I’ve just bought an armor kit that has six very nice vinyl tires, the problem is that they look showroom fresh and I want to depict my vehicle in a dusty, arid environment.
I’m told that shooting enamels (such as Testor Dullcote) directly onto vinyl can be very destructive to the vinyl and that vinyl parts should be given a good coat of acrylic primer before anything else if they are to be painted.
So…
If I were to airbrush these tires with a flat acrylic black colour and dust them up with some sand coloured chalk dust before putting any enamels on them, would they be safe from whatever damaging effects the enamel Dullcote might have on the vinyl?
I have never painted the tires that come with kits. I scuff them up, scratch them up, and kncik them. For weathering, pastel chalks. No paint, no dullcote, no damage worries.
Fuzzy - no … actually I paint them with good success.
For tracks that would represent all metal, IE Tiger, Panther, some Sherman tracks. I brush on gun metal for my base coat, dry brush with rust, then dry bry brush with steel to highlight. Then I burnish the entire track with graphite and weather with pastel chalks after they are mounted on the kit.
The reason I don’t paint tires is … well … IMO they look like rubber tires already and just need to be beaten up a touch.
I’ve had great success is scuffing and dirtying up vinyl tires without ever having to paint them. Usually a good dustcoat or two, chalk pastel dust, and flecked on paint will be more than enough. Simple and light drybrush on the tread afterwards with a very pale black (dark grey) and they look absolutely perfect.