YKW 1973 SA-2 Missile Truck & Sho't Kal Alef Diorama

Nice progress you’re making there.

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Thank you! I’ll be sure to post an update once I get more work done.

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But on more of a side note, I found this image on an amorama preview of one of Tom Gannon’s books, It features a Sho’t Kal Alef in the Sinai front during the early stages of the YKW.


It’s a really good reference for the stowage on the turret basket, and it takes note of the differently colored roadwheels present. I’ll think on it more but I could leave one of the middle or back side skirts off and leave some of these blackish roadwheels in view, it could add more visual interest (and I wouldn’t have to make all the sideskirts).

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That is a great pic. I presume those dark colored road wheels are some kind of dark green? It would definitely add more visual interest to the tank!

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Yes I would expect they are the original green used by the British. You can see similar pics of AMX -13s with original French colour and also I have seen quite a few Egyptian tanks, especially T-34s, with road wheels in Russian green.

Fix em up and get them out. Don’t worry about if they are pretty :joy:

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Yeah I’ll 100% be putting it on my tank!

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That’s really interesting! Honestly the strangest part about all of this is that I’ve NEVER heard of this happening beforehand. Also even stranger, it seems to be pretty common on Sho’ts.

On every single photo above there’s dark green replacement roadwheels, 3 out of these 4 are on the Sinai front, meanwhile the second one is on the Golan front. It’s honestly really shocking to me how I’ve NEVER seen anybody mention or include this in their models!

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Also, I’ve been working on the kit (I’ll be sure to update you all later) and I’m regretting going along with the string provided in the kit. It’s gotten super fuzzy, but it’s already on the model.

I’m like this :pinching_hand: close to finally priming the chassis for the ZiL and I’d like to hear if any of you have any tips or experiences painting string ropes (especially if they’re fuzzy like mine). Id really appreciate it!

Thanks for all the reading and support!

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Another fairly common thing on IDF tanks is mix and match road wheels. You see Merkavas and to some extent Magach tanks with different style road wheels on the same tank. There are several different styles of Merkava wheel and steel and aluminum versions of the Magach wheel

This is also seen on T-34s and T54-55s quite a bit

Tracks and road wheels are some of the most replaced parts. They see a lot of wear and tear

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You’ll notice the front road wheels in two of the photos have been replaced. These take the biggest beating - so much so that the Merkava II actually had a beefier roadwheel on the front station incorporated into its design.

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On the string cable - brush paint clear gloss liberally on the cable. This will stick down the fuzzies and make it smooth without obscuring the wire twist on the cable.

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I’ve noticed some Merkava mk2s having two different types of roadwheels but I didn’t know That it was the same case for magachs. Thanks for all the information! I’ll definitely include them on my later builds. :+1:

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That’s really cool information! I think I’ll make the first and second roadwheels replacements on one side, and I’ll add some variation on the other.

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Thank you so much! I don’t have acrylic gloss that I can just brush into it though, I think it’ll work out if I brushed acrylic clear matt onto it. But let me know if I’m making a mistake. :joy:

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OR, you can try heavily diluted PVA to pat down the fuzzies. OR, if you are brave (or foolish) enough you could try a quick pass with a lighter over the string to burn off the fuzzies, then add diluted PVA.

For next time I highly recommend:

I’ve mentioned this fellow a couple of times in other threads. His product(s) is excellent.

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Don’t want to hijack the thread with road wheel talk but I thought I might mention for anyone who might not be aware, but as M-60 based Magach tanks were upgraded they had their aluminum wheels replaced by the steel M-48 style for just this reason. They are much more robust and less susceptible to damage. Even in US service this occurs as later models like the M-60A3 had the steel version

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Thanks a lot for the recommendation! I’ll probably try out pva glue (again) and then brush on some clear matt just incase. I’ll 100% look into buying from there next time though!

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That’s really interesting! Also no worries, the roadwheel talk is really informative and interesting to hear!

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Man, you are giving this old man some flashbacks! :grin: I remember that one and the “Paturion” my friend Lanny built around the same time. maybe I should finally build one!

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I remember his build. That was the year my Cent took Best Armor. I didn’t know it and left early because it hadnt’t won in its class so I wanted to get on the road.

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