Painting before or after assembly

[bmcsw007]

I feel like I struggle when it comes to painting the fine details and getting the shading that I want. I am still newer to WH and get a little frustrated trying to paint. I have found a flat light blue spray paint that looks awsome after a black wash, but the small details kills me (especially eyes on space marine helmets). How does everyone else paint to make it easier. Do you paint before or after assembly of a figure, and whats the easiest way to make a figure look good without taking forever painting it?

[Jacinda]

I have done both, painting before and after assembly. Mostly, I now paint the backpacks seperate but if the model is assualt I assemble it and if it is holding a weapon across its body (like almost all the bolters do) then I paint it seperate. It is mostly personal preference since I don't see any difference in time to paint whether it is fully assembled or not.

 

For the very fine details like painting eyes, I use an 18/0 or 20/0 long liner brush. Get a good quality, LONG LINER brush for this. The longer bristles help hold enough paint on the very fine brush. I like Lowell Cornel (aka La Corneille) but Windsor & Newton or any similar brush will work just as well. I thin my paint with an acrylic Matte Medium, but most people just use tap water and maybe a drop of dish soap (washup liquid). I also love a wet pallet and can not see me painting with anything else, however I know some people who hate it with a passion. And finally, for my poor eyes I need a big, lighted magnifier and a brace for my arms because I shake too much.

[Morollan]

For something like a plastic marine I tend to put the torse and legs together and glue them on the base. I leave everything else as separate components and paint these up before finishing putting the model together. I just find it easier that way. I know plenty of people who put the model together before painting though so it's really personal preference.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I used to paint marines in four sub-assemblies: torso, legs and backpack all together, and then the right art with bolter attached, left arm, and head separate.

 

But that took forever. For regular tac marines, I'm now putting everything but bolters on them prior to painting. If the pose is going to interfere with painting the head, I will paint it separately.

[Kierdale]

For my latest tactical squad I put together the legs and torso and stuck the on the base, painted them, and everything else separately. Mainly I was concerned about not being able to get to detail after assembling if I did it all at once. However it did prove to be extremely time consuming (and some of the parts ended up not fitting together so well: something I could have noticed and dealt with earlier!). For my next squad I'll be assembling as much as possible before brush nears paint.

[Subtle Discord]

I worry about the pose and strength in my plastic marines, so I do most of the assembly before painting. I leave off the shoulder pads and backpacks, but the rest is complete, including basing. There is lots of merit to leaving the bolter/weapon off, or even the arms. But it really is personal taste.

 

I've found that the really hard to get at places are many times barely visible, or completely obscured. Even if a very deep recess is semi-visible, (Behind a bolter, for example) many times you can rough in the colour, clean up the edges, and shade with a wash and get very solid results. Those areas should be shaded more in many cases, so it will work.

 

You're issues with painting sound like they stem from your order of painting. See if this will work better.

 

1) Prime like normal, but make sure you have a colour that can match the prime OR be willing to give the miniature a quick coat of watered down 'base' color. Lots of blue in your case.

 

2) Now is the time to pick out most (all) of the 'major' detail. This includes eyes, all metal areas, trim, etc. Mistakes picking out these details can easily be cleaned up with your 'base' colour, since it's just a solid colour, not shaded with a wash. Eyes are much easier if you can put the color on a bit sloppy, and then you 'cut/trim' the shape you can you want with the 'base' colour.

 

3) Now go in with your wash. If you're using a 'neutral' wash like black, you can almost get away with just slopping it on. Otherwise, place it with a bit of care, and keep a clean brush handy to wipe away any wash that gets onto details that it doesn't suit. It can be tricky in some cases, but wash is very forgiving. In some rare cases, you might have to only wash small areas, let them dry completely before moving on. Don't be afraid to to several washes in some areas to build up the effect.

 

If you paint details (eyes) a little brighter, a dark wash will start adding depth, and soften the edges a little. In general, make sure the wash is totally dry before proceeding with more washes or highlighting. An old hairdryer is excellent to speed up the process.

 

4) Now is the time to bring the miniature to life with highlights. You just want to add modest streaks of lighter colour on all the hard edges that are pointing up. Think as if your light source for the model is directly over it, shining down. Even simple 2-or-3 step highlights will add a lot. Now is when you can brighten up metal as well, but in many cases you can get away with just a wash if you want speed.

 

Add a tiny 'dash' of brighter colour to the eye. Try to take care, you don't want to 'fill' the eye, you just adding that center glint of colour. it looks even nicer if you can get it to smear ever-so-slightly, but that comes with practice. then just add final point of really bright colour and you'll have really nice eyes. Some gems are done very similarly. (Some like to add a final very tiny white glint on eyes, but prefer a very bright glint of base colour - sometimes bordering on white)

[Lawgiver 67]

I tend to assemble all my marines first, then paint them. If I'm working on a vehicle like a land raider or rhino, I usually assemble and paint the insides first then build around it , prime , and paint the exterior. It all depends on what you prefer and how comfortable you are with your own system of doing things.

[cathar the great]

As others have pointed out, it's a waste of time to paint a part that won't be visible after assembly anyway. Why paint the details on the torso if the bolter will cover it anyway?

 

I always assemble the complete miniature before priming and painting.

 

Painting parts on the sprue is even more of a hassle, as you'll have to redo the areas where the parts were stuck to the sprue.

[Jacinda]

As others have pointed out, it's a waste of time to paint a part that won't be visible after assembly anyway. Why paint the details on the torso if the bolter will cover it anyway?

Because I would rather paint a part that will never be seen than see a part I can not paint.

[striker8]

I've done it both ways. on sprue and fully assembled. But I've found the best results come from a mixture of the two approaches.

 

For the most part I assemble as much as possible. So for tacticals, assualt marines, non heavy weapons marines, For me that means legs to base, torso to legs, arms to torso using a spare bolter to line the arms up but not glueing the bolter( this only works for regular bolter and special weapons and must be modified for other weapons), next is the head. I paint the shoulder pads, back pack and bolters/special weapons seperately and attache these at the ens before clear coating.

 

Heavy weapons/Devs where you don;t have a lot of choice I leave the one shoulder pad off. Same goes for hybrid metal/plastic mini's not that there are any left straight frm GW anymore.

 

The only things I paint fully assembled are metal/resin mini's and even then since I pin anything I can there are some parts that are painted before gluing on.

 

In the end it all revolves around how you work, there is no right or wrong way just ones that work for the individual. Try the different ways and you might find you can use bits and pieces of each technique that will make one full technique for you.

[splicer407]

I've always painted mine with just the torso halves glued together. I start with the legs, then the torso and build up from there, ending with the backpack.

 

I think I'll try some of each though, because I think the habit comes from painting Tyranids for a while and they had so many parts that were close to each other that painting them assembled was hell for me, so one day I said 'screw it' and started doing them piece by piece.

[Rafen_2]

I paint people separate except for parts you wouldