Anyone Paint Tires?

I had been working on an 89 AMT Batmobile and was around 90% done with the kit when I had to sideline it for the holiday.

Anyway, now that Christmas is past (hope everyone had a great one) I've moved in for completion. Somehow I got it in my head that all four tires on this kit has smooth sidewalls - not so. The larger rear tires do but the front tires are marked with "Goodyear" brand name.

I decided to take an exacto, trim as much of the lettering off as possible, and then use fine sandpaper to smooth out the sidewall. Figured if I botched it up I would simply turn the ugly side of experimental tire in.

Well, I got the lettering off and sanded down and it's looking pretty good - other than the fact that through the process the sidewall has lost the black sheen and is now a sort of pewter grey. My question is, can these tires be painted and if so, what paint would you experts recommend? I have an acrylic "pavement" that is very dark gray that I was going to try, but thought I might see if anyone had any thoughts.

Tried finding an online tutorial, but only tires being painted I could find were military which were extremely weathered, obviously I'm going for a clean black.

Thanks in advance if anyone had ideas.

You looking for a matt or satin finish, grey or pure black?

Acrylics on the vinyl tires will work fine. Just don't use enamel! It will never dry.

Perhaps to bring up the tire's lustre, you can use a vinyl floor polish on the sidewalls.

TazMan2000

zorg said:

You looking for a matt or satin finish, grey or pure black?

Click to expand...

Trying to go realistic (at least as realistic as a batmobile can be) so matte black - don't want the "Batman just armor-all'd his tires" look...lol. That's why I thought the Acrylic Pavement might do the trick. It's a grey that borders on black.

TazMan2000 said:

Perhaps to bring up the tire's lustre, you can use a vinyl floor polish on the sidewalls.

TazMan2000

Click to expand...

I picked up some Pledge Multi-Surface Floor Finish (from what I've read this is same as Pledge Future) and have used it on some parts as a gloss finish and some 6 inch Star Wars figures' eyes/mouths to add a "wet" look. I'm showing how little I know about this product, I'm not sure if it's "vinyl" polish but after you mentioned that it occurred to me that this may work wonders on the tires to restore the "black", then I could dull it down a bit.

Thanks guys. You too Robiwon.

Have you tried tamiya nato black?

Its matt and black but a funny kinda black, it would show a difference between materials e.g. rubber and painted metal.

Edit, just found out tamiya do a 'rubber black xf-85' maybe worth a look.

zorg said:

Have you tried tamiya nato black?

Its matt and black but a funny kinda black, it would show a difference between materials e.g. rubber and painted metal.

Edit, just found out tamiya do a 'rubber black xf-85' maybe worth a look.

Click to expand...

Thanks, zorg.

I will most certainly check those out, the "rubber black xf-85" sounds like it may be just the thing. I live in a small town with no hobby paints available anywhere, but I'm going into the local city in a couple of days and will hit the hobby shop. Will let you know what I end up going with.

Thanks again.

EDIT: By the way, I'm not a complete hick...lol...I realize I can order these online. I've just gotten to know a couple of employees at the Hobby Town I go to and they are good about sharing insight as well.

I want to say that Testors has a paint called "rubber", it has a slight brownish tinge to it though.

newmagrathea said:

I want to say that Testors has a paint called "rubber", it has a slight brownish tinge to it though.

Click to expand...

Kind of crazy, but visualizing this look for the tires may have completely changed my Batmobile even though I'm almost finished with the kit.

Originally I stripped the chrome plating off of the parts in this kit, and planned on painting the large rear thruster/nozzel and smaller nozzels with Testors Chrome.

Upon trying this paint, I thought it came out way too silver, so I made a blend of chrome & steel. Not sure what color it is, but I was much happier with it.

I considered adding scorching to the ends of the thrusters/nozzles to give it a used look. If I add the scorching, going with "weathered" tires would make sense and be a novel approach. I've looked at about 200 pics of this kit, and honestly do not recall seeing one weathered/battle damaged version.

Kinda funny, I started modeling this year and have built 5 or 6 kits but this Batmobile is the kit that I've gone all out on, using all the accumulated knowledge from all other kits to try and make this one my first really quality model. I've drove myself batty facepalm) studying priming, putty, sanding and painting techniques to get the body on this flawless - and now all I can think about is adding bullet "pings", dents, cracks and burns.

I love this hobby...(not being sarcastic).

Let us know what that tamiya rubber black is like if you get it, ive never tried it or seen it in person.
i know nato black is used a lot in model making, its kinda the default "go to" tyre paint.

As far as the finish on the batmobile is concerned i do prefer the clean look, i think you would get away with a little bit of heat staining on the exhaust, maybe a hint of tamiya clear blue , purple or smoke.

Doing battle damage take knowledge, skill and practice. It is very easy to get it wrong, try it on some other object before taking the plunge. I still see "pro modellers" on here making a complete hash of battle damage, the classic "perfect line of unrealistic bullet holes" springs to mind.

Good luck

Those are excellent points, zorg. Also, given the nature of the Batmobile you don't want to overdo the damage anyway.

Oddly, weathering and battle damage is what sparked my interest in modeling. I used to collect Kenner & Hasbro Star Wars ships, not models but the ships that go with the 3.75' action figures. Over time I saw, often on this site, modelers taking these hasbro toys and modding them, then painting and weathering them until they came pretty close to model quality - some actually could pass for movie props.

So, I began weathering and adding battle damage to my junker ships, built up a little skill and then started on my prize ships. Needless to say I ditched the toys and took up models. I'm nowhere near as skilled as you RPF'ers, but I had a blast progressing from a dremel and brush to Tamiya weather master kits.