Reviews : Tamiya Israeli Merkava Main Battle Tank

This is a nice older kit, the detail is not up to today's standards. It assembles easily with no major problems. The detail is not as sharp as the newer kits. It is easy enough to assemble that a beginner could handle it easily. I have mine on a shelf with newer kits and it fits right in. The tracks are the rubber band type that most glue won't stick to. You can follow the instructions and melt the posts to join the tracks. I also put a couple of staples across the join. To install the track, leave the drive sprockets off until you are ready to install the track. Place the track over all of the wheels, fit the drive sprocket into the track and press the sprocket into place on it's axle. That way you don't have to stretch the track to get it around all of the wheels and drive sprocket.

It is a Tamiya, what else can be said? Well the decals were not well located on the instruction sheet and some of the numbered parts on the sprues are difficult/impossible to read. The small decals have a tendency to fold over and once that happens you are out of luck. I left the skirts off and the tow cables could have been designed much better. The MG on the turrets are flimsy and I broke both barrels cutting them from the sprues. I liked the hot rod design of this tank however.

somehow passed this kit many times but got around to buying it, was going to turn it into a post-apocalypse diorama but decided to build as intended. Still has slots for motor so you know it is an older kit. Still very little flash and builds well but with fixed gun and a lot of cast detail kind of funny. The things you want to small parts are cast and others so finicky you wonder why sprue marks are so obvious. Still an inexpensive kit by Tamiya.

MY FAULT ISN'T WITH THE TANK ITSELF, IT'S WITH THE INSTRUCTIONS THAT COME WITH THE KIT. THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE MAINLY ALL PICTURE, NONE OF THE VERBAL INSTRUCTIONS ARE IN ENGLISH, THEY ARE ALL JAPANESE, AND UNLESS YOU CAN DECIPHER JAPANESE, IT MAKES THIS KIT SOMEWHAT DIFFICULT TO ASSEMBLE. TAMIYA NEEDS TO PRINT THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THEIR KITS ALSO IN ENGLISH. THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE MAKES PAINTING THE MODEL AND PARTS DIFFICULT FOR SOME..

This kit is starting to get hard to find. At $21 it's still a great value. No extra parts to jack the cost- solid value for beginners or advanced modelers. Do some research and make the early Mk.1 shown on the box photo. Early Mk.1 has the great lines and show the casting that make the Merkava so unique. Makes a unique basis for kit bashing too. I'm going to make a shortened hull someday...

This is a great kit from Tamiya given the age of the kit. The instructions are fairly good, they could use some work. The parts don't need too much clean up and all fit together as they should. The details are good, but some after market items can really set this kit off. I highly recommend.

This Merkava kit is pretty old, but it is up to the usual Tamiya quality that one comes to expect. Nice addition to your collection.

Excellent model from tamiya. Everything on this tank is great, no fit issues..well worth the money and the time.

great hebrew tank of the idf mbt of israel very good parts so good

Great project, not yet completed but so far so good nice detail