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so I started to paint my dark eldar and I wanted to paint their bodysuit in a different way than the actual armor but when i try to paint those specific spots I got some paint on the armor parts. how can I avoid this mistake
im fairly new to painting and also pretty young if that helps

Don't assemble the models fully if it's that hard to reach

Just go back and touch up the parts you got paint on, or try to paint the difficult area first, and leave the large, open areas for later, that way you don’t have to worry about messing them up

Hi Necronomic, Its really common that issue if you painting your miniatures in a single piece.
I know it is difficult to paint inaccessible areas, start first that areas and you dont mess the Final work in the armor.
But the best advice I can give you is that it does not glue the miniatures at all.
is pin for example the Body and separted the arms/weapon in a cork. Even you can Pin the feets and painting some parts otherwise you cant reach with the base.

Similar like that:



When you acquire experience you will see that you need to assemble or what not.
Only think if you brush can reach the spot.

 Resil wrote:
Hi Necronomic, Its really common that issue if you painting your miniatures in a single piece.
I know it is difficult to paint inaccessible areas, start first that areas and you dont mess the Final work in the armor.
But the best advice I can give you is that it does not glue the miniatures at all.
is pin for example the Body and separted the arms/weapon in a cork. Even you can Pin the feets and painting some parts otherwise you cant reach with the base.

Similar like that:



When you acquire experience you will see that you need to assemble or what not.
Only think if you brush can reach the spot.

I'll defenetly do that on my next minis! but now its basically too late :(

 Necronomic wrote:


I'll defenetly do that on my next minis! but now its basically too late :(

Dont worry all have the Pros and Cons

Pros. You never lost a piece in the process hahaha. Try to painting innacesible parts even aply a minimal effort.

When you prime these "pinned" parts, do you clear the primer off of areas that need to glue together? FREX shoulders for connecting the body to the arm?

I used to prime on sprue way back when and one of the reasons people said to cut that out was that it would inhibit a strong join.

M.

 Infantryman wrote:
When you prime these "pinned" parts, do you clear the primer off of areas that need to glue together? FREX shoulders for connecting the body to the arm?

I used to prime on sprue way back when and one of the reasons people said to cut that out was that it would inhibit a strong join.

M.

Yeah it's fairly easy to just scrape off where the join will be. And the nice thing about priming and painting in subassemblies like this is that you'll get the paint and colour definitely into those areas that tend to be a little iffy when joined previous to painting.

On the other hand I know people who still prime and paint on the sprue - they just touch it up when needing to join the model together.

And I know people who fully assemble, then prime and paint. Because, yeah you get the hardest spots first, but then you really ignore those areas, or areas that no one's going to be looking anyway, and concentrate on the rest of the model.

@Necronomic - It's really all about what works for you and if you don't experiment, you won't know so don't consider this a failure by any means, just experience. Then next time you can try something new =)

Happy Painting!

Sometimes I leave parts of model unassembled(though I try to avoid to keep pieces safe and not lose accidentally! Mostly shields this way). And always try to paint bottom up thus starting from the hardest parts first. That way if you spill over no issue. It's going to be overpainted anyway.

I typically fully assemble, prime, then paint. As I was putting together my prototype guardsman last night I did wonder how readily I'd reach part of his chest armor.

M.

The easiest way to avoid this for rank and file is to paint from the inside out.

Nothing wrong with painting on the sprue or as separate parts, but for most of us painting bog standard infantry, it's not necessary.

Think about how your model would get dressed and paint them that way. Skin, then the layer closest to the skin etc...

The exception to that is if you are using drybrushing or washes or another messy technique on armor or something. In that case, do your messy technique first, then start from the inside out. You will inevitably have to do touch ups, there's no getting around it, but this will help minimize it.

Paint the most awkward bits first, then you're not going to spoil anything else while out try to get to them.