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Painting Wheels/Tires, Specifically Hasegawa 1/32 F4B-4


JimRice

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I need some help on how to paint the wheels/tires on my 1/32 Boeing F4B-4. I've tried freehand, taping and cutting out center and even a stencil I made and cut using a circle template. None have produced an acceptable result.

Freehand, well we all know how that typically turns out. Bad.

Masking and cutting...there isn't sufficient hard edge between the tire/wheel to get a good consistent cut. The poster board stencil gave best results, but the edge was just a bit too soft as the stencil was slightly proud (standing above when resting on tire) of the wheel.  It was also a pain to get centered properly and held in place to shoot the paint.

My next plan of attack is using wide masking tape and circle template on a piece of flat glass to custom make my own mask which I could then lift off the glass and apply to the wheel/tire, which would be painted entirely black and hopefully get the wheel/wheel cover painted with a distinct line. My only reservation is how do I get the mask placed in the center. So far, I'm not able to get it aligned well.

Surely someone here has figured out a good way to do it.  I can tell I haven't worked on anything recently.  I don't recall having had this problem in the past...or maybe my expectations are just a bit higher than they used to be. :)

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I slice the cut circle once from the center out to the edge (one half of a pie slice). I then place the circle starting at the cut up against the edge of the tire. I then lay the circle along the tire. The cut alows my fingers to hold the tape out of the way and feed it along against the tire. The method reveals right away when the tape is starting out on the wrong path. The tape will lay down smoothly over a non-flat hub. Add another part of a circle if you run out of tape on he hub.

 

HTH,

 

Rick

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If there is a groove around the tire as it relates to the wheel hub I sometimes paint the center the required color, say white, then use thinned black paint to flow paint into the low point up against the hub and build up the paint transitioning away from the hub. I usually get good results that way without masking. This could take several coats depending on how thin you go but this way paint goes to the low spot and not onto the wheel hub.

Edited by cbk57
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If you have a circle template, you can often use it directly on the wheel. I do this all the time. Find the circle that fits your wheel's hub, mask out those around it, and then either hold or tape the wheel to the exposed hole while you airbrush the hub colour in. This requires painting the tyre first, of course. I usually run a wash of black paint around the hub afterwards, but this does require a reasonably well-defined rim to work effectively.

 

Kev

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Recently, while tackling some ill defined tyre/hub demarcations on ground equipment, I found turning the wheels on a cocktail stick in one hand while applying a gundam/sharpie fine point in the other gives a very respecable result. You then paint up to the black inked circle to fill in the tyre colour, and it works just as well with dark grey tyres.

 

If only all kits came with separate tyres and hubs. Gimme vinyl rubber any day, precisely because of this issue. Lovely and neat every time.

 

Tony

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This may sound a bit off, but I have been able to do nearly all of mine this way and it's fast and easy. I paint the hub first, let it dry completely. Then find a short length of tubing that is the exact size of the hub. Hold it place, shoot the tire, wait until dry, turn it over and shoot the other side. All done.

I bought a bag of end cuts of tubing in all shapes and sizes on ebay years ago. I will never run out.

 

U0wU9I.jpg

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I'd try cutting concentric circles in Tamiya tape, then make one cut through the circle. You've now got a circular strip of tape which is more or less the same size as the tyre demarcation (it doesn't have to be exact). You lay it down over the wheel and can adjust the size by overlapping the ends of the strip.

 

Works for me - there are some awesome suggestions on the thread so far so I'm sure you'll be right.

 

Jim

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