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Lion Roar
M1078 LMTV Resin Tire
Lion Roar 1:35 set #LE35116
Review by Terry Ashley

The Set:

TrumpeterLion Roar have released this set of resin replacement wheels for the Trumpeter M1078 Light Medium Tactical Vehicle (LMTV) Kit #01004.

The set consists of five wheels cast in a light cream resin, four for the vehicle and one spare.
The standard of casting is very good with clean crisp details and no blemishes such as air holes or the like, the only cleanup required is the small casting plug on each wheel.

The notable thing is the very small casting plug which just sits over one of the tread chevrons making for easy removal with the minimum of scarring.

While the other resin M1078 wheels from E.T.Model and Pro Art Models are straight resin reproductions of the Trumpeter kit wheels these from Lion Roar are not with the sidewall detail and wheel hub details being redone, they still include the kit brake drum parts with the wheel casting. This reworked detail does make a nice change from the usual wheels based directly on the kit wheels such as all the resin wheel sets available the Stryker series of kits.

Resin wheels
Note the very small casting plug to be removed

Lion Roar
Lion Roar

So how does the detail on these differ from the kit and other resin wheels? Firstly the sidewalls are rendered smooth apart from the segment lines and don't have the wavy contours of the other wheels, the smooth sidewalls are evident on tyres in a number of photos as well as the contours of the kit tyres. The "Michelin X" embossing is included but not the tyre size data and the shoulder segments that form the ends of the tread chevrons are slightly larger, this also matches the actual tyre detail well.

On the wheel hubs the central raised hub is correctly slightly higher than the kit wheels with better defined bolt details as well as the small lubrication nipple missing for the kit hubs. The only issue is the lip between the sidewalls and outer tread shoulder is too pronounced compared to the actual tyre but there is little you can do about this although it may not be that noticeable once painted and fitted to the kit axles?

The locating holes for the kit tyre inflation system is included allowing the kit parts to be easily fitted and the resin wheels have the kit brake drum parts E5, E2/E6 also included with the single resin casting. There is no weighting or bulging included on the wheels which is not really a problem as you can slightly flatten the tread as you remove the casting plug so the wheel doesn't appear to "tippy toe" on a hard surface.

Images showing the hub and tread details with image of actual wheel for comparison
Lion RoarLion Roar
Image courtesy Wings&Wheels Publications #G21
Reverse side of front and rear wheels
Lion Roar

There is a problem with the spare wheel as it should have the outer circle of rim bolts as these hold the rim segments together with just the central circle of open holes, as per the image of the actual spare wheel.

Lion Roar

Fitting the resin wheels to the Trumpeter LMTV kit is very straightforward and doesn't require any alterations to the kit parts.
As the resin wheels include the kit rims and brake drums all you need do is fit the wheels to the truck axles as per the kit instructions, nothing could be easier.

Conclusion:

This is a another very simply update with the resin wheels cleanly cast without any blemishes and offer a nice detail variation from the kit wheels with the reworked sidewall and hub details. The only issues are the slightly over pronounced sidewall lip and the incorrectly depicted spare with the missing outer ring or rim bolts.

As they still include the kit brake drum parts it makes fitting to the kit axles very straightforward with everything fitting perfectly and if you prefer not to use the kit vinyl wheels, these are the perfect replacement.

Highly recommended

References:
BookFMTV Trucks in detail
Present Vehicle Line No.G21
Wings & Wheels Publications

Thanks to Lion Roar for the review set.




Page created October 18, 2009