i just finished a sas jeep. i was wondering how to paint realistic tires (the rubber portion).

in the past i have painted them straight black and dry brush with light gray.

do you have any other techniques ????

Hi there Lazyart,

I use Tamiya's XF-63 German Grey mixed with XF- 1Flat black (10%).
Airbrush it with this mixture and you will surprisingly see the result.

Hint: never use flat black out of the bottle but mix it with e.g flat flesh.
This will make any black coloured item more alive.

Regards,
Patrick.

:-)

I use Floquil Grimy Black for my base color. This is a dark gray, close to German Panzer gray. Then a wash of straight black and drybrushing with earth tones consistent with the location of the vehicle.

Oops forgotten,

Drybrush the tyres afterwards with a grey coloured paint.
The profile of the tyres can be painted as following:
Use a sand colour or any colour that corresponds with the area your vehicle is situated for the deeper areas (between the profile) and drybrush the higher areas with a mixture of grey and black of course in oils or humbrol.

Only use Tamiya for airbrushing.
This is just my way of handling, I'm sure there are more ways to resolve this.
Any way give it a try and let me know if this also works for you.

Regards,
patrick. #:-)

I use humbrol flat black thinned down to a wash. I airbrush say OD on the rim. don't mind the overspray. Then i brush the black wash on letting it build up around the rim and between the treads. On the sidewalls it is thin and the OD overspray gives it a mottled affect and being a wash it is not too black. Then just add mud etc during your weathering.

I remember treads about painting tires... You could do a search and find those topics on this site.

Mario M.

I use Tamiya NATO black I think it's XF69 When painting it has a greenish tint When dry it has a faded black appearance to it

Well, depends on how weathered you want it to look. I suggest you try painting the entire tire Tamiya Buff or Polyscale Old Concrete or another light earth color. Then go back and rub the sidewalls with a black or very dark gray pastel.

Does chunky mud count? I recently added thinned down celluclay to Horch tires. Let that dry, paint (wash and db as well). Looks good...