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Yes or no? I personally assemble, but that's just out of habit.


how do YOU do it?

I assemble , then paint ( unless its a shield then its hard to say ) Mainly i go with the " paint brush cant reach? neither can most of the light. Then leave it black as the shadow"

Gluing painted parts might cause some troubles as well , so for me its not worth the effort.

Exactly how I see it, but in this case I really want this army(Tomb Kings) to look real nice, so I'm wondering if it's faster whilst still looking better than my average.

P.S. Awesome Avatar Luna

For TK , or minis carrying such large shields ( they cover like... 30% area atleast of the mini) , its best to paint shield separately .

But thats just theory though..

want to test it? 1 rank of 5 glued, 1 rank of other 5 painted on sprue :"P

I can't stand unassembled models. Unfortunately, I'm not as motivated to paint. My models sit on my desk staring at me with their unpainted eyes, piercing my soul with a blackness that only a $3.00 can of spray paint from Home Depot could match.

I've found AT-43 helps alleviate the guilt. My Therians don't judge me, all they want is a little Armor Wash. Unlike my selfish BTs who constantly demand highlights and freehand banners.



The one thing I disliked about painting on the sprue was going back and touching up missed mold lines and the spots where the model connects to the sprue.

I wouldn't paint on the sprue. You still have to do the cleanup work and removing the parts will leave blank spots all over your models that you will have to paint anyway, so I always remove mine and parts the models in semi assembled sections, like upper body, head, arms and lower body, legs, to catch all the hard to reach areas and get better control over what I'm painting.

Build then paint builds stronger and requires less retouch, plus you get to play with the minis as soon as they're built.

Paint then build seems backwards to me.

I've tried painting on sprue, and it's slower IMO...
I assemble my marines this way: torso+legs+head+base+backpack - paint it
arms+weapon+shoulder pads - paint it

Glue the 2 parts together

done

I've found painting the main colour/s whil eon the spruce to be much quicker, then i cut off the parts and assemble them and do the details.

eg. I paint the marines spruces all mordian blue for the bodies and heads/arms and shouders etc, then cut them off and paint the rest, its easier to flick the brush across them on the spruce than to keep turning and holding each one individually.

I partially assemble mine, for a normal humanoid I assemble head+legs+chest and arms+weapon separately and paint them and then glue them together when its done. Find that its the easiest and the fastest and atleast I end up with the best result for me.

I never paint on sprue, but I also don't fully assemble my miniatures while painting either.

On my Terminators, I generally fix the legs ad torso to the base, and then fix head to body and begin painting. The arms I leave till last and paint seperately.....

I don't paint on the sprue, but I have batch painted before assembling models. This was key for me to finish 80+ Orks in about 3 weeks. I finished bases first, then bodies. I left the arms and heads off the models and painted it all seperately.

As previously mentioned about painting on the spure. Even if you clean mold lines off prior to painting, you will still have to go back to every model for touch after you snip each piece off.

Sarigar wrote:I don't paint on the sprue, but I have batch painted before assembling models. This was key for me to finish 80+ Orks in about 3 weeks. I finished bases first, then bodies. I left the arms and heads off the models and painted it all seperately.

As previously mentioned about painting on the spure. Even if you clean mold lines off prior to painting, you will still have to go back to every model for touch after you snip each piece off.

Im guessing these are slugga not shoota boys?

I actually cut out all the pieces, remove mold lines and then leave them all free as I spray them. It can get annoying, sometime's because the spray paint moves all the pieces around, but once I'm done, I can just paint the pieces separately and cleanly.

I prime most of my Tyranids on sprue, but my primer is also my basecoat, so it helps to reach all the little nooks and such on Tyranid torsos.

Hi all.
I tend to prime on the sprues.(I find it easier to manupulate to get full coverage.)
If there are small detaled parts like control panels-shields etc, I may finsh paint them on the sprue.
After cut off and clean up I build sub assemblies that I can paint all round with ease.
Then I do a final assembly and paint.

I paint off sprue and use a bit of blue tack to hold those pesky little bits from blowing away while spray priming. I have primed on sprue before, cleaning away the primer with a hobby knife before gluing, but always paint after assembly.

I basecoat on the sprue nearly always. I always paint unassembled, then put together, touch up, and clearcoat when assembled.

Assemble and paint. Some minis like space marines with bolters, I will not attach the bolter/arms until after I have painted the chest, but I generally try to assemble the fig first.

It's too hard to try and remove the mold/flash lines if they are on the sprue, and I have a particular hate for mold lines.


GG

I do most minis in 'subassemblies' these days. I'm too scatterbrained to remember which sets of arms go together on those where it counts, so I generally partially assemble things but leave them partially disconnected so there's no hard-to-reach spots like chests with guns in front of them.

I assemble then paint as i use Plastic glue exclusively for plastic models. It doesn't work on a painted surface. For mounted models or models with shields I may leave them seperate for ease of painting.

Painting on the sprue means I need to do mold line clean up on the sprue too. Just too fiddly and an extra step in the process. I also mix many of my base coats, so getting just the right shade at the end of the process is sometimes difficult for the necessary touch ups of the attachment points.

The other nice thing about assembling then painting is you can actually use your models for gaming during the painting process.

Assemble then paint for me - not only do I get all the moldlines off, but I also find it more comfortable to paint one model than a big square (more brush control), I don't have to go touch up afterwards, I don't get glue on the paint, most of my models will have some form of shading from one peice to another that's impossible on the sprue, and when it's assembled you can see exactly where the shadows should be.

No offense to anyone, but I've never met anyone who had a good standard of painting that painted on the sprue.

I'm doing the assemble then paint thingy. Although I might try paint bitz separately.

(Just joined Dakka so I'm just trying to blend in here)

When doing squads I get the bits off the sprue. Clean em up , mold lines , drill gun barrels e.t.c. Then part assemble , legs onto base torso and head. Then I generally will paint it up to a basic standard. Then put the arms and weapons on and finish painting. Basically the idea is to not block details with the arms and weapons , like the eagles on space marines chest, or faces of guard that are behind guns.

I prime them on the sprue, and then assemble them with high-quality glue that isn't messed up by the paint. I leave things like guns and shield arms separate for ease of painting.