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Howdy howdy Ya'll, I've recently been painting cadians and once they are fully built there is parts of the models that are hard to access and paint. Should I start a sub assembly or just paint what I can see? It's mainly the chest and behind the lasgun and a few other detailed areas that are causing me issues. I know it's only a blob squad but what's the best way to approach this ?
Apologises for the noobie questions buy I've been out of the hobby for years and trying to get into the swing of things. Cheers for the help in advance!

I just paint fully assembled.

I tried this but I can't get into the chest and the back of the lasgun, it's highlighting that gives me issues, do you just paint what you can see? I have no idea on how I would highlight such a difficult place to reach, cheers again!

Generally most people just leave the unreachable areas in the basecoat/shade colour, yes.

Just make sure your primer covers all those areas, get in the right base colour and whatever shade or wash you use, then leave it. Nobody will notice.

Id say for later hobby satisfaction, begin learning the sub assembly process.

also with guard, think about the fact their shoulderpads aren't bike helmet thickness so the chest armour should line up with the shoulder armour, but build whatever you want ykno.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-102932-52130_Guardsmen%20Wip.html

a few wips

https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-102932-52129_Am.html

some stuff to get back to once I'm back in my own room.

Depends on what you want to achieve...

Some people like each of their troopers to be a work of art. If you're like that, then I suggest you sub-assemble.

If you're a gamer who isn't so interested in the hobby aspect then apply the 3 feet rule. If it looks good from 3 feet (which is how far away they are on a table), then it's groovy. As long as the army looks like an army on the table then you'll be fine.

I'm firmly in the paint what you can see camp - so fully assemble, prime, paint. But, that's my judgement - YMMV.

PossumCraft wrote:
Generally most people just leave the unreachable areas in the basecoat/shade colour, yes.

Just make sure your primer covers all those areas, get in the right base colour and whatever shade or wash you use, then leave it. Nobody will notice.

This. Generally if you can't get in there to work properly, all you need is fairly scruffy basecoat (ie just hit a hidden eagle or something with a lighter version of the basecoat) and a heavy wash. Those areas are normally in shade anyway.

However- this does mean you want a good basecoat coverage over white/grey, or a black primer with good full coverage. Dark stuff tends to be ignored in favour of lighter / more prominent detailing.

I assemble them all except the right (gun carrying) arm, spray a primer, apply the basecoats, throw my wash on them, then stick the right arm on and finish off the detailing and highlighting with the model fully assembled.

So long as you have a full layer of prime/basecoat you'll be fine. Your ability to get a brush in there is about equal to anyone's ability to see that part of the model. As mentioned above, basecoat, wash, plus whatever highlight you can mange will be just fine. You're not painting a 35 model Custodes army here.

Unless you're painting squads for Golden Demon competition. That said, all of my Golden Demon winners have been painted fully assembled, so there's that.

 Fenris-77 wrote:
Your ability to get a brush in there is about equal to anyone's ability to see that part of the model.

I will say that entirely depends on the colours and the specific model. Some models have a maze of structures that stop you getting a brush in to otherwise visible areas, and some basecoat colours will look awful if left alone in the hard to reach crevices. If you're the sort of person who's basecoat is actually their shade, it's probably fine, if you post-shade then you should assemble after doing the shade because it'll look odd to have the hard to reach crevices being brighter than the crevices elsewhere on the model.

That's fair. Almost everything I paint is primed black, and that makes this sort of situation very forgiving. If you're painting bright models and using white primer then you'd need to look at sub assemblies. For Cadians in most normal colour schemes I think he'll be ok though.

Thanks for the help mates, I have started a sub assembly. As a perfectionist and not being able to access the areas is driving me crazy so I think starting a sub assembly is the way to go!
Cheers again for all the help and love from bonnie Scotland!

All the power to you brother. I'm an impatient painter of armies and mostly lack the patience to sub assemble stuff. I may go that route with my new army though, as it's going to be more of a slow painting project than a rush job to make a tournament date (my usual MO).

Cadians actually. Three cheers for Cadia! Huzzah!!

I'm quite inpatient when it comes to painting 40 or so cadians myself but I can already see me progressing using a sub assembly. I suppose time will only tell. Try it you never know, but if it ain't broke then don't fix it brother! I'm looking forward to having a decent army and being able to play again
Huzzzzaaaahhh!