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I paint IG quite often, and i am curious about painting arms separately from the bodies. I use superglue to put them together, and I was just wondering about the community stance on it?

Well I dunno the community stance but I find it a pita to paint arms on the bodies, of just about anything, so I always do them seperately. I'll stick them on a tack, or glue a paperclip piece to them to hold them up so I can paint them. It's just a lot easier. Especially when you have a bit of OCD about bits that others may not see, but you'll always know are there and unpainted if you don't paint them lol

 Guildenstern wrote:
Well I dunno the community stance but I find it a pita to paint arms on the bodies, of just about anything, so I always do them seperately. I'll stick them on a tack, or glue a paperclip piece to them to hold them up so I can paint them. It's just a lot easier. Especially when you have a bit of OCD about bits that others may not see, but you'll always know are there and unpainted if you don't paint them lol

LOL exactly the same for me.

For my space marines. i usually glue the arms on but not the guns. so i can get to the torso.

might be more difficult for Ig with there molded gun arm.

I paint everything constituent piece by constituent piece. Even ammo pouches and grenades get done separately and are attached later, but I use super glue rather than dedicated plastic glues.

It's a painting method that works for me as I know I've hit everything that could be seen with some paint. Can do fully assembled models, prefer not to. YMMV.

I'm a heretic and paint all parts of the model seperatly then glue them all on at once

Do whatever feels best. I've never really cared about getting paint everywhere (I mean, what's the point of painting stuff you won't see anyway?), but if it bothers you just do them separately.

Some people paint it still on the sprue, but I don't think I could ever do that. Building and posing models and testing different combinations of arms and heads is one of my favorite parts of the hobby. That would be difficult to do if the pieces are still on the sprue.

I did most of my Tyranids with separate bodies and arms, masking the joining surfaces with Blutac. I used spray paints. I used liquid plastic cement to stick everything together at the end.

Light Primer coat on sprue ..remove from sprue take off moulde lines (easier to see primed for my olde eyes) base coat and details ..then assemble and wash ..highlight and dull coat and call it a day ...

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I did most of my Tyranids with separate bodies and arms, masking the joining surfaces with Blutac. I used spray paints. I used liquid plastic cement to stick everything together at the end.

does the plastic cement later on bond through the primer and paint ? i mean even if you mask the contact point of the arms......and the shoulders...i think/would expect problems in the glueing process...? or am i wrong? i always completely put the model together prime everything and later on course my actions...and never change my methods...

 Viktor von Domm wrote:


does the plastic cement later on bond through the primer and paint ? i mean even if you mask the contact point of the arms......and the shoulders...i think/would expect problems in the glueing process...? or am i wrong? i always completely put the model together prime everything and later on course my actions...and never change my methods...

I've read that there could be problems with bonding, so I scrape the paint off the parts that I'm trying to bond so it will be plastic on plastic. Another option is to just use CA.

You also have to be careful that the plastic cement doesn't drip or run on your paint or the paint will come right off and it will make a big mess.

Usually to get everything painted perfect may take me into the next 40k game revision.
So I usually paint with arms on so I can play when opportunity presents itself.
I found airbrush for block painting helps get those hard to reach bits I figure: "If it is hard to paint, it is hard to see.".
That is my reasoning, that does not make it 'right".

I would suggest anyone painting separately, please make sure you scrape off the paint at the joining areas and use a proper cement to weld the plastic together.
Crazy glue is good for any non-polystyrene materials (do not glue to paint! the join peels off with the paint) but is not a "proper" bond for plastic to plastic.
Roughing up the surface (sanding) is helpful to give the glue "more tooth" or more surface area to bond to.

Depending on which race i am working on i might paint the arms separately, pin the arms and paint them with the body or glue one arm and pin the other.

I do the pinning so i can make sure that the gun holding arms will line up correctly plus it lets me make some more dynamic poses.

 Guildenstern wrote:
Well I dunno the community stance but I find it a pita to paint arms on the bodies, of just about anything, so I always do them seperately. I'll stick them on a tack, or glue a paperclip piece to them to hold them up so I can paint them. It's just a lot easier. Especially when you have a bit of OCD about bits that others may not see, but you'll always know are there and unpainted if you don't paint them lol

So true. I can't sleep knowing an Ork's nails aren't painted even if you can only see them if you hold the model upside down at 70 degree angle on a sunny day in October...

I assemble until it becomes too hard to paint, usually that means torso on legs, but arms not attached (nor head).

Superglue over a painted surface is weak, as you are bonding to the paint.

I used to mask the joints before plastic glue as others have done here, but plastic glue melts through paint easily, so I don't bother any more, and have not had any problems with joint strength.

Guildenstern is also dead right, you're a heretic if you don't paint every piece, even those you can't see