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I know the standard approach is:
1)glue all components onto a model,
2) spray
3) paint.

The last time I collected I had a very unconventioanl approach -I used to paint the arms and weapons seperately before gluing to the body. It allowed me to paint neatly but holding the arm while painting was awkward an it took a long time. So I'd like to try the more conventional approach. My issue is with arms and particularely guns crossing over the body -A space marine has a lot of chest detail so will I effectively be able to paint it well with a bolter blocking my brush? Sometimes I don't see how I can, but obviously there is a way, judging from quality of GW's own painted models, which are presumably fully assembled before painting. I'm just wondering what are other people's findings on this? Use a long-haired brush to get at the hidden bits?

Normally I pin everything. And I leave the rod in place so I have a handle of sorts to hold. Then once everything is painted up it gets glued. And then its simply a matter of touching up a few small spots. Then its wash time.. Then off to varnish..
Hey presto. One finished mini..
I make my bases in bulk so I can simply pick one out of my pile..

Edited for typos..

The simple rule for painting is:
Only assemble what is required and won't hinder your painting. And even then consider using blue tac.

While usually there is no issue with glueing arms to the model, the bolter will obscure details. Therefore glue on the arms, don't glue on the bolter yet.
The next "category" is small bits. Glueing purity seals and the likes on to the model may look pretty and give you a sense of satisfaction, but it will make painting them more difficult, so why bother?

In most cases my reasoning is "if I can't reach it easily I won't paint it in detail since it won't be seen anyway". This is especially true with mass troops.

On single or big models that I want to do really well I prime the separate parts and paint as much as needed and then assemble it. Also with e.g. Eldar Serpents or Falcons I paint the cockpits and the pilot separately before glueing them in. Saves pain.

I have a different opinion.

Generally I fully build my models before I paint them as I find it makes it quicker to get a series of models ready for gaming quickly. Also, generally if you can't reach to paint it you aren't going to see it so while it makes it a little harder in the end you aren't really wasting any details unless you plan to have them on display.

I would if I were you get either some really fine clippers or tweezers so that you can either leave the bolters on the sprue when you paint them or hold them on tweezers.

If you have some money to spend get a drill and pins like the guy said the bonus is that you won't need any magnets either.

For pinning rod I use the wire from the plastic baggy ties everyone has a million of floating around. You know the kind.
I strip those lile electrical wire to get at the thin wire inside.. Its virtually "free" pinning rod. And a 0.5 mm drill bit will work perfectly with those.
The drillbits are ordered cheaply online..
I think I paid around 2-3 $ for 10 drillbits..

For me, it depends on the model. If you're paying $25 for a 25mm, having a spot that doesn't look good is not acceptable to me.

With GW models especially, there are many spots which are visible but literally impossible (not difficult, but actually not possible) to reach once assembled. For example, I'm working on the Terminator with the power sword and the cape from Space Hulk, and the cape wraps around the right leg. If I don't partially prepaint, I cannot reach (neatly or otherwise) the inside of the cape that curves behind the model, or the right side of the leg. It would also be totally impossible to apply a wash to the inside of the cape. Both are plainly visible on the "magic angle" for photography.

There are many cases, especially with space marines, where arms cross in front of the chest, which bears a highly detailed chest eagle which would be extremely hard (probably impossible) to paint properly post-assembly, especially if you choose to paint each feather for a neater result rather than wash it.

To take a more extreme example, I have some vehicles where the pilot can't be painted once the glass in front of them is installed And there are some really cool models like Haemonculous which have like 10+ pieces for a 25mm, where there are many overlaps -- or larger models like Nagash or Treeman Ancient.

On the other hand, if you post-assemble everything, you run a good chance of damaging fine detail painting, because it doesn't take much to scrape off paint if there is friction involved.

So, I suppose, what I'm trying to say is that there aren't any hard and fast rules if you want the best results. I try to assemble as much as possible, and have a plan of attack for painting each model. Some are just a little harder than others.

 Murenius wrote:
In most cases my reasoning is "if I can't reach it easily I won't paint it in detail since it won't be seen anyway". This is especially true with mass troops.

This is pretty much the way I approach things as well.

Loborocket wrote:

 Murenius wrote:
In most cases my reasoning is "if I can't reach it easily I won't paint it in detail since it won't be seen anyway". This is especially true with mass troops.

This is pretty much the way I approach things as well.

My approach as well, though to be clear, I'm a base coat and dip kind of gamer anyway. Still, if you want to be able to get everything painted cleanly, there's really nothing like lightly gluing every part to a kabob skewer (or pining) painting separately and then assembling.

If you want to build an army quickly you can assemble and then paint for the rank and file and only focus on painting the centre piece models in stages.

It's not really a hard decision. Just make a quick judgement on how well you want the miniature to be painted and if you're willing to go the long route (building and painting in stages) or if you want to take some shortcuts to speed things up.

