Wednesday, April 8, 2020

MENG MAGACH 6B 6th Part


MAGACH 6B BUILD
PART 6

I have been busy with work over the last few weeks, and it is slowing down the progress of my build, but I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this project.
So far it has been an interesting build and overall I am pleased with the level of detail on the model as well as the fit. Except for the tracks. The tracks are individual links, but they come with a jig assembly and pins that need to be inserted on both sides which make them workable. But, I was not successful in this endeavor. Many of the pins did not slide in like they were supposed to and some of the other broke as I was trying to remove them from the sprue. After getting frustrated, I put them aside and ordered Fruilmodel tracks which arrived today. I will spend some of the upcoming days assembling these for installation once the remainder of the kit is completed. I do not understand why vinyl tracks were not included with this kit, it would have been so much better.
Anyway, I had assembled both sets of the side skirts and mounted them to the fenders. The sides skirts come with a forward section of two panels, each with an outer side and an inner side. The aft section is one piece. These panels are nicely detailed and are easily mounted to hangers that are attached to a longer supporting piece that then mounts to attachment points on the fenders. I did notice that the aft sections were towed in more than the forward section. This is due to them not being as thick as the forward panels, thus leaving an odd looking offset from the forward panels. I pulled them out ever so slightly with my finger and glue them in place so now the offset looks more natural.





The Magach 6B series is based on the M60 Rise. To bring it up to more modern standards of protection and capability, the IDF added more armor and ERA to the turret and hull. A new Fire Control system with optics was added along with Smoke Grenade Launchers that appear to be the same setup from their version of the Centurion. The “add on” armor for the turret comes in six sections. Two ERA block sections for the top of the turret, and then four three piece sections for the turret sides. I experienced no fit problems in either assembly of any of these section nor with their installation on the turret.
Each section had a different ID so I decided to assemble all of them and kept them separated to eliminate any confusion.

You can see the Smoke Grenade Launchers in this photo. The assemblies were easily constructed and mounted to the turret with no issues.


The Mantlet has a vinyl piece that fits between the Mantlet and the Turret body. It is nicely molded but it needs to be “encouraged” to fit properly. This took more time than I expected and I don't understand why Meng did not provide this piece as a single piece of plastic since you wouldn't be able to move the Mantlet after it was installed. It ended up leaving a gap on the bottom, but I have that filled in and will not be visible once construction is complete.

I am impressed with the level of detail in this kit and I am getting more excited as I move closer to having her completed.

Be safe out there.

Cheers,
WL

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