I nearly did this myself on my AVRE. However I realized on time that the wheels didn’t align with the sprockets and the idlers with them being reversed.
If I were you I won’t sand the raised parts as it is not enough. If you look closely at the bolts around the hub you’ll see that there is a raised “circle” which is absent on the outer face. So you’d better properly cut the axis and replace them with some appropriate rod lengths. Sorry for you.
Olivier
Well, cheers guys… What a complete pleb I was … Oh well, you live and learn …
Tried the glue method as a de-bonder … Fail lol … All I achieved was to snap 2 wheel stations off completely lol… Damn it. I am just going suck it up and carry on. The 4 center wheels will stay as they are… Wrong, I will put the front and rear 2 on the correct way, so hopefully they will draw your eye and not the wrong uns lol… The center wheel hubs are almost hidden by the side plates, so I can live with it… It’s only going in the cabinet and as a kit I’m really happy with it so I won’t waste it …onwards and upwards 
That’s the spirit John, keep up the good work!
John, do your road wheels line up now? The extra length at the back results in the distance from the hull being greater, so with some of them on backwards, some will be further away from the hull than others and the sprocket and idler will be further away too. The track guide horns will likely not align with the space between the wheels.
You may need to cut away the wheels, drill out the arms from inside then replace the broken arms with rod as Olivier stated above.
Luckily, by some bizarre twist of fate, everything lines up so the tracks should run fine… Don’t know (or care lol) how that happened, but I’ll take it
Right, I got the 2 snapped off wheel stations back on… 2 segments of cut to length sprue to join the wheels to axle stubs, and some metal rod to drilled through to strengthen each.
It’s now resting with all wheels down till the glue cures overnight. Have also sanded down the remaining wheels inner segment, just a bit so hopefully there won’t be to much overlap showing…
Will reassess it all tomorrow with fresh eyes.
Looks very nice
Did you over spray the AK off white or mix it in ?
Thanks John.
I gave it an all over coat of RC096 well diluted with auto paint lacquer thinner so as to let some of the pre shading show through.
Then I used an even more diluted version with off white RC013 added and “filled in” the centres of panels and ERA blocks etc.
Looks nice and faded … I have the AK off white as well, so may try that on mine, or at least test a bit in the engine decks or a side bin
The painting looks great, but I’m not sure that’s the right color for a Gimel. I might be wrong here, but I think when the Gimel came out, the IDF already adopted the new, greyish color scheme that was used during the '82 war.
Thanks but it is to late now by the time I had read your post I already had half the decals on.
What colour were the uniforms of the period please?
Just put it down to a very late retro fit that hadnt been repainted yet … it was in the queue
We had a discussion here on the very subject just a short while ago: Painting Miniart Israel tank crews Yom Kippur war
More weathering.
Nice job Catsrcool. I guess you’ll paint later on the extinguishers, the tools and the 60 mm mortar.
Olivier
Thanks.
Yes when I know what colour to paint them and I had no idea there was a 60mm mortar let alone the colour or where it is? Or is it the boxes at the sides of the turret?
Forward-right of the commander’s cupola. Should be black/very dark grey.
That will probably work fine Colin, on mine I used XF55 deck tan with a touch of white. I have seen fire extinguishers their normal green colour or just over painted with the veh colour. Tools I just did normally…
