Those nasty rubber rims could drive you batty! Here’s what I do: Paint the entire wheel black. Using a clear plastic circle template find the hole that fits best and then airbrush the armor color on the inside of the steel wheel. You can do the back too but life is short.
Gosh, I never thought of that! Great tip, Danny! I’ll try it on my M-1.
My hands are still steady (I think). LOL. I am doing it the hard way. Paint the road wheel with the base color of the vehicle and do the rubber portions with the brush.
Did that on a Flakpanzer (Panzer IV chassis). Took some time but twas OK.
You can also use a sharpie pen. The results are good.
mark956
I agree with Mark … when I first heard of this tip I kind of thought it would look like [censored] , couldn’t have been more wrong. It looks great and I can blast through the road wheels now like no tomorrow.
I have heard of the Sharpie method, but its so shiney. Wouldn’t the ink react with a wash?
Shiney to start … but then when you hit it with dullcote … not so shiney anymore. Reacted just fine with all weathering techniques that I have tried on it.
Sharpies the way I go now to. Use a broad tip one for the wide sections and a fine tip for where the rubber meets the steel. A little touch and good to go.
Thanks, I might have to try it, it sounds pretty easy. Less cleanup too.
My only problem is I can’t seem to do it without turning my fingers black , but it does seem to go good with the glue [:D]
Mark- Sharpie method sounds slick-but unfortunately the smell of a Sharpie makes me deathly ill. Maybe a super respirator would help.
I generally use the circle template method. I like it its very quick and easy. I just stab all the road wheels with a bambo skew then stick them in a block of foam. Then just go down the line…airbrush in one hand and template in the other… I notice on some pictures that the painting…especially camo isn’t a sharp demarcation line at the rubber. A good example of this is an article I saw in a offroad mag. It showed a line of Hummers in the desert being preped. The sand overspray on the tires was up to several inches onto the rubber. The circle template does this pretty well if you don’t hold it tight to the wheel. just my 2cents…
God Bless
Kenneth
if ur gonna use a circle template, don’t forget to blank out the surrounding holes w/ masking tape & put the frosted side of the template next 2 the model so u can clean it up easier after ur done…
i use the other common method: spray painting the roadwheels and then adding the rubber by brushpainting the wheel while it’s mounted on a paperclip, toothpick or BBQ skewer so i can rotate the wheel.
frosty[:)]
Wednesday night I tried out the Sharpie method as a test. Last night, I wen’t out and bought 6 more Sharpies! It’s great. I love it. I did a both parts of a Panther double wheel in about 5 or 6 minutes, and NO brush or air brush to clean up!!
I put it on over enamel paint. Will it work as well over acrylics, or will it pull the base coat up? Should I clear coat over the base coat if using acrylics. Anyone had any experience with this?
Bill
I just bought a new panzer IV and its my first time to paint an armor. By the way its an academy model I open the box but there is no color guide to follow. I already have a German wwII tank color, i think it is dark green can’t remember. I need to know if there are other colors i need to buy for the other parts or can i paint the tank in just one color? since i don’t have an airspray gun (too expensive) im planning to swich to a spray can. Will that do?
great way to do snow cammo on the wheles of 1/72 is to take the whole thing, and paint it either a P Schwazagra (or how ever you spell it) or black, next take your brush and dip it in tamiya flat white I found works best and put a splotch in the middle of the wheele, take a paper towle real fast and wipe the bristles dry, then just spread it messily around the wheel. the results are very good, I’ll post some pics of this effect when I finish my new Dio, just gotta figure out how to creat a brick or stone wall in 1/72 scale. =D
Jedi_Mike8 you may have a problem. Dark yellow is the recommended base coat, with dark green and red-brown being your camo colors. You may want to brush your camo colors on, it would be hard to use a spraycan on it to get the fine lines or detail.
Bill - works great over acrylics too, had no problems at all.
Chris - turn the wheels a little slower, Sharpies dry fairly quick.
Jedi-Mike - a Panzer IV Ausf what?
if it is a D, then the tank could be all grey.
Tamiya suggests XF-63 (German Grey), but some of us think it is too dark and use XF-53 (Neutral Grey)
Bill - I did my Panther road wheels w/ a Sharpie over Tamiya Acrylics last night w/ no trouble.
also washed one w/ artist’s water color based wash and it went fine.
(i guess i am the only one who does not use oils for this!)
Chris - I agree w/ Sherm. When i did mine last night, each wheel was mounted on its own ‘stick’ (i use sprue).
that lets me spin them w/ one hand while i hold the marker w/ the other.
my fingers kept clean. (i still have CA on them from doing the PE!)