Unobtanium 1/12 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza Wire Wheel Upgrade Set First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

With 3D printers becoming more common over the last decade and print quality likewise improving, we're starting to see products that were not common until very recently. A new company has started in the United Kingdom called Unobtainium that produces a growing series of detail sets targeted (for now) to the larger scale car modeler. One of their first sets is the first of a series of spoked wheel upgrade sets. This first one is designed for the Italeri 1/12 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza kit (look here), replacing the injection-molded spoked wheels with real steel wire spokes on 3D-printed hubs and rims.

To say that this upgrade set looks intimidating is an understatement, but Unobtainium has made construction of each wheel straightforward. Look at their instructions here. Each wheel has a built-in jig to help with spoke bending and installation, but I'm fascinated and we'll be building up one of these wheels in our full review of this set (coming soon). This set comes with four rims with the jig molded/printed as part of the rear rim support, four hubs, a bundle of spoke wires, and a significant suppy of nipples that mount each spoke wire to the rim. As beautiful as these castings are, they are still for experienced modelers who have the tools and patience to remove the casting supports from the parts and clean up any stub remnants.

Unobtainium also produces a set of these spoked wheel upgrades for Italeri's follow-on kit, the 1/12 8C 2300 Roadster. They're planning to release a spoked wheel upgrade set for the Airfix 1/12 Bently Blower as well as another stunning upgrade for this kit (stay tuned). You might say that Unobtainium produces bespoke spoked wheel kits...

Check out these and other products coming from Unobtainium.

My sincere thanks to Unobtanium for this review sample!