Model Armour

Technical Pickup Weighted Wheels

Manufacturer: ET Model

Scale: 1/35

Material: Resin

Serial Number: ER35-031

Price:  £6.65

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 is intended to replace all five wheels (including spare) on the Meng kit.

Set Contents

The set arrives safely protected in a transparent rigid blister pack, stapled to a cardboard header. Each of the five cream-coloured resin wheels is wrapped in bubblewrap for extra protection.

As said, each wheel is cast in a cream-coloured resin, with no flash and no air bubbles evident. In addition, each wheel is supplied still attached to it's rectangular pouring block which will obviously need to be carefully removed, although the surface area of the tyre tread that is marred by the attachment point is relatively small, and as each wheel (apart from the spare) is moulded as slightly weighted, then the area of loss is that which would be in contact with the ground and therefore invisible anyway.

As you can see from the photographs below, the weighting on each of the wheels is quite subtle and not overdone, and of the four road wheels there are actually two types, which means that you won't have the manufacturer's logo on the tyre sidewall, in the same position. The spare wheel has the centre fixing bracket moulded in situ, and of course its tyre is not weighted, so you can either ensure the attachment area is at the lowest position, or attempt to re-carve the missing detail with the tip of a scalpel blade.

Conclusion

A very nicely moulded set of wheels, nicely weighted, with good tread detail and nicely rendered detail on the tyre walls. Recommended.

My thanks to ET MODEL for the review sample.