I bought some Plasti Dip. It's made for putting rubber coatings on tool handles. If you thin it*, you can also use it with a paint brush to coat plastic Transformer wheels.

It's kinda pricey. Expect to spend $25 to $30 with the thinner included depending on how big the cans are. But you get a ton of it, even at the smallest size. I got mine at the local mom n' pop hardware store. It should be common in any place that sells hardware.

The end result looks pretty close to a rubber tire. The real benefit is that it feels and acts like a rubber tire. I gave Bonecrusher a nice coating. With his new rubber traction, he is way more stable on his roller-skate feet. Since so many roller bots are coming out for RotF, I thought I'd post this.

I did not remove my wheels. Just be careful with the paint brush and you should be fine.

You should try it first on a cheap/common/bad toy like Armada Sideswipe so you don't end up with any rookie mistakes on a valuable custom. I went at FAB Ratchet before moving on to Bonecrusher. This stuff certainly isn't hard to use and if pretty forgiving overall, but it doesn't really behave like paint and it dries much "flatter" (ridges that you thought were filled in re-emerge) than you might expect. Just experiment before trying a real project.

If you really want them to look rubber, fill in the hollow back with putty, sand the putty, then sand the mold seam down the center of the tires. Paint with the plasti-dip after all that.



Plasti Dip Protective Rubber Dip Coating Product – Plasti Dip International

(image courtesy of frenzy_rumble)



*Regarding the thinner used: