Painting vs. assembly?

That is how I would do it. I assume the wheels have rubber tires. It seems that half the members paint the wheels already assembled and half on the sprues. I paint them seperately myself. You can mask with a circle template, though I haven't tried it.

Sounds like a good way to do it to me! I use a cirlcle stencil to paint my wheels.

I usually paint the road wheels while they are on the completed model.I find that it is easier and faster that way.But with Tamiya kits,after I have it nearly complete,I can remove the road wheels after I have sprayed my main color on.Then will paint the rubber on the road wheels and stick them back on.I can take there road wheels from Tamiya and put them on an end of a paint brush to paint the rubber.Digger

i make mine up in sub assemblys and spray them
on the wheels i spray them the tyre clour first then use a circle template and spay the vehicle base colour

Lots of different ways to go about this depending on what you are after as pointed out already by the responses. I'm like tigerman, I prefer to paint the wheels off the kit by first spraying the hull color while on the sprue then following up painting the rubber using a thinned MM Gunmetal and a 000 brush (being attached to the sprue helps steady the hand for me). The thinned paint and the small brush allow the paint to flow in to the hub line when done with a little care. I've never tried the circle template method but it would work very well I think if you decided to AB the rubber portions.