Vinyl tires, why not?

Academy made separate road wheel rubber from the road wheel on several of their tank kits like the M48A3/K for one (among others too). They also include vinyl tires with their four HMMWV kits (M998, M966, M1025, M997).

DML includes vinyl tries in their Soviet/Warsaw Pact wheeled vehicles like the BTR-70, BTR-80, BRDM-2, BRDM-3 and SA-9. I do not know if their SCUD launcher had vinyl tires or not.

Arsenal also includes vinyl tires with their BRDM-1.

I believe that the AFV Club M35 series trucks contain vinyl tires.

Among older kits, Tamiya's US half-track line had vinyl front tires and their Long Range Desert Group Chevrolet truck had vinyl tires too. Monogram's old M34 deuce and a half and Willys Jeep (recently reboxed by Revell of Germany) contained vinyl tires as well.

As far as why it is not more often, it is easier to weather plastic tires than vinyl ones. Car builders usually do "clean" tires whereas an armor builder will have dirty, dusty and worn tires. I also hear that the vinyl in the DML kits splits after being on the rim for a while and putting the road wheel rubber on the road wheel is a pain.

Thanks Rob for your information, but I'm talking about the road wheels tires of the TANKS like Sherman, AMX, Patton, Abrahams, Crusader, Challenger, Tigers, Panzers and hundreds more, not armored vehicles with tires like cars and trucks, and perhaps if the vinyl material is not adequate for the reasons that you mentioned, maybe they can make the tires in plastic but separated from the rims, that's what I mean. At your command MAYOR. I salute you.
Can you answer my concern about the correct proportion of B/W paint? read again the last part of my post.

Many modellers use a mix of black and white paints, I'm not one of them. I paint my road wheels black and then during the weathering process they become toned done through the use of pastels. Hope this helps.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Feria Thanks Rob for your information, but I'm talking about the road wheels tires of the TANKS like Sherman, AMX, Patton...

Read the first line of my initial reply. The Academy M48A5/K, also known as the PATTON tank, includes rubber road wheels as does their M60A1 series tank kits and their Merkava series of tank kits. Read the last sentence to see why more tanks do not use vinyl. Remember, a car has 4 tires, a tank has a couple dozen road wheels.

For rubber color, I generally use Model Master's gunship gray.

I have modeled a number of BTR 70 and 80 's over the years back and after they had time to set. I went back and found the tires cracked. A friend of mine told me that you need to sand the inside of the wheels so the fit is not so tight when you put them on. Never glue them at all. Some enamel paints and thinners will cause them to crack so it is better to use water base acrylics. There are some resin options available on the market for BTRs.