Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

When you paint Space Marines, you leave the bolters off to get at the chest details. This much is obvious (and easy). However, fire warriors have their rifles attached to their arm; so in order to get at the chest you would have to leave both arms off (to keep the other from getting crooked). I find this method to be a bit if-y (modelling and possible glue problems with primer coat). I tried painting fire warrios with the gun arms on, and it is do-able, but difficult. This begs the question: how do you, the people of Dakka, paint yout fire warriors? (since EVERYONE can't solely play Chaos, Marines, or Orks)

Comments/thoughts?

I've never painted Fire Warriors, but my advice is relevant. Just paint them in pieces and put them together. It's how I do it. You have to know the right amount of glue to use so that there isn't any flowing all over the place like a river though.

Typeline wrote: I've never painted Fire Warriors, but my advice is relevant. Just paint them in pieces and put them together. It's how I do it. You have to know the right amount of glue to use so that there isn't any flowing all over the place like a river though.

I'm guessing the plastic glue won't work on a painted surface, correct? I guess that means I would have to use super glue...

I paint my fully assembled. Its a pain in the butt, but ultimately easier. Also the missing detail work isn't an issue because its covered by the gun anyway.

Plastic glue will work (less effectively) on painted surfaces, but you can just avoid getting these areas with paint and it should be fine. Anyway, super glue isn't really that bad...

And I plan on painting with the arms on (when I get around to painting ) mainly because I am putting off painting and want to start playing with them. If I was able to, I would paint with the arms off.

In all honesty, I don't sweat anything that is concealed once the model is fully assembled. I don't paint for competition or display levels, purely for tt level. That being said, I would glue everything in place except the right arm. Use blu-tac to hold the arm in place so you can fit the left arm properly. Prime the whole thing and then separate the right arm and paint everything. Once everthing is painted, glue the right arm inplace permanently. If you get any paint where the parts will be glued together, scrape or file it clean before final assembly.

Thanks for the tips guys. Seeing as I'm going to be playing with them long before I paint them, I think I'll just paint them after full assembly like I've always done.

Put a small drop of white glue on each of the contact points and then prime after it's dried. Paint as usual and then when you're ready to assemble, use a sharp scribe or knife to pop the piece of glue off, which will expose the bare plastic.

I did 40 kroot at one time. The bodies took a day to do. The arms w/ guns attached took 4 days.

I leave the arms in this case off...but...I match up arm pairs to a model and usually glue the arm, w/o the gun attached, to the model. This is after I've used blue tack to get to positioning right. Usually I just scraped the area where the gun arm would be glued to the body after.

Ifurita wrote:Put a small drop of white glue on each of the contact points and then prime after it's dried. Paint as usual and then when you're ready to assemble, use a sharp scribe or knife to pop the piece of glue off, which will expose the bare plastic.

Great idea! I use super glue too but I just scratch off the primer (I don't get paint on the contact points).

I've painted plenty of Fire Warriors. I always paint before I assemble that way I can get the details. Just be careful with how much and where you apply the glue and it will be fine.

The only thing I paint pre-assembly is multiple shields and boltguns. And not always.

well you can always paint how you like unassembled, or partly, and just scrap the paint off where you plan to glue. worst case you might have to do a LITTLE touch up

Poly cement that I use will remove paint from plastic (acetone tends to do that) - yes, even primer, so painting first, and assembling isn't really an issue for me.

I've done a few FW like this, but I only keep the torsos to make up different looking futuristic humans for my RPG stuff.

I completely assemble all my FCWs and then paint them. There's no point in plastic if you're going to assemble it with super glue.

I build all mine then paint them.

Never done fire warriors, but I always paint and then assemble, much easier that way. When priming I use blu-tac to cover the spots that shouldn't have paint on them, and when I'm painting I'm careful not to hit that spot with a brush. The blu-tac pulls right off, so it's not a big deal to removed it after priming, and you can re-use it from model to model.

I painted my FCW arms off then attached the arms and painted them.

Assemble and then paint.

Basically use a super thin base coat to get everywhere.

DIP THEM, then build them

on a serious note. i like to actualy PLAY the game. so i build, then (never, so it seams) paint.

if this is your second army, then i would say go ahead and paint then build.

Envy89 wrote:DIP THEM, then build them

on a serious note. i like to actualy PLAY the game. so i build, then (never, so it seams) paint.

if this is your second army, then i would say go ahead and paint then build.

The only problem is that when I open that assault cadre on Christmas (or so I hope), I'm going to spend the whole of the next day getting them assembled so as to be able to smash face with railguns as soon as possible. It seems I'm never going to get a full army painted at this rate...>_>

If you need to paint it before you assemble its going to be hidden right? So why bother?

The difference will be very negligible and unless you are painting for competitions I'll bet you'll never once get noticed that you painted with the arms off.

Way to much effort for no reward.

And plastic glue is the devil, stay true to superglue it lets you actually fix modelling mistakes later unlike the plastic melting plastic glue.

you can usually get to the chest pretty well (i used to play tau)

Always use poly glue for plastic its stronger than super glue as it "melts " the two pieces together. I'm in the middle of painting 80 orc boys at the moment and my method is to take the bits off the sprue , scrape of the mould lines e.t.c. with my trusty scalpel. Prime and base coat. Then glue the bits together ( scrape paint away from areas to be glued) magic wash , then do the last few pieces of painting that are needed. Flock em and they are ready to roll.