Technical Pickup Truck Weighted Road Wheels (for Meng Models)

[Mike]

Technical Pickup Truck Weighted Road Wheels (for Meng Models)

1:35 ET Models

The new "Technical" from Meng Models is a great kit, and has made adding an insurgent vehicle to your collection a lot more affordable and/or accurate than it used to be. As with a lot of mainstream models of wheeled vehicles though, the wheels are made up from a styrene hub and a flexible vinyl tyre, which in this case is hollow, just like the real thing. There are two concerns with vinyl because historically it used to react to styrene, causing a horrible sticky mess that ruined the wheels and hubs in one fell swoop. The other is one I thought up, and centres around the weight on the hubs slowly squashing the tyre sidewalls below it, so that the tyre eventually looks like it's going down. I've yet to see that one proved or disproved, but the genie is out of the bottle now, and the worry is there.

This set from ET Models replaces the kit wheels completely, which removes both concerns together. The set arrives in a clamshell clear box with a header card stapled to the top, and contains five new wheels, further protected by bubble wrap which sadly hides the artistry of the tyres themselves. Four of the wheels have realistic sag engineered into them, and have the characteristic shape of a tyre at low pressure to cope better with rough terrain. The sidewalls bulge out noticeably, while the main tread has a slightly concave surface, with the shoulder blocks of the tread taking a lot of the weight. Not great for the life of a tyre in the real world, but very efficient for unmade tracks and offroad, and very dramatic for your model.

Each tyre has raised makers' marks, as well as 7-spoked hubs, with cut-outs between each spoke. The spokes are reinforced behind with buttresses to avoid the danger of them breaking, which is a good idea. The tyre tread itself, as well as being laterally concave also depicts the zig-zag tread of an off-road tyre very well. The spare tyre has a retention lug moulded into its centre instead of the prominent hub-cap, and has the stud-holes as deep depressions ready to be drilled out for extra realism.

Conclusion

Another great set of resin replacement wheels from ET, and a very nice upgrade to the excellent new kit from Meng. Clean-up should be simple, as the casting blocks are small, and on the contact patch, so can be snapped off and cut flush with a knife to avoid making any harmful resin dust.

Highly recommended.

Review Sample courtesy of