Good afternoon Gentilemen. I'm new to this forum and I'm sure you can help me with a problem I'm having. I have several tanks nearing completion and I need a little advice painting the road wheels. Do you paint the rubber parts first and then spray the hubs? I can't figure out how to mask the wheels so that the rims and the rubber tires look OK. All of the pictures here show a nice clean edgeat the rim. How do you guys do it? Thanks in advance. "irinbrd"

I hate painting the rubber on roadwheels. A good way to get a nice sharp edge is by "painting" with black permanent marker. This works best on a smooth glossy surface though. If you are making the suspension dusty, dirty, and/or muddy anyway, then you can do a couple things. First, you could spray the wheels black and then carefully spray the inside area the tank colour. There obviously won't be a clean edge this way. Another method I discovered while doing my last model (which was to be covered in dust, being in the desert) is to spray the lower half the tank colour, then overspray with a dust colour, especially around the wheels. Next, grind up some black pastel chalk and brush it on to the rubber areas of the wheels. It worked pretty well, actually.

Nic

PS--Welcome to Armorama!

Welcome Ironbird!

I come from a different school - and never hand-paint wheels or road wheels on tanks. I paint the entire wheel whatever tire color I desire, then using circle templates, I hold them against the dry wheel to mask off the demarcation between rubber and rim. Circle templates are cheap and last years. I always get sharp edges.

The only wheel I don't paint in this method is the road wheel for the M4 Sherman - because it gets trapped between the suspension arms early in assembly.

Gunnie

My $.02 worth...

I paint the wheels the basic vehicle color. Insert wheel on a tapered dowel and rotate as I paint the rubber. (If you're from Massachusetts, it's pronounced "rubbah"). Time consuming, one at a time, but it works for me. I usually get a good demarc line doing it this way.

Welcome to ArmoramA!

Thanks,
Kevin Keefe
Mortars in Miniature

I find a heavy wash works as it bleeds into the rim. A couple of quick coats should do it. They should not be balck anyway I prefer a dark grey. You can tehn outline trim lip with a black thin marker. I also suggest using acrylics dry quick and are more watery.

I'm from the school of hand painting. It's boring and it takes forever, but I've tried masks ect. they just dont work as well. German armor is the worst since I paint each road wheel whether or not it will be visible. I alo paint roadwheels/wheels before they are attached to the vehicle.

Nate
Wisc. USA

I do it several ways but I've found that the technique mentioned by gunny is the easiest.

I use to paint the road wheels first and hand painted the rubber tires. Just tried painting the tires first and using a circle templet for the wheel portion, it worked real well. Just one reminder, make sure that you tape over the holes next to the one you are using. Did a wheel and found some over spray on the tire. On the next one I made sure that I held the templet tight to the wheel and again found over spray. Then I realized I was getting overspray through the other near by holes #:-). After I taped over them, no problems.
Eric

I use the marker method to give me a good demarcation line and the brush on the flat black. the glossy marker line gets lost in the shuffle.I've tried the template method and for me it doesn't work. I paint the vehicle color first then paint the tire. mistakes are easily wiped away with a clean rag as you paint.and oh yeah I like to paint the wheels off the vehicle, some guys(and gals ) paint everything after completetion.BTW welcome to are little circle of craziness.

Josh
aKA shiryon

For those of you that use templates, what do you use? Do you cut a circle out of masking tape or something?

Nic

Best place is an art supply store or an office supply store. The circle templates have 20 or so circles of different sizes on the template.



http://www.draftingdeals.com/larcirtem.html



http://www.reuels.com/reuels/product20896.html

Hi all,

I am mainly an A/C modeller, and this is what I do for painting my wheels:
1. First, I apply a square shaped piece of masking tape to the wheel, and I ensure that it covers the area to be painted silver.
2. Then using a toothpick, I press down the tape on the rims of the wheel, so that it follows the shape of the rim. I do this with a minimum amount of prssure, so as to avoid tearing the tape. In this way, I ensure that even the edges of the rims are masked, and won't get covered by the black/grey areas of the tyres later when I paint.
3. After burnishing down the rim and its sides, I use a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil to outline the circular shape of the rim. This presses down the tape further onto the inner edges of the rim, as well as gives me a circle to cut around later. This way, I avoid having to use a template ...
4. Finally, using a sharp No 11 blade, I cut off the excess tape, to get a masking over my silver area, and the rims. Voila!!!

For the other part, i.e after painting the black areas and moving on to the silver, I repeat the process, only this time I remove the inner area and keep the outer one.
(PS: I learnt this neat trick from Mike Ashey's Detailing Scale Aircraft )

BTW, there is an article on IPMS Stockholm, which gives some details on painting armor wheels. You may find that useful:
Masking Wheels

Rgds,
BP.

I am using both the above or a template from Eduard I think, it's a stainless steel plate, and has circle cutted out for all German tanks, from Pz I to Tiger, I think. (I am not home so can't really check out) I spray black or dark gray for the whole wheel first, then use the template to cover up the rubber rim, then spray vehicle color. However.....

Since I like my tank looked dirty and used, now I just spray the whole wheel black then free handly spray the center hub, after weathering, it looked nice... I think it's more natural.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules.php?set_albumName=albur19&id=aaa&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

Above is link to one of my Panzer III J that I used the free hand method to paint the wheels, you can see more clearly the spare wheel on the fender without heavy weathering...

Thanks for all the nice tips. I was about to try the circle template when I had a brain storm. One of my other hobbies is wood working. I just realized that a Forstner bit would make a really nice hole in some very old sheet styrene plastic that I had. I measured the road wheels on my Abrams kit and the wheels on a Sherman and headed for my shop. The Abrams is 5/8" and the Sherman is 1/2". I just happened to have the correct size Forstner bits so I drilled some holes in a .010" styrene and they fit perfectly. This is much thinner than the drafting circle templates and should give a better edge at the rim. I'll let you all know how it works. Thanks to you all for your tips. "ironbird"