MENG MAGACH 6B 7th Part

MAGACH 6B BUILD

PART 7

We pick up with completing the turret. I ordered a covered turret basket add on kit so I wouldn't have to wrestle with stowage. I wanted the Legends Production version but no one seems to have it stock, so I resorted to using the one Meng produces. So, completing the turret included building the commanders cupola, the loaders hatch, assembling the barrel, attaching the machine guns, attaching antennas, and finally the construction and installation of the covered turret basket.

The barrel was three pieces consisting of two halves and a muzzle cap. Given the thermal jacket details on the barrel I understand why this barrel could not have been slide molded, and therefore I was left with a seam on the barrel. The good news is that the seam was quite slight which made correcting the seam with putty very easy. To help me fill this seam I used Vallejo's plastic putty. I LOVE THIS STUFF! Why? Because the putty comes out of the bottle in a liquid state which made it very easy to apply. I use this putty whenever I can as it is the easiest applied putty product I have come across.

Meng include a .50cal machine gun belt that was long enough to use for all three machine guns. To use it one the 7.62mm machine guns, I just trimmed both ends of the bullets so thye would fit into the slots molded into the guns. The other neat thing, was that Meng had actually molded holes in the machine gun barrels, all except one. There were also three barrels to choose from the .50 cal. Based on my research of this vehicle, each barrel choice was accurately portrayed.

A word about the .50cal. The IDF has chose to mount a .50cal machine gun on the main gun mantlet for additional firepower. The kit came with all of the parts for this system except for the solenoids that trigger the weapon. I therefore had to improvise and I use two leftover smoke discharges from a another kit to duplicate these solenoids as best I could.

The hatches on the turret are workable so I am displaying them open since I will be inserting figures.

The covered turret basket isn't worth the price, but it is a nice add on feature. The holes for the grab irons did not quite match the extensions on the grab irons so you get them to line up as close as possible and keep it moving.

The next step was to prime the vehicle and apply some pre-shading.

Now that priming of the turret, hull and wheels are complete, the next step is painting the base color. For that color I will be using Vallejo IDF Sinai Grey. I am going to paint the wheels with Tamiya Rubber and then mask them with a circle template to apply the base color, this way I won't have to hand paint the rubber.

I have assembled the Fruilmodel tracks and they have been primed flat black from a Testor's rattle can. tomorrow I will paint the gun metal along with the tow cables (that will be mounted after the base color has been applied).

Getting close now and I am eager to complete this project.

Be safe out there.

Cheers,

WL