Well hello all. First post here to armorama.com, as well as my second armor build ever. I just finished my M2A2 ODS, And loved it. I have my next kit on the way, Bronco Models Buffalo 6x6 kit#CB35145. I noticed that the wheels are not painted. I have done a ton of 1/24 scale auto builds and never had this problem. So my question is, what color should I use to paint these wheels. I would like to stay with an enamel paint if at all possible but completely open minded to acrylics. Also, can anyone direct me to a tutorial on weathering the actual rubber of the wheel? Thanks a lot!

I use flat black & german grey , 80 german grey + 20 black. Apx. Then add a touch of dark green.

Thanks easyco, you wouldn't happen to have a photo of what that color looks like?

Dear Kyle, welcome to our community !

Fully agree with David: rubber wheels are a mix of gray (german gray or panzergrau) and black.

I suggest to give a look to an old post (dated 2007) here in armorama / painting:

http://armorama.com/forums/98415

I mostly use Floquil "grimy black" - a sort of fairly dark gray - for rubber tires, followed by plenty of light washes to get road dust and dirt onto them.

Here's a FlaK 38 2cm w/ its Sd.An 52 trailer-cart. Floquil grimy B plus acryl buff and dust wash plus a bit of chalk dust to get the real dust effect.



And here's a shot of an old Tamiya Horch with an added FlaK 38 gun... again, rubber tires using that F-GB with light dust washes and real dust (chalk).



I do versions of this for the rubber on tank road-wheels, etc.

Bob

Fantastic, thanks everyone for the help.

AK Interactive Rubber used on this one.

Adam,

Is that your build? That color on those wheels looks great. I've just started using AK products and really like them. I think I may pick that up instead of mixing, 1 because I'm really limited on my bench space and 2 just for a consistent look.

Several paint manufacturers make a "tire black" or "rubber black".

Yes google yielded a veriety of "tire black" or "rubber" color paints. Just wanted opinions on which of those various brands people are using, or in the case of the answers hear some different blends of colors. I actually have a rubber colored paint but find it to have a purplish hue to it. Looks terribly strange on desert camo.
Thanks.

Kyle;

There are indeed both many versions of "rubber" color (and other stuff used for "rubber", such "panzergrau") out there, and one need only ask the question HERE and get many perspectives and opinions!

In the end, what I would really suggest is looking up some nice pics of the real thing in color, and doing some visual matching to get what you want! There is probably no real "straight from the bottle realistic "rubber color"" which fits more than a few specific cases and places!

Bob

Bob is spot on (as always).

FYI, Vallejo also makes a new rubber color (darker) and an old rubber color (lighter).

I actually went to my local shop today to see if they had the ak interactive black rubber but picked up the Vallejo old rubber instead. So now I'm just using that as my base since it seems a little lighter than I would like. I wish I would have known they had that new rubber color before I purchased. Thanks for the positive input!

Hi Kyle,

I did a search on Vallejo "New Rubber" and "Old Rubber" — couldn't find them. Did you mean Vallejo Light Rubber (70.305) and Dark Rubber (70.306)?

I've been using Vallejo Dark Rubber (70.306) for a while now; it works very well with paintbrush and airbrush.

Hope this doesn't confuse matters.

—mike

Hi Kyle,

I did a search on Vallejo "New Rubber" and "Old Rubber" — couldn't find them. Did you mean Vallejo Light Rubber (70.305) and Dark Rubber (70.306)?

I've been using Vallejo Dark Rubber (70.306) for a while now; it works very well with paintbrush and airbrush.

Hope this doesn't confuse matters.

—mike
[/quote]

Mike- light rubber is the one. My apologies. Went back to my local shop and the excahnged it out no probelm for the dark rubber. I'm really diggin it!

Awesome!

I did a quick check of the Vallejo color chart (which I should have done in the first place), and discovered that, yes, Mike is correct--I got the names screwed around--they are actually called light rubber and dark rubber. I guess I just naturally associate them with old rubber and new rubber, and got screwed up in my braims.

C[ ]