German Panzer III Road Wheel Revisited

[Rubicon Models]

A New Project has started...  What is it?

[zigoR]

StuG III / StuH 42 combi-kit    

[ripley]

Stowage rack for a Stug   . Could you  fix the narrow  rubber rims  on the spare  road wheels if possible please . Not having one of your Panzer IIIs  yet , I don't know how much the narrow rubber in contact with the tracks is going to matter , I can always cover them in mud /snow,  but the spares on the fenders just stick out like sore thumbs IMO . Now true some might not care , like those with the Bolt Action Stugs with their single spare tire  , but if your going to sell to modelers as well as gamers it  might be better to fix this problem if you can .  And I'ld like to say thank you for all the effort your putting into the kits you've produced so far , as well as those on the drawing board . Keep up the good work

[Rubicon Models]

Ripley, all the road wheels (with the rubber rim) plus the spare ones had been revised... we learn from our past actions!

[ripley]

That's great news although I would still get a couple if you didn't , its a problem I can fix .  Don't feel bad about having to redesign and retool from time to time . Dragon brings out a new and improved Panzer whatever at least every six months ,and still screws  things up , just check and see how many versions of your chosen favorite German tank they have .  Not to mention twenty years worth of still not getting the T-34 driver's hatch placed  right .

[Rubicon Models]

Here is a picture of the updated road wheels with the rubber rim...


We have compared this with some museum pictures, should be about right.  Comments?

[ripley]

Maybe its the CAD drawing but it still looks off to me  .  Checking through the books I have it looks like your relief holes in the wheel should be moved inwards toward the wheel hub , not  close to the outer rim as you show them . And the rubber on the tires of the Panzer III is almost twice as thick as the rubber on the Panzer IV wheels . Sorry don't have any reference books with rim / tire diameter  .Don't know if this helps you any . Thanks for letting us give you some feed back , it's nice to find a company interested in it's customers opinions  and wish lists 

[Rubicon Models]

CAD drawings are sometimes awkward to read.  Will discuss with our guys a little bit more on the wheels.  Customer feedback are important... we do listen (if time permits)! 

[Rubicon Models]

Spend some more time on revising the Panzer III sprocket and road wheels, still a work in progress...



C&C welcome!

[ripley]

Still not convinced on the thickness of the rubber tire part , but the rim is just about spot on . 

[Rubicon Models]

Still not convinced on the thickness of the rubber tire part , but the rim is just about spot on . 

Ripley, we had double checked on the thickness of the rubber rim.  There is only one "experimental" version that has the thick rubber rim.  Furthermore, the road wheel itself has an extruded steel rim that is leveled with the rubber, thus creating an impaired visual effect of a thicker rim.

[Preda]

It should also be condsiderd that this isent a 1:35 Skale Model Kit with 300+ Parts, its a 1:56 Toy!

[ripley]

I'm not saying I'm a tank expert or anything  , but after 45 years of looking at pictures and building various scale Panzer IIIs , the shape and size of the wheels on the P III just jumped right out at me as " wrong ". Mostly the spares because they were very visible on top of the fenders . Now I know this kit is mostly for 1/56 scale  war gamers and some of them seem to be ok with chunky resin  wheel sets and wide one piece sets of plastic road wheels , heck some don't even know or care that the BA Stug  has single spare tires . As a modeler this kind of stuff matters to me , yes I can fix it if I have too , but if Rubicon wants input I'll give them some . And Rubicon has tweaked the CAD drawings which looks pretty good , but at the end of the day they'll decide if they want to go with the new version or just reuse the old wheels . Either way , they should sell a ton .

[Rubicon Models]

We cannot call this new project a signature project, but this is going to be based on our experience gained from our past 7 kits, and put them to the test!  We have decided to use all new moulds, nothing will be reused.  This is why we have decided to do some rework on the sprocket and road wheels - to make them more accurate to the original vehicle!

Listening to feedback from outside our studio is important; otherwise we will be like doing our own thing inside a tree hole, and then hope all our customers will accept our design even if there are obvious errors on it!  We are not perfect, and you can only have so many reference material on hand.  And we do learn from our mistakes!

Anyway, here is a DML 1/35 Panzer III road wheel:


We have also looked at other manufacturers' 1/35 and 1/72 kits, and compare them with our blueprints and plans... together with historical photos!  Think we are quite close to what we wanted to achieve as a wargaming piece.

BTW, we have put special attention to the spare wheels design too!

C&C are always welcome!

[Preda]

Are you guys sure you want to use the Name of one of the biggest Automotive Suppliers in the World on the Model? Even if the L is an U at the end? Sounds like screaming for trouble to me.