Border Models continues its torrid pace of kit announcements with a new Israeli Merkava 2D with full interior.
What a time to announce this, but it looks great. Border just keeps pumping them out. Not just kits, but interesting subjects.
This looks good but again no anit-slip.
They slipped up on the anti-slip details?
See the other thread on the same subject. It has it, but in my opinion is not well done. It’s too uniform for a II series, which according to my references is coarse and rather haphazardly applied.
18bravo, if you look at the pics of the built up kit, I can’t see any anti-slip there, and there is a pretty good shot of the front of the hull. Were you maybe going by the pics someone posted of the Takom kit in the other thread?
Indeed. You can barely see it there in one photo, and to me it’s far too regular and fine. The paint on the built up kit may hacve hidden the texture.
Well that tears it! Totally unbuildable kit.
Myself I hate when they mold on anti-slip. It is either too coarse or not enough.
Break out the material of choice and do it yourself.
So is there a product out there that can be used to apply an anti-slip layer?
That product looks like it works great, but it is essentially what I’ve been doing for nearly three decades. Their instructions tout it as being better than using sand and “styrene glue,” but I have never used model cement for this purpose. I have used wet paint or more often thinned white glue. Of course thinned white glue is ridiculously easy to clean up.
And of curse it can be used in the uniform or scattered modes as well.
I started this Merkava in '95 and finished it in '96. The earlier Merkavas had a scattered pattern, which I replicated.
I used very fine sand. I just purchased this today which is even finer - possible good for 1/72 scale, which is probsbly not very noticeable .
Thank you for that link, as @18bravo points out, it does look like a great product. I was able to source some relatively locally here in the UK and with P&P paid less than £12. I did procrastinate because @18bravo solution does look very good and quite possibly, also more cost effective.
In the end, I went with the VMS product. I suppose i’m just lazy.
I would guess the scattered effect would be more accurate for a Merkava Mk II, which is where i’m headed.
I prefer VMS because the grains are very fine and looking realistic to the scale. I saw several models with too big grains and it looks more than stones or mud instead of anti-slip surface.
wtf? Before a kit has even hit the shelves people are talking about AM? That’s what’s wrong with today’s hobby - more AM than original kit. Turn a buy for $50 kit into a spend $150 kit.
Anyway this interior looks like it’s missing a ton of stuff
I used to be a fan of adding interiors to everything, until I realized most of it goes unseen - wasted effort when I could concentrateon the doing the best I could on what can be seen. Having said that, the Merkava I I posted above has a full interior.
I’m assuming you speak from experience - so what ton of stuff is this kit missing, in case any of us decide to improve upon it?
There are many grey areas that can’t be verified by references - in that case there is nothing in the kit in those areas
It is a shame and pity that some misguided manufacturers make an attempt at adding interiors when they can’t make them 100% correct and provide evidence that every little bit, doodad, thingamajig, doohickey and whatchamacallit is historically correct.
It would be a lot better if they just molded all hatches shut and totally refrained from making kits of open topped vehicles. The model builder who has all the crucial information can go ahead and scratch build every infernal part he needs. This would prevent innocent builders who do not have the required information from being fooled, misled, bamboozled and scammed by ruthless manufacturers flooding the market with incorrect kits.
Some people will take the guesstimates, rather than scratch build every single part. Value for money. How many hours will it take to scratchbuild vs ordering this from something like Ali when on sale? Let people enjoy things. Doubt anyone can make anything 100% accurate either ways, even when it’s just external details
