I was painting some tyres on a couple of kits last night, and couldn’t help thinking I was making it hard for myself. Basically, I had the wheels mounted on toothpicks and the hubs sprayed silver, and just held the stick in between thumb & forefinger & rotated it while I touched a brush full of tyre black to the part.
For the most part it went well, but on one occasion I strayed over the line of the hub, and will have to touch it up.
What are the options? Masking? something else that I’ve not considered?
I have used a similar technique with some success. Take it a step further by chucking the toothpich in a variable speed drill then you can use one hand to hold the brush and the other to steady it. As long as the toothpick is straight and the wheel is well centred it works well.
use a heavily thinned paint to “touch” the outer rim of the hub, using a thin pointed brush. capillary action will make the thin paint flow around the hub. keep touching the hub with thinned paint until the outside of the hub is black. you can now paint normal tyre black outwards from here.
why not paint the hub first then mask it with microscale liquid mask let it dry then paint the tire your desired color let the paint dry then remove the mask and it should be perfect.
I make my own hub masks by using a drill size gauge to select the right size circle for the hub, then cut out a corresponding size piece of masking tape to cover the painted hub. Takes all the frustration out of it for me…and has enough sizes to match anything you might come up with.
i also like to make my own masks. first i paint the hub, lay a stripe of the blue masking tape and burnish the edges of the hub real good, then cut the excess off with a new blade. I get a perfectly sized mask every time.
I’m erring towards the masking tape method… whether it’s a positive mask with the black painted last, or a negative mask with the hub painted last, I’m not sure yet. Will try both methods & see which one works best. Thanks for the input guys [;)]
I paint the hub first and then use a fine pointed Sharpee-type mark around the edge of the hub. Then I can paint the rest of the tire with a brush without feeling like I need the hands of a brain surgeon. I can’t stand doing wheels and this has been the easiest method for me.
Depending on how big the hub is, I have used a paper punch to punch out a circular piece of masking tape. With this method, you would paint the hub color first. First, put a piece of masking tape on a backing sheet, like waxed paper. I use the backing sheets from Black Magic brand masks; they are slick and the tape won’t stick too badly to them–just enough to provide some stability to the masking tape as you punch it. Then, use the circular paper punch to punch out the masks. If the hub is smaller than the mask, cut a slit from the center of the mask to the outer edge (a radius), then apply the mask to the hub. The slit will allow you to adjust the diameter of the circle as you apply. You can probably buy different sizes of hole punches at a craft store; the paper punch I’m using is ancient–been in the family for decades. Of course, this method will only work with hubs smaller than the paper punch. For large tires, I paint the tire color, then mask with MicroMask. You can edge it put gradually to the hub, as you apply it, but this method is also likely to cause you to overmask onto the hub, too. When using liquid mask, I’ve found that the sooner you get it off, the better. Leaving it on too long has given me REAL problems getting it off again. Now, I usually wait no longer than 24 hours, then throw it in a cup of water and let the water dissolve the dried liquid mask over the course of a day. These are just other methods you can try; the previous messages have good techniques, too; whatever works is whatever I’m likely to use.
I like the idea of lining the hub with a black permanent marker. Dunno what a sharpee is, but I’m guessing that it’s similar to the thin nibbed permanent markers we use to write on CD-Rs. It’s certainly a quick way to paint a hub without having to mask it up, isn’t it?
I paint and weather the hub first, get it done. I then take a circle template and size it. Use the size and cut out a mask and carefully apply it. Only downside I have ever had to this is on a hub that has a thin rim (P-51 for instance) you really have to drop the pressure and over thin to avoid blowing it off the rim. once you get the hang of it youll be fine.
now that im more awake than my first post here i thing masking would be easier than cotton ball idea of mine ([xx(][|)][BH][%-)][|(][%-)][{(-_-)}][:-,][sigh][soapbox][XX][:-^][tdn][zzz] how i came to my conclusion)
While we’re on the subject of hubs and tires, I could certainly use some expert advice in painting the tread a contrasting color from the tires (gray perhaps?) in order to make the tread stand out.