Mitchell B-25H/J Wheels (for HK Models) - 1:32 Eduard Brassin

[Mike]

B-25H/J Wheels (for HK Models)
1:32 Eduard Brassin (632014)

The HK Mitchell is a big beast, and its kit wheels whilst adequate for most could be improved upon with resin replacements, partly because of the lack of mating seam around the circumference of each wheels, but also because of the extra detail and undercuts possible with resin casting.

The set arrives in one of Eduard's familiar Brassin cardboard boxes, and once you remove the foam packaging you find three bags of resin parts, a sheet of yellow kabuki style masking material, and an instruction sheet.  There are two main wheels, cast as single parts with add-on hub centre details, and one nose wheel, again cast as one piece, but with front and rear hubs.  There is also a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) metal with a central hub-cap for the nose wheel.
 

The main wheels are cast on substantial blocks, but the contact patch is where the meat of the moulding plug touches the wheel, with a pair of delicate out-riggers ensuring that the mould is both supported, and filled without bubbles getting trapped in the wheels.  The centres of the hubs are hollow, and are designed to accept the two centre hubs, which have axles built onto their rears.  This will give the assembly plenty of strength to deal with the weight of the model.  Another hub fixes to the centre of the outside hub, and to install them you slip them onto the keyed axle moulded onto the kit gear leg.
 

The nose gear wheel is similar insofar as it has a pair of central hubs to add, but the centre of the main part has spoked detail moulded deep in the recess.  A little clean-up of the spaces between the central spokes and the front outer hub will be needed, before it and the solid rear hub are added.  An optional PE hub-cap can be installed over the outer hub, but as it covers up all the lovely spoke detail, I would be loathed to put it on.  As with the main wheels, the nose wheel simply slips over the keyed axle on the kit gear leg.

The masks (not pictured) are included to allow easy painting of the hub after the wheel itself has been painted.  If you intend on spraying the hubs, you will need to extend the mask with a little extra tape to avoid overspray, as the masks don't cover the whole tyre.  This is standard with wheel masks however, so will be familiar to most.

Conclusion
The detail on this set is stunning, and typical of the quality of the Eduard's Brassin range.  Once the parts are removed from their casting blocks and cleaned up, they are straight-forward drop-in (or slide-on) replacements for the kit wheels.  Very nice indeed!

Very highly recommended.
 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[Radleigh]

They look superb!

[Mike]

They are... a work of art.  Sorry about the wheel pun on the Facebook page though