Zactomodels 1/32 MiG-29 Wheels First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Zactomodels is a small aftermarket company that does some of the most incredible engineering and casting to correct selected beloved subjects. This time around, they've added another nice option for the Trumpeter 1/32 MiG-29 kits.

As you may recall, Trumpeter produced a magnificent MiG-29M in 1/32 scale, and this has been followed by the MiG-29K carrier fighter kit. These kits provide an interesting cross-section of combat variants of the Fulcrum series and Zactomodels produces a nice range of enhancements for all of them.

As with many of the Trumpeter kits, the MiG-29s were provided with styrene wheel hubs and vinyl tires. While the 'rubber' tires are fine for many modelers, AMS modelers prefer to find resin wheels that are molded with the flattened bulges on the bottom - weighted wheels.

Zactomodels came through with nicely detailed wheels for the nose gear as well as the mains, and includes separately cast stems to replicate some of the brake plumbing. While these didn't make it in my sample, the photos on the Zactomodels' website show these extra details that will be in your sets.

Another interesting innovation included in the set is the inclusion of vinyl paint masks to make the job of painting the wheels and hubs painless. In this scale, colors that wander off-target are going to detract from the finished model, so kudos to Zactomodels for taking this part of the challenge out of the project.

As usual, this is a nice bit of casting from Zactomodels and will definitely dress up your Trumpeter kit. Will these work on the older Revell MiG-29s? According to Zactomodels, you can use these wheels on the MiG-29A and MiG-29UB kits, but you'll have to adapt the holes to match up with the Revell axles.

You can learn more about this and other project from the Zactomodels website at http://www.zactomodels.com.

My sincere thanks to Zactomodels for this review sample!