The wheels are reproductions of the Tamiya kit wheels with the addition
of damage from wear and tear as well as battle damage. The damage is around
the
shoulder of the wheels and pitting on the tyre face.
There are several photos in Ground Power #119 and #120 that
show this degree of tyre damage but there are also many showing no damage at
all even on destroyed tanks, so it would be advisable to use these sparingly
on vehicles still in action or just add some variation.
No alterations are required on the kits as the resin wheels simply replace the plastic kit wheels to add a degree of animation to the kits.
Set TX 0092 is a set of pre cut vinyl wheel marks for painting the Type 97 wheels, either from the Tamiya kits or the Trakz resin replacements.
The masks are cut to give a choice of masking the inner rims of the wheel to paint the tyres or mask the tyres and paint the wheel rims, whichever you find preferable?
The only problem is the masks are too big in diameter to fit the wheel rims, this is bought about because the rubber tyre has a ridge around the inner lip as it fits to the rim and when the masks have been cut it has been assumed this ridge is part of the wheel itself. The image below shows the inner ridge on the rubber section clearly and the Tamiya and Trakz resin wheels incorpoarate this ridge correctly but means the masks don't match the diameter of the wheel rim as in the second image below.
Thanks to VLS for the review samples.
Page Created 15 May 2004