Hussar Productions KV Road Wheels

by Adam Wilder

During the month of December I posted some images of an assembled unpainted Russian KV-1 M40 Tank on the Constructive Comments forum. It was brought to my attention by a few viewers that the road-wheels on the classic Tamiya kits are inaccurate. Upon doing some research I also agreed with their inquiries.

It was recommended that I replace the road-wheels supplied in the Tamiya kit with some aftermarket resin wheels by Hussar Productions. Michel Szapowalow of Airconnection was one of the viewers whom informed me of the antiquated Tamiya road-wheels. He was then kind enough to donate to me the four resin KV road-wheel sets available from Hussar Productions. I am happy with the quality of each set. Upon finishing the KV-1 M40 article for AFV Modeller, I decided to also write this short review about the four Hussar Productions resin KV wheel sets for Missing-Lynx.

As I mentioned, Hussar Productions provides four different sets of KV road-wheels. Set 35001 is the type seen on the later KV tanks such as KV-1s, KV-85 and SU-152. Sets 35002, 35003 and 35004 are the types seen on the earlier KV tanks. Set 35003 was used on my KV-1 M40. Each set has a letter-sized sheet containing two black and white photos of the wheel types they represent (Photo 4). The four sets I have are all well molded with minimal flash. Removing the unwanted resin blocks and cleaning the outer diameter of the wheels is also uncomplicated.

The packages of the Hussar KV road-wheel sets state that they can be used on both the Tamiya and Eastern Express models. This is why I found it odd that a bit of re-engineering is needed to properly attach the wheels to both of the Tamiya and Eastern Express models. The re-work needed to attach the wheels although odd, is actually quite easy.

Assembling onto the Eastern Express Kits

Let’s start with what we need to do to make the Hussar Productions KV wheels fit onto the Eastern Express kits. I found it easiest to cut away the outer narrowest part of the torsion bars where the wheels connect as shown in photo 5. There will be a remaining area that is 3/16” in diameter as shown in photo 6.

I then took a 3/16” drill bit and bore out the rear of the inner resin wheel as shown in photo 7. There is a hole in the rear of the inner wheel that will work as a pilot for the larger diameter drill bit simplifying this task. Drilling out the rear of the wheel will allow it to fit snug around the modified torsion bar in line with the drive and idler wheels on the assembled model.

Assembling onto the Tamiya Kits

Assembling the Hussar Productions KV wheels onto the Tamiya’s kit is similar. Again, you will need to cut away the outer narrowest part of the molded on torsion bar as shown. As before, you will also need to drill out the rear of the resin wheel to fit it snug onto the modified torsion bar.

Conclusion
The Hussar Productions KV replacement road-wheels really helps modelers to capture the appearance of these famous Russian tanks. In my opinion they are more accurate than the wheels provided with both the Eastern Express and Tamiya kits. Again, I find it odd that I had to re-engineer the rear of the Hussar Productions wheels and kit torsion bars for proper assembly. I would like to thank Michael Szapowalow at AirConnection at www.airconnection.on.ca for donating the Hussar Productions road wheels for my article and this review.