Merkava - A little side project

I was aching for a little diversion, so I decided to start building the 1/72 Merkava (Mark I) from ESCI (#8323). I picked the kit up for just €5 from a second-hand table at the latest convention.

I can't really find any flaws in the engineering of the kit. Details conform to my expectations of a 1/72 scale kit from 1988. The tracks are link-n-length, which fit superbly if it weren't for my clumsiness in their assembly. (Mental note : next time, start with the individual pieces and fit in the larger parts, instead of the other way around)

Profiting from the work on it's larger scale brother on the workbench, I didn't need to do any research for the anti-slip. I still have more than enough sand (50 micron aluminum-oxide), which is pretty much scale-accurate (since I used the 110 micron sand in 1/35 scale)