discussion Painting parts prior to assembly, yes or no?

[pjgtech]

Do you assemble the whole model and then prime/paint?
Or
Do you paint everything on the sprue before assembly?
Or
Do you prime paint some parts on the sprue (POS) and some as sub assemblies, and then assemble once painted?
Or
Do you do a mixture of the above?
Or
Paint everything off the sprue?

I know there is no right or wrong way, you gotta do what works for you.

But I find it really hard to paint stuff once its all been assembled, especially with small and/or complicated builds with lots of hard to get to places, interiors, behind tracks, etc. So I tend to assemble as much as I can of the larger pieces, and any main sub assemblies, then prime and paint them, before main assembly, and I tend to paint very small parts on the sprue, simply cos they are easier to handle that way.

What do you do?

 

[Geoffers]

I haven’t voted as I don’t really do either, I very rarely paint anything on the sprue.

I either join parts together and paint them (such as in a cockpit) or more usually I remove the individual parts, clean them up and then paint them separately usually held on clips or taped to lolly sticks.

I don’t understand the snobbery against painting parts on the sprue though. We all have our own ways of doing things and if that works for you then that’s all that counts

Geoff.

 

[pjgtech]

Amended....

 

[PaulTRose]

Erm...... All depends on the kit...... A bike is different to a car which is different to armour which is different to a plane

I do each kit differently as i sit and work out the best for me way

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Generally, I build as much as I can before painting. Inacccessible stuff, like aircraft interiors, I paint complete before closing up
Small parts I paint on sprue before attaching, because they'll always be knocked off
But that's a different thing entirely

 

[radish]

This is the way I do it, others will have differing views on the subject ------

Much easier to assemble 'sub sections' before painting, so assemble all the bits that are going to be painted one colour, then assemble other bits that will be painted another colour.
By doing it this way, you can see if you have made any mistakes and correct them, before painting.
It makes final assembly much easier to, when you only have to join two, three or four different coloured sub sections together.

Hope that all makes sense -------------

 

[Andy T]

I rarely paint anything on the sprue as there'll usually be gate nubs to deal with once it's been removed. I do sometimes prime though.

As a rule I'll construct sub assemblies, stopping at the point where airbrushing would become difficult as I hate to leave bare spots, even if they'll never be seen.

My son is a 100% brush painter and fully constructs his miniatures first, with the motto of, if you can't see it, don't paint it.

As mentioned, the subject matters too. Armour is often all the same colour or scheme so I'm more likely to construct it first. Something like a road car often has many different colours involved so I'll pretty much paint everything before assembly.

As always though, each to his or her own

 

[Tim Marlow]

I don’t think I’ve ever painted anything on the sprue, mostly for the reasons Andy has already given. I do, however, build sub assemblies, paint them, and then final assemble as required. In effect, I do whatever I feel needs to be done to make the job easiest and most effective. Certainly have no axe to grind here though, as I assume everyone else does the same thing, and if that means painting on the sprue, go for it!

 

[Jim R]

I never paint parts on the sprue. I like to dry fit and fettle parts before painting and as Andy says there's always a joining nub to clean up. I like to assemble as much as possible before painting but that's not always practical, then it's sub assemblies