Improved Skylark wire wheels for my 1/43 NEO '57 Buicks

[traditional]

For some reason, I really like '57 Buicks, and NEO's resin  1/43 Caballeros and Roadmasters are exceptionally well detailed.  The only let-down for me was the rather anemic looking wire wheels.....Buick's optional 'Skylark' wheels had a little more offset and the rims were a bit thicker where the rims met the wires.   After a few years of dithering, I finally decided to take the time to modify the wheels on my three Buicks by adding a bead of wire to the outer edge of the rim and a smaller diameter wire ring to the inside near the wires. The modification took a lot longer than I anticipated.... each wheel was made up of 5 parts, to which I added two more.  The tires also had to be relieved at the rear to allow the rims to fit deeper into them now that there was more 'offset'.

I was so pleased with the improvement on the first model (the red and black Caballero) that I was willing to persevere on the other two as well.

One of the pics shows an original NEO wheel on the Roadmaster convertible before the modification.

A couple of the pics show the 1/43 blue/cream Caballero with its 1/18 BOS-MODELS big brother for no other reason than "I thought they looked cool together".   

NEO's original rather unrealistic, boring and flat wire wheels

 

Edited March 2, 2016 by traditional

[Foxer]

That's a big improvement! Was well worth the effort. That's a tiny scale but Neo does a great job detailing their issues.

[Ramfins59]

Great job Clifford.  After searching through EBAY and other sources for hard-to-find 1/25 scale cars from the 1950's, I sometimes wished I was into the smaller 1/43 scale models.  The choices are fantastic with many. many more options available.