RES-IM has recently released several sets of replacement wheels for modern aircraft. Often kit wheels are not accurate representations of the real thing, being rather featureless.

This set provides a very nicely molded set of four replacement tires for the Tornado. The set does not state which Tornado kit it is for and as I only have Hasegawa kits of the Tornado, I don’t know if there are any differences between Hasegawa, Italeri or Revell moldings, but I can say they are a big improvement over the kit tires of my Hasegawa Tornado F3 as shown in the photos. The set consists of two main wheels and two nose wheels. The tires are crisply molded with nice tread detail and outstanding hub detail that really pops out with a light black wash.

I left the tires attached to the pour stub to make painting easier as then I only had to find one place to hold onto the set. I painted the tires Tamiya NATO Black and the hubs are Tamiya flat white. 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. At the attachment point the tires have a flat spot molded in, creating a realistic weight on wheels look.

RES-IM’s wheels look really good and are easily installed. This is a great set and as I have several Tornados on my “to build” list, 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.