MK72(MPK)

Kübelwagen Reifen ohne Radkappen

Kit # 7306

Preview by Rob Haelterman - heman_148(at)hotmail(dot)com

This set contains five resin wheels. Two are marked "B1", two "B2", and one "BR". The latter clearly is the spare wheel, but it is unclear to me what the difference between "B1" and "B2" is.

These wheels represent the most common type of wheel for the Kübelwagen, i.e. without hubcaps. Perhaps not for the real vehicle, but definitely for their plastic counterparts, as all plastic kits I am familiar with show them without hubcaps. (A set with hubcaps is also available from MK72.)
These wheels are meant to replace those that come with the Academy, Hasegawa or Italeri kits.
Both the Academy and Hasegawa wheels are underscale, while the Italeri wheels are rather rough, slightly overscale and hollow on the inside. Both have a rather heavy thread pattern.
The MK72 wheels are, without a whisker of a doubt, better than any of those three combined.
It is difficult to measure tyre diameters as tyre profile, wear and inflation all had an impact. Therefore I measured the wheel rim. Kubelwagen rims were 16" (40.64cm) diameter, or 5.64mm in 1/72. MK 72 wheels scale out exactly at 5.64mm.
If one so desires, the hubcap with distinctive "VW" logo could be recovered from the Academy wheels.
It should be seen if these (correctly sized) MK72 wheels fit on the Academy or Hasegawa kits, that are meant to accept undersized kit parts.

Casting is near perfect, with only one pin hole found on the inside of one wheel and crisp detail. The way the wheels are attached to the casting blocks avoids the loss of any detail as the small "flange" only covers the centre of the tyre, where there is no profile on the kit parts. This is both a blessing and a curse, as there actually should be some thread pattern on the center of the tyres.

While MK72 does not mention it, these wheels would also fit nicely on a Schwimmwagen, if you don't want to go for cross-country tyres.

Above: Academy

Above: Italeri

(A picture of the Hasegawa wheels was not available at the time of writing.)

Thanks to MK72 for the review samples.

Article Last Updated: 29 August 2011