Easier to paint before attaching. You can spray the main colour and mask it then paint rubber, or vice versa, or paint the main colour and put them on cocktail sticks and brush the rubber while slowly spinning the wheel.
Possible to do once attached, just needs a bit more care and patience.
I paint them before I attach them. I prime them black (or dark grey sometimes), then use a mask to spray on the base color leaving the rubber portion black/dark grey. The mask I use is simply a circle template. It has different size holes and I just pick the one that matches best and tape over the others.
Rubber is not truly black, except when fresh from the factory, but a dark grey. However, after I weather the wheels with a coat of dust, it doesn't matter.
There is one occasion when you would build the suspension before painting and that's if you like to glue the tracks to the road wheels, especially for the interleaved suspension on the Panther and Tiger. But even in these cases, people usually don't glue the wheels to the axles so that after the glue dries on the tracks, the entire suspension, roadwheels, sprockets, idler and track can be removed as a single piece and painted separately.
Hi, I use a circle template to paint the hubcaps of road wheels w/o touching the rubber. I use Tire Black (GSI Creos) or NATO Black for the rubber parts.
I paint the centers by spraying them through a circle template you can buy almost anywhere, then I put the wheel on a toothpick and rotate it while using a brush (Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black).
Easier to paint before attaching. You can spray the main colour and mask it then paint rubber, or vice versa, or paint the main colour and put them on cocktail sticks and brush the rubber while slowly spinning the wheel. Possible to do once attached, just needs a bit more care and patience.
Thank you, I was confused how to do it properly
There’s no “proper” way of doing it. It’s just about what you’re most comfortable with
I paint them before I attach them. I prime them black (or dark grey sometimes), then use a mask to spray on the base color leaving the rubber portion black/dark grey. The mask I use is simply a circle template. It has different size holes and I just pick the one that matches best and tape over the others. Rubber is not truly black, except when fresh from the factory, but a dark grey. However, after I weather the wheels with a coat of dust, it doesn't matter. There is one occasion when you would build the suspension before painting and that's if you like to glue the tracks to the road wheels, especially for the interleaved suspension on the Panther and Tiger. But even in these cases, people usually don't glue the wheels to the axles so that after the glue dries on the tracks, the entire suspension, roadwheels, sprockets, idler and track can be removed as a single piece and painted separately.
Hi, I use a circle template to paint the hubcaps of road wheels w/o touching the rubber. I use Tire Black (GSI Creos) or NATO Black for the rubber parts.
This is the way. I approve this message 🙃
Glad to help, sir 👍
I paint the centers by spraying them through a circle template you can buy almost anywhere, then I put the wheel on a toothpick and rotate it while using a brush (Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black).
Why make it harder? Spray the whole wheel rubber black and then use the hub color on the part the circle stencil doesn’t cover.
> Why make it harder? Because I'm old and stupid? I like your suggestion.