Painting the vector wheels

[Ben]

Hey guys, does anyone here have a trick for painting the vector wheels with spray paint? I know they can be painted with brush but I would rather have a smooth even finish that is produced by spray. Just wondering if there is a way to mask them off?

[Danny Lectro]

Rattle can or airbrush?  If you're using an airbrush, you could paint it with Tamiya or other water based acrylic bottle paint, dampen a cotton swab with Windex, and wipe away the paint from the raised areas.

Tamiya rattle-can paints have a different formulation from the bottle paints, so I don't think this technique will work in them.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Maybe a liquid mask brushed carefully on the rim and ribs, then spray the dark color, remove the mask?

 

[Brett Barrow]

Spray the dark grey/black, then silver Sharpie for the spokes and rim. 

Or, alternatively, spray the silver with a lacquer then spray the dark gray with an enamel and remove the dark gray from the spokes with thinner. 

[Ben]

Very good ideas guys, I'll think about each one. Thanks!

[JTRACING]

I sprayed mine with enamel and just wiped the extra off with paint thinner 

[Drake69]

I did mine with a base of black wash and touchup with black paint and a very fine brush...

[Joe Handley]

I'd strip them, shoot them in flat black, then either dry brush or Sharpie the aluminum parts.

 

[Ben]

I'm actually asking this, not only for the vector wheels, but also for the finned aluminum wheels found in the A-Team van kit. I'm really not wanting to paint the red over black, as it would need to be thick to be bright red.

[Joe Handley]

The A-Team van ones would be a pain, probably paint them red, then get an extra fine brush to brush on the black, then clear to your liking.

[Ben]

Here's what I'm thinking on the finned wheels in the A-Team van kit. I'm thinking of stripping the chrome and then shooting the wheels with a bright red enamel. Then, after the enamel cures, I could brush paint some flat black, acrylic paint into the recesses and then, with a damp Q-tip, wipe the top surface of all the spokes clean, exposing the red paint. 

[spencer1984]

For the wheels on my A-Team van, I stripped the chrome, painted them flat black, painted the spokes flat red with a toothpick, and then clearcoated them to give them a glossy finish. The flat paints are thinner but layer better than gloss paints, and painting them wasn't nearly the headache I expected it to be.

 

Edited August 3, 2015 by spencer1984

[crowe-t]

Ben, have you tried one of these techniques yet?  I'm curious how it worked out.

Mike.

[Mike Chernecki]

Watch this video, this works very well. I tried it recently on the wheels from Revell 2013 Boss 302 and they turned out great. Will be working a set of Vector wheels myself soon.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Mike Chernecki

[crowe-t]

I tried this technique in the video above and it works real nice.  I first painted a set of AMT 69 Riviera 1/25 Vectors using Testors MM Acryl Silver.  Then I waited one day and sprayed on some Tamiya acrylic flat black.  I used Testors Acryl since Windex doesn't affect it.  The Tamiya acrylic wipes off with Windex.  After the black was dry I used a Q-Tip moistened with Windex and wiped off the black around the outer edge.  Since they are 1/25 wheels I had to use toothpicks dipped in Windex to remove the black paint off the spokes.  

Here are pictures of the results.

Edited November 4, 2015 by crowe-t