I built this Italeri Opel Blitz before I got myself an airbrush (brush strokes on the door ...).
It went into the display cabinet on New Years Eve 1994 so the vinyl has had almost 25 years to perform its destructive work. The spare wheel under the load bed is also affected. I did not paint the parts of the rims that would face the evil vinyl.





The last time I had this model out for inspection was almost 16 years ago and the decay was evident already then. I should have mounted resin tyres/wheels from the beginning ....
/ Robin

Edit: and I didn't notice those ejection pin marks on the rear rim until now, my bad ....

I hate it when that happens. I've noticed an oily ooze from some old Trumpeter vinyl tires on shelf, as well.

I have an Opel Maultier with the same problem. It also dates from the early 90's. It was part of my "old" collection, which I recently retrieved from my parents house. This was actually the first time I've seen this happen on one of my builds.

Watch out Robin !



H.P.

I have one AMT car that I built in high school (1967) that is doing this but other than that never have had a problem.

I guess it is because I seem to always paint my rims before adding the tires so there is some protection there. I never planned it that way, that is just how I did it.

Years agoe I use to have the same problem when I built Aircraft kits the Resin wheels would eat the axles on the landing gear.
When I switched to Armor the early resin parts would eat the paint.
I'm currently switching out all the Vinyl Track and Wheels on un-built kits to Hard Plastic or Resin.
Regards.
Donald

Kinda looks like the stuff I used to put in my bike tires. You trying to keep your vinyl tires from going flat dude?

sorry to see that. It's happened to me. I opened up a 1970 era Italeri Blitz and the wheels were sitting on the hood. Now there's a nice wheel-shaped impression in the hood.

If you have any GI Joes from the 1960s and 70s, all the vinyl that they used in that for their accessories, it'll do the same thing. It attacks the styrene. Sometimes it turns into like a tar. I don't remember what part it was but the black cables for something it just melted under the styrene. I could not even chisel it off. I had to remove it with an exacto knife.

Oh yeah, the I built their 1/32 Hellcat. For some reason, after it subcumed to fire crackers, I saved the landing gear with the rubber Wheels. Those Wheels attacked the plastic.

I bought an early 1970s Italeri Opel Blitz and found the tires had melted into the truck bed.

I covered the bed with gear and sealed the wheel trims with enamel paint and the tires with Floquil lacquer as was my habit at the time with vinyl anything. No problems all these years later.

But the truck was in a shelf collapse and I'll be selling it for parts. But the tires are fine.

You have to watch whose vinyl you paint with the lacquer as sometimes it becomes a tacky mess. But it can still be stripped and repainted. Can't get the lacquer anymore but still use enamel to seal them.

Once upon a time Japanese vinyl was known for drying out and flaking away. Nitto was notorious. Drying out can't be stopped by sealing.

Slowly, but surely, the aftermarket is increasing their releases of resin tire and/or individual track links.

Every kit I own, the vinyl (either tires or tracks) is immediately trashed. I will wait for the aftermarket to catch up to them. Most of us have experienced the damage caused by vinyl...of which a $50 to $100 kits should never have. Since kits are this expensive, another sprue of plastic tires, or tracks, should be the norm, IMHO.

If I was a resin aftermarket company, I'd keep my eye on every kit released that has either vinyl tires or tracks.

My 2 cents!

Have heard of this happening with various kits' tires. Never had the problem with tracks though. Have some builds that are over 40 years old and their tracks are fine. I guess because the tank wheels were always painted. Al

Can't believe you guys are surprised. Kit manufacturers want your money, they want their business to bring profit. Thus, all they need is you buying the boxes. Respect yourselves! Buy resin wheels if there are no styrene ones in the kit!

My question to this is:

Are these tires rubber or vinyl?

IMHO - in past years it was not so much the kit manufactures trying to save money as they were trying to be (what they thought at the time) more realistic. As in thinking rubber tires should be rubber (in some form or other.) I suspect no one realized at the time the future chemical reaction problems to be had in using the vinyl. The material was thought to be more or less inert at that point as was the styrene plastic.

The use of the vinyl tire also solved a molding problem in that they could then mold an item that had detail on both the face and the sides of the object that would still release from the mold. Toy manufactures had for years been putting rubber tires on cast metal cars and the problems with the real rubber drying out and becoming brittle were well known. The vinyl was probably seen as a serious improvement in the modeling process..

Then too, at the outset these were looked upon as toys. With few ever suspecting that they would be displayed and preserved for decades.

Hopefully current kit manufactures are using different compounds that will resist these problems and as model builders we are now aware of the difficulty and take steps to reduce the risk of these chemical reactions.

Don't know, I am not a chemist

Well this is my take on this.

Over the many years that I have been modeling, I have seen many "rubber band tracks and wheels" especially
those that came with the Nitto and early Tamiya motorized kits completely disintegrate or turn into a goop
mess.
Even the "rubber" coating on my Bushnell binoculars have now become very sticky.

Now the "vinyl" type tracks which I believe Tamiya and Italeri among others, have used for many years,
remain intact with no ill effects.

I still have Bandai and Aurora kits on my shelves and no change to tracks, again I believe these were vinyl.

It is the "rubber" composition of the products that is likely posing the problem.

I have had rubber wheels melt in some aircraft kits that were unused and luckily no contact with the
kit parts so no damage.

Maybe this can also explain the deterioration of some Dragon tracks...high rubber content in the mix.

Which makes me wonder what the car guys have experienced with all those wheels after so many years.

I too am not a chemist, just my thoughts on the matter,
Cheers,

We're talking about vinyl, not rubber. It is my understanding that there are various formulas or types of vinyl and apparently some do, and some don't, react with styrene plastic. Al

Hi Al,
Yes the OP mentions vinyl and also mentions that he is not a chemist thus cannot confirm what those tires are actually made of.

I brought up the "rubber" into the discussion because rubber does disintegrate but I have never experienced the phenomena with vinyl.

Just my personal experience.

Cheers,

The tyres on that Opel Blitz feel softer and more "rubbery" than the material used for the stiff tracks on Italeri tank kits from the same period.
/ Robin

Hi Robin,

Yes they are more rubbery and that is why I think they are rubber and not vinyl
and that is where the problem is.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my expensive "Rubber Coated Bushnell Binocular"
is starting to goop and ooze from the rubber coating.

My cheap Tasco vinyl covered ones are fine.

It may be just a coincidence or...

Cheers,

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