How to make a tire mold?

[peteski]

47 minutes ago, Oldmopars said:

Sidewalls do not have a repeating pattern. Yes, the tread does repeat for the most part, but not the sidewalls. There is a lot of info listed and cool designs. This all depends on the tire style, brand, purpose, etc. but it is not a repeating pattern. 

True. The amount of detail on the sidewall depends on the tire brand and how detailed you want the model of that tire to be.  And yes, the example you show has lots of detail (more than most kit tires usually have).  Some of that detail would  probably barely show in 1:24/25 scale unless you exaggerated it on the model tire.  I was thinking about the average level of sidewall detail depicted on a typical tire included in a model kit.

[Oldmopars]

1 hour ago, peteski said:

True. The amount of detail on the sidewall depends on the tire brand and how detailed you want the model of that tire to be.  And yes, the example you show has lots of detail (more than most kit tires usually have).  Some of that detail would  probably barely show in 1:24/25 scale unless you exaggerated it on the model tire.  I was thinking about the average level of sidewall detail depicted on a typical tire included in a model kit.

When I model a tire I add details to the side walls to help them look like the real thing. You are right, most kit tires don't have any details, but if we were happy with the lack of details we would just use kit parts. The advantage to 3D printing is having the ability to go beyond what the kits offer and create details that you can't get from the kits. 

Nearly all engines are offered in a kit somewhere,  but vendors of 3D printed engines sell loads of them due to the added details. 

All depends on what you want in the end. 

[Chariots of Fire]

I asked a 3D designer to do a tire with Goodyear and with winged foot on the sidewall and the tire size opposite on a truck tire.  Both came out great and were not exaggerated at all.  When painted up it was visible but not overly so.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chariots of Fire

[peteski]

1 hour ago, Chariots of Fire said:

I asked a 3D designer to do a tire with Goodyear and with winged foot on the sidewall and the tire size opposite on a truck tire.  Both came out great and were not exaggerated at all.  When painted up it was visible but not overly so.

What I was saying is that on the tire Scott showed, some of the details on the 1:1 tire is likely so low-relief that if accurately scaled it would barely be noticeable.  It will likely have to be slightly exaggerated to look "right" in the scaled down tire.  I suspect that the Good Year logo on your tires was also slightly exaggerated, but not enough to stand out.  Many model kit tires (especially the vinyl tires from the '70's kits had  grossly exaggerated brand lettering).  It takes more than just accurately scaling down everything for a model to look "right".  Some details need to be tweaked. It is a bit of an art form.

[Chariots of Fire]

17 hours ago, peteski said:

What I was saying is that on the tire Scott showed, some of the details on the 1:1 tire is likely so low-relief that if accurately scaled it would barely be noticeable.  It will likely have to be slightly exaggerated to look "right" in the scaled down tire.  I suspect that the Good Year logo on your tires was also slightly exaggerated, but not enough to stand out.  Many model kit tires (especially the vinyl tires from the '70's kits had  grossly exaggerated brand lettering).  It takes more than just accurately scaling down everything for a model to look "right".  Some details need to be tweaked. It is a bit of an art form.

I'll try and post a pic of the tire so you can see the results.

[peteski]

4 hours ago, Chariots of Fire said:

I'll try and post a pic of the tire so you can see the results.

Oh I believe you Charlie.  I'm sure the tire and lettering look fine.  What I"m saying is that if you had a way to measure how far the lettering protrudes from the sidewall on your tire, it would probably be exaggerated when compare to the 1:1 tire.  That doesn't mean it is a bad thing.  

[Chariots of Fire]

Here's the 3D printed tire that I copied in resin.  You can make out both the Goodyear and tire size in the photo.  It's been painted over with weathered black acrylic.

[peteski]

While I have no way to measure the height of the raised lettering either on the model or  on 1:1 tires,  I will venture a guess that the model tire lettering  protrudes more than if it was scaled exactly from 1:1 tire.  But sometimes we have to do that in a model for tings to work out correctly.

[Rick L]

On 6/9/2022 at 8:41 AM, Chariots of Fire said:

Here's the 3D printed tire that I copied in resin.  You can make out both the Goodyear and tire size in the photo.  It's been painted over with weathered black acrylic.

The mold for that tire was well made. Is that a two or three part mold?

[bisc63]

Brian, on the first page of this thread you got some solid advice on making silicone molds and casting your tires in resin. If I may expand on that a little, I'd recommend Alumilite's Alumires RC-3 Black resin for your casting. It makes for a nice, realistic black finish right out of the mold. It is very opaque, so no light transfers through making your castings look "toyish." Simple 1-to-1 mixing ratio. Here's some small parts I cranked out with simple squish molds, except the Delco battery, which is a one-piece. I'll file the bottom of it flat to get rid of the excess, and the others have thin flash that an X-acto will clean right up. Most of it will actually flake right off it's so thin. My point in showing this is to show just how opaque the black resin is. You can find it here: https://store.makelure.com/store/p/1053-AlumiRes-RC-3-Black.aspx

[Fat Brian]

39 minutes ago, bisc63 said:

Brian, on the first page of this thread you got some solid advice on making silicone molds and casting your tires in resin. If I may expand on that a little, I'd recommend Alumilite's Alumires RC-3 Black resin for your casting. It makes for a nice, realistic black finish right out of the mold. It is very opaque, so no light transfers through making your castings look "toyish." Simple 1-to-1 mixing ratio. Here's some small parts I cranked out with simple squish molds, except the Delco battery, which is a one-piece. I'll file the bottom of it flat to get rid of the excess, and the others have thin flash that an X-acto will clean right up. Most of it will actually flake right off it's so thin. My point in showing this is to show just how opaque the black resin is. You can find it here: https://store.makelure.com/store/p/1053-AlumiRes-RC-3-Black.aspx

Thank you, I had wondered about what black resin would look like.