It looks really great, but $2,300? That's almost armortek money. We should start a pool, we all kick in 10 bucks and say how long we think it will take before Rich Johnson buys one. Put me down for 17 days. ;)

Yikes

Kinda unfortunate they wouldn't be listing the weight of the all metal Variant.

A while ago I saw a YouTube review for what I think was a full metal 1/16 HL Tiger in the 6.8kg range which normally wouldn't have sparked any reaction from me if it weren't for my recently D.I.Y.ed full plastic E-100 weighting in at 5.9kg.
My E-100 may be whee bit bulkier and built with scale thick Armor plates whereas the Tiger was definitely not but still... At this point just claiming your Model is all metal but then essentially delivering paper thin metal isn't really what floats my boat.

Also kinda annoyed that they wouldn't show off more than just a mere flyer with one picture of the Tank - For 2'300.- I'd be expecting a "Homework Folder" full of Pictures from all sides and the internals.
I mean... CNC Metal Gearbox is IMHO a term one can stretch quite a lot these days 😉

Rich I think that stowage basket is the most durable part on that tank. What I nightmare. I would have destroyed that thing long time ago. You have patience of a true Jedi.
Bob

Bob I love the tank and thankfully I can fix it when I break it.
Last week I was at my friends place tanking and I wasn’t holding anything back while driving it and I ripped the right side idler mount right out of the steel hull. While catastrophic, it as just plastic screw tabs that were very thin that failed. I already have my repair design in my head and will have it up and going in short order as well as bracing the left side idler.

Well guys, I am still working on making the Merkava run well.

I have been swapping left and right idler arms around on each side since they are keyed differently to create enough track tension to keep the tracks tight and removed a link on one side too as they stretched out.

Well I was still having lots of problems with track coming off the idler wheel and detracting and popping the side skirts off the rear.

A truck I learned from Fsttanks was to film the tank at slow motion speed while driving and turning and hen watch what happens and I came to the conclusion that the track teeth were hitting the idler wheel on the edge and not going into the center, then the plastic idler arm would bend and pull forward and let the track teeth rude fully in the outside idler wheel and then run off, detracting.

I split the idler wheel apart and installed 2mm shim with two washers to widen the gap in the center of the idler wheel by 2mm and I went to my shapeways account where I loaded the 3d files I had hooben send me to print repair parts and I made a left and right arm in brass steel or whatever it is,

After a first test drive with the wilder idler gap I did not have any more detracting at all. But still I can see the the track tension changes so I still wanted to try the metal idler arm.
Well right after I test drove the tank I was diving down the road and had to avoid a collision from an idiot that passed me in the freeway at a 45 degree angle and I locked up my truck and the mark wound up on the floor upside down with a fair amount of damage. I have slowly been fixing it and got it running again.
well the metal arms showed up but I realized the holes in them for the screws were for coarse thread screws so I had to drill them out to clear 2mm on the axle and 3mm on the mount. And this was no easy feat that is hard metal. I broke one #47 bit in the axle and had to hammer it out with a home made punch and had to use a lot of cutting fluid while drilling them out and endure the oil literally burning on fire while I did. But I got them drilled out and am looking forward to installing them and doing a test.

I also heated up the turret last month and pushed it back into shape. Hooben resin is kinda soft and just as I braced the hull with steel bars, I should have done the turret immediately as it’s a large unsupported cavity and it sagged over time like if someone just pushed down on it from the top.
I used bondo and brass Basra no put some bracing in it but wish I had installed custom cut plexiglass bracing back when I got it, that would have stopped the deforming and sagging from happening.

Any way here is the new idler arm, notice it turned black from the heat.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...edc939595.jpeg

Without getting into any of the politics involved in the 2 wars that are going on right now, there are a lot of good videos on YouTube coming out of Gaza that show the merkava in action and if you check the videos from Ukraine, not only do they have the leopard, but there's also a couple really good videos of an old geppard in action. They've used the geppard to shoot down quite a few drones, and when that thing is firing it sure does look cool.

Your merkava looks like it's been a lot of work, Rich, it makes me wonder if the HL offering is any better?

The HL version is an excellent tank by comparison. In fact the HL Merkava is without a doubt the best mechanical running "modern" tank that HL has produced. It has none of the problems the Hooben Merkava has. I know I run my HL Merkava side by side with Rich's Hooben Merkava on club battle days here in Ca. Rich has to do a lot of tweaking to make his Merkava perform like it does. The HL Merkava is power and go...

I have a number of videos of the HL Merkava on my Instagram @ Fsttanks. Feel free to have a look and see for yourself.