Aircraft wheel masking

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Techniques
1

Greetings all

So I got this super etendard french fighter. put together, painted and all. I am at the wheels right now. I am simply terrified to start painting them for fears of ruining them, and that would throw all my 3 days of pain staking work down the drain.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to mask the wheels, to paint the inner part white, while the outer part (the rubber) black?

Thank you kindly

2

Always paint light to dark.

Spray the white, brush paint the black in enamel or acrylic NOT the type the white is. Thus you will be able to start with a dab of thinner to ‘draw’ the black around. The rim will provide a lip to keep the black on the tire. If in doubt experiment on a spare tire.

3

I tried that on a spare wheel. It doesnt look perfect. Is there a masking technique i could use?

4

Get a circle stencil used by artists and draftsmen for making circles and spray through that. Interesting the thinner drawing the black around never worked well, possibly the rim lip is not well defined? I sometimes scribe it deeper to aid in painting.

5

I’ll second that. I generally brush the black (or very dark gray/brown). I stick a toothpick or whatever fits to act as an axle so I can rotate the wheel while I paint the tire. Use a small brush, of course.

6

Use a circle template.

7

Thank you all so much for your replies.

8

I usually just use some magic tape (Frosted Scotch Tape). Put a piece across the tire, then using a SHARP hobby knife, scribe a circle around the rim. pull off all but the center circle of tape and make sure it’s nice and tight on the rim. Alternately you could also use a liquid masking solution like Ambroid or Micro Scale’s, if the wheel isn’t too deeply molded. In any event, you need to spray on the white first and let it completely dry. I usually use enamel for primary paint jobs. After its dried and you mask it, use an Acrylic this time so you can remove excess without destroying the white paint under it. Also, get a can of Testors ELO (Easy Lift Off), It’s the safest way to remove enamel paint without damaging the plastic it’s on. It works great.