I am currently working on a M3A2, and I was exploding from the tediousness of the paint inf the wheels(rubber parts)
any shortcuts?
Spray paint the entire wheel the rubber color. Then use a circle template (available at a stationary store). Use the circle hole that matches the size of the metal portion of the wheel. Mask off surrounding holes. Spray paint or airbrush the vehicle color onto the road wheels.
I use the sharpie marker method, it is easy and never fails. You can buy a fine point sharpie for the tight areas. All you need is the ability to trace and follow a line.
steve
A great masking item for road wheels is Silly Putty. Paint the whole wheel the base color. Let it dry completely, then take a dab of Silly Putty and push it into the center of the wheels. Use enough so that you’ll be able to grab ahold of it to pull it out later. Work the putty out to the inner edge of the rubber part. Do that for each wheel, then paint the spray the rubber color on the wheels. When that’s dry, just pull off the Silly Putty, roll it all back up together and restore in it’s “egg”. It works great, is easy, and is a pretty fast method.
Good luck.
I’ve tried a couple of variations of this method, as follows:
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Make masks from the circle template: Instead of using the whole template, I use it to cut out masks from greeting card paper, masking tape, even thin sheet styrene. Both the cut out and the insert portion are quite useful depending on the wheel type. If I plan on doing several variants of a vehicle, like T-34’s or Panthers, I’ll use the thin sheet styrene to make the painting template a bit more durable. I also get kinda persnickety and will sometimes use a pair of dividers (available same location as the template) to measure the wheel portion. May seem like overkill, but it’s better (for me) than trying to “eyeball” the measurement, esp. when the rim is so close to the rubber.
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I’ve read where people also take masking tape, burnish it over the wheel,and cut off the appropriate portions to paint (wheel or rubber portions). Never tried it myself, but I thought I’d pass it along.
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If you want to spend the money ( they aren’t cheap any more), you could get masks from Eduard or the like for your specific vehicle. I suggest doing this only if you like a given vehicle enough to model it almost exclusively, due to the expense. Don’t use the mask as is though; use them to make more masks from paper/tape/styrene as stated above. You’ll get more for your money from them, especially if you decide to move to another vehicle type and want to sell some vehicle specific accessories/supplies.
The wonderfully cool thing about this hobby is the myriad of solid, proven methods to solve a particular problem.
HTH,
The most common methods have all been outlined above. Either a circle template from an art-store (a cheap, but great tool), sharpier method (although you have to spray a coat of flat afterwards to eliminate the marker ink shine) or create templates out of silly-putty, tape, whatever.
I tend to use a circle template whenever possible, but all too often it’s good old fashioned hand-painting.
Take breaks and don’t rush. We don’t want you to explode. If you do though, post a picture [:D][:o)] No matter how you do it they all have to be done. I like the sharpie method.