Hello all. I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend. I’m building Tamiya’s Toyota GT One endurance racer. The instruction call for the center hub of the wheel to be painted gold (x-31). What s the best way to accomplish this? It’s probably .25-.3 mm in diameter. I thought of a circle cutter but I’m not sure you can cut a template that small. I prefer some sort of mask because my hand brushing skills aren’t great. To complicate matters the hub is recessed in the wheel.
Thanks
A punch set is a really worthwhile tool to own. Typically its a clear piece of plexiglass that fits over a piece of hard stainless steel and is registered with a pair of pins. It will have a dozen or so drilled holes in both. There is a set of very hard steel drifts, or pins.
https://www.micromark.com/Micro-Punch-Set
They are a little costy, but I use mine all the time for all sorts of stuff. In this case you could punch your tape. Put the tape down on a scrap of styrene, punch the hole, and peel the tape with the hole in it off of the styrene.
Save the little disk for another use.
Or, use the piece of plastic as a mask and airbrush a shot of color on the hub.
Or, paint the hub, then cover it with a drop of Elmer’s, then pop it off when it dries.
But consider a punch set.
Bill
Here’s another source for punches.
https://umm-usa.com/onlinestore/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=punch&x=0&y=0
And another good item to have in your toolbox…rice paper masking sheets. Great for anything from wheels to aircraft canopies, and much easier to work with than tape.
https://spruebrothers.com/tam87129-tamiya-masking-sticker-sheet-5pcs-1mm-grid-type/
Thank you for the tip, Eagle.
Bill
Thanks guys. I just bought the micro punch set.
As I recall, it’s not too bad to paint freehand. Sorry for the dust - I need to spend a day dusting 
You did a nice job with that. I’m going to try mask and spray. However I see no way around hand painting the tiny red tip. That should be fairly easy.
I bought one of those hand punches that has a wheel with about six seperate punches of varying size. Only problem is that the brass anvil is too hard to get a decent punch. I find a piece of electrical tape put on the anvil has enough give that I get good circles.
Another approach is to sharpen a toothpick and “dot” it on. I just used that method to paint wing lights on a 1/144 P47D. I didn’t sharpen the tip to a point, more like a feather or blade.
I didnt get the result with the punch set. I ended up sharpening a toothpick and laying down liquid mask on the black then spraying the gold. The red is a micron pen. The reverse decal can be kinda tricky to align properly.
NICE! Looks like you got it figured out. Looks like you got some nice, crisp edges on the gold too, which is really hard to do with liquid mask. [H]
Toothpick painting for is indeed great for maskless painting small details.
As a slight modification to the technique, the Ammo by Mig brass toothpicks can be sharpened/flattened to any shape and become a permanent addition to your tools. Wipe it off with thinner when done and it’s ready to go for next time.
The Tamiya 87172 Pro II brush is even better than a sharpened toothpick. I really hate to use the overused expression “game changer”, but its been just that for me. [H]
Hi Bill;
Now you’re talking. I have the Micro Punch set and I have used it for papermodeling and doing masks etc. Great set that !