Often, the wheels in modern jet kits are either too thin or too thick to be accurate representations of the real thing. Other times they just lack detail or just do not look right and we have to look to the aftermarket for replacements.

This set from RES-IM provides a very nicely molded set of tires for the MiG-21 Fishbed. The set does not state whether or not it is for early or late versions of the MiG-21 and I have not dug out my Aerofax book on the MiG-21 to see if there are any differences, so I don’t know for sure, but I can say they are a big improvement over the kit tires of my Fujimi MiG-21R kit tires as shown in the photos. The set consists of two main wheels and one nose wheel. The tires are crisply molded with outstanding hub detail that really pops out with paint a wash.

I left the tires attached to the pour stub to make painting easier as then only had to find one place to hold onto the set. I painted the tires Tamiya NATO Black and the hubs are Xtracolor Soviet hub green. Once the tires and hubs were painted, I removed them from the pour stub, sanded out the attachment point and then touched up the black paint.

RES-IM’s wheels look like wheels and have some realistic tread on them, unlike the Fujimi kit parts. This is a great set and as I have a rather large stockpile of Fujimi MiG-21s, I suspect I will be acquiring more of this set!

Highly recommended! Thank you to RES-IM for the review sample and to IPMS-USA for letting me review it.