Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey Everyone,
I recently picked up the newer Tactical marine kit (not the BA one) and I was curious on something. In the past, I used to assemble them sans gun to paint them up and then attach the gun after the fact. I don't know if I am just creating more work for myself or if they can still be painted really well fully assembled, so I will reach out to the experts and ask the following:

Do you fully assemble your new tac squads and paint or do you assemble partially and paint?

If you do fully assemble, can you still paint them relatively well?

I used to assemble first, but after seeing that you can get really good results by painting first (and it is a lot easier), I paint first.

You can see Buypainted do it here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUtjyHMsGq0

That said, you can see another outstanding painter do a brilliant job when fully assembled here (sans head);

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H7ezwBNGQ

Do note the chestplate he is using here though, I'd leave the bolter off if it were an aquila at a bare minimum

kb_lock wrote:
I used to assemble first, but after seeing that you can get really good results by painting first (and it is a lot easier), I paint first.

You can see Buypainted do it here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUtjyHMsGq0

That said, you can see another outstanding painter do a brilliant job when fully assembled here (sans head);

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H7ezwBNGQ

Do note the chestplate he is using here though, I'd leave the bolter off if it were an aquila at a bare minimum

Thanks for the links! I have viewed them before.

I paint mostly with brushes, so videos from Les apply a little more to me. I have not seen many from him where he uses an airbrush though.

I agree with the aquila piece though. That is the part that I would think is a pain to paint with the gun attached.

I think the upside of painting first is somewhat less the possible final quality, and more the speed, how fast a model can be done.

I think though that one of the big downsides of painting first is that it makes it harder to really customize the pose, ammo pouches, etc.

I leave the bolt guns and backpacks off...sometimes even the shoulder pads.

sm3g wrote:
I leave the bolt guns and backpacks off...sometimes even the shoulder pads.

This is what I do.

 SQRT(-2) wrote:

sm3g wrote:
I leave the bolt guns and backpacks off...sometimes even the shoulder pads.

This is what I do.

I'll third this, except I leave shoulder pads on.

For me it really depends on the colour being done, and the detail being hidden behind the gun.

For example, Dark Angels run red gun casings, and so I dont want them primed black really. But I do want black basecoat for the armour and so priming and painting the red gun away from the model wins over. While Blood Angels; black bolter cases against red armour... black will cover red really easily and so its not such a biggie to have white or red primer on the gun before going black.

And like the others, if the chest plate has a lot of detail, paint that first. Certain designs of chest plate are quite bare and dont make a big difference while some you'd never get to all the little details that sit behind the gun.

I might leave off their bolter hand, but otherwise I'd just assemble the whole thing and have a go.

When I built my Tacs I did it like so.

First I primed every sprue. Then I assembled each Marine completely except for the gun, which was left on the sprues. I glued them to their bases at this point as this makes holding the mini easier, especially if you use the old blue tac and wine cork trick! I do this differently now though, I only glue one foot onto the base and use only a tiny bit, this way I can pop the bases off the mini when it comes time to base them. This allows you to really get creative with the bases, especially if you're going to pin the models down. After I had everyone painted I glued the guns on, just a matter of tapping the barrels out and touching up the bare plastic.

You could paint them all on the spruce but then how are you going to get the mould lines? Not easily I'll tell ya!