Has anyone here used liquid paper on vinyl tire letters?

[Ben]

I'm just wondering if it actually dries? I just bought a couple of the Bic, fine point, liquid paper pens that I was hoping to use, to letter some vinyl tires.

[DR JAY]

I 1st used Liquid Paper on whitewalls and lettering over 30 years ago. I can only speak for the bottle type with the brush in the cap...it dried normally but tended to crack and flake off if the tire was flexed during wheel installation

[Ben]

OK that's good to know, thank you!

[vintagercr]

Could you apply the white out and then spray it with dull coat 

[Ben]

The thing I'm wondering the most is, will it dry properly?

[Mooneyzs]

On Vinyl tires you need to use an acrylic paint. its the only thing that I found that would actually dry. I would even trying washing the tires with some dawn prior to painting as well.

[slusher]

Use a white jelly roll pen Med tip. Picked it up on ebay for a couple bucks shipped 

[Tom Geiger]

a guy in my club got us acrylic white paint pens that work great.  To avoid the issues described above with cracking the paint while assembling the tire assembly... simply apply the paint once the wheels are on the model.  The process is nearly fool proof, so no worries in applying the paint to a finished model.

Added note- I'm talking about white letter tires.  I think there are enough choices of white walls out there that I'd avoid painting my own and have successfully done so, so far!

Edited September 20, 2015 by Tom Geiger

[mike 51]

Since you asked about painting letters and not about making whitewalls the cracking issue seems unlikely to me. I always dull coat my shiny black vinyl tires,never an issue with it cracking during wheel assembly or with age.

.I think it would work just fine on clean tires.(or perhaps even better on dull coated tires).and it's.likely to be easily removed if you don't like the results.

Edited September 20, 2015 by mike 51

[Skip]

Years ago an older modeling friend told me they were using a mix of Artist's Gesso and White Acrylic paint, which may have been out of the tube back then.  (Certainly the craft type acrylics would work.)  the Gesso gives a really bright flat white, the Acrylic gives the flexibility for normal assembly handling and installing onto the wheels.  

I never used the tip because I wasn't building white walled subjects at the time.  I attest to seeing the results of the mix.  Unfortunately the benefactor is now modeling in the afterlife so I can't ask hIm.  Not certain of the longevity of this trick because I have no idea where his models went.  Don't see any reason why it shouldn't work like straight acrylic white, it's just adding more white pigment (Titanium Oxide) solids.  I'd start with a 30/70 ratio of gesso/acrylic and work from there.

This  is probably a tip that if you do use that you may wish to split the gesso with others if you're not already using it for artwork because of the container size.  I think the smallest I've been able to pick up for art projects has been like half-pint.  (I'll have to check to see if I still have some gesso that hasn't dried up in the bottle and give this a whirl.)

**If I am not mistaken, White-Out was originally made of gesso mixed with a solvent (MEK) so that it would dry rapidly.**

[Ben]

Thank you for the replies! Coating the tires with dull coat does interest me but isn't the dull coat enamel based? If so, I would think it would react to the vinyl the same way the white enamel does? Is there an acrylic dull coat that would be better to use?

as far as the cracking, I intend to assemble the wheels into the tires before painting.

[mike 51]

I use Testors Dull Coat which I'm pretty sure is a lacquer..it dries virtually instantly.

 Use a light coat of course,,it doesn't take much to do the job..it's a spray so I wouldn't assemble the wheels unless you want them dull coated too.

I've used this for years without any cracking issues at all..neither during assembly or with age (25+years).  

Relax it's really easy to use 

Edited September 21, 2015 by mike 51

[Ben]

Thanks Mike, I'll try it out!

[Bob Ellis]

I use white latex paint and it dries normally. If you can set up a jig with a spinning drill, you should be able to do narrow whitewalls..

 

[SfanGoch]

You can also use a ruling pen attachment on a compass to spiffy up them Red Lines and Blue Streak Racing Specials. You have more control than would be the case with a tire spinning on a drill.