P-47C/D Wheel Sets

BarracudaCast, 1/32 scale

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Roy Sutherland’s launch of Barracuda Studios several years ago was fantastic news for modelers familiar with Roy’s previous, excellent and increasingly hard to find Cooper Details range of accessories.  Roy has since re-released many of his Cooper Details items under the BarracudaCast label, as well as a growing range of new resin sets in all three major scales.  From what I have seen, the quality of these sets has been uniformly excellent, but the 1/32 sets are particularly good because of the level of detail that Roy has been able to include in this scale.  I recently used a BarracudaCast exhaust on my 1/32 Wingnut Wings Pfalz D.XII, and was delighted with the result.

These three sets of P-47C/D mainwheels are similarly impressive.  Identical except for the tread pattern on the tyres, the sets contain two mainwheels, two six slot inner hubs, two flat discs (which according to Bert Kinzey were often fitted in lieu of the six slot hubs), and a single page of informative and well presented instructions.  These point out that while the sets were designed for Hasegawa’s 1/32 P-47 kits, they can be adapted to fit the Revell and Trumpeter kits – with the inaccuracy of the Trumpeter wheels, in particular, making them prime candidates for replacement.

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The instructions clearly describe, in words and colour photographs, how the resin wheels should be prepared and painted.  Cleanup should be quite straightforward, because the wheels are attached their casting blocks via narrow rebates that can be easily dealt with by a sharp razor saw.  The hubs and discs will require slightly more care during cleanup, being both comparatively fragile and firmly attached to their casting blocks.  The hub slots will also need attention, to remove the thin film of flash between each spoke.

The reward for this work will be a pair of beautifully detailed mainwheels that can be configured to reflect your chosen P-47 subject.  Because the hubs have been cast separately, Roy has been able to capture the detail in the centre of each wheel very thoroughly – in a way it will almost be a shame to cover this with the hubs, let alone the discs that will hide it completely!  But with careful painting and washing much of this detail will still be visible through the hub slots, creating a realistic impression of depth.

Also impressive are the different tread patterns that have been cast on to the tyres in each set.  The patterns are uniformly crisp, with no vague or fuzzy detail on any of the review samples, and closely match those on P-47 tyres in contemporary wartime photographs.  Again, the restrained use of washes will make these tread patterns stand out even further, making the wheels one of the high points of your model.

You should investigate these sets if you are embarking on a 1/32 P-47D project – the combination of perfect casting, high levels of detail and the flexibility offered by three different tread patterns makes them a great option to have available.  Highly recommended.

Reference

Bert Kinzey, ‘P-47 Thunderbolt in Detail and Scale’ (Detail and Scale, 1998)

Thanks to Barracuda Studios for sample

Barracuda Studio products are available online from their website

Text and Images Copyright © 2014 by Brett Green
This Page Created on 7 January, 2014
Last updated 7 January, 2014

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