After seeing the cool hover tanks on the SM site, I just had to do one. I bought a 1/48 Merkava tank kit with the intention of actually building it as a tank. My creativity got the best of me during construction and good bye tracks…hello engine pods.

The concept is a late 21st century hover tank using a classic chassis, but upgraded with advanced weapons and propulsion technology. The underside of this beast houses 6 vertical lift jets, while the engines on the side provide horizontal thrust. Targeting and navigation equipment is typical late 21st century gear. Weaponry includes a nuclear ion pulse cannon and several small particle beam defense weapons. Of course the crew is armed with personal defense weapons like conventional Jerichos, Galils, and Uzis. The tank can hover at ten to fifteen feet and has a top speed of 95 miles per hour. Mileage is a whopping 5 to 7 miles per gallon. The Merkava hover tank is capable of leaving quite a wide path of destruction in its wake. Don’t mess with this bad boy.

I built the turret and body stock, then looked through my spares box to see what I could add. This kitbash has a little bit of everything, from landing gear doors to engine parts to bits from other tanks. The rear part of the cannon is off an X-Wing, the front part is styrene tubing. There are also several bombs and extra fuel tank halves for the humps and bumps.

The horizontal thrust engines are from a 1/72 A-10 kit. I added parts in a puzzle like fashion. If a part didn’t fit or look quite right I put it on anyway. Beauty was not one of the objectives of this model. In fact, there are so many spare parts that to list them here would take up more server space than Mr. Lester would allow. The best part about this project was no putty or sanding was needed!

I kept adding parts until I was happy with the way things looked. I wanted a lot of detail, but didn’t want to over do it. The model was primed with Krylon sandable primer, and painted with a mix of Afrika mustard and Desert Tan in very uneven coats. After the paint was dry I dry brushed with silver, followed by a black oil wash to bring out the details. Weathering consisted of my usual mix of washes, pastels and colored pencils in appropriate greasy, grimy colors. A factory fresh tank just wouldn’t be any fun, would it?

The model measures at 6.25” long x 4.75” wide x 1.75” tall. This was a fun project and I am pleased with the finished model. And I love it when people see it and ask, “What the hell is that thing?” What really surprised me is that this big ugly beast placed third in the Sci-Fi category at Plasticon 04 in June 2004 at Wichita, Kansas.

Image: Left rear quarter

Image: Right rear quarter

Image: Above from left

Image: Above from right