Painting Vinyl Tracks/Tires

[Dusky]

This question comes up a lot, but I've heard so many conflicting suggestions I figured I would ask it here. Before I buy replacement plastic tires for my Sturmpanzer, I figured I would try painting them.

One suggestion I have heard and tried before was Krylon Fusion, but it ended up cracking terribly.

Since the tires are on an entire sprue, I can use the sprue to test some suggestions. The two I'll probably try are Tamiya paint thinned with Tamiya acrylic thinner and Tamiya paint thinned with Mr. Color lacquer thinner. Any other suggestions?

 

[Dusky]

The paint is dry to the touch at the moment. The plain Tamiya acrylic is coming right off, so I'll see how it holds when cured. The Tamiya thinned with Mr. Color thinner is holding a bit better. I'll also try straight Mr. Color lacquer paint on a section.

 

[Dusky]

Nope, not even worth it. I doubt any of the paint will stick after it has cured and the tires are nearly impossible to remove from the sprues and clean up due to the material used. I ordered the plastic set.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

The last one I did was the Tamiya M51 Super Sherman, and I primed the vinyl tracks in it with Vallejo Black primer, worked great, no cracking, even though the tracks are flexible. Once the primer was dry, it was business as usual for finishing the tracks.

 

[spud]

if priming the rubber i would go with a good strong primer. maybe an Automotive one, Vallejo maybe ok but over time i would put my money on the Auto primer

 

[Dusky]

Thanks for the suggestions. However, if the tracks/tires are an oil based rubber I imagine you may have problems using an oil-based automotive primer.

I opted to go for the replacement tires this time since they were cheap and the material used was so soft it would be nearly impossible to clean up the sprue gates. It's not like the vinyl tracks I'm used to.