1:35 Sd.Kfz 222 late road wheels set with spare (weighted) type 2 (for Tamiya)

Wheels that give way under the weight of the car

The light armored car Sd.Kfz 222 was the mainstay of German reconnaissance detachments from the campaign in Poland to the fighting in the east. On the chassis of a heavy off-road car it carried an open many-sided turret with a 2 cm gun and a machine gun, over which a wire screen folded down against hand grenades. The hull sits high, so the wheels are visible from every angle and it is they that decide whether the finished model looks like a machine standing in the field.

The parts in this set match the late series and are modeled as having settled. A flat footprint forms at the bottom, the side of the tire bulges slightly above it and the upper half stays round, which is how inflated rubber behaves under several tons of armor. The tread design is the second of the three the maker lists for this car, so the shape of the pattern can be matched to a period photograph of one particular machine.

According to the name the package also holds a spare wheel. The Sd.Kfz 222 carried it on the side of the bed, where it was always in view, and it therefore deserves the same care as the wheels on the axles. The shaping of the hubs and stubs follows the kit from Tamiya. Once they are on, it is enough to bring the flat faces level with the base, so the model does not stand on tiptoe and all four footprints point the same way.

Late cars differed from the first series in a number of details, among them the running gear. Anyone building a machine from the last years of the war will reach for this shape; for earlier examples the maker lists a separately distinguished version. The chosen design is then worth matching across the whole car, so the model holds one line.