Willys MB Jeep Weighted Wheel, ET Models ER35-044

[Shar2]

Willys MB Jeep Weighted Road Wheels ER-35-044
ET Models 1:35

As the war in Europe spread in the late '30s, the U.S. Military wanted a new light-weight, four-wheel-drive, reconnaissance vehicle. They solicited bids for command/reconnaissance car with an 80" wheelbase and weighing 1300 lbs in June of 1940. Three companies responded: Bantam, Ford and Willys. The Bantam Car Company had the leading contender based on overall design, but Willys had the wonderful "Go Devil" flat-head four cylinder engine. Ford had some good ideas too and there was a pooling of ideas that surely violated the spirit, if not the letter, of intellectual property, trade-mark, and other laws, but served the governments needs. The final winner after a few resubmittals was the GPW. "G" for government, "P" for pigmy (a Ford term) and "W" for Willys.

One story has it that the lowly, uninformed GI's thought "GP" was for general purpose, and pronounced it "jeep". Other people say that the word "jeep" was slang for any wonderfully multipurpose thing. The Popeye cartoon had a character, named "Eugene the Jeep" in 1936, who had all kinds of amazing powers. Anyway, the source of the name "Jeep" is now veiled by the passage of time... but on with the story.
The government selected a vehicle based mostly on the design by the Bantam Car Company. Bantam didn't have the mass production facilities needed to supply the government, and the military wanted multiple suppliers. Willys got a contract to build "jeeps" in late 1940. Ford was also awarded a contract a week later. Many parts were interchangeable between the Willys and Ford jeeps. Of the roughly half million jeeps produced for WW2, Willys-Overland made about 360,000 between 1941 and 1945. The jeeps proved to be rugged and dependable in the war, and by the time the soldiers came home, jeeps were well known and loved for their durability and unstoppability

ER35-044

There are numerous 1:35 scale Jeeps on the market, released by Tamiya, Heller, Italeri and Academy to name just a few. Whilst the wheels in these kits are of various qualities, they all suffer from the usual limitations of injection moulding. Unusual looking and incomplete tread patterns, no weighting, indistinct sidewall and hub patterns are some of the problems, although not always at the same time. ET Models have now released this set of wheels which can be used on any kit of the Jeep. The five wheels, four in use and one spare are beautifully moulded with fine hub details, good tread patterns and the weighted effect that a lot of modellers love these days. The small moulding blocks are attached to the weighted areas, so that when removed and cleaned up any imperfections will not be seen, with the possible exception of the spare wheel. Having checked each wheel carefully there appears to be only one small resin polyp on one wheel which will be easy to remove with a couple of swipe from an sanding sponge.

Conclusion
This is another nice set of replacement wheels from ET models. So easy to use, they will make a nice addition to any Jeep model. Recommended

Review Sample courtesy of