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For a long time now Ive been painting my models either on the sprue or only partially assembled.

but Ive noticed most of the people who post in the blogs & stuff on here seem to take GW's advice to completely assemble models before painting.

I always found that this massively encumbered my painting & even with really fine brushes there were places I could never get to.

any particular reason why you guys prefer to assemble before painting or vice versa?

just thought it would make an interesting discussion

(also, Im not sure if this should technically belong in the painting & modelling forum. I posted it here 'cos I thought it was less about the technical aspects of painting or modeling & more a discussion about why we do what we do)

Well, firstly, I think pretty much any question related to modeling and painting goes in the M&P section. The mods (may they live forever) will probably move this there.

Anyway, painting on the sprue means three things that I can think of right off. It means you have to cut something you've painted off of the sprue. This is bad because you have to handle you're painted piece more, and because you have to use clippers or a knife around it, both of which mean that you're more likely to chip the paint.

It also means that in a lot of cases you'll have an unfinished portion of your piece when you're done painting it, and once you've cut if off the sprue. Then once it's on the model you'll have to go back and finish that. This is especially hard if you've done nice blending or something on it .

If you're not just using flat colour, it's necessary to have the model fully assembled to figure out where you should place the shading and highlights. Or at least, it makes it a heck of a lot easier.

For those reasons, I always paint fully assembled.

hmm, I suppose thats right. I hadnt thought about blending, because I havent had cause to do it extensively yet. but on the other hand, Ive never had a problem with chipping paint due to handling unassembled pieces

I paint models on the sprue, or partially assembled, to a basecoat level, then assemble, wash and highlight. I've tried many methods, and this works best for me.

I do it after assemblage for a few (2) reasons.

1) I want to save spray paint (sad but true)

2) I build haphazardly, with my conversions being very Frankensteinian in nature (but not so much in appearance, if I may be so vain). Hence I usually want to have a very good idea as to what I want the model to look like before I paint, and I just can't do that unless the model is built

I usually test my poses with blu tack or something beforehand, so I can still paint model pieces individually & get to those hard to reach areas.

One big reason not to paint on the sprue: mold lines. If you want a clean model, there's no way to do that on the sprue.

I don't totally assemble. I'll leave gun arms off or the guns themselves. Backpacks are a big one on marines too.

somecallmeJack wrote:
any particular reason why you guys prefer to assemble before painting or vice versa?

Assemble before painting.

The fewer steps I need to take, the more likely I am to finish the job.

Fully assemble. Ballast on the base. Spray upward at the minis all around and then spray
normally all around.

Anything I can't reach with a brush becomes shadow.

Build then paint.

You can play before finishing painting.

You can properly see highlights / natural lighting.

If you can't see it, it doesn't need painting.

I just did the majority of the painting of my Hellstorm rocket battery before assembling was because I realized I'd never get to the middle rocket tripple if it was assembled first. However, I didn't do it on the sprue.

I tried doing some guardians on a sprue before, but they didn't come out all that well. Priming on a sprue, I can see though

I think the majority of people (Me included usually) don't paint before assemling is the fact that they want to play with the models, and the fastest way to playing with them is assembling (And for me priming, because I put magnet paper on the bases after priming)

another reason is converting/positioning, you may decide to swap an arm with another sets, so you have just wasted your time painting an arm or something just to find out that you want a different piece

I paint arms and weapons and sometimes heads on the sprue to a basic level, then assemble. After that, I shade, ink, drybrush, or whatever else I need to do.
As far as mold lines go, it's pretty easy to shave the piece on the spue for most stuff, then take care of attachement points after trimming.

I find I dislike playing with unpainted models, so assembly before painting has never been a must do for me in that respect. If its not finished, I wouldnt game with it.

I have tried both ways, however I find that in my group we would rather play instead of paint (since we can only meet randomly). Therefore I build first, spray paint and then what I cant get to, I dont get to.

I have tried painting on spurs however It has been a hastle for me because I would wind up painting over an arm/body connection and have issues when i tried to glue it. So I just stuck with building first.

I can see the benifits to the painting on spur method - im just too impatient and want to play more.

I tried sprue painting once with some IG. I thought it sucked. Getting to the mold lines on each piece was a pain in the ass. Having to go back and re-paint after cutting off the sprue when "done" was a pain in the ass. Scraping sprays off the bits where the glue goes was a pain in the ass.

i presume you can see where I am going with this?

If this method works for you, great and I am glad. It worked for me like whoring for virginity.

JohnHwangDD wrote:
If you can't see it, it doesn't need painting.

good advice for all the new painters out there. dont stress yourselves out by worrying about something you cant see. geez...

There are just too many cases with the space marine (and chaos space marine) figures where it's easier to partially assemble the figure, do the painting and then glue the arms and guns onto the figure. It's not that I'm trying to paint things which I won't be able to see, I just don't want to have to contort to paint the parts that I CAN see.

