The quality of the casting is excellent without any blemishes and just the usual casting blocks to be removed and the remaining scar can be positioned at ground contact to hide out of the way with the wheels cast perfectly round in profile.
The wheels are based on the excellent AFV Club kit vinyl wheels and hubs and it's hard to see anyone doing the tread and sidewall detail better with the resin wheels also having additional fine sidewall embossing and minor modifications to the hub detail to enhance the detail further.
On the rear side of each wheel is included the mounting hub from the Trumpeter kit so there is no alterations required to fit these to the Trumpeter kit. To use these on the AFV Club kit would require a fair bit of modification to the resin rear wheel hub or the kit mounting hubs to get a good fit, but it is possible if you prefer resin wheels over the kit vinyl wheels.
Also included are 8 wheel step rings in etched brass as well as the small brackets fitted to some wheels when the step is not fitted.
While you get the 8 step rings it should be noted that most currently serving Strykers in Afghanistan and Iraq only have the step fitted to the first wheel stations.
The brass step circles need to be bent to shape and this is not as easy as it seems due to the different width of the strip where the semi-circular holes are located. When bending the thicker sections they don’t bend as evenly as the thinner sections and it is very important you anneal these rings before trying to get the curve.
This can be done by running the part through a candle flame until it turns red (only a few seconds) and then letting the part cool naturally, don’t dip into water and then you can form the rings around a suitably sized rod or knife handle to get a perfect curve.
The join is almost invisible after assembly if all goes well and the rings look better than the thicker kit items and the additional smaller brackets are easily bent to shape with your choice fitting neatly to the kit wheel axle.
Conclusion:
This is nice set of resin replacement wheels for the Trumpeter Stryker kit which have excellent details enhanced by the etched brass details and having the rear mounting hubs included requires no alterations to fit to the Trumpeter kit.Recommended for those wanting to improve the look of the Trumpeter kit wheels. 7.5/10
