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I'm getting back into collecting miniatures, and am painting for the first time in about 30 years. I'm making slow but steady progress on a necron army, and checked out the GW tutorial, to see if I could glean some tips and techniques.

I was surprised to see them painting fully assembled models. I paint my figures on the sprue, then touch up after assembly. What about the rest of you? Assemble first, paint first, a mixture of the two?

I almost always assemble first then paint. Even high quality models seem to often not quite fit perfectly so it's worth it to assemble first. This way you're not worrying about filling gaps or working solvent in to melt the pieces together after you've painted.

Partially assemble, with anything that would block the brush being left separate. Most kits require too much cleanup for mould lines etc for me to want to paint them on the sprue.

I assemble first then paint.

I hate having to prime twice.

In my experience painting Necrons, models like Necron Warriors and Immortals you can paint after assembly. Models like the Ghost Ark are best painted in many partially assembled components.

The benefit of assembling first is in that you can file down any lines you create between bits. For example, Necron Immortal shoulder pads need green stuff and filing in order to look as one piece.

Assembling before painting also lets you do smooth transitions between colors across different parts.

I always desprue into bits first (some times months/years before I get to the model...), then wash everything in soap and water. It gets stored into sorted bits trays until I feel like painting that model.

Then, I assemble into subcomponents such that I can reach every part of the model, paint those pieces, and then do a final assembly with superglue. I almost always paint the head separately (I'll usually do a bunch of heads all at the same time).

Sometimes, I will hold off on final detailing until the model is fully assembled.

I base after everything is done.

Necron (infantry) are one of the easier forces to paint fully assembled (or at least, with the rods out from the weapon). Some of the Space Marine models make it so that you can't possibly do a nice (detailed) job on the chest eagle if you obscure it with a 2-handed weapon; and some of the Chaos and Tyranid models are layered such that painting each layer separately is just a lot easier.

My method is to do as much assembly first as possible, then paint. Sometimes it's worth it to leave off arms/weapons (such as with Space Marines) if getting to chest details would otherwise be extremely difficult. I'd never leave things on the sprue. De-spruing and clean-up of any and all pieces is always step one. I like to dry fit the models together first too, so I have an idea of what I want the finished piece to look like in final pose.

There's no rules, though. I'm sure plenty of people do it your way, too. Do whatever works best for you.

I would only ever consider painting a part on the sprue if it was 1) flawlessly molded, with no flash or shift, and 2) to be painted a single, solid color across any areas where sprue gates are present. This prety much limits it to something like the wheels on a (high quality) WW2 Jeep kit, which could easily be touched up with flat black and would get all their definition from weathering, as opposed to painted blends and highlights.

I fully assemble when the sculpt is open or the fit necessitates extensive cleanup and/or gap-filling. Closed sculpts that pass the dry fit test get painted to a basic standard in sub-assemblies, with cleanup and final touches applied after assembly, to ensure continuity, proper facing and occlusion of light, etc.

A lot of good advise here. For my part I've only done a very limited number of Perry historical plastics. My view is to do highly detaliled things (like faces) on the sprue so that you can really see what you're doing... but for main painting, I'd only paint fully assembled figures.

Watch some of the videos by BuyPainted on youtube. He paints quite a few parts on the sprue.


Example : https://youtu.be/EsqDx0GResc

I used to paint everything assembled but as I am progressing in skill I feel it is better to paint parts risk being obscuring separately.

First i dryfit the model to make sure everything fits, I do adjustment, remove flash and all that and then I make pin inserts to help me guide the part into place when painted. I also got the idea to pose the part on the cork as it will sit on the model to get the same angles for highlight and shade.

 granander wrote:
I used to paint everything assembled but as I am progressing in skill I feel it is better to paint parts risk being obscuring separately.

First i dryfit the model to make sure everything fits, I do adjustment, remove flash and all that and then I make pin inserts to help me guide the part into place when painted. I also got the idea to pose the part on the cork as it will sit on the model to get the same angles for highlight and shade.

So, what do I do if I follow your lead, but don't like coke zero?

I almost always desprue before painting. Getting the mould lines off is near impossible and then the sprue attachment points have to be repainted.

The only models I have ever painted on the sprue were the Battle for Skull Pass Night Goblins. I LOVED those models. You can leave them on the sprue (using the attachments to the slotta bit) and clean off the mould lines, then just spray them black and paint them all on the sprue. Assembly line taken to the extreme!

 ravenflight wrote:

 granander wrote:
I used to paint everything assembled but as I am progressing in skill I feel it is better to paint parts risk being obscuring separately.

First i dryfit the model to make sure everything fits, I do adjustment, remove flash and all that and then I make pin inserts to help me guide the part into place when painted. I also got the idea to pose the part on the cork as it will sit on the model to get the same angles for highlight and shade.

So, what do I do if I follow your lead, but don't like coke zero?

I'm not sure, bit it might work with other tastes and brands. Use protective gear while testing, it might explode...