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all in the title I'm terrible at painting and need some guidance on the question.

Ultimately, it depends on the model.
I'll glue as much or the model together as I can without compromising my ability to get to any areas that would be hard to reach. You just need to be conscious of what it'll take to paint the model, while you're assembling it.
My most common method is to build the model as several separate assemblies, paint them as is, then glue the assemblies together.

Aye. Unless the separate part greatly obscures an area I need to paint, I tend to attach it from the get-go.

An example of things you may wan to leave off when painting would be the gun of the Flash Gitz, as they're cuddling so closely that you cannot get in there to paint the torso very easily.
Whereas something I'd do in one go would be this fella.

Basing before painting is another question - some folks don't base until the end, using pins to put them in corks or vices as it makes the figure easier to hold and access. Some of us base early on because we don't think that far ahead.

It depends a lot on the model. On infantry, I'll assemble everything that doesn't obscure, minus the head, which I'll always paint separately, because things like the eyes or visors are often hard to get at once assembled.

On Citadel models with two-handed weapons (like a bolter), often, this means leaving the weapon, or one or both arms. Sometimes, I'll bluetac right (weapon) arm, plastic glue the left arm, and then remove the right arm and paint it separately. That allows me to glue the right arm back on in place with confidence once it's done, and usually, the left arm doesn't obscure much. 40,000 years from now, we will all be right handed.

On vehicles, I ALWAYS prime/pint in sections and assemble as I go. I prep all the pieces and dry fit them, and then, where I would glue the subassemblies together, I use either masking tape or brush-on masking film. The main advantage to this is that I can spray each subassembly the color that I want it, and save a ton of time in painting. I take that time and spend it on detailing parts that would otherwise be unreachable if I pre-assembled

Also, for vehicles, I will sometimes spray one side of the model (if they're different colors), and then preassemble a large subassembly, so that the finished product is more rigid and sturdy. This is because you can plastic glue or superglue the inside corners where two pieces of plastic meet before painting, but not afterwards. If you only glue the edges, sometimes, the model will be a bit wobbly for constant handling, if you want to game with it. Remember that if you reinforce 4 sides of a cube to be very sturdy, the finished cube will be sturdy, even if the other 2 sides are wobbly. This is particularly useful when you consider that you can still paint the inside of a space reasonably well, with 4 sides in place

All models are different as to whether to assemble first, or pant first.

And often a model will have parts you need to assemble, and parts you need to wait.

I have a lot of models where the weapons need to be glued into the hands before painting, but the shields need to be painted before they are glued (and pinned) to the model. Attaching the shield first makes it too difficult to get to much of the model, or the back of the shield (and often the shield obscures the body of the figures).

But most of my Sci-Fi stuff can be completely assembled first.

When you have "Paint first, assemble second" you need to think about how you are going to conceal the joint, or clean up the area that might have glue on it.

MB

rovian - It would really help us, if you mentioned a model you had in mind. We could then discuss which bits we would leave off until they are painted.



For edge highlighting, its really important to get the right angle. I would not enjoy painting a cuirass aquila with the captain on the bike.

All depends really. Especially with which color you are painting to. Usually with anything thats yellow I will leave out and airbrush it separate ( i really hate hand painting yellow, airbrushing looks so much better and takes way less time)

Depends on the model. for marines It's usually legs and torso together on the base, arms separate, and head on a pin to get more detail. For vehicles usually assemble it all and greenstuff gaps. For sisters pentinent engines and exorcists I just cry
Drop pods for me are a horror regardless of the order of operations.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:
All depends really. Especially with which color you are painting to. Usually with anything thats yellow I will leave out and airbrush it separate ( i really hate hand painting yellow, airbrushing looks so much better and takes way less time)

I know your pain for yellow. 2 models usually end up as 2 separate shades of yellow.

 conker249 wrote:

I know your pain for yellow. 2 models usually end up as 2 separate shades of yellow.

I am now at the end of a Baz Moonz army - two stompas, battlewagons, 100 boys, loads of deff dreads, Killa kans, megaobz etc painted.

Only on the last 20 boyz have I got the hang of yellow. !!!

it's mainly because I've discovered Humbrol Trainer Yellow - the only yellow that
1; comes in aerosol and tins - and the two match. which isn't the case for, eg, AP daemonic yellow
2; has good coverage over black (base with Averland sunset0 when applied with brush.. I've tried about 9 or 10 others, only a few give smooth results over averland sunset
3: works well as a base for other colours. With AP yellow spray, for instance, blacks rub off really easily. The Humbrol's pretty good.
It's also versatile. I wash with fleshtone and GW's yellow shade, highlight and you get the best results I've achieved so far, pretty quickly.

Re the question; I now paint much more disassembled. Meganoz are bodies only, no arms. For boyz, I spray helmeted heads and shoulder armour separately. For walkers, I paint (yellow) torsos and others bits, separately from all the metal arms etc. I use lots of bluetac, both to hold small parts in place against the newspapers so they don't blow away, or to, eg, mask Ork faces which I've painted black, when painting the helmets

I think the guideline has been mentioned:

Is it an area you can see but is hard to get at to paint?

If so, leave unassembled the minimum amount needed for easy access to paint.

One thing to bear in mind: ALWAYS scrape the paint off the areas you intend to glue together or your bond will fail in irritating ways, even better: mask off those areas.

General rules:
- Anything with a cloak or tabard should be left off to get at properly.
- Anyone seated like on a bike or in an open top sentinel is easier to paint separate.
- Anything that has plates over a frame like an Imperial knight, dreadnaught, dreadknight and defiler.
- Inside a cabin / compartment / passengers like the ghost ark, inside a transport of any type (Rhino, Chimera, Land Raider) where you have the doors open.
- Anything where it is easier to paint a part separate since the point to bond the parts are different colors (like rider butt and chair they sit on).

Space marine: typically leave the bolter off, the rest is not too hard to paint.

Astra Militarium (IG): I tend to paint the average grunt fully assembled. No fancy details on chest armor to get at.

The main consideration is do you plan on playing them as fast as possible? So if all the painting is not done, do you want to get a game in with that model? So fully assembled and primed may be the impatient but practical decision.

99% of my stuff has and does get stuck together before painting. If the non painted area cant be seen whats the harm? I know, i know