Hi All,
Well, I'm rather new to armor - only working on my 2nd tank - but I've tried a couple of things that seem to work with the wheels.
With the sherman that I built, I sprayed everything OD, then I punched out little hub masks in masking tape that fit the hubs perfectly. I then sprayed the wheels black and removed the masks. I was absolutely shocked how perfectly it worked given that this was my first kit in about 25 years. Turned out terrific but it was quite tedious. If you want to do this, it is a lot easier to just buy a set of wheel masks from Eduard.
For the Stug that I'm working on, I took a different approach. This time, I sprayed all of the assembled parts flat black, including the wheels that were not yet atteached. I then sprayed a very thinned dark yellow (1 part paint ; 2 parts thinner) on the finest setting over the hubs, letting some of the black show through for a nice effect. When dry, I touched up any overspray outside the hubs with a black sharpy. Again this turned out really well. The black preshade on the entire vehicle gave a nice worn effect too. The wheels were then attached.
As for the tracks, I paint them completely before assembling (basecoat, rust drybrush, steel drybrush. After attaching, I weather the vehicle, then drybrush a little more rust and steel on the visible parts.
I am by no means an expert, but these methods seem to work quite well. I tend to scour the web for ideas for a particular problem. The "Armor in Scale" website has a series of articles posted, one of which deals with airbrush painting roadwheels without masking. The idea here is that after weathering (washing, drybrushing) any overspray won't be visible anyway. I gather that one needs a very fine airbrush to do this.
Hope this helps.
Jim
Current Projects:
Tamiya M1A2
Tamiya LRDG Chevrolet CWT 30