I’ve got a car with 4 real rubber tires…they’re already on the car, but I want to see if I can get a little bulging on the bottom of each one. I’ve done this a few times with regular vacuum formed wheels, but never with rubber.
The only idea right now that is comin to me would be heating up a skillet, then wait till its cooled a little, and set the car down on it. WOAH…not sure I wanna try that!!..anyone think that would work? I don’t want a pile of melted rubber on my wheels.
Hey, I’m open to any idea…seeing that the only one I’ve got is very dangerous!
Well I have no idea about how to do it, but you have sure sparked my interest with the whole concept. I had never thought about doing that so please explain how you would on normal kit tires. Could be one of those small things to make a difference I always look for.
Im thinking on this one…seems I remember someone talking about this while at the LHS once, I’ll have to ask Mike or Bob if they remember how it was said to do this…
I’ve wondered about this too. I’ve heard of people making buldged styrene tires by pushing them up against an iron? Do you think it’d work with rubber??
you have to glue a styrofoam cube to the inside of the rim then put glue on the other side of the cube then put your tire on then repeat with the other 3 tires and then put them on the frame and weigh them down with jars of paint put on the frame
HEY,
I have never thought of this and it a great idea. My first guess would be to heat it over a candle or something untilll it is soft. Then just push it down till you got the shape you want. You may have to do some work on the rims. If anyone figures this out, post the results.
Why not wrap or attach to the interior of the rim a weighted substance (like fishing weights or lead tape)? My experience is real rubber tires usually have very thin outer walls and any additional weight will force them down and should give you the look you’re aiming for w/o risking the tires…or the house
Personnaly, I just use some sandpaper. After removing the mold seams and lightly scuffing the tread, I sand a flat bottom so the tire meets the display surface at a plane instead of a point, giving the impression of weight. Besides, real tires that bulge aren’t properly inflated.
It really depends on the tire, and the amount of bulging you’re going for. Generally real rubber racing slicks (dragster style) have really flimsy side walls and bigger rims. So a few wraps around the rim with the lead tape and voila.
If it’s some of the smaller tires like on road cars depending on the amount bulge you can get a few wraps around the rim, but you can’t get a really heavy bulge out of it. A friend of mine used to affix actual used tire weights (trimmed of course) to the top of the rim he was working on to get the bulging going…but it made getting the tire back on a bit of a chore…
On a built model the only way out is to sand the bottom or cut it with a sharp knife, I would recomend the first!
Heating would risk too much damage to your finished kit!
When building a kit the best way I have found is to do it over an iron, heat it up place grease proof paper over the iron and press down to get the desired effect.
I like to use a spares box wheel to give the tyre sone rigidity without the danger of damaging the wheel that you want to put onto the model.
The only way to find how this best works for you is to try it with some spare tyres that you dont intend to use.
This works with all plastic and rubber tyres.
I guess I dont need to say this but dont try it with resin ones!!
