Painting tyres

The best "scale" black is Polly Scale's Tarnished Black.  It's a very dark gray color that dries flat.  I use it for tires and anything else that needs to be black, but not shadow (i.e. instrument panels are tarnished black, but if I need to black out an area behind an engine, I use tamiya flat black).

You can sorta see it in this picture, where I used it to paint the de-icer boots on the leading edges of the wing and for the waist gunner's center walkway.

 

 

You can get it from Megahobby.com, as well as a few other online retailers.

-Fred

 

I use Tamiya NATO black instead of flat black.

You can also use RLM66 f you are going for old or synthetic rubber such as that used by the Germans in WWII.

Karl

Add a little gray or brown depending on which aircraft and era you are modeling. Typically the area of the tire which makes contact with the ground will have a bit of a lighter shade and less glossy in appearance due to the abrasion.