Aircraft junkie with an armor question!

its tamiya's 1/35 M1046 HUMVEE. you know, i haven't really looked closely enough to tell if its rubber or vinyl!!LOL. i use enamels, but i do use tamiya buff (acrylic) for the dusty look on some of my aircraft. i haven't started it yet, but i'm studying it hard, some photos of a humvee in the Gulf war would be nice, guess i need to start searching for some. it'll be OOB, or do i need to get some "clutter"? probably just stay simple stupid with this one, and if i like it, go a little further on the next one. thanks guys. later.

Hey saltydog,

Typically, I won't paint vinyl or rubber tires at all. If I do want to weather them a bit with paint, I'll mix up some acrylics in the appropriate "dirt" color and slap it on the treads. Then, after a good 15 or 20 minutes, I rub the tires with my fingers to remove the paint from the raised areas and just leave the paint imbedded down in the treads. After the model is assembled, I'll add dusty pastels over the entire wheel, tire, and lower hull areas to tie everything together.

Enjoy your modeling...

By rubber tires do you mean it has rubber (vinyl) tires? Which kit are you working on?

Most time if you paint vinyl and then seal it well with lacquer, that's all you have to do. (With enamels anyway, not sure about acrylics).