Tank wheel Damage

[Paul Morris]

Hi Fellas.

I was just wondering if the pressed steel road wheels of the King Tigers sustained shrapnel damage similar to that on the Bovington Tiger 1 ? or had the wheels been altered by that time so that they would not sustain the same damage?
Cheers Paul

[Fabrice Le Roux]

Hi Paul,

I had to get out my Tiger books to confirm this, but the damage seen to the dished outer roadwheels of the Tiger 1 is down to their rather odd construction.

The main load-bearing disk of the wheel was offset from the centre line of the tyre. This flat disk appears to be 12-15mm thick. On the double inner road wheels the basic wheels were mounted facing each other with a flattened, slightly arched steel spacer ring between serving to support the tires and also seal the void from the ingress if mud, snow etc.

The outer road wheels therefore needed a dished insert to support the outer edge of the tyre under compressive loading. Later in the War the design was further beefed up before the widespread introduction of the steel rimmed roadwheels. The dished insert appears to be about half the main rim thickness, I estimate 5-6mm, and hence easily punctured and torn by small arms fire and shell fragments.

However the sandwich construction of the steel roadwheels, on paper at least, does not look to be that much stronger, yet having trawled through half a dozen books looking at all vehicles with steel wheels, I could not see any with small arms type damage. Big holes yes, shattered and split in half, yes. Perhaps Allied soldiers just gave up machine gunning Tigers!

So if you want to show a lightly damaged steel road wheel you could do worse than put a nice bright gouge/dent in the surface and remove the nearest bolt head, and drill the hole out. So representing the bolt letting go as a result of the impact. Leaving the locking tab bent out or sheared off would emphasise the effect.

Hope this helps. The Panzerwrecks series is invaluable for this sort of detailing. I am sure Kent will jump in and correct my estimated measurements for the components discussed!

Post a pic of the finished result.

Cheers, Fabrice

[Paul Morris]

Hello Fabrice.
Thanks very much for your very informative answer much appreciated. If I decide to have a go I will for sure post some pictures on the forum.
Cheers Paul