Introduction

For an armored car project I was working on I was planning to replace the Italeri wheels that were in the kit I had. In their day, the Italeri SdKfz 234 wheels might have been good but looking at what reference is available now they really can not come up to today's standards. So I started looking around what was on the market and decided to go for the resin SdKfz 234 wheels from Voyager. I pretty much expected they were for the DML SdKfz 234 but since my project was a resin/plastic/scratch combination already I decided to give it a go.

The set

The wheels I ordered came in a blister clam-shell type packaging with two pieces of paper in it and the wheels. The wheels are molded in cream white resin and are very crisp when it comes to detail. No air bubbles present and the casting block is done at the underside of the wheel under the bulge. There are no marking present on the walls of the tire that says of which maker they are. My research does not go deep enough to know if every tire had makers name on it but I tend to think they all did.

The package was labelled as SdKfz 234 wheels Pattern 2 with bulge in the tires (this will probably cause some controversy). Pattern 2 is pretty much the same tire that the DML Puma has with a big seam on the centre of the running surface and the overlapping tread pattern. The rim is a bit different because it has 2 holes in it instead of the 4 or 6 of the DML offering. The wheels are really nicely cast and will look good on your SdKfz 234. All perfect? Not really but it depends on how you look at it. When I opened the box it was sent in I was a bit surprised. The set does contain 4 wheels. Which is all nice and well but an SdKfz 234 has 8 wheels…9 if you count the spare. That means that if you want to equip your SdKfz 234 with all the same wheels you have to buy 2 sets. And if you want a spare wheel too you need to buy an additional set just for that. Coming in at just over 10 Euros for a set it means you have to invest in 30 Euro for 9 resin wheels. Now I would have found this a lesser problem if I knew that there were only going to be 4 wheels in the set. But I checked the site I bought them from and I triple checked the box the set came in and really nowhere does there say you only get 4 wheels. I thought this to be a bit odd… I can imagine how you might feel when you think “let’s spice up the Puma now the wheels are in” only to find out you just have enough for one half vehicle.

Conclusion

The detail of the wheels are extremely nice. Crisp, absolutely no air bubbles, superb detail. Only why they choose to put only 4 wheels in a set for a vehicle that usually was running around on 8 is a complete riddle to me. They could just as well make the set a bit more expensive and put 8 or 9 wheels in. The 4 wheel issue was for me not that big since I only needed 4 wheels but when I ordered them I had the impression that the set would contain 8 or 9 wheels so that I had enough for the vehicle and even a spare. I can imagine the 234 builder not being too amused when not knowing that he has to shell out more cash to give the Puma more shoes. So yeah it is a bit of a set that gives a mixed feeling. The detail and casting are perfect… The number of wheels in the kit though is an absolute miss.