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so i just picked up an assault squad planing to paint them as ultramarines but i have a few questions, so far i have the head torso and legs al glued together on a base, i was wondering if i should leave the arms off until i paint the torso or will that mess up the shading. also, what is the best/easiest way to get good shadeing, iv been doing extream highlighting but it takes forever. are there any ways that are quicker?

I would just leave that arms off, it gets REALLY annoying not messing the arms off if they cover the chest, hard but possible. So i'd say if your new to painting/ want to get the best detial then id leave em off

Honestly I think it depends on the level of quality you're going for with your models. For an eye pleasing tabletop standard I'd just go with a complete build of the model. I get compliments on the paint jobs of my models, but it's rare that someone picks one up and stares at it to look for imperfections.So I think that's really up to you. You can still achieve a great looking model without painting it as you build.

As for the highlighting I think that gets quicker with practice, but even after a few years of painting it will still take some time when applying a high level of detail on one miniature.

If you do leave the arms off, protect the places where you'll be glueing them onto the body. Put a drop of white glue on the arm and the chest before you prime. Afterwards, the glue spots will pop off really easily, giving you a nice clean spot to glue.

I find that mostly assembling the model (for SM, leave off backpack and arms/bolter) then basecoating and perhaps washing the separate sections makes life easier. Half-covered bits like the chest details get finished before final assembly. If you save the highlights until you've fully assembled, it allows you to mimic a consistent light source and get a unified final look without having to work around the fiddly bits during the entire process.

Gahmrious wrote:Honestly I think it depends on the level of quality you're going for with your models. For an eye pleasing tabletop standard I'd just go with a complete build of the model. I get compliments on the paint jobs of my models, but it's rare that someone picks one up and stares at it to look for imperfections.So I think that's really up to you. You can still achieve a great looking model without painting it as you build. .

^ THIS

I have started leaving off the gun, backpack, and head on my space marines. I don't worry about the arms since the parts they cover won't really be seen much anyway. I find I can paint the heads much better if I mount them on a piece of wire stuck into the end of a wine cork. But really it is up to you based on how good your brush control is and what level of quality you are going for.

I generally leave backpacks and weapons off to paint then do final assembly after everything is painted (but then I generally go for decent table color, not prize winning).