1:35 Panther wheels detail set

1:35 Panther wheels detail set - a Black Dog detail set

This item is a detail set of road wheels in 1:35 from Black Dog, meant for a model of the German Panther medium tank. It is not a vehicle kit but an accessory aimed at one particular part of the model. On tracked vehicles the wheels are among the most conspicuous features, because they are visible from the side along the whole length of the hull and the viewer's eye catches them sooner than fine detail on the turret.

The real subject

The Panther is a German medium tank of the second half of the Second World War, which came about as an answer to the Soviet tanks committed in 1941 and became the measure for the whole later generation of armored vehicles. It combined a powerful gun with a long barrel, steeply sloped frontal armor and a fairly high power-to-weight ratio. Its running gear used torsion bars and interleaved wheels set in two rows one behind the other, which gave the tank a soft ride and an even spread of pressure on the ground. That quality came at the price of demanding maintenance, though, because the inner wheels could only be reached by removing the outer ones, and in winter mud a mass froze between the wheels that could lock the running gear up.

How to work with the detail

On wheels the key is getting the difference between the steel disc and the rubber tire right, because it is exactly at that transition that it shows whether a model looks believable. It is worth painting the wheels away from the hull and fitting them only once painted, as it is then easier to avoid overruns. Choose the weathering according to the scene you are building: dust is one thing, winter mud another.

Who the set is for

• Modelers of German tracked vehicles in 1:35
• Anyone after a higher level of detail in the running gear
• Builders of dioramas where the vehicle is seen from the side
• Collectors of Black Dog accessories