Well not really, but Aires well known for their excellent resin detailing sets, now have an offshoot company ''Wheelliant''. No they are not going to produce replica cars [Relaint}, or that is what sprung to my mind when I first saw the announcement on the Aires website. They are going to produce very detailed wheel sets for aircraft in 1/32 and from what I have seen so far, I think they will sell very well. The lettering looks a little heavy on the side walls, but nothing that cannot be adjusted with a sanding stick.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Let's just hope they conduct better research on their next wheel sets, than what they did with their F-16 wheels; which are quite inaccurate. It's a shame, as those wheel cast were so nice.

Hi Mike

sure you do not mistake the new company for Eduards offspring Brassin? Just curious, because Wheeliant (Aires) is new and AFAIK there is no former F-16 stuff..

all th ebest

Steffen

Oh yes, these were the 32nd "Wheellaint" wheels on display and for sale at the Phoenix IPMS Nationals. The Brassin F-16 wheels have issues of their own, though not as severe; though they did hose up F-4 wheels. Right off the bat, I could see some major dimensional problems with the Wheelliant Sufa and Block 50 mains wheels and here's what I found:
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Note that the Block 50/52+/60 main wheels are NOT dished as they are in wheelaint cast. The wheel hub bulge contour is also wrong. The Sufa wheel call out is wrong, as these represent Block 60 wheels, not Sufa. The main difference is the 6 fasteners on the perimeter of the main wheel hubs. The Sufa is a Block 52+, which uses the standard Block 50/52 main wheels, though do retain the wider NLG wheel assy.

The main tires were too wide and the tires had a square profile to them as well. As mentioned on another thread; the tire tread is too aggressive. It would havee been nice to have included the correct widened NLG fork to go along with the Block 52+ or Block 60 wheel sets; which would have also been the proper terminology.





It's shame, as the wheel castings are very well done. Even though the tire font is seriously exaggerated, it can be sanded down to scale. Overall, the Tamiya kit wheels (Block 50) are still more accurate in shape and profile contour; just less the tire and brake detail.

Mike V

Many thanks for the explanation Mike!!

luckily it is not my scale

But 48 is and I have a few question, even if it is for this thread but most is u/c related

1. F-16A Netz
A) Wheel bay: Can I stick with the Hasegawa kit contents, what would be the best alternative?
B) is there any F-16A (early i.e. 1982 usage) AM cockpit?

2. F-16F: I have the hasegawa and I will buy the Wolfpack update. But IIRC I would also need a different u/c. Which AM set should I use?

2. F-4J I am building (to be precice I will ... one day) the Hasegawa kit and I Have pretty much what I want except of wheels. You say the Brassin stuff is off? Shall I better use the 2Mikes set?

Many thanks in advance!

all teh best

Steffen
P.S. if you feel uncomfotable to post in this thread could you please shoot me a PM or an email (alpha_tango(at)gmx.de) .. Thanks again ---AT)

F-16A:
Usually I don’t suggest AM wheel wells, especially when the kit is well done like the Tamiya F-16Cs or Hasegawa Hornets, but the Hasegawa kit is severely lacking in this area and most of the detailing is inaccurately done. I suggest using the Aires wheel wells for the Hasegawa F-16.

Black Box made an F-16A cockpit for the 48th Hasegawa kit, but it’s been OOP for some time now. You might want to check Squadron Mail order though, as they've been re-poping the old BB sets. CMK also has one, though it’s not all that good; though still better than the kit. We’ll be releasing an F-16A cockpit (Block 5-15 & OCU) to backdate the Tamiya F-16C, but it won’t be out till end of the year; not to mention we have yet to try it out on the Hasegawa fuselage.

F-16F:
I haven’t got a good look at the WP F-16F set, but from what I’ve seen it (like all other Block 60 kits and conversions) it’s missing the correct main wheels, wider NLG fork, and widened wheel assy. The radome will prove useful, but beware of WP’s resin as it tends to have serious shrink issues.

The other problem is going to be the correct LG. The Hasegawa kits all have the light weight gear, but there’s no AM gear made for them yet. You could try and adapt the SAC metal HW F-16 gear made for the Tamiya kit. I’m sure it can be done, but haven’t seen it attempted yet.

F-4J:
Yeah, I’d go with the Two Mikes F-4J wheels.

Mike V

Thanks a bunch Mike!!!!

all the best

Steffen