Roadwheels 101
All you need to know about roadwheels on a Rubicon kitWe have put in a lot of thoughts and research to design our plastic kits. Particularly the easy-to-assemble roadwheels designed to help gamers speeding up assembly and
painting! There are also historical fact behind these design.
For example, on our early production Tiger I, we have made the most-outer roadwheel set independently so that you can decide if you want the front-most outer wheel or not. This is because, from wikipedia...
During the rainy period that brought on the autumn rasputitsa mud season and onwards into the Russian winter conditions on the Eastern front, the roadwheels of a Schachtellaufwerk-equipped vehicle could also become packed with mud or snow that could then freeze.
Presumably, German engineers, based on the experience of the half tracks, felt that the improvement in off road performance, track and wheel life, mobility with wheels missing or damaged, plus additional protection from enemy fire was worth the maintenance difficulties of a complex system vulnerable to mud and ice.
This approach was carried on, in various forms, to the Panther and Tiger II. Eventually, a new 'steel' wheel design, closely resembling those on the Tiger II, with an internally sprung steel-rim tire was substituted, and which like the Tiger II, were only overlapped and not interleaved.
On the other hand, with our T-34 tanks, we have spend a lot of time researching the various type of roadwheel design so that these design can match nicely with the turret of the same period. The guns and mantlets is a little bit more complicated, and thus not been able to add too many choices to fit all on our 3 sprues.
When we designed our T-34/76, a lot of the expansion features had been put aside for our soon-to-be-released T-34/85. Look at the different roadwheel sets we have for you...
These are just part of our commitment to create a better product for the wargaming community!
Hope you all like our kits!