Hello!
I've always thought that painting things on the sprue
was one of the worst things you could do.
To me I would have thought that the hassle of trying
to cut models off a sprue and then try to tidy them
up without damaging the paint would be a nightmare!
Also the glue dissolves the paint and makes things
harder to stick together.How do get round the problem
of bad fitting parts without damaging the paint?
I think you should always try to assemble as much
as possible.

I part paint vehicle models on the sprue. It's always a hassle assembling the bits afterwards. You either have to do a lot more scraping to get bare plastic to weld or you get dirty fingers and scrapes on the paint and have to touch it up. These problems are greatly increased when doing infantry.

As a wargamer, I want my figures to look good on the table during play, rather than when picked up for close examination. So I'm happy to let things go a bit when it can't easily be seen.

Slipstream wrote:Hello!
I've always thought that painting things on the sprue
was one of the worst things you could do.
To me I would have thought that the hassle of trying
to cut models off a sprue and then try to tidy them
up without damaging the paint would be a nightmare!
Also the glue dissolves the paint and makes things
harder to stick together.How do get round the problem
of bad fitting parts without damaging the paint?
I think you should always try to assemble as much
as possible.

well, Ive always found most of the parts that need to be taken off the sprue twist off with no damage to the paint, other than a little spot of bald plastic where it was attached & the paint couldnt get to. Those always need touching up, but Ive found it to be a much easier job than touching up models that are assembled. For example where Ive tried to paint fine detail on the chest with the arms partially in the way.

Ive also found the poly-cement glue dissolves paint as well as plastic, so sticking models together isnt an issue. On the other hand, youre 100% right about bad fitting parts ruining this process. it can be a ball-ache when youve more or less finished a model & are getting ready to put it together & you need to do some remodelling work due to poorly fitting parts (Im looking at you, new plastic lootas)

Build then paint.
Cause I'm a mold line freak.

This thread probably belongs in Modelling rather than Discussion.

yes i say that to.... convert, build, spray, paint, play!
my only models i paint as parts (not on sprue) is models for competitions or bikers with really remade bikes...
//J

I always build first, then paint. Mould lines, and GS'ing gaps would be a massive pain if I'd painted already - not to mention the polystyrene cement having a problem with the paint.

The only times I paint on the sprue is for shields in WHFB; I glue on any iconography etc, get the base coats done, cut off the sprue, then touch up with highlights etc before gluing them on.

Painting tank tracks on the sprue saves some pain, you can patch them up later on. My plan with my baneblade and Leman Russ's is to build and paint the vehicles, but do the tracks seperately.

My sequence of events tends to follow these steps:

Oggle the pretty miniature bits.
Figure out a scheme.
Cut the requisite bits for a test piece from the sprue.
Prep the bits (remove mold lines, flashing, vents, etc.).
Base coat them.
Clean paint from the assembly surfaces.
Partially assemble.
Paint.
Clean stray paint from contact surfaces.
Fully assemble.
Wash.
Highlight.
Final wash or dry brush or highlight.
Check one last time to make sure I didn't miss anything.
Ram it on a base.
Do something interesting with the base.
Stick it on the table to terrorize my friends.

I've seen quite a few folks paint fully assembled, but I've just never had the patience for it and I really don't like seeing raw plastic or metal on my finished models. Painting partially assembled models is a good way to avoid that issue.

I've never even considered that painting on the sprue was an option. Always felt kind of half-hearted, to me.

First off, you can't really remove mold lines for crap. And I'm very OCD about my mold lines. Any evidence that the figure has even been on a sprue needs to be gone for me to be happy with it, which requires tons of scraping with an exacto knife or file, which will absolutely decimate a sprue paintjob.

The most important thing that's missing, I think, is the fact that you can't get a good paintjob without a fully-assembled perspective, because the shading of a model on the sprue is just so much different from when it's fully assembled. You might be able to pull off a craptastic hardlining job or something similar, but nothing you ever paint on a sprue will be truly incredible. Not to mention that a paintjob with mold line and sprue touch-ups can't look all that great.

You can't do any converting to your models at all. A model has to be pretty much fully assembled for you to add anything to it at all, or at the very least, not still connected to the sprue. You can't fill gaps in your model, either, and good luck using plastic glue once you've primed a piece on the sprue.

Sorry, I've just always hated this method, and I don't see why anyone would do it. It's already been mentioned that if you can't get to something with a paintbrush when a model is assembled, you probably don't need to worry about it anyway.

@ chrysaor:

I tend to do all the basic parts on the sprue & then the detail & highlights partially assembled.

is it just me or has this thread been moved to modelling & painting, but not beed removed from here? :S

Chrysaor686 wrote:Sorry, I've just always hated this method, and I don't see why anyone would do it. It's already been mentioned that if you can't get to something with a paintbrush when a model is assembled, you probably don't need to worry about it anyway.

Not true at all, I can think of plenty of times I've found gaps wide enough to see down but not to get a brush in. Then there's other recessed areas and interior detail. Complex things like breach blocks and things with many fiddly parts can be a paint to work the brush in and around for full coverage. It's easier to paint on the sprue, then assemble and patch up afterwards.