How I sometimes remove mold lines from armor road wheels

Ahoy friends.  I find that some road wheels and especially airplane wheels/tires don't have anything to chuck onto because of their size, especially 1/72 airplane wheels.  I use the same technique as above, except that I install the wheel on the end of a round wooden toothpick. You can cut the tip of the toothpick down progressively until you get a real tight pressure fit.  Then you chuck the toothpick holding the part into your drill. Generally, using very slight pressure, you can sand off the mold line without jarring the part loose from the toothpick.  You need to get the wheel on the toothpick relatively straight so as it won't wobble.  Also, cutting off the toothpick short so that the wheel is close to the face of the chuck helps to keep the wheel from wobbling.  My example is a 1/72 P-38 main wheel that I've subesquently painted.

Great idea!  Cordless drills make an excellent alternative to Dremel tools in many situations.  Dremels run so fast you almost always end up overheating what you're trying to sand.  I made my own rotary sanding rods of varying grits out of hardwood dowels and sanding belts wrapped helically around them with contact cement.  Just chuck that up in a cordless drill and you have a safe, effective method of sanding the insides of jet engine intakes. 

JohnnyK 

I used sanding sticks starting out with 220, 400, 600, and ending at 800.

Pawel

Yes, I went slow and moved the sanding stick around to help avoid a hot spot. I initially used an x-acto knife with a #11 blade and scraped a road wheel by hand. But I wasn't happy with it. There was a slope to the wheel where it would meet the track. Depending on what part of the wheel you looked at, the slope could be high in the rear low in the front, vice versa, or fine. Plus it took too long for something that I wasn't happy with. So I thought of doing it this way.

Next time I try it, I'm going to use a block of hardwood with sandpaper wrapped around it. I feel the foam in the middle of the sanding stick was too soft and I didn't get a square edge to the wheels.

Yeah, it's a nice one - I usually take my sanding block for sanding which is some 120-grade sanding paper wrapped around a cork wood block. A fine file could also be used here. Another alternative is to take the edge of a sharp knife and hold it perpendicular to the sanded surface - of course you have to be extra cautious here. One thing to watch is the temperature - when the sanded surface gets too hot and the plastic starts to melt it's better to take a break and let it cool off!

Thanks for sharing and have a nice day

Paweł

Good idea! What did you sand the wheels with?