BFG Radial T/A's in a kit

[Len Woodruff]

Were there any kits that had BFG Radial T/A's in them.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[1972coronet]

Just about every MPC kit from c.1982 through the ERTL era to the  RC2 era had them - I think that Round2 finally ditched them . 

[Len Woodruff]

13 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:

Just about every MPC kit from c.1982 through the ERTL era to the  RC2 era had them - I think that Round2 finally ditched them . 

Thanks for the information.

I will take a look at the MPC kits I have.

[Monty]

5 hours ago, Len Woodruff said:

Thanks for the information.

I will take a look at the MPC kits I have.

Len, I'd recommend that you skip these tires and find better (resin) alternatives such as those offered by Fireball Modelworks or Iceman Collections.  If somebody could post pics of the MPC tires next to either of these you'd see why immediately.

[Len Woodruff]

27 minutes ago, Monty said:

Len, I'd recommend that you skip these tires and find better (resin) alternatives such as those offered by Fireball Modelworks or Iceman Collections.  If somebody could post pics of the MPC tires next to either of these you'd see why immediately.

Thanks for the note. I looked at Fireball and they are way better. But the inside diameter is too small. I actually have a set of them that I checked.

I will have to look at Iceman.

[Bainford]

Some ARII kits ( a Mustang, Challenger, Thunderbird and a Firebird come to mind) have a very nice set of BFG big & littles with accurate tread pattern. They are a bit large, would look good on a larger type vehicle like a van or panel, etc. They might be a bit beefy for most car projects, especially 1/25. Individual tastes vary, of course. Depending on your project, they may work. The tires are far and away the best part of that series of ARII kits. 

[Monty]

10 minutes ago, Len Woodruff said:

Thanks for the note. I looked at Fireball and they are way better. But the inside diameter is too small. I actually have a set of them that I checked.

I will have to look at Iceman.

Kinda surprised to hear that about the Fireball tires as he's renowned for getting the details down perfectly on everything he offers.  Also, hobby boards like this were where I first saw them being used on models  featuring an array of AMT/MPC/Revell wheels.  Just a thought: if these don't fit, I believe he still offers them in 1/24.

OTOH, when I first looked at Iceman's online page, the centers looked too big.  I asked for, and got, pics of builds being done using his tires and regular model wheels.  

Long story short (too late, I know) I've seen enough of your builds to know that the MPC Radial T/As would diminish an otherwise outstanding build.

[Monty]

6 minutes ago, Bainford said:

Some ARII kits ( a Mustang, Challenger, Thunderbird and a Firebird come to mind) have a very nice set of BFG big & littles with accurate tread pattern. They are a bit large, would look good on a larger type vehicle like a van or panel, etc. They might be a bit beefy for most car projects, especially 1/25. Individual tastes vary, of course. Depending on your project, they may work. The tires are far and away the best part of that series of ARII kits. 

ARII absolutely nailed both the tread and sidewalls on their version of the BFGs, but as you said, they're generally too big for the vast majority of 1/25 kits.  They offered them as part of a wheel/tire kit, but the only wheels i liked were the 5-slots.

[Len Woodruff]

9 hours ago, Monty said:

Kinda surprised to hear that about the Fireball tires as he's renowned for getting the details down perfectly on everything he offers.  Also, hobby boards like this were where I first saw them being used on models  featuring an array of AMT/MPC/Revell wheels.  Just a thought: if these don't fit, I believe he still offers them in 1/24.

OTOH, when I first looked at Iceman's online page, the centers looked too big.  I asked for, and got, pics of builds being done using his tires and regular model wheels.  

Long story short (too late, I know) I've seen enough of your builds to know that the MPC Radial T/As would diminish an otherwise outstanding build.

The problem I have is that I have to use the wheel/hubcap from the 66 AMT/MPC Corvette.  The diameter of that is 15.71 mm. Since the Fireball tires 15.41 which is probably exactly the correct size for the 15 tire is to small.

I looked at Iceman and I suspect his are the same inside diameter as Fireball.

[peteski]

The ARII BFG T/A big/small tire/wheel sets show up on eBay often.  But while the tread pattern is correct for the period's tires, and so is the lettering, the overall shape of the tire (the sidewall profile) is not very good.  Still, they are decent solid real rubber tires (like most other Japanese rubber tiers), and even if they were slightly too small, rubber can be stretched.

Edited August 19, 2024 by peteski

[Len Woodruff]

Thanks for the pics. I will check ebay for them.

[Monty]

3 minutes ago, Len Woodruff said:

Thanks for the pics. I will check ebay for them.

Just my opinion but I'd bet the wheel opening on those ARII tires is way bigger than your MPC/AMT wheel, not to mention they'd look like dune buggy tires on that 'Vette.

