How do you paint steel-rimmed wheels?

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

The King Tiger will be my first tank with steel-rimmed wheels, I’ve only built tanks with rubber-rimmed wheels before it. I want to know exactly how to paint them, and I’m talking about the rim itself, should I paint it gunmetal? steel? Thanks a lot in advance. Best regards.

José.

2

You will get lots of opinions, I paint the rim a metallic grey, to simulate raw steel, with enough movement/grinding/polishing that it would not rust, but not a smmoth enough grinding to make it chrome silver.

Bill

3

I would use a brighter steel for the surfaces that get metal to metal contact. They actually will get quite smooth and bright during use. You would be suprised to see it for real in person. But if the vehicle is sitting for awhile it quickly gets surface rust until moved again.

4

I like to paint the wheel as usual (flat acrylic) then finish by drawing (colouring in) over the contact area with a 6b pencil. then polish the finish with an eraser. colour over the eraser with the 6b as well, so it acts as a polisher/ burnisher, not as an eraser. i also use this method to finish the contact area of the track.

5

I normally paint the contact surfaces with Monogram/Humbrol Metalcoat Polished Steel. After the metal coat is cured, buff it with a Q-tip. This will result in a polished/shiny steel grey surface that will slightly oxidize over time.

As an aside collecting the full set of Metal Coat colors will permit one to create gunmetal surfaces, reflector surfaces, polished stainless steel, etc.

Good luck!

6

I like to brush-paint the rims with an acrylic steel colour, such as Citadel Chainmail or RoG Aqua Steel. If you want, tou can then use a soft lead pencil to add darkness and shininess. Using ground-up pencil dust, applied with a q-tip or your finger, on the inside of the track runs is good too. This may all start shinier than you think looks realistic, but weathering an dustines will soon take the edge off things.

Here’s a RoG 1/72 Tiger II:

and a Trumpeter 1/72 Jagdpanzer Ferdinand:

whose road wheel rims have been painted using this method.

Cheers,

Chris.

7

Thank you guys for your input, There are a lot of methods, so I’ll have to pick one… Well, let’s see what happens. Best regards.

José.

8

Would the steel color be flat or glossy-ish on a well used tank?