Gel pens?

[Ben]

Has anyone here used a white gel pen to letter rubber or vinyl tires? If so, does the paint dry properly? Will it come off if you touch it?

[W-409]

There might be differences on these gel pens (Or then there might not be, I don't know) but at least the one I tried back in 2011 didn't work. It's still tacky.

[slusher]

I have one and have used it but you can still wipe it off with little effort even after time...

[DumpyDan]

You guys have to quit playing with your built models, maybe just display them...................LOL sorry

[58 Impala]

I've used gel pens to paint whitewalls and have had good luck with them. if you're not sure if the one you have will work, experiment on a parts box tire.

[spencer1984]

I've done both whitewalls and lettering with my gel pen, and have been very happy with the results on vinyl. Not so much on ABS, which seems to wipe away easily even after weeks of drying.

[JohnU]

What about hitting it with a flat clear coat to set it?

[Art Anderson]

I think most all gel pens use an oil-based enamel, which on PVC (vinyl) tires almost never dries. This is due to the "plasticizer" added to the PVC used to make our vinyl model car tires soft and at least somewhat rubber-like. That plasticizer is what caused (and still will cause) the "dreaded tire disease" as it also will leach into styrene plastic, as was certainly the case with those Revell kits of 40-50 years ago. That's why we kids had such a horrible time trying to paint whitewalls on AMT Trophy Series tires back in the 60's, with Testors or Pactra enamel paints.

I think there are some brands of gel pens now that use acrylic paint as their medium--and acrylics tend not to be affected by PVC plasticizers.

(Bear in mind, that PVC has been around for more than a century now, and in its pure state, is a hard plastic--it was the discovery of chemical additives that made it possible to have soft PVC, for upholstery and the like. Today, the clear plastic "Clinging" food wrap is a very soft clear PVC film--don't even think of wrapping a plastic model car with it--it will mar the surfaces of your model car or parts--even decal sheets, as I learned from bitter experience years ago.)

Art