Thanks for the replies folks, some good guidelines for either technique. Tjomball Thanks in particular for the suggestion of pre-pinning, I have those food bag ties in my bits box, but I never would have thought of using them that way. As I'm a detail nut I'm going to try a "middle" approah as someone suggested -leave the arms on but leave off guns and anything which actually blocks LOS

...Unless I'm using a blast weapon like an airbrush of course

I always build before I paint I get sloppy with the glue so I tedn to need to cut some off so paint+glue blob = ....nurgle?

I'm actually really bad for this. I have to assemble stuff before painting, otherwise I end up with too many half assemble bits everywhere, and then I can't cope.

It certainly makes painting things like chest eagles much harder, but my philosophy is: anywhere my brush can't reach is in shadow.

I don't generally pin models unless I want to try something and paint it slowly to get a nice high standard and take my time. I am doing this with my eldar (haven't touched them in a while)

For my Skaven all the hundreds of ratmen I just put together and paint them fully assembled.
As for my larger models (doomwheel, warp lightning cannons, plague furnace things like that) I usually glue what I can on it and push the rest together (so I can use it while still unpainted lol) but then it makes it easier to prime and to paint. Then I glue it afterwards.

The problem with not pre building is that polycement will struggle through paint so your model won't be as strong as lots have said pinning works but it's time consuming. I've just started a new wolves army and I'm pinning or magnestising everything but then again I already have 8000 points of wolves on the shelf so it's not like I'm in a rush with them because I can still game.

 Smacks wrote:
I'm actually really bad for this. I have to assemble stuff before painting, otherwise I end up with too many half assemble bits everywhere, and then I can't cope.

I'm having that "bits everywhere" headache right now with 2 fully magnetised (down to searchlights and storm bolters) and heavily converted predator / rhino/ razorback builds. Never again will I work on 2 vehicles simultanesouly.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Simo429 wrote:
The problem with not pre building is that polycement will struggle through paint so your model won't be as strong as lots have said pinning works but it's time consuming. I've just started a new wolves army and I'm pinning or magnestising everything but then again I already have 8000 points of wolves on the shelf so it's not like I'm in a rush with them because I can still game.

I know this problem. I got around it in the past by using an Xacto blade to carefully scrape a small patch of plastic bare (on the surfaces that would contact),before gluing. And for metal to plastic or anything requiring superglue it was an absolute must. Though in hindsight apllying a small blob of blue tack or thin strip of masking tape before painting is probably easier.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tjomball wrote:
Normally I pin everything. And I leave the rod in place so I have a handle of sorts to hold. Then once everything is painted up it gets glued. And then its simply a matter of touching up a few small spots. Then its wash time.. Then off to varnish..
Hey presto. One finished mini..
I make my bases in bulk so I can simply pick one out of my pile..

Edited for typos..

On a slightly related topic, do you find those food bag wires strong enough to pin legs and arms? At the moment I'm using 1mm solid core steel wire as pinning to convert kneeling legs, reposed arms, etc, (with green stuff built up at the joints, around the wire) but the wire is proving hard to bend once in place. The food bag wires would definately be easier to bend, but its hard to tell if they'd be strong enough.

Due to my impatient nature I have a slightly different approach,
Since I often need the models assembled to play with it's not uncommon to glue them together to use. Then when painting I very often get annoyed with bits I can't reach so end up pulling the parts off to paint, it's got to the point where I tend to do this before undercoating now carefully disassembling things. If any damage does occure liquid green stuff is more than capable of sorting out minor scratches.

On a side note I've never had a problem with poly cement dissolving paint and making a perfectly strong bond, in 20 years of gaming, gluing painted models with poly cement has never been an issue for me. Seeing the advice in WD to use superglue for the wrack pilots however just made me laugh, is GW Plastic glue realy that bad? using super glue between layers of paints gives a much worse bond and risks trashing the surrounding paint when the bond fails.

 Simo429 wrote:
The problem with not pre building is that polycement will struggle through paint so your model won't be as strong as lots have said pinning works but it's time consuming. I've just started a new wolves army and I'm pinning or magnestising everything but then again I already have 8000 points of wolves on the shelf so it's not like I'm in a rush with them because I can still game.

A bit of sticky tack over the areas that will join with cement can solve this problem. Then you don't have to worry about pinning b/c a good plastic solvent is enough for almost any plastic bond.

Chimp.. Havent had any issues..
One of my Reverend Moiras fell of the table.
I managed to step on the poor thing..
The robe snapped off because it wasnt pinned..
Other than that the arms were ever so slightly bent. But not broken off.. Luckily I have light step..

 Tjomball wrote:
Chimp.. Havent had any issues..
One of my Reverend Moiras fell of the table.
I managed to step on the poor thing..
The robe snapped off because it wasnt pinned..
Other than that the arms were ever so slightly bent. But not broken off.. Luckily I have light step..

Haha poor you!