1:16 Sd.Kfz 234 road wheels set with spare (weighted) type 5

Type 5 tires for the heavy reconnaissance car in 1:16

The fifth version of the tires for a sizeable model of the eight-wheeled reconnaissance car of the Wehrmacht, once again complemented by a spare wheel. The contact patch is trodden flat and the edges of the tread lean away from it, so the wheel does not look like a cylinder stood on its edge. In 1:16 scale the wheels have a diameter at which a perfectly circular outline gives itself away at once.

The last version, the 234/4 with an anti-tank gun

At the very close of the war the family took on one more form. The 234/4 rendition carried a long-barreled 75 mm anti-tank gun in an open superstructure, that is, a weapon able to hit Allied and Soviet tanks at a decent range. It was a typical improvisation of 1945: a powerful weapon on a fast but thin-walled chassis. The crew had to fire from cover and change position immediately, because a single machine gun hit in the side would have put it out of action. Few of these vehicles were built and most of them ended in the last fighting on German soil.

How to handle the wheels during the build

It pays to number the parts by axle before painting and to put them away in compartments. With eight almost identical wheels it is otherwise easy for them to get mixed up during the final fitting and for the tread to end up turned inconsistently.

Intended for modelers

• who are building the late version with the anti-tank gun
• who want the vehicle shod in one pattern
• who are preparing a scene from the fighting of 1945
• who prefer wheels with a faithful contact patch

Only the wheels are included, and the whole vehicle and the paints remain up to you.