Heng Long announced an IDF Merkava tank for late 21

[Rubicon99]

Looks like competition with Hooben has encouraged Heng Long to release their version of the IDF Merkava tank. Hooben’s is do to hit the market next month.

According to Heng Long their Merkava will be available sometime later this year. My guess is we will not see it before November.

[Beeg]

Sweet!

[Sappo]

Yippee, I want one

[DavidN]

Nice! I am glad I don't have to order from Hooben :-)

[Rob1970]

Not my cup of tea ("Too modern..." he said, giving his Leopard 2A6 a sideways glance...) but it is good to see Heng Long going forward and bringing out something new. Now if they would only do a nice WW2 Churchill... with all the available fun variants (Crocodile anyone?) I'd buy three...

[oldwolf]

Great news. This goes to the top of my next tank list.

[ArmorBolt]

Gotta have tank although never seen a green Merkava before.

[Rubicon99]

Gotta have tank although never seen a green Merkava before.

I fixed it. This is closer to what it would look like with a quick paint job.

[sclui56]

Hope HL takes note of your fix before production...

[Sappo]

Just spotted one problem, no loaders hatch, oh well scratch build time

[RichJohnson]

Just spotted one problem, no loaders hatch, oh well scratch build time

Its there, its just behind the CRTV thing, its closed. The spaced armor is quite thick as is the hatch and it disappears into the roof when its closed. No idea if the HL one will open.

The photos of the Hooben I preordered shows a much more detailed and refined model with a metal pan hull and nice suspension. Much like one would expect from a tamiya kit. It also has working hatches and doors etc pointed out in their latest teaser video.

I am hoping the HL metal track and sprockets can be adapted to fit the hooben when its plastic stuff wears out. I will probably get both tanks lol.

The Henglong Merkeva is a 4 circa 2005-2010
The Hooben is a Merkeva 4M circa post 2011 ish and current. The difference being the updated addition of the Trophy protections system on the 4M.

Both are wicked ass IDF tanks and Im thrilled they are both being made. I have big plans for a second tank someday. To think, I bought a 1:35 scale tank several years ago and actually thought about scratch building one of these monsters.

[Sappo]

Oops my mistake, I was looking for a round hatch not a square one

[RichJohnson]

It actually looks to me like henglong has it on backwards. Wont know for sure till better pictures come out of the model

[DavidN]

It has been over a year now. Anyone has any idea when it will be out :-)?

[Rubicon99]

It has been over a year now. Anyone has any idea when it will be out :-)?

It’s been delayed do to all the closures and production backlogs in China. HL has to catch up on older tank stocks and orders before they put out an all new tank. Word has it Christmas 2022 or late Summer 2023 baring more closures in China. 🤞🤞

[SoCalBobS]

The first pictures in this thread, are they HL’s prototypes? If so it’s encouraging, since the expense of injection molds has already invested.

Speaking of the Merkava, is it a tank without a tank on tank adversary?

[RichJohnson]

More or less. The Arab allies dont have a tank anywhere near what Merkava is. And the Trohpy system is the best APS in the world. Merkava is a very different tank, mostly designed for independent operation, village fighting and counter insurgency. I would love to see them send some to complete in the Euro tank competitions. Merkava 5 is coming soon with the integration of Trophy and other things. The 4M was a whole new tank but basically the design of the 4 with Trophy added onto, not designed around.

much looking forward to the henglong Merkava 4 but at this point, the real tank is 20 years old. And it does not have the Trophy. System.

[SoCalBobS]

In doing a little search, I found this Youtube clip. Hard to say what would be included in a retail version, but it looks like it's time to save up some pennies. Lotta detail, laser aiming light, metal wheels etc.

[oldwolf]

Hmmm, looking at the angle of the line of the aiming light in the smoke with the direction the barrel points, it looks like it would be useless for aiming a barrel mounted IR bulb. Of course with smoke from the barrel the IR bulb needs to be elsewhere anyway, but where-ever it is, the aiming light needs to be aligned to be anything more than pretty.

[SoCalBobS]

Hmmm, looking at the angle of the line of the aiming light in the smoke with the direction the barrel points, it looks like it would be useless for aiming a barrel mounted IR bulb. Of course with smoke from the barrel the IR bulb needs to be elsewhere anyway, but where-ever it is, the aiming light needs to be aligned to be anything more than pretty.

I put a couple on my tanks, interesting result. Outdoors, the light dot isn't strong enough to be visible. And, the light bulb tells your opponent where you are! Once in an outdoor battle, my adversary couldn't spot me because of my excellent camo and 100' distance, until that is I lit up to shoot at him!

This is similar to lasers on real firearms. You illuminate yourself, while you are trying to find the dot and bring it on target! This is why you don't see cops with them, except in the movies.