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When painting miniatures, is it better to paint then cement the parts in place, or cement everything together and then paint?
I've been painting them first for a month, and I'm still not sure which is the best way.
I'd like to put it to Dakka: Paint or assemble first?

on miniatures i like then assembled first but if I'm doing larger stuff like tanks or other vehicles i like to assemble and paint in pieces then finish assembling when all pieces are done

I like to assemble my minis first before painting so that I can put on any conversions, etc.

It's also a LOT easier to see apply techniques such as highlighting and adding shadows to an assembled mini.

Saves you a little bit of paint as well, because you don't need to paint the details in the hard to see areas.

Depends some are easier to build partially then paint, others the other way.

I find it easier to assemble then paint.

Really depends on the model, but I generally leave larger more obscuring parts off and spray them separately, say bolters or backpacks.

I do:
Assemble the bodies but leave the arms off.

Assemble arms and weapons but only blu-tack onto mini so you can get the position right, then pull them off to paint.

Put helmets on but leave bear heads off.

Sometimes, if it is an "open" mini I just put it all together.

Assemble the bodies but leave the arms off.

This-

I usually assemble everything but the parts that cover stuff, so I don't have to bend myself into 10 corners to get that last last spot in the model's armpit painted.

Depends on the miniature.

Tend to leave Marine backpacks and weapons off and unglued until the end. Basically; if it's obscuring a large portion of the model and halting a decent paint job, I'll leave it off.

My GKs are the first army I've partially painted on-sprue; this is because I use a LOT of asurmen blue to tint them and if I put the heads/backpacks on, said ink will pool horribly and make a nasty residue.

Also, with Purifiers (or any model with white heads for that matter; i.e. Dire Avengers) you want to paint the head separately; in my case to not get them covered in the 'orrible wash but some others might want to fork out on spraying them white.

Nearly always easier to just paint crap on the mini though.

Assemble first. But sometimes I wait glueing an arm or some other part to the mini in case it blocks some area to be painted properly.

For me it depends on the position of the arms.

If the gun is positioned across the chest I leave the arms off to enable clear access to the chest for painting.

If however they are close combat troops with pistol and chain-sword for example, I will assemble the whole model.

hmmm i'm actually quite surprised to see a general consensus on the assemble then paint, but then as everyone has mentioned it's not as black and white as that.

For me it depends on the mini, the amount of detail i want. My first army i totally assembled and although i got a decent paint job done on them in a very short amount of time, lets say a couple of months on n off for 2000+ pts it was a pain in the arse and there were some impossible angles, also i found with soem minis that i couldn't get the level of detail i may have wanted.

Now i leave models unassembled mostly for a high quality finish (well for me, it's mostly just a good paint job but i ain't no pro, so it's pro from my skill level lol) going with just core bodys and arms separated, i find i can make a cleaner finished product that way and add in shading as a final touch up when i put the model together completely.

i suppose you just find your comfort spot for painting then stick to it, what works for you is what works. i'm an unassembled painter for the most part now....since i dont' have a million troops to bash out as fast as i can i can take my time slowelly painting and gradually building.

I think with Space Marines you definitely want to paint them without the bolters or backpacks on. I'd keep the arms, though, since they can be posed whilst the glue is still malleable to hold a bolter you might have handy.

Here is what I am doing for my Current DA Successor project [The Order]

I have the legs/chest/head/backpack assembled/cleaned and the arms and shoulderpads seperate cause of my paint scheme but i tend to do this on all my models, except maybe my malifaux models

Need a third option for combination.

For vehicles I assemble with sticky tac or rubber cement, and put together/take apart as necessary for painting.

Deathshead420 wrote:

Assemble the bodies but leave the arms off.

This-

Me Too! Unless the arms are spread wide giving me easy access to the chest area. For SM I do the back packs seperately too.

I voted for assemble first....... but it really does depend on the mini :S

If i can assemble and still be able to easily reach all the parts with my brush, then that's what i'll do.