1:35 StuG/Panzer III Spare Wheels (75mm And 95mm, Pattern 'V')

StuG and Panzer III: spare wheels 75 and 95 mm, pattern V, 1:35 (Lithokraft 350050)

A set of 3D printed resin spare road wheels for the Panzer III and StuG III. This is not a kit of a vehicle but an accessory: a reserve wheel of the kind crews carried on the hull. It differs from its sister sets in that it contains both widths of rubber tire, 75 mm and 95 mm.

Which wheels these are

The road wheel of the Panzer III and the StuG III had a steel disc with a rubber tire. Early machines ran on a narrower tire, but because of heavy wear the change to a tire 95 mm wide was made along with the wider 380 mm track from the end of the French campaign onward. That is exactly why the width of the tire is the main distinguishing detail on a spare wheel: the narrower one belongs to the early period, the wider one to the later. The letter in the name distinguishes the pattern of the disc and the tire; exactly how the individual patterns differ is not described by the manufacturer, so go by the illustration on the box.

Fitting and painting tips

First wash the mold release agent off the resin parts, cut the casting blocks off with a saw and sand with your airways protected. They are glued with cyanoacrylate glue; ordinary cement for plastic will not bond resin. A primer coat is mandatory, otherwise the paint will not hold. Tone the rubber toward gray-black, the disc in the color of the vehicle, and weather the contact surface with dust pigments. A spare wheel on the hull tends to be dustier than the rest of the machine.

Who the set is for

• Builders of early and later Panzer III and StuG III alike
• Dioramas and scenes with a wheel set aside
• Modelers who have worked with resin before

Compare the version with a photograph of the machine you are building. The manufacturer keeps both ranges in five patterns, C, D, F, S and V. The same pattern V with the 95 mm tire only is a separate set, Lithokraft 350045. This is an accessory for a model, not a kit. The base kit, glue and paints are not included in the package, unless stated otherwise.