Rubber Tire Advice?

Thanks everyone for the insight.  Especially with the color.  I would never have thought to add blue or green to achieve a good result.  Now just to summon the courage and give it a shot!

Remember typewriters? Remember typewriter erasers? They scuff most tires realistically. I include the caveat “most” because there’s the occasional pain in the [dinkywongo] that just will NOT discolor properly. If it doesn’t, assume that you’ve been warned by the Fates, because such tires are nothing but trouble (I had more than one MELT).

Another good scuff tool can be made from the quarter-inch blue-black layer of an old running shoe. As this stratum is thin, it is necessary to include the adjacent layer on one side. Carve it down to a convenient size like a pocket eraser.

SuppressionFire was dead-on about mixing a flat black and little light blue (or sap green) to make “tire color”. It’s best to combine the components, in thimble-sized batches, as needed.

Mount on a variable speed drill and sand the wear surface. Like said above use a abrasive pad (kitchen type) to smooth it out on the drill. Nicks can be done with a new #11 hobby blade. Keep em' small & random.

CA glue will work yet if the fit is good just use diluted white glue. Some fit well enough no glue is warranted. Paint after they are on the rim as the flexing may cause the paint to chip.

I like Testor's sky blue added to flat black to get the aged rubber look. Do not mix this completely and do a few lighter and darker for variation.

Certain brands of rubber tires will eat the plastic of your kit. Older Trumpeter kits are notorious for haing the vinyl tires melt the surrounding rubber rim. Older Dragon kit tires have a bad habit of spliting where the injected vinyl meets opposite the injection gate.

For some reason, a few tank manufacturers have kits that often cannot be built out of box. I think it helps keep the resin tire manufacturers in business.

If you decide to go with the vinyl tires, make sure you paint all surrounding plastic parts. The paint often acts as a barrier to the vinyl, keeping it from melting the plastic.

I like to use a scotch-brite pad to rough up the rubber. Lightly on the sides but worn to "scale" on the tread and edgeware

HTH

Rounds Complete!!

Hello!

For relatively new tires, sanding the runing surface on ~200 grit sandpaper gives very nice results. For really worn tires I'm not so sure, but I guess something like steel wool or some similar abrasive would do. Maybe putting them in the sun for some time would do the trick? Paint shouldn't hurt the tires, but it probably won't stick well. Anyhow, good luck with your build, and have a nice day

Paweł