Model Armour

Modern US M1070 Truck Tractor Weighted Road Wheels

Manufacturer: ET Model

Scale: 1/35

Material: Resin

Serial Number: ER35-041

Price:  £15.11

Introduction

ET Model from China has a rapidly expanding catalogue of photo-etched and detail sets for a wide variety of kits in varying scales, together with a very prolific release schedule. This set provides complete set of replacement resin weighted wheels for the HobbyBoss kit no.85502.

Contents

The set is supplied unusually for ET Model in an over large cardboard carton. All eight wheels and one spare being loosely wrapped in bubblewrap. I say oversize, since even with the loose wrapping of bubblewrap, there's quite a bit of room for the wheels to move around in, and three of them arrived having broken off their pouring blocks. The nature of the parts meant of course that no damage had occurred, just saved me the trouble of taking them off the blocks, but I would have expected a little more packing for protection.

As mentioned, there are eight wheels supplied in the set, plus one spare wheel. Of the eight road wheels, ET Model has actually used four different masters, and there are two wheels cast from each one, meaning of course, that the 'Michelin' logo plus size information etc., on the tyre sidewall can be in a different position at each station. There was no flash on any of the wheels and no air bubbles could be seen. Each of the wheels is weighted where they're attached to their poring blocks, but it is extremely subtle and hard to tell that they are indeed weighted. If you take a look at the pictures shown below, and in particular the two showing the tread pattern, the second actually shows the area of the pattern 'spoilt' by the attachment to the pouring block. As you can see it's an extremely small area, and if necessary it wouldn't take too much work with a scalpel blade to reinstate the tread pattern in this area.

Each of the wheels shows full bolt detail on the hub, although the outer ring of bolts will be covered by the HobbyBoss plate of course. Each of the roadwheels scales out correctly diameter wise, but is about a millimetre too narrow, which is hardly noticeable once installed.

Conclusion

A very nice set of replacement wheels.  Beautifully moulded, nothing to mar their surface, and more or less a drop in fit.  Recommended.

My thanks to ET MODEL for the review sample.