1:32 F-100 Super Sabre wheels set

Set of F-100 Super Sabre wheels in 1:32 scale (Reskit)

This is a resin replacement for the landing gear wheels, not an airplane kit. On a large model the wheels are among the most closely watched parts: they sit at the viewer's eye level, they have a complex disc shape and the plastic version from a kit tends to be simplified and distorted by the parting line of the mold.

The real subject

The F-100 Super Sabre is a single-engine airplane with a swept wing and low-set landing gear, in which the main wheels carry a fairly high load on a small footprint. The discs have pronounced lightening holes and a different appearance on the outer and inner faces, and the nose wheel is noticeably smaller. In the large scale even the sidewall lettering and the tread structure are visible on the tires, so the difference against a smooth plastic wheel is clear.

Building and painting tips

With wheels what counts is clean work on the casting blocks. The block tends to sit on the contact face of the tread or on the hub; cut it off with a saw leaving a margin and level the remainder on sanding paper laid on glass, so that a genuinely flat face is produced and the wheel does not rock. Before you start sanding, mark the direction so that the circumferential shape is not lost. A tire is painted in a flat dark shade with a hint of gray, never pure black; the disc is masked with a circular mask or painted separately before fitting. Always pin the axle with wire, as a bare resin-to-plastic joint on a wheel works loose in time.

Who the set is for

• Builders of the F-100 model in the large scale who want the exact shape of the disc.
• Modelers bothered by the parting line on plastic wheels.
• Anyone after readable tire detail at the viewer's eye level.
• The advanced, who can pin parts and mask circular areas.

The accessory is supplied unassembled and unpainted. The kit, glue and paints are not included in the package.