Using a sharpie to paint/ color road wheels

I've used a finepoint sharpie to outline the wheel hubs on landing gear wheels before. I'd be nervous about using one for an entire wheel though, the ink could separate under wet matte coats or drops of paint thinner.

I think it would work well on a dull basecoat, but I wouldn't recommend it on plain plastic, because when one uses a sharpie on like, say, a plastic bag, the sharpie has this weird sheen, kinda like oil on water. Also, i'm not sure if sharpie is soluble in oil-based paint thinner (I assume it is not, but to me it would be very problematic if it were). Lastly and probably most significantly, many people (I included) prefer a shade of rubbery black with a little grey mixed in, because blackblack just looks too black (in my opinion), so sharpie might just be too black for some tastes.

But perhaps I'll have to give it a try!

I believe it may be problematic if you overpaint using Tamiya acrylics, as the alcohol base may cause the Sharpie pigment to leach through. I seem to recall reading of people using a Sharpie or similar to pre-shade and having the ink leach through in an oddly purple shade (the ink not being "pure" black).

I've used a Sharpie for some road wheel tires, usually when I'm in a little bit of a hurry, over both enamels and acrylics and under acrylic clearcoats with no problems. I'm not sure I'd recommend it for large areas, but the not quite black and the slight sheen look more like rubber than flat black paint. Bottom line, try it. If it works for you and you are happy with the results, then I say go for it, especially if it's less frustrating than trying to paint the tires.

Cheers, Aaron

I used the method for a while but found the purple-sheen that it has to not be to my liking even after the usual weathering treatment and such. I instead switched over to using a draftsman's circle template and air brush my road wheels and get a much better result.

As Aaron mentions, give it a whirl. If you like the result, run with it. There's no hard-and-fast rules to be frowned-upon when it comes to finishing your model the way you want it to look.

I believe that I tried this years ago and found that the ink ran when I dull-coated with Testors Dull Coat Lacquer. I think that's what happened. Something turned me off from it anyway. I prefer to put the road wheels etc on a piece of sprue (or sim) and do the paint and spin method. Piece of cake with no worries later on in the process.

  Use the same method as Bill . For the tire color, I mix 50/50 Flat and NATO Black.

Rounds Complete!!

No frowning allowed here.......

LOL.....i did that once for all the wheels on Tamiya's Patton and i almost fainted from the vapors, but other than that it works good but you must follow with pigments to kill the shine  

Who would these "frowners"be anyway ?

I use something  cylindrical (plastic cap , tubing etc) held over the painted wheel and spray paint the tyre ...while trying my best not to "frown" .

I use a Sharpie all the time.  I kill the gloss with a coat or two of Polly Scale Flat and it goes dead flat.  I've never had any issues with weathering them.

I use the model master paint markers to do the rubber rims on tank road wheels they work great        ACESES5