tips needed on how to paint raised white letters on wheels

[ctbailey]

Hi to the group:

I've seen a handful of pinewood cars that have had the lettering painted on the wheels. Is there a technique to this? Or is this just simply use a single fiber brush under a microscope project?

thanks!

[FatSebastian]

ctbailey! This is a good question especially considering that the raised lettering on the new 2009-style wheels seems a lot narrower that before.

[Go Bubba Go]

MaxV's latest newsletter has some good info on this.

http://www.maximum-velocity.com/pinewoo ... imes-v9i9/

One of the best articles I've seen on start-to-finish building, including the white letters on the wheels.

Bubba

p.s. I think MaxV's OK with linking this. If not, Randy (or Randy) please delete and accept my apologies.

[Pinewood Daddy]

Another way is to use a white "sharpie" marker.

[Stan Pope]

Ever looked at the "business side" of a rubber stamp? The raised portions of the stamp are nicely black and the indented portions are still nice and clean?

How about taking the same approach with the wheels? Spread a thin film of paint on paper or foil, then press the wheel against it, then lift it away. Don't slide the wheel around as that would just "scoop up" paint into the indentations.

[ctbailey]

Great ideas!

Thanks everyone. I'll post some pics of the final build.

Thanks very much

Craig Bailey
Unit Commissioner

[AlabamaDan]

Great ideas!

Thanks everyone. I'll post some pics of the final build.

Thanks very much

Craig Bailey
Unit Commissioner

Well...where are the pics?

[ctbailey]

Stay tuned for pics... This truck is coming out pretty good.

[FatSebastian]

I don't know if this is helpful, but I wonder if a pointed foam applicator brush not unlike those that come with some correction fluid (Liquid Paper, Wite Out, etc.) would make for faster work than painting each letter with a tiny brush or toothpick:



On a whim I tried brushing a wheel with correction fluid and was pleasantly surprised that I could sometimes get pretty good results by lightly sweeping the foam tip across the tops of the letters. Although correction fluid is terrible to work with as a paint (as it dries too fast and gets gummy), one might be able to suitably make or adapt little foam applicators for use with paint.

[whodathunkit]

Ever looked at the "business side" of a rubber stamp? The raised portions of the stamp are nicely black and the indented portions are still nice and clean?

How about taking the same approach with the wheels? Spread a thin film of paint on paper or foil, then press the wheel against it, then lift it away. Don't slide the wheel around as that would just "scoop up" paint into the indentations.

Stan, now I really like your approach to painting.
Just tryed this rubber stamp approach here is how it turned out.


Dagum if this isent the fastest way to paint lettering on the wheels boys.
It works as you can see for yourself.
Stan, hope you dont mind if I used a spare polished axel and a pinvise as a handle.
You now them little fingers need a little something more to hold on to while getting down to business.

[Stan Pope]

Stan, hope you dont mind if I used a spare polished axel and a pinvise as a handle.
You now them little fingers need a little something more to hold on to while getting down to business.

Great!

Also consider using a 4" section of 1/2" dowel with a 15/64" X 1/2" deep hole in one end, chamfered with a 3/8" bit, and split the end of the dowel with a narrow saw blade to depth 1" to allow the hole to flex open and grip the wheel. The chamfered end of the dowel should place the end of the dowel flat against the inner face of the wheel.

This plan makes for a really quick change of wheels from the holder!

[whodathunkit]

Totally Awesome tip's Stan.
And kudos to you.

Your dowel rod idea is very clever and I like the idea.
painting these letters with a brush will make you go cross eyed quick.

I wonder if one could paint the end of a dowel rod to stamp the spokes with also.
Humm. gonna have to try it and see if it works.. now if we could only come up with something
to keep the paint from getting down inside the wheel bore.

Mark.

[FatSebastian]

It works as you can see for yourself.

Glad to see that it worked so well! We had never bothered to try the ink-stamp approach, based on reports that it failed to completely cover the letters because of the curvature of the sidewall. Although it looks like that happened a little bit with yours, it still looks pretty good.

[Stan Pope]

It works as you can see for yourself.

Glad to see that it worked so well! We had never bothered to try the ink-stamp approach, based on reports that it failed to completely cover the letters because of the curvature of the sidewall. Although it looks like that happened a little bit with yours, it still looks pretty good.

Good point!

If the "paint pad" is backed up by something with some give, such as a couple layers of inner tube, the full coverage should be attainable. I'm thinking that 4 to 8 layers of cotton, e.g. an old handkerchief folded might also do the trick!

[whodathunkit]

It works as you can see for yourself.

Glad to see that it worked so well! We had never bothered to try the ink-stamp approach, based on reports that it failed to completely cover the letters because of the curvature of the sidewall. Although it looks like that happened a little bit with yours, it still looks pretty good.

True FS, the one I stamped on paper with a hard backing dident cover all the lettering but it still came pretty close to covering all the lettering, And very little tuch up work is needed.

I liked your idea of the foam brush FS.
Here is why: If the kids were going for a mud on the tire look for an offroad vehicle.
I tryed staping one on a heavy foam pad useing white Apple Barrel water base acrylic paint.
Had I used a brown paint it would of really had that muddy gritty look (of mud on a tire.)
Here is a photo of that wheel.

If the "paint pad" is backed up by something with some give, such as a couple layers of inner tube, the full coverage should be attainable. I'm thinking that 4 to 8 layers of cotton, e.g. an old handkerchief folded might also do the trick!

Stan, here is one I tryed.. useing thin foam pad & some foil tape.
It did a little better covering the lettering but it also had some paint get on the side walls between
the lettering.

Here it is with the problem spots cleaned off.

It still did a pretty good job covering all of the letters with a little more paint on the lettering,
but it also had a few spots on the lettering where the paint was a little heavy also.
It could have been that the paint was a little thick in these areas when I stamped it also.
I did try painting the end of a dowel rod to stamp the spokes with it did paint the spokes but not as good as i would of liked it to.