Painting Vinyl Parts

Hello All:

I've just bought an armor kit that has six very nice vinyl tires, the problem is that they look showroom fresh and I want to depict my vehicle in a dusty, arid environment.

I'm told that shooting enamels (such as Testor Dullcote) directly onto vinyl can be very destructive to the vinyl and that vinyl parts should be given a good coat of acrylic primer before anything else if they are to be painted.

So....

If I were to airbrush these tires with a flat acrylic black colour and dust them up with some sand coloured chalk dust before putting any enamels on them, would they be safe from whatever damaging effects the enamel Dullcote might have on the vinyl?

Thanks in advance