1:48 Ki-115 Wheels for Eduard

Landing gear that was never meant for landing

Few aircraft had such a strange relationship with their wheels as the Ki-115. The gear consisted of two plain struts with no shock absorbers and no way of retracting, because the machine was supposed to jettison the whole assembly after takeoff and fly on with nothing but its wing and engine. The result can be described as cheap and dangerous at the same time: an untrained pilot had to manage a takeoff run over rough ground, and only then did the aircraft shed the dead weight. That is exactly why the wheels are worth a look, because the hubs came from existing stock and the tires carried the ordinary pattern of the period.

Why replace the kit wheels

An injection-molded wheel is always a compromise between the shape of the mold and the ways the tool can be opened. The replacement part in this set sidesteps those molding limits, so it has a crisper rim edge, a readable tread pattern and a clear flattened contact patch where it meets the ground. The model immediately gains the impression of weight, which on a parked aircraft says more than the finest paintwork.

Replacement procedure

The original wheel is cut from the sprue and replaced with the new part; the axle usually needs only light cleanup so that the part seats squarely. It pays to stand the model on a flat board and check that both flattened contact patches sit level, otherwise the machine visibly limps. The tire color is better mixed into a gray-black tone, because pure black at this small scale reads as a hole in the landing gear. The set is designed for the Ki-115 model from the same manufacturer and is not meant to be combined with the kit part.