Painting before assembly

[Klytus]

Hi All,
I couldn’t find a discussion devoted to this topic sothought I’d get one started.
So, do any of you paint your miniatures before you assemblethem? And, before anyone says it, I appreciate that many minis require greenstuff work, cleaning up etc. before painting which removes the choice. What Imean is the models that go together nicely without gaps, lines and the restwhich benefit from the added flexibility that pre-assembly provides. Thisalso applies to dioramas and situations involving multiple miniatures.
Take Blue TablePainting for example (love their assembly, not overly struck by theirpainting). I repeatedly see them produce fantastic minis with character and imaginationthat get sent to a painter in a state that only a contortionist could manage topaint well (the underside of arms, chest plates covered by arms and so on…).
I’m a relatively recent convert to wargaming so would lovethe input of veterans of the hobby.
Cheers,
K

 

[freakinacage]

if some areas would be difficult to paint assembled and joining wouldn't be difficult, i paint unassembled but otherwise assemble first. a lot of the time, the joins are in awkward places, ie in the middle of something that requires gap filling/texturing

 

[StillLifeMiniatures]

I have the same question with every model I've painted. I always dry fit the parts and assemble anything that needs gap filling or sculpting. I then assemble any parts that I can that won't get in the way of my brush when painting. Usually it's a cloak or an arm with shield that gets left off. I prefer to assemble the whole model, but the times that I've done that, it's been too much of a pain to paint the underparts without ruining another part of the model.

 

[spazomatic]

It depends on the overall model, I usually do it on a case by case basis. More often than not, I paint and assemble the model in stages. I painted 40 Tau Firewarriors like that. I would assemble the legs, torso and head, prime and paint it, then paint and assemble the arms, head, backpack and shoulder pad. Took me over a month but they look great.

 

[Baz]

I just give areas that will not be too visible a basic paint job as they will be in perpetual shadow. Another option is to fully paint and highlight the areas, then mask them off before building, filling, priming and painting the rest of the mini.

 

[Hasdrubal]

It depends on what's your objective. If painting to standard tabletop level, don't bother. Prime the model with a dark color, when do a zenithal highlight with a lighter color/white primer, and paint your minis without bothering reaching out to the difficilt to access areas: they'll be in shadows anyway and it won't be visible from the tabletop.
If painting to a higher standard, I'd suggest paint in whatever sub-assemblies as needed to achive the result to want. The vendetta I'm working on at the moment started as 25 sub-assemblies since it was easier/faster to do it that way (I learnt it the hard way while painting a valkyrie). Mask off areas when possible (make sure they're varnished before for added paint protection) and, if not, you can always scrape the paint off areas that will be glued together after painting (this last piece of advice is obviously for plastic kits only).

 

[Einion]

Previous threads with more on painting before/after/both:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?9472-Painting-Before-or-After
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?12019-Paint-or-assemble-first
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums...ssembled-or-un-assembled-that-is-the-question.

Einion

 

[Klytus]

Many thanks, Einion. I'll have a look.