1:16 Sd.Kfz. 251 - Wheels Uncommon Off-Road (Continental / for Das Werk Kits)

Why one manufacturer made two patterns

German tire plants had no single approved tread during the war. The production program was governed by the availability of synthetic rubber, by the capacity of the presses and by which unit was shouting loudest at the time, so designs that differed from one another in the depth and shape of the blocks came out of one factory in parallel. Continental was among the largest suppliers, and its off-road patterns therefore appear in two forms in period photographs. The rarer one has narrower gaps between the blocks and differently routed drainage grooves.

A design you will not come across at an exhibition

This set captures precisely that less usual design. For the modeler it means the possibility of building a vehicle that will stand apart from most finished works at exhibitions, without reaching for an invented rendering. The sidewall carries the company lettering, the bead and the valve; at 1:16 these are fully fledged shapes, not merely suggested engraving.

The context of the build

The wheels seat on the front steered axle of the half-track, which the Das Werk kit renders as a fixed assembly. Before fitting them it is worth trying dry whether the wheel sits at a right angle to the fender, because any deviation is visible on a large model from a meter away. When painting, a base in a dark gray-green shade proves itself, onto which the rubber is applied only lightly, so that it does not cover the raised lettering. A muddy deposit belongs on the sides and in the grooves rather than on the tops of the blocks, which were rubbed off against the surface of the road while driving. Anyone building a scene from an autumn in the east will appreciate that the narrower gaps between the blocks hold dried earth and do not merge with the side of the tire into one mass.