A thought:

Assuming you're not that concerned about replicating BFG's tread pattern, you could sand off the raised lettering of these AMT tires (or an actual radial tire with the inside diameter you need) and use Fireball's BFG decals.  

[Len Woodruff]

6 minutes ago, Monty said:

Just my opinion but I'd bet the wheel opening on those ARII tires is way bigger than your MPC/AMT wheel, not to mention they'd look like dune buggy tires on that 'Vette.

A thought:

Assuming you're not that concerned about replicating BFG's tread pattern, you could sand off the raised lettering of these AMT tires (or an actual radial tire with the inside diameter you need) and use Fireball's BFG decals.  

Thanks. I have those but this is a replica of my buddies and he has BFG tires on it. That way I have been looking.

[Exotics_Builder]

I have a set of those ARII BFG's and have only used them on street trucks.  IMO, they are not sized for autos.  Too tall and too wide.  If you'd like I can photo the dimensions?  

Edited August 19, 2024 by Exotics_Builder

[Len Woodruff]

3 minutes ago, Exotics_Builder said:

I have a set of those ARII BFG's and have only used them on street trucks.  IMO, they are not sized for autos.  Too tall and too wide.  If you'd like I can photo the dimensions?  

Thanks. I would be courous of the inside diameter.

I thought they looked like the wheels/tires that had Keystone & Cragers. I forget which brand they were.

[Monty]

1 hour ago, Len Woodruff said:

Thanks. I would be courous of the inside diameter.

I thought they looked like the wheels/tires that had Keystone & Cragers. I forget which brand they were.

Those are MRC (Model Rectifier Corp).  IIRC they were only issued once, around 20 years ago at a very reasonable price (they come with a ton of adapters so they can be used with almost any kit).  At one time they were trading (ebay) as high as $75.00 a box, but seem to have settled down to around $35.00. 

The wheels are outstanding (best Keystones out there IMO) but the tires are suspect.  They're very square-shouldered and the words on the Mickey Thompson sidewall look like they were placed on there randomly.  They also offered Goodyear Polyglas and Firestone Wide Oval tires, but no BFGs.   

Wish I still had the email with the info, but Iceman responded very quickly to my question about sizes, openings etc, and he makes some killer stuff.  

Best of luck in your search.  

[peteski]

ARII sold those big/little BFG T/A tire sets on about 4 or 5 different rim sets.  All those sets use the same tires.

I dug up one of my sets.

The small tires have ID=0.710", OD=1.070", and width=0.418"

Large tires have ID=0.710", OD=1.170, and width=0.496"

Since a visible outside diameter of a car rim is about 1.5" larger than the tire size, 0.710" scales out to roughly 16.25" (16") wheels in 1:25 scale and 15.5" (15") wheels in 1:24 scale.

[Exotics_Builder]

2 hours ago, Len Woodruff said:

Thanks. I would be courous of the inside diameter.

I thought they looked like the wheels/tires that had Keystone & Cragers. I forget which brand they were.

This is some of the MRC sets, never did BFG as far as I know
 

[kelson]

Correct me if i'm wrong doesn't Modelhaus offer alot of old 60's tires in resin that would be correct for the 66 'Vette?.

[Len Woodruff]

25 minutes ago, kelson said:

Correct me if i'm wrong doesn't Modelhaus offer alot of old 60's tires in resin that would be correct for the 66 'Vette?.

Haven't checked them out yet. I had forgot about them.

Do you have a link to their website?

[Len Woodruff]

49 minutes ago, Exotics_Builder said:

This is some of the MRC sets, never did BFG as far as I know
 

Thanks Gary. MRC. I remember now.

[Monty]

1 hour ago, Len Woodruff said:

Thanks Gary. MRC. I remember now.

I mentioned this company along with some info about what they offered and current pricing a couple posts above.  I'm glad Gary was able to find pics 'cuz these have got to be really scarce anymore.  

[Monty]

1 hour ago, Len Woodruff said:

Haven't checked them out yet. I had forgot about them.

Do you have a link to their website?

If you really want BFGs to replicate a 1:1 car, they don't seem to have what you need but you may find other items (redline tires, wheels) that you could use on other projects.

https://www.modelhaustires.com/

[Exotics_Builder]

3 hours ago, Monty said:

I mentioned this company along with some info about what they offered and current pricing a couple posts above.  I'm glad Gary was able to find pics 'cuz these have got to be really scarce anymore.  

Those are in my parts bin, yet to be used.

Len, I do have a MPC 69 Camaro that has the BFG tires if you don't have them.   I won't be using them.  I am either unloading the kit or using it as a parts donor, likely the later.

 

[Len Woodruff]

1 hour ago, Exotics_Builder said:

Those are in my parts bin, yet to be used.

Len, I do have a MPC 69 Camaro that has the BFG tires if you don't have them.   I won't be using them.  I am either unloading the kit or using it as a parts donor, likely the later.

 

What is the inside diameter of the tires?