I can't afford masks and suchlike and freehand painting CAN give a reasonable finish, but I use a method that works for me. I must point out that it will only work on double road wheels.
What I do is glue the two wheels together (you can strengthen them with superglue if you wish). Then paint a thinned (app. 20%) strip of paint with a wide brush on an old mouse mat. Stand the wheel upright next to the paint strip. Get a long ruler or other staight edge and slot one end of it in between the wheels and then hold both ends of the ruler and 'roll' the wheel along the paint strip. By applying a little pressure you can easily adjust the profile depth of the tyre. Try it. If it works tell your friends.

Tom

Hi Tom

I have to give that a try. Painting afv wheels is not all that interesting. So far I have painted them by freehand.

Thanks for sharing, what sounds like a great idea.

Cheers

GREAT IDEA MAN! GOING TO TRY THAT!!

This is really cool. And fun too.

Thanks for the tip.

Angela

This is a good idea, all I have ever done was paint by hand, but this last tank I built I picked up a circle template at a stationary store....about $5, spray whatever color you use for your rubber, and then once dry, choose the circle that corresponds to the size of the wheel, and shoot your tank's color coat through the template onto the wheel portion, and viola your done.

Worst case you have to do a little touch up with a brush on the rubber part of the wheel, but its alot better than painting them all by hand.

I've got a different technique but it's worth a try for some of my spares.

I paint them first by spraypainting the base coat then work on the rubber/sides of the wheels.