Randy Ayers Nascar Modeling Forums

[jbherri2]

How do you guys handle little details on the tires such as the various team markings and such? I see where some of you have labeled the tires as LF, RR, etc - and you've put other markings on them that make the tires look MUCH more realistic. Are you painting these markings? Thanks!

[18degrees]

There are tire decal sheets available from Powerslide that have all the markings i use. For example, when i did my #4 Hailie Deegan ARCA car, i used:

Aero and barcode decals on the wheels

“4” and “RR” (for car #4 and Right Rear) for example (LF RF LR RR all available and used, obviously), and “Set #2” decals on the tires



He also has other markings for sidewalls, i normally use the wheel weight location indicators too. Here are some wheels and tires that i kinda went all in for the build, #24 NAPA rookie ride of Chase Elliott:





All these markings are available from Mike’s Decals online
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ON DECK/IN THE WORKS: too many started to list...

[jbherri2]

Wow! Those look real!
Is Powerslide the only one making tire markings - like the car number, position of the tire, etc? I'd like to find something for older cars "dark side" and "gray side".
Thanks for the tip!

[Dan Belcher]

Here's a wheel I did for a 1992 Davey Allison car. I used Powerslide decals for the Goodyear/Eagle markings and wheel weights, but for the LR 28 markings I just used a white gel pen. The markings back years ago tended to be less pristine than they are today, so that worked well enough I think. I also used some Tamiya Smoke to take the bright white edge off all the lettering and make them look less perfect.

[jbherri2]

Those look sharp, too!
I picked up some Gel Pens today - 0.3 was the smallest. I hope I can make my tires look as good as these. I'll look into Mike's decals, too....

[Dan Belcher]

Good luck! Worst case if you don't like the results of your gel pen work, use some rubbing alcohol to wipe it off and try again. And FYI, for the entire process I used on the tire sidewalls... After sanding the tread to get rid of mold lines, go ahead and install the painted wheels into the tires, then put a coin over the wheels to mask them off and spray gloss clear coat over the sidewalls and let that dry really well. The gloss clear coat will give your decals and paint a nice smooth surface to adhere to. Then you can do your decals and gel pen work. After that has time to fully dry, you can use something like Tamiya Smoke or a weathering kit to take the bright white finish down a little and make the markings look less perfect. A little goes a long way, so be careful and build up slowly. Finally, finish things off with a couple coats of dull/matte clear coat to take the shine off the tires.