I am getting ready to paint the wheels on a Tamiya 1:35 M-2 Bradley AFV. The hubs should be olive drab and the rims should be black. I was planning on painting the olive first and then the rims. I was hoping there was a technique that could mask the hubs and produce a nice sharp edge to the rims when I spray paint them. I thought of maybe covering the hubs with an appropriately sized small coin or button, but I haven’t been able to find a good fit (and I haven’t been able to think of how to fix them in place without harming the underlying paint or primer).
Is there a common technique for masking many small circular areas so I can spray them all at once and get a nice effect?
Maybe not all at once, but Hawkeye’s draftsman’s circle template (about $5 or less) is what I use as well. It has enough different diameters that you can get a pretty good fit on the hubs and spray the main color after spraying with the rubber or black for the tire. I use a latex glove, hold the wheel flush, spray, then move on to the next one. On my Tiger 1 (a LOT of wheels) I think it took about 5 minutes to do all the spraying of the wheels.
although aircraft wheels are smaller the technique may still work…
I use thinned flat black for the tires first. Just dab the brush close to the rim and capillary action will follow the edge…do this a few times to build up the color then fill in the larger areas with full strength paint. If it works on the small wheels on larger ones should be even better!!!
good luck…oh and this technique sould also work anywhere else you have a raised edge.
Its also a good point to note that when objects are repainted in the field, many times than not there is overspray on the rubber parts. These guys weren’t working in a nice sterile factory or auto body shop when painting.
Great results after a little practice! I’m using a spray can and my control is not so great. At first I was applying too much at one time and it was running outside the circle. After a few flubs, though, I was able to get the hang of it and get the can to apply a light layer and let it dry a bit. After 3 passes on all the wheels I had built up enough color and almost no spill over.
I just tried the circle template technique on my Jagdpather’s road wheels. Got the template at Hobby Lobby while I was executing a 40% off coupon on another kit. Worked great.
I painted everything with a flat black primer base coat then used the template. I used blue painter’s tape to mask off the circle patterns I was not using. This forum is the best source for model advice.