Military Model Scene

I have long been fascinated by the AFVs of the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) particularly because they make good use of otherwise obsolete tank hulls and convert them for other uses.  The Centurion, which they acquired in large numbers in the 1950's, and known as the Shot Cal in IDF service has been at the heart of many of these conversions.  For the large scale modeller it has been great to see some excellent 1/35 kits for some of these now available on the market, particularly from Hobby Boss and Tiger Models.  I've been building the Tiger Models kit of the Nachmachon Early version which will feature in a separate piece soon.

There are also an excellent series of 1/72 models of some of these IDF types done as resin kits by Cromwell Models.  It is a shame that they have been awkward to get hold of over the years but I have been lucky enough to have a few of them, just never got round to finishing them off...until now.  I have managed to get one past the finishing line, their Puma engineer vehicle, fitted with the Carpet mine clearing rockets in the large box fitted on the rear of the hull.  One of the useful references to help me get this over the finishing line was the recent publication of a book on the Puma from Desert Eagle Publishing (reviewed in the Books section of this site) which shows the colours of the rockets held in the Carpet launcher, and that is aluminium.  There are also training rounds which are bright blue.  The basic overall colour of the vehicle is the Lifecolor shade of Israeli Sand Grey.  It then had a wash of AK Grey Green and then the dusty coating back to Lifecolor and their Lebanon Dust pigment.  Tracks were done in gunmetal with AK Interactives Track Wash then the dust pigment.  Looking at the excellent photo in the book, they do get smothered in dust/muck in the dry environment of the Middle East.  The pigment needs sealing, and I did this with a coat of matt varnish.

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Robin