leaving the Israelis somewhat confused.
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The tank you are mentioning is the one in the photo posted by SableLiger. Notice the absence of the commander cupola MG
Thank you for all the great info, I knew I could count on you guys! Now, Israel (or anyone), I’m not sure this is an appropriate conversation today (or maybe it is particularly appropriate), but can you tell me if all the M60A1s Israel actually fielded during the war had the .30 on the cupola? If so, any good pictures of the setup? I have several decent .30s I can scrounge, but don’t know what the mount looked like.
Thanks again, and an easy fast to all who are observing.
Michael
No. Some didn’t even have the .50 cal in the cupola. Here’s one without the .30 cal:
Nikos might be able to help you with the mount for the .30 cal, I remember from the old site one of his builds with it.
I think the .30 cal started to appear during the war, at least on tanks with the original American cupola.
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Thanks! As I said, armor is not normally my thing, so if I can stick to out of the box, I will. One last question (ha!), did the IDF have any equipped with the big rectangular searchlight during the war? I kind of like the looks of that.
Michael
Indeed. A Magach 3 with xenon searchlight during the war.
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the .30 cal on Magach 6A tanks was used by specific units as a field mod.
Searchlight:
There was also a single very special tank:
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And this is a table I have made with all M60 variants and their designations as used by the IDF
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You mean the dozer blade?
yeap, only slicks had dozers, this is the only example of an A1 that carried one
Here’s a Magach 3 (M48A3), sans Blazer ERA and smoke dischargers, sporting the M9 Dozer Blade.
Armed with an L7 105mm gun and topped with the “Urdan” Commander’s hatch. Also sporting T-142 tracks and aluminum roadwheels from the M60A1.
Can’t see full detail on the hull, but it looks to me like it’s an M60 hull with an M48 turret.
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That looks like a Magach 6 Mem to me. Only the 6 Mem and the 6 Bet ‘Gal’ had thermal sleeves.
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This is a Magach 6M Tadach (M60 slick with upgraded FCS and Baltan ERA)
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