Hello Everyone,

First off, I'm relatively new to model making (about a years worth of experience) so apologies for any mistakes or if the answer to the following question seems obvious to you.

I recently bought a Dragon Panther D from a work colleague who has already assembled the wheels and secured them to the chassis. I usually make 1/72 armour and paint the wheels first. How would you go about painting wheels that have already been attached?

Airbrush? Hand panting? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Ben

Whatever you are comfortable with . Only you can tell yourself what you can do . That is a hard q answer . You could try to mix some rubber color and thinner on the thin side . Load up a pointed brush and ease this into the tire rim . It should flow easily and quite a bit around the edge of the rim . Move down till the rim is outline then fill in with a slickly thicker mix of the color . Since this is assemble you will areas that will be a bear to get to . Use liberal masking tape or a piece of paper to slide behind , under and over . Have fun while your at it . And lay off the bourbon or you will never get finished .

Hi Chumpo,

Thanks for your speedy response. Seems like that would be the most sensible way forward. Would it be more trouble than it's worth buying some glue debonder and trying to remove them? They are stuck on with regular Revell Contacta glue.

Many thanks!

IF that Revell Contacta? cement can be softened or undone with some debonder, I would go for it.

Otherwise... the maybe easiest on-board approach would be to mask the hull behind the wheels, etc., and spray the wheel - set with your "rubber color" - this will get all the exposed rubber parts-, followed by painting the exposed rims your base-coat with a brush. There are wheel masks - and you could use these on all of the outer wheels and spray those (being sure to cover the inner "partial faces" before you go for those outer-most. This will get you your best "sprayed-on" finish for these most-visible wheels.

Me personally? I would carefull break all of those jobbers off, and paint them as I usually do (rubber spray, followed by mask-and-base-and camo, if applicable) and then cement them back on. IF you do this, maybe pencil the position number on the back of each so that any break-off stubs, etc., fit best.

Good luck!

Bob

Revell contacta is liquid and when applied was wicked into the tightest spot . I figure it would break off first rather than separate . So if you go that route be ready to do repair on the shaft that the wheels rotate on . It would probably be easier to just hand paint those wheels . There really is no debonder for those liquid glues .

There are those paint pens , Tamiya and Gundam aka Mr Hobby . Not sure how great the it tips are . Even sharpies has paint pens . You just might not get the right tire color , but if you dust the wheels with pigment you might not be able to discern the rubber color anymore .

Ben, there are many ways of tackling paint jobs, but just to show how it is possible to paint a tank with the wheels AND the tracks already in place, take a look toward the bottom of page one, then on to page two of this thread: http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/206222&ord=&page=1
Yes, it's my thread, but you will see that I took a leaf from the book of Mig Jimenez to figure out how to do this. The secret to painting the tyres, really, is well thinned paint, andbe prepared to do touching up - don't expect to get it perfect in one go.

You can use a Sharpie. It may look bad, at first; but once you go over it with a clear coat and weathering it will look fine.

Thank your for your replies guys! I'll give the thinned down paint a go and see how I get on.

Thanks again!

From where you are I would recommend Humbrol enamels . If you make a mistake you can still clean it enamel thinners and a cotton tip .