Outsourcing to other kits for custom parts, but they don’t fit

[Milo]

I genuinely hate the wheels that my corvette kit came with, because I’m going for a clean and mostly stock model. Sadly the kit didn’t come with the classic c2 vette wheels, and I’m really bummed about that. So I went to another kit, and figured that anything is better than what they’ve given me, and I really like the wheels depicted on the left. The one on the right is from the corvette kit. 
 

As shown next to it, the wheel on the left (from another kit) does not fit with the kit. Any way I can actually make this compatible? 
 

The kit uses metal rods.

Edited April 24, 2024 by Milo

[Ace-Garageguy]

It's often pretty straightforward to swap wheels from kit to kit, even when the design of the backs is that different.

ONE way with those would be to cut off the protrusions the metal axles plug into from the kit wheels, and attach them to the wheels you want to use...paying attention to axle width and the resulting depth of the replacement wheels in the body. You may need to measure and add spacers to get everything right.

OR...you could make receivers for the metal axles from appropriately sized styrene tube, and just glue them to the backs of the new wheels.

Those are just two possible solutions.

There are many ways to do it, clean and easily.

Edited April 24, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy

[Oldriginal86]

This is why I like the two piece wheels. You could use the wheel of choice(within reason) and the wheel back from the kit. I despise the new style (Moebius type) wheel. And to the OP, the wheel from the other kit appears to need a wheel back. Do you have the other kit the wheels are from?

[Milo]

19 minutes ago, Oldriginal86 said:

This is why I like the two piece wheels. You could use the wheel of choice(within reason) and the wheel back from the kit. I despise the new style (Moebius type) wheel. And to the OP, the wheel from the other kit appears to need a wheel back. Do you have the other kit the wheels are from?

I built the other kit, it came with 2 wheel sets.

[Milo]

I really wish I had any kind of styrene or evergreen rounds, but I make do with what I have! 
I also just realized I don’t have any drills

[bobss396]

I hoard up any wheel-backs that I come across, they come in handy for adapting odd wheels on a build. On the one-piece wheels, I saw off that "factory" nub or cut it way down.

[NOBLNG]

16 hours ago, Milo said:

I really wish I had any kind of styrene or evergreen rounds, but I make do with what I have! 
I also just realized I don’t have any drills

Swapping wheels gives me a lot of frustration too. Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s not. Even though I buy lots of Evergreen, I still clip off and save large or long straight sections of sprue off the trees. A good quality set of drill bits is essential too. A lathe is really nice to have, but a cordless drill can suffice for most tasks.

Edit: And don’t throw any unused parts away. 

Edited April 25, 2024 by NOBLNG

[peteski]

Milo, when you are just a straight-out-of-the box kit builder, you can get by with minimal amount of tools.  But when you start getting into more advanced modeling (like you are starting here), you really need to get yourself some more tools and scratchbuilding supplies. Otherwise, you will be frustrated and your kitbashing and part swapping will not be done very well.  Unfortunately, unlike Legos, plastic model kits are not designed for easily swapping parts between them.  Usually there are some minor or major modifications required.  It also takes some experience to be able to look at the parts to be swapped and figure out how to get everything to mate properly. 

[bobss396]

21 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Swapping wheels gives me a lot of frustration too. Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s not. Even though I buy lots of Evergreen, I still clip off and save large or long straight sections of sprue off the trees. A good quality set of drill bits is essential too. A lathe is really nice to have, but a cordless drill can suffice for most tasks.

Edit: And don’t throw any unused parts away. 

I used to have lathe access at work until 2005, I had a buddy with a Hardinge at his shop I could also use. He would run me things on one of his big CNC lathes at times. He would take my CAD drawings/files and make a hard task easy. I am at the point where I NEED a small lathe soon. 

[NOBLNG]

For drilling a hole in a piece of sprue or Evergreen like you may need to do for wheel modifications, I find it easier to clamp the drill bit in a vise and chuck the sprue in the drill. Type this into your browser’s search bar to find threads on useful tools.

site:modelcarsmag.com tools

Edited April 26, 2024 by NOBLNG