1:35 Merkava Mk.4 MG set, V.2 (2 pcs) + Machine gun mounts (2 pcs) for HobbyBoss kit

The stations of the loader and the commander

On the roof of the turret a track runs around both hatches, along which the weapon can be turned without the crewman having to climb all the way out. This is exactly where this set belongs. On the real machine most is visible from that place, and it is also where the things the crew carries with them pile up fastest, so it is the part of the model where careful work is most easily told from hasty work. The number two in the designation separates this form of the armament from the other two sets of the same family.

What you get

A pair of weapons and a pair of carrying frames. The assembly is fitted once the original plastic part has been taken off, and the new base seats exactly in its place. If you are building a machine with the hatches open, it pays to glue the weapon on at the very end, after painting and after dusting the turret.

Resolution that an injection mold cannot reach

With a printed master the size of the part depends on the step with which the machine works, and that is measured today in hundredths of a millimeter. A steel mold, by contrast, needs the material to reach every corner at all, and thin ribs therefore have to be thicker than the real subject would call for. The difference shows on the edges of covers, on thin frames and on perforations, where plastic offers a suggested relief and a casting a real hole. This accuracy is paid for in brittleness: the part can be broken when it is bent, whereas polystyrene would only flex.

Store the set in a small box until you build it, therefore, rather than loose among the other sprues.

The set can be painted separately and added to the finished turret; a small weapon takes a different shade of metal from the armor underneath it.