When Eduard released its 1/72 MiG-21MF kit last summer it also released several resin and photo-etch sets to go with it. One of the sets is a package of resin wheels. The set provides two sets of main wheels (one with solid wheel covers, the other with spoked wheel covers) and two nose wheels. The instructions note that the solid wheel covers were seldom used on the MF version of the MiG-21, so check your references to see which type the aircraft you are modeling has. I used the spoked set and I have put the other set aside on the assumption that the MiG-21MF is just the first of a MiG-21 series by Eduard, therefore it will come in handy later on.

The wheels are crisply cast with very nice tread and even raised lettering on the tire sidewalls. The tires also have a flat spot at the bottom of each tire for that weight-on-wheels look. The main wheels are keyed to fit the semi-circular attachment points on main landing gear legs, so make sure the flat part of the tire is pointing in the right direction before gluing. The nose wheel is keyed so that the small housing on the left fork of the nose gear strut fits into a cut-out on the wheel, again ensuring that the flat spot on the wheel is correctly oriented.

The instructions include directions on cutting and attaching what appears to be a brake line on the backside of the main wheels. The instructions advise you to use a piece of .3mm wire, cut to 4.14mm and then bent into a “U” shape and attached to the back of each main wheel. I opted to use stretched sprue instead as I don’t know if I have any .3mm wire, but I do have lots of extra sprues that can be stretched. I looked at a number of photographs online of this brake line and after stretching one of the sprues from the kit, I picked a section that looked to be the right thickness and cut 2 small sections. I then dipped each one in warm water and bent them around the end of a round toothpick until I got the right sized “U”. I then attached the stretched sprue (using superglue) as shown on the instructions and painted it to match the gear struts.

The set also includes a full set of masks so that you can paint all of the wheels at once. I elected to paint the wheel covers first using Mr. Color C66 Bright Green. I then used the center disk masks and painted the wheels Tamiya NATO Black.

This set adds a nice level of detail to the model, but since the solid wheel covers were rarely used on the MF version, I think many modelers would prefer two sets with the spoked wheel covers instead of one of each so that they could complete two MF’s from one set.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to Eduard for the review sample and to IPMS-USA for letting me review it.