So I have these two tank stuck in Hong Kong since early this year due to HK Post suspending their service to North America and Courier charges were close to 400 USD each to ship. I guess they had finally made enough money or nobody is taking them up on it so it is now just slightly more than HK Post, and there is no sign of HK Post starting anytime soon. So bite the bullet and told Carson to ship the Merkava first and then the M60A3. Should be able to bring the Merkava out next battle day (not tomorrow) but M60A3 is a kit so maybe Winter Battle Day ?

We should have a "Who has the biggest turret" competition and I know I already have the winner. Believe it or not that is the same calibrate 120mm L/44 as the Leo 2 but look at how tiny it is on that turret. 

lol...

Put some of Ren's turret motors in there and become a flail with the chains on the back of the turret...

Actually arrived safe and sound, nothing broken so far. Smaller than I thought, but still the largest turret I have ever seen easily by far. Worked quite well out of the box, quality much more sturdier than the Cromwell. The electronics is good enough but no use to me so will rip it out and try to sell it again. Sold the Cromwell one for $100 USD on eBay. Here are the photo gallery: (The manlet mount 50 Cal is wired with fibre optic so it is just dangling as I have  yet to install any accessories/parts)

The famous Trophy APS. Very nice details. Anti-slip texture is very good.





The other famous feature, the "Ball and Chain" anti shape charge system. I never had the patience to put mine on the SOL Mk III but here it is "OEM" !






Thank god contrary to the pre-sale video (Or maybe it was Heng Long and Hooben was always correct), the smoke comes out of the exhaust on the right side of the tank and NOT the crew compartment.

Nice touch. Hatches are actually real scale thickness to the real tank I assumme ? Not much detail otherwise on the inside.




Another nice touch. Crew compartment entrance is fully operational and use for switches and such.





Suspension is identical to the real thing single coil spring I believe, but talks on the net is people are worry about the strength of the one piece swing arm. Will see !

Trophy APS set-up on the Merkava MkIV




And on the M1 Abram.




And here is a much better unboxing video from someone else.........  :-) You can see the Hooben electronics in action.

Wow, the detail certainly looks 1/2 decent for sure. Nice!

For something that is out of the box RTR, the detail is amazing. I opened it up and is very impressed with the quality. Also just put the entire set of electronics on eBay (Radio, MFU, IR Battle System and Stock Speaker).

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/284914766832

Spent the last couple of evenings converting this to IBU2 and now it is done can close this baby and put the rest of the accessories on it. Here with its brothers in arms, a resin MkIII from SOL that I converted to RC couple of years ago. Small turrets need not apply !

I will admit that the new Merkava looks great. That texturing of the non-slip surface is superb. And despite the UFO turret, I love the chained ball anti-RPG skirt.

Is it bad that the tracks are the worst item for looks?

Oh look. A Merkava already done up for IR battles! LOL. Life size Apple. (It is an IR scrambler for IR guided missile defence)

Jarlath wrote:

I will admit that the new Merkava looks great. That texturing of the non-slip surface is superb. And despite the UFO turret, I love the chained ball anti-RPG skirt.

Is it bad that the tracks are the worst item for looks?

The Hooben tracks were shockingly simple. Almost just one up from a toy RC tank, but then I saw this and the real thing doesn't look a whole lot better.

Hey MikeC. I think I know why the Hooben RPG chains are tearing themselves out on the turret rear bussel racks. On the real Merkava they take links out from the rack chains to ensure they are all the same distance from the deck.

I don't think the Hooben does that (use all the same lengths).

Thanks Mike I actually knew that but didn't think about it. It is also better now after I took it apart and refitted the turret bottom (I guess it wasn't tight enough) and the rear bussel rack, if you install it as design, is actually angled down. After I pull it back out and level it properly, it is okay now.

The chain still brush the rear deck buy there is room to move now instead of getting caught.

Ideally I should reajust the chain, but just fixing the broken one was enough hassle for me for a bit.

Thank mate.

Hey Mike,

I’ve looked over the field for your broken tow cable hanger and no luck so far; compounding the issue is the amount of rain we had over the last few days...it might be gone forever

Hammertime999999999 wrote:

Hey Mike,

I’ve looked over the field for your broken tow cable hanger and no luck so far; compounding the issue is the amount of rain we had over the last few days...it might be gone forever

No worries Mitch. I have been looking at pics of the real thing and I have actually not sent it at the back of the tank. There is one with it in the front, but the Hooben version has the fixed arms in the front so it is okay ! I might just take them off completely.

Thanks again mate.

MIkeC.

I know this is an old post, but I am curious how the hooben merkava has held up. I was close to buying the HL, but honestly I am annoyed with the stupid recoil setup they use with BB's. I can change it all but I would like to spend money on something worth the price...though I think both versions are a bit too much. The thing with HL too is the torsion bar suspension. They were using coil springs on everything before, and now when the tank is supposed to actually have them, they screw that up too. 
So...I am really not sure if either are worth it....but am certainly looking for input. Also curious what the hooben is supposed to cost.

Well I haven't been running it much so can't really tell. I don't like the look of the HL version as there seems to be lots of simpification, like the TongDe Centurion compared to the Tamiya one. HOoben is much more detail but it is all 3D printed basically.

No idea how the HL would run but I would imagine it would be reasonable. I was wory I got the wrong version but after looking at the pictures of the HL one I am glad I got the Hooben.

I have to agree with Mike. Hooben's LOOK great. My concern is always the quality from Hooben...

His Merkava is a wonderful looking tank. Almost makes me want to get one myself... Almost...

Big Mike you have the unfortunate task of restoring the ship wreck of a tank with the Hezter (which I have now thank you !) so I wouldn't blame you. 

I have/had many Hoobens (1/16 T54/Elephant/VK4501/Merkava and 1/10 Hezter and T34/75) and I would say for some strange reason, the Hezter was by far the worse design. It is 1/10, but the T34 was built much more robust. Somehow the Hezter feel like they just use 1/16 strength material for a 1/10 scale tank.

Don't forgot you are also rolling the dice with ordering from Hooben. There are many horror stories. I used to only order if my dealer has them from Hooben, but I have now ordered multiple tanks from their Twin-horse website with no issues. Shipping is always included which is better than my dealer friend.

Had Carson from DKLM not offer an amazing detailed Leo2A4 turret, I would have ordered the Hooben version also, being the only other game in town.

MikeC wrote:

Big Mike you have the unfortunate task of restoring the ship wreck of a tank with the Hezter (which I have now thank you !) so I wouldn't blame you. 

Oh yeah... That thing definitely soured me overall to Hooben. Have you had to replace the idler adjusters yet? I know I made extra as a Just in Case...

Jarlath wrote:

MikeC wrote:

Big Mike you have the unfortunate task of restoring the ship wreck of a tank with the Hezter (which I have now thank you !) so I wouldn't blame you. 

Oh yeah... That thing definitely soured me overall to Hooben. Have you had to replace the idler adjusters yet? I know I made extra as a Just in Case...

No not yet, but as you know I don't run my tank very hard. You are talking to a guy who use to RC resin tanks.