1:35 Kubelwagen typ.82 road wheels set (5 pcs) sand tires w/front torsion bar V.1 for Meng/Dragon/Tamiya kit

A light vehicle on heavy ground

Fifty thousand pieces built made it the most widespread light vehicle of the German army. It weighed around seven hundred kilograms, drove the rear axle only, and its strength lay not in the engineering but in the fact that four men could lift it and carry it. To get where it was meant to go, however, it had to have the right tires. On dry, loose ground, tires with a wider footprint and a shallow pattern proved themselves, because a deep tread only digs itself into sand and the wheel stops working.

Box contents

Five wheels cast in one piece complete with the rim and one separate part of the front suspension. The designation of the first variant distinguishes this form of the tire from the two others that came out in the same range. Fitting them calls for no modification of the chassis and no drilling of new holes.

Why a casting can be told even under paint

One hears the opinion that spraying evens everything out anyway. With wheels that does not hold. Paint does not fill the tread pattern, it only darkens it, so the difference between a continuous groove and a groove interrupted by a mold parting line stays visible even on the finished model. The same goes for the lettering on the sidewall: in a molded part it is suggested as a shallow raised line and dry paint does not catch on it, whereas the sharp relief of a casting can be picked out with a light tone and the text comes alive. It therefore pays to finish the wheels before the vehicle is assembled, while they can still be turned freely.

Rubber, moreover, is never black. A gray base with a touch of brown works well, and at the end dry dust in the shade of the ground the vehicle drove over.

This single step takes the model further than an hour spent on an interior that cannot be seen into anyway.