Introduction:
Italeri released their 1/35 scale Land Rover 109’ LWB (#6508) in 2012. It is a decent kit which builds into a nice rendition of the famous British 4x4 vehicle, but has several serious shortcomings, the wheels being one of the most noticeable and glaring errors.
The wheels supplied with the kit are produced as two part plastic wheels. I honestly don’t know how to describe these… soft details, extremely poor tire tread pattern and wrong number of wheel studs (6 instead of 5). Anyone building the Italeri kit should seriously consider replacing these wheels with better detailed and more accurate aftermarket set. Enter DEF Model with their British Land Rover 109 LWB Sagged Wheel Set (DW35141).
Review:
The set is packed in a typical DEF Model cardboard box, with the box art image displaying the Italeri model with DEF resin wheels attached.
The box contains zip-lock bag with resin pieces, 3 masking sheets and masking instruction leaflet.
I opened the zip-lock bag and inspected the resin pieces. The resin looks really good with impressively delivered details and no imperfections in the cast that I could find. There are no air bubbles to fill or seam lines to get rid of, only a bit of flash residue on the spare wheel hub opening. This is easily cleaned using the back of an X-acto knife.
Casting blocks should be very easy to remove. These are located on the road wheel tire ground contact and even if the cleaning procedure leaves a scar, that wouldn’t be visible once the wheels are installed on the model. Spare tire could present a bit more problems… although the casting block is cleverly engineered to follow tire tread, I feel even the most skilled modelers would need to recreate the complex tread pattern to some extent. The easiest way out would be to orient the spare tire so the scar would be least visible on the finished model.
The tire depicted in this set is Goodyear Xtra Grip Hi-Miler 7.50-16. The tire features a unique broad tread, designed for the toughest weather and road conditions, with the dimensions of 818 x 226 mm (32,2 x 8,9 in).
Closer inspection of the DEF Model tire in 1/35 scale proved a good match. The tire is sized to 23,10 x 6,40 mm, a fraction of millimeter smaller in diameter than the real Goodyear Xtra Grip Hi-Miler 7.50-16. The peculiar tire tread is impressively reproduced and, as far as I can tell, completely authentic. The sidewall details are superbly defined with the tiny inscriptions GOODYEAR and XTRA GRIP legible under magnification. I even think I can spot 7.50-16 C, perhaps that one would pop out even more after the painting is done. Anyway, check out the details on the 1/35 scale tire!
The wheels are typical Land Rover rims with 5 studs hub assembly.
DEF Model replicated the rim and hub details really well. Here’s the 1/35 scale road wheel “walk around”:
The road wheel tires are depicted sagged, realistically conveying tire compression due to the weight of the vehicle.
The set contains 4 road wheels, each slightly different from one another, labeled from A to D. The direction of the tire tread defines A and B as vehicle right side wheels, while C and D are left side wheels.
Right side wheels:
Left side wheels:
And here’s the spare wheel:
The wheels are designed as direct replacement for Italeri kit, which means no modifications are needed to fit DEF Model resin wheels to the model. Easy installation of aftermarket pieces is a big plus in my book!
Wheel masks:
Three pre-cut masking sheets are included in this kit. The masks are of help when painting the wheels, allowing airbrushing without overspray. The instruction leaflet shows two different ways of applying the masks and painting the wheels.
Conclusion:
British Land Rover 109 LWB Sagged Wheel Set (DW35141) from DEF Model delivers a set of resin replacement wheels designed to upgrade 1/35 scale Italeri Land Rover 109 LWB kit. The resin wheels are impressively cast and have all the details superbly reproduced. Sized well, these 1/35 scale wheels provide an authentic replica of Land Rover 109 wheels with Goodyear Xtra Grip 7.50-16 tires. Wheel masks are a welcomed bonus.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to DEF Model for this review sample: