1:35 Sd.Kfz. 250 - Corrected Road Wheels (Type 1) (for Dragon Kits)

A vehicle there was never enough of

Demand for the light armored half-track exceeded the possibilities of production throughout the time it was in service. The machine was laborious: every link of the track had its own needle bearing and rubber insert, the chassis called for precise fitting and the assembly hours climbed to a height that the wartime economy could not afford. The answer was a simplification of the body in 1943, except that the need grew faster than the saving. The reconnaissance detachments of the panzer divisions therefore reached even for captured vehicles and for machines that should long since have gone through a general overhaul.

The older shape of the disk

The set brings the road wheel in the earlier of the two shapes that occurred in this range. The distinguishing mark is the profile of the circumferential rim and the distribution of the bolt heads around the center; anyone putting a machine together to a particular photograph will find the difference without trouble.

The procedure from gate to paint

The castings belong on the chassis of the kit of the Dragon brand and respect its spacing and the height of the axis above the terrain. The gate is separated by a cut made at a right angle, and the remainder is leveled with a fine file by a stroke from the center to the edge, so that the edge of the rim is not lost. A short bath follows, a thin base and only then the shade itself. Anyone who wants to give the chassis more credibility can flatten the bottom of the rim imperceptibly and thereby suggest how the rubber gives way under the weight of the machine. The effect is inconspicuous, but the eye recognizes it before it manages to name why.

Where the wheel belongs on the model

On a light half-track the front row of disks sits close behind the drive sprocket and the last reaches under the rear of the body. It is just the end pieces that tend to be the most exposed on a finished build, so it pays to devote the most time to them both in cleaning up and in painting.