Cuttable masking tape?

[SteamSewnEmpire]

Hi all,

This isn't exactly a minifig question, but it is a customization question, so I was hoping you might be able to help, since this is the forum for those sorts of issues.

I'm going to be building a pretty fancy locomotive in a few weeks. IRL, the driving wheels were very uniquely painted, and I'd like to capture this look if possible:

I've already acquired 6x custom wheels in white, and I was thinking that the best way to achieve the black rings would be to buy some kind of masking tape and then cut circles to cover the center of the wheel, and rings to cover the rims, and then spray paint the middle (perhaps even using vinyl automotive dye - although I am not sure how successful that would be on 3d printed plastic (I know from experience that it works really well on Lego stuff, though])

Problem is, I have absolutely no idea what kind of a tape product would be best used to mask those areas. I think, ideally, the tape would be on hard sheets that would be simple to draw on and cut with scissors into shapes (in this case, circles and rings)... but I do not know of any product like that.

So... what should I use to accomplish this? Or am I going about it totally the wrong way? Any help is very appreciated.

[MAB]

I wouldn't mask the area at all. I'd do it this way:

1. Get the base colour painted.

2. Put the wheel on an axle.

3. Put the axle in a holder.

4. Hold a paintbrush off centre and slowly twist the axle / turn the wheel.

Let the rotation create a perfect circle instead of trying to cut perfect circular curves at that scale.

You might even want to create a jog that holds the brush in the right place, so you can move the part to the brush.