Riverview Hobbies
It’s not often I’m blown away in this hobby. While looking
through some Facebook posts in the large scale group, I saw
some white rims in one of Rafael Torres’ posts. I sent out an
email to Riverview Hobbies, not knowing what to expect, since
the images on Facebook didn’t really show me much. I got
my early Christmas present a couple of days later, and it was
truly an OMG! experience. I would swear that these rims were
injection-molded styrene pieces, made by a huge professional
worldwide company. They’re not. They are made by Jim over
at Riverview Hobbies, using his own proprietary methods. All
of the design and manufacturing is done in house, utilizing
CAD/CAM and subtractive manufacturing. The master tooling
is CNC cut from jewelry wax, which is a plasticized wax
(a combination of plastic and wax),
A hard tool is cast using a tooling resin which is more durable
and can tolerate more handling.
The surfaces on these tools are polished and from them
the production two-part silicon molds are made. The final result
are some of the best resin parts that I have ever seen. Are these
expensive? Well, yes, but considering the size, they are worth it.
These are 1/12 scale rims, and they fit perfectly into the respective
kit rims/tires. I had no problems fitting them to the Revell
1/12 Mustang, the Tamiya 934 Porsche (pictured below), and
the Tamiya 1/12 240Z rims and tires. I can’t wait to paint them.
They will be incredible… or, maybe send them out for chroming?
I can’t wait to see more from Riverview Hobbies, my new
best friend!
www.RiverviewHobbies.com
Above: Porsche 934 Rim Set RVH121003, $40
Above right: Six-Hole Tamiya 240Z Detail Wheel Set RVH121001, $35
Right: Five-Spoke Mustang Set RVH121002, $30