Attention now turns to the missile firing unit. This builds up beautifully into four identical 4 x missile crates. There are four PE strips on the top of each crate but only the upper ones will be visible, so I took the lazy option and omitted the others. The four crates can now be cemented together to form the sixteen chamber MFU. This was left un-mounted for painting and decaling.
The final component to put together is the Datalink Antenna Assembly which, again, can be painted before attaching.
Included in the kit are two figures. These are of two attractive female soldiers in IDF uniform. They are posed with one arm clutching an assault rifle raised high as if in victorious celebration of I know not what. No mention of these figures can be found anywhere in the instructions or parts list. They are individual figures and are very nicely moulded but, quite where they could be included in an Iron Dome diorama is beyond me! If it was an Iron Maiden concert diorama then they would look good though without the guns of course. There is also a single Tamir missile included although, like the figures, where you would include this is problematical.
Painting & Decals
The painting stage is pretty straightforward. Except for the generator and the frangible chamber covers on the MFU, the whole model can be painted in the same colour. As I was building the IDF version, I used Tamiya Desert Yellow based on photographs of the real thing. The colour is described as ‘Tan’ in the instructions with no paint references given. This was sprayed over Halfords grey primer in a number of thin coats.
The only bits of the model I masked were the four legs and the four hydraulic piston rods. I used Maskol for these which peeled off easily afterwards. Separate components to paint were the fire extinguisher, two light units and a stub aerial. The generator can now be mounted in position and the whole model was given two coats of Klear to provide a gloss coat for the decals.
Eduard quite recently brought out a new type of decal which has a film over each one which is designed to peel off after the decal has dried completely. The intention is for no carrier to be visible. Having chatted to a modeller who has used these new decals, he said that they worked as advertised and looked good. Now Magic Factory has provided one sheet of their version of these decals for the MFU markings and I was looking forward to trying them, although the upper film looked very different to eduard’s.
Now, in the instructions it states that the decal should be dipped in warm water to release it from the backing paper just like an ordinary decal. The decal should now be placed in position and pressed down with a Q tip to remove any water from underneath. The decal should now be left 24 hours and then the top film can be peeled away to leave a beautiful marking with a painted on look. I followed these instructions to the letter and the result was the decal just lifted off with the top film. After two more attempts with the same result I decided to try applying Micro sol and set whilst positioning it. Same result grrrrrrrrrrrr. In desperation I turned to something I had abandoned years ago – Humbrol Decalfix. Success! Although the upper film took great care and 10 minutes to remove. Three more decals went on reasonably well but then, the last four on one side of the MFU refused to comply. For some reason, the upper film was firmly attached to the surface. Removing this resulted in some of the paint lifting no matter how much care was taken. I did eventually succeed in removing it all but the resulting paint damage was impossible to touch up perfectly as you can see in the photos. The offending film is like a form of celluloid whilst the Eduard system seems to use a latex type of covering.
Having endured this decal nightmare, the rest of the markings, which were of the standard type, went on without any problems. A coat of semi-gloss varnish was applied to seal the decals in.
I decided to give just a light weathering of dirt and grime over the most trodden on parts of the model. Photos of the actual launcher show them to be well kept so I didn’t want to overdo it.
With the MFU and antenna mounted, the model was now complete.
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