Background

Brengun is known for its range of photo-etched sets and resin accessories for airplane models. They also produce model kits in 1/48th, 1/72nd and 1/144th scales. Brengun's product line includes several scales for resin accessories, photoetch, paint masks, and resin and plastic kits.

Their products are available directly from an e-shop or from distributors (list included on their web site). I checked the USA distributors as listed on the Brengun website but found none of them listed this product at the time of this review.

Contents Description

The subject set includes two pairs of spoked wheels and one set of "pie pan" covers. The parts are cast in a medium grey resin, with crisp detail (tread pattern, spokes, and bolts), and flat bottoms representing weighted tires. Side walls include nice, raised detail. The opening for the landing gear axel is a shallow circular depression that will requires some careful drilling out to provide for a secure attachment to the kit's landing gear.

The two covers are cast with a connector rib on the back side that will require careful removal to avoid possible damage to the covers.

Instructions

The instructions are exploded views of the wheels with the optional cover locations noted with a directional arrow provided on a small sheet. Quite simple but it gets the job done.

Construction

Rather than complete this review with parts intact on the casting blocks I decided to assemble one wheel with the separate cover to check the fit.

I used a fine razor saw to remove a wheel from the casting block and used sprue cutters and a Number 11 hobby knife blade to remove the cover from the small casting block. I basically shaved the rib off the back of the cover which attached to the small casting block, being careful not to damage the delicate cover. Fine sandpaper was used to remove the resin webbing from the edges of the cover. There is a shallow depression on the back side of the cover that fits over the wheel axle hub. I test fitted the parts together and found the fit to be perfect. The parts were washed with isopropyl alcohol before anything else was done. I placed a small spot of acrylic glue on the axle hub when the parts were dry and laid the cover in place. Done.

Conclusion

I compared the Brengun wheels to those included with the Accurate Miniatures SBD-2 and the Hasegawa SBD-3 Dauntless and found the resin to be more detailed than the plastic parts. The Accurate Miniatures kit is showing its age as there was a good deal of raised molding seam on the tire portions. Sanding this off will certainly eliminate some of the kit detail. The Brengun wheels will offer a nice enhancement to any model of the SBD Dauntless.

I did a quick search using Google Images for an SBD Dauntless walkaround. I found one image of a Dauntless with spoked wheels and that was at the Yank's Air Museum as shown on the Large Scale Model forum. If a modeler wishes to depict their work with spoked wheels additional research will be required.

For the purists I noted that many of the images of preserved Dauntless aircraft show three bolts attaching the covers to the wheels, whereas the Brengun parts have six. I did find a Youtube video that clearly shows six bolts on the cover of a -5 Dauntless (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivwfjHKxKvk).

This is the first Brengun product that I have seen and was impressed by the detail. Getting two sets of wheels is a bonus, too. I certainly recommend this set and wish to thank Brengun and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this set.