Assembled or un assembled, that is the question.

[ILL FATED USHER]

Ok so ive been painting for some time now, Mainly space Marine and some fantasy models for Dungeons and dragons when my friends update or start new characters.

As per most models i have found it extremely difficult to paint alot fo areas of my mini due to it being assembled, ( either my brush doesnt reach well or the Spray primer hasn\'t hit the undersides ofcertain parts.
But i also find that if i take the model apart and assemble after painting i will get a Super glue mist around some edges where peices go together orthe peices im glueing together will slip and the glue gets on the painted model.

Any ideas or sugggestions? is it better to paint before assembly or after? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[supervike]

No real advice here other than to say, I have never had much luck with \'paint first, assemble later\'.

I can never quite get the perfect fit, and the glue is always sloppy.

I always assemble first, paint later.

But, I\'m a consistant scorer of \"6\" here on CMoN, so take my advice with a grain or two of salt....

 

[Ritual]

I try to assemble as much as I possibly can before painting. For the simple reason that joints often look a lot better if you can treat them with some putty or something after assembly, and sand the area smooth. If the primer has trouble reaching areas you can just use some brush-on primer there.

Sometimes it is impossible to paint things if you assemble certain parts prior to painting and then you\'ll have to paint things separately. In those cases it is important to dry-fit the parts thoroughly before painting so that you know they will fit nicely without joints showing too much. Sometimes you may have to add some putty over the joint even though the parts are already painted, and then it\'s extremely important to use the minimum amount of putty required and smooth out the putty very carefully as you don\'t want to sand the area.

When gluing already painted parts together you should be careful when applying the glue. Don\'t put glue onto the mini straight from the bottle! Pour out some glue on a piece of card or something and apply the glue onto the mini with a cocktail stick or something that allows you to be a bit more precise.

 

[miniDrake]

I just assemble and prime with black undercoat any place to hard to get to I leave. Seeing as the miniature is primed black those small spots that the brush can\'t get just end up looking like very deep shadows.

 

[matty1001]

Sometimes I assemble it, sometimes not. If the parts dry fit well I will just pin them together but not glue.

Sometimes I will leave parts separate and paint areas which would be hard to reach, them attach them together and putty the gaps then just use a brush on primer.

Just use common sense, you won\'t go far wrong.

 

[Shadzar]

APS it depends on the mini. of course you can\'t unassembled prepainted DDM minis, but for 40k they are getting more to the point where assembly covers up many of the gaps.

i find it easier to paint as much as possible before assembly. even though a part of a bolter may be flush against a chest, i still paint it all so that when assembeld it doesn\'t show unpainted areas because i can\'t get into them if it were assembled.

marines mostly can be assembled first. things like legs, torso, head. then other accessories and appendages should not really show too much after assembly. shoulderpads should cover arm joints, etc.

touching up the places where exposed areas that connect are easier than trying to paint it all assebled for me.

of course this is moot when dealing with greens as they are pretty much one piece...

 

[QuietiManes]

I also assemble as much as possible. It\'s rare I\'ll paint much of anything before finishing assembly. Last summer I painted some marines from the MacCragge set in seperate pieces. Total waste of time IMO. Here\'s why, if your brush can\'t get to the area to paint it, if your spray primer can\'t get to the area to cover it in paint, then you probably can\'t see the area anyway, so why bother painting it?

If you really want to get those details and paint before assembly, just try to keep that in mind when you plan out your attack on the miniature. Don\'t do too many colour changes, blends, transitions etc over the joints so it makes it easier to touch up the joint after you assemble the miniature. Don\'t be afraid to repaint the area if you get a glue haze/mist that ruins it.

The short answer is: do whatever works for you.

G\'luck

 

[Gussy]

I partly assemble, then paint, then assemble, then paint again. Some things are harder painting with assembled, but I noticed that things are faster when assembled first.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by ILL FATED USHER
As per most models i have found it extremely difficult to paint alot fo areas of my mini due to it being assembled, ( either my brush doesnt reach well or the Spray primer hasn\'t hit the undersides ofcertain parts.

I almost always paint in subassemblies, unless a dry-run makes me think I\'ll be unable to glue the thing together successfully after parts are painted.

Originally posted by ILL FATED USHER
But i also find that if i take the model apart and assemble after painting i will get a Super glue mist around some edges where peices go together

Pin the joint, it will allow you to use less glue. It\'s usually (not always unfortunately) an excess of superglue that leads to the dreaded white fumes.

Originally posted by ILL FATED USHER
orthe peices im glueing together will slip and the glue gets on the painted model.

Practice and pinning will help here.

Einion

 

[alextheartist]

i find that using a gel form of superglue makes it much easier to apply to the mini, as it doesnt run everywhere. you should be able to get some at any good craft shop

Alex

 

[Einion]

I\'ve found that the gel type doesn\'t grab well.

Plus it seems not to form as strong a joint (anyone else?)

Einion

 

[Thunderhawker]

I am of a mind that for my actualy gaming stuff, if the brush can\'t reach it you probably can\'t see it. For others, I tend to do all my pinning and fitting sans glue, then pain the individual pieces. Always remember with superglue, less is more.

 

[QuietiManes]

My understanding of super glue is that the thinner stuff tends to be stronger for parts that fit together seemlessly while the thicker stuff is generally weaker but fills gaps better therefore if the parts are not a perfect match, it will form a stronger bond since it fills in and grabs all the little imperfections (instead of just the peaks and parts that happen to touch). In practice though, I don\'t think either makes much difference if you use them well. Since noone realisticly uses super glue to its best ability and if your cat or dog decides to use a model as a chew toy or if you drop the model, the bonds will break regardless of your super glue-fu skills.

 

[veggiemanuk]

I\'m about to start painting a Plasma Cannon for my Tactical Squad Heavy Weapons Ultramarine. All the peices overlap in some way or other so for me the only way to paint it is to paint individual peices. I\'ve even cut another peice off so I can do that peice seperate.

In this image the hand in green will get obscured by the cables as seen in the next image. The yellow area next to the hand is where I cut the cable and the other yellow area is where it would obscure aswell as the underside of the arm.

If painted assembled like this then the hand and other areas around it become very tricky indeed.

This is the peice that I cut off, one end fixes to the coloured area just under the hand, the other to the cable from the backpack.

The coloured areas on the backpack will be obscured by the next peice as shown below

As you can see, the lower areas become almost impossible to paint if the two peices are assembled first.

So there you have it, 6 peices to paint individualy just to make one gun.

 

[Thunderhawker]

Bah if you can\'t see it, ya don\'t need to paint it.

 

[veggiemanuk]

Originally posted by Thunderhawker
Bah if you can\'t see it, ya don\'t need to paint it.

If only that were the case, I can see quite clearly all these areas, I just cant get to them easily enough to do a good job of them.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by Thunderhawker
Bah if you can\'t see it, ya don\'t need to paint it.

Possibly for Gaming Standard, But for Competitions, Display pieces and for Commissions......Paint everything.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Thunderhawker
Bah if you can\'t see it, ya don\'t need to paint it.

True, true. But sometimes you can see a surface but can\'t get a brush to it; that\'s the problem here.

Einion

 

[Thunderhawker]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach

Originally posted by Thunderhawker
Bah if you can\'t see it, ya don\'t need to paint it.

Possibly for Gaming Standard, But for Competitions, Display pieces and for Commissions......Paint everything.

Indeed - see my previous post in this thread.

 

[Monkfish44]

unassembled fo me, i like to get every detail even those you can\'t see from any angle...im a bit of a perfectionist