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Hello Dakkites! I'm running a little poll just out of simple curiosity to see how the many members here go about painting their minis. Do you paint first, ask questions later? Or are you an assembling man? No right/wrong answers folks, each method has its obvious pros/cons.

Assemble completely. Then prime and paint. I take the attitude of "If my brush cant reach it, it's not going to be a problem." I also don like very many moving parts. The exception to this is turrets and sponsons, as well as land raider doors. My problem with moving parts is wear. Its going to wear down and eventually be too loose and possibly break. Thats my process(es), take them or leave them.

You could always mess with pins in the joints, but yeah I see where you're coming from. Good attitude by the way!

Really depends. The Trygon I just did was assembled into major assemblies, primed, glued, sans arms, basecoated, assembled, then washed.

I always assemble before painting, though that has gotten me into trouble on occasion. (Stompa...)

I usually assemble into major components, then paint seperately, before finally putting it all together. So I'll assemble vehicle hulls, paint that, paint the turret and sponsons, then add them on.

For infantry, I assemble bodies, legs and heads; paint those, then add the arms that I've already painted.

It has problems with glue sometimes mucking up paintjobs, but I've learned to avoid that by now.

Sadly i've had a bit of glue muck up a small part of my BT's tabard :(. Oh well, you live and learn.
From the miniatures I currently have I think it really depends..for instance, one arm for my crusader squad templar holds the bolter across his chest. assembly before painting the chest would have been a nightmare.

Always assemble, prime, paint. I prioritize by whatever's going to be in the next army list.

I run into trouble once in awhile with some of the orks who have so many damn details and often have guns, straps, etc. blocking access, but it's no biggie.

I'll assemble infantry first, I agree with the earlier poster that said if your brush can't reach it it's no problem...

I used to paint my marines whilst they were on the sprue and, well, check my gallery...

I just feel that for batch production (I paint my models 5 at a time) they need to be assembled first, it's also nice to be able to just concentrate on one model and watch it go from a plastic grey to a fully painted masterpiece <3

It depends on the model. Models with many parts and crevices (direct order techmarine psrings ti mind) i prime and paint before assembling.

I also tend to spray tank parts on the sprue to make it easier to paint the interior panels before assembly.

Most normal infantry i assemble then paint.

I usually attach the body, legs and head together. Then paint them as well as the seperate arms, weapons and whatever else. Then I attach the body to the base, then the arms and weapon.