1:16 Sd.Kfz. 251 - Wheels Road Tread (Phoenix - Harburg / for Das Werk Kits)

Rubber from Harburg

A harbor district in the south of Hamburg gave its name to one of the largest German processors of rubber. The works in Harburg made tires from the days when automobiles still had wooden wheels, and during the war its products reached armored personnel carriers as well. The designation that this item carries combines the name of the company with the place of manufacture, just as it used to be molded on the side of the tire.

The road design and what it was good for

Half-track vehicles spent more time on hard roads than is usually admitted. Moves between sectors of the front took place along roads, and there a coarse off-road pattern only made needless noise and wore away quickly. A road design therefore has shallower and more densely arranged grooves, which hold better on paving and last longer. On a model it is recognized at once: the surface of the tread looks unified, not like a row of separate blocks.

The practical side

The wheels seat on the front axle of the Sd.Kfz. 251 kit of the Das Werk brand. At 1:16 it is worth leaving the tire and the rim separate until the last moments of the build, so that each part can be sprayed on its own and the transition between them stays sharp. A road tread will take lighter weathering than an off-road one: it does not fill with mud but with dust, which holds mainly in the shallow grooves and on the side of the tire. Anyone building a scene from a town or from a rear-area road will get, with this choice, a detail that completes the scene more precisely than wheels prepared for mud. A combination is worth considering too: one wheel exchanged for a different design looks credible, because replacement tires were allocated in the units according to what was available at the time.