PMMS
Accurate Armour
Comet Wheel Set
Set No.A107
Review by Peter Brown
with additional notes by Terry Ashley (in italics)

BroncoThis set of replacement wheels and idlers is designed for the Bronco Models A34 Comet (kit #CB-35010) and consists of 46 parts in light grey resin cast to a high standard without any blemishes present and just the usual casting blocks to be removed before use.

Bronco's road wheels do not depict the "step" between the central part of the wheel and the bolted-on discs themselves, while the hub caps are noticeably undersized. Return rollers also lack detail, the four holes seen in the real item not being very prominent.

Accurate Armour's set replaces the plastic parts with resin items taken from their full kit of the tank released around 1990 as K018.

For the wheels, a full set of ten wheels is provided each in two parts. The "outer" has a large boss on the back over which the "inner" is fitted with the outer discs having good detail for the step and also includes the three holes in the central section plus the greasing nipple which Bronco missed. Hub caps are a simple drop fit and my sample had 12 in all so two could be adapted for use with kit idlers to ensure that all look the same.

Resin parts
Accurate Armour

The Inner discs do not have any bolt detail which the Bronco wheels have but they are not easy to see on a built-up model. The mould pour plugs snap off easily but there is still some cleanup to be done and AA suggest gluing these two parts together before cleanup so that both tyres can be filed or sanded at the same time which makes good sense.

Once assembled, a test-fit onto the Bronco kit axle arms showed they fit easily enough but watch out to check all end up in line however, AA suggest using slow-setting epoxy adhesive to allow final adjustment.

Return rollers are simple two-part items, easily assembled to replace the kit parts.

Overall easy to clean up and pretty much a drop-in fit.

Additional notes by Terry Ashley:
I have identified five different styles of road wheels on the Comet and two styles of return roller with the images below marked A-E for convenience only and doesn’t indicate any official designation.

Type A: Have no discernable step between hub and wheel disc, the central hub is angled with three lightening holes with grease nipple and shallow hub cap plus six small holes around the outer wheel rim. There is also a weld seam around the outer wheel rims (on all wheel types).

Type B: Similar to Type A but with just three holes around the outer rim and a more prominent hub cap.

Type C: Has a cylindrical central hub without any lightening holes and a more discernable step between hub and wheel disc plus six small holes around the outer wheel rim.

Type D: Similar to Type C but with just three holes around the outer rim.

Type E: Similar to Type C and D but with no holes around the outer rim.

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The Bronco wheels best represent the Type A wheels but the central hub is a little shallow with the hub cap slightly undersized and the six outer holes are oversized. The hub lightening holes are also the wrong profile as they should be more elongated.

Accurate Armour

The resin AA wheels don’t represent any of the five types identified above having the prominent step between the hub and wheel rim as well as the cylindrical central hub but with the three lightening holes. As there are five types identified it is quite possible there is another type similar to the AA wheels I have yet to see?

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There are also two styles of return rollers both with a dished wheel , one with four large lightening holes and one with just two very small lightening holes in the rim.

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Both the AA and Bronco rollers have the four larger lightening holes although the Bronco holes are a little undersized.

Accurate Armour

See the A34 Comet Subject page for additional detail/update set reviews available.

References:

Thanks to Accurate Armour for the review set.


Page Created December 19, 2006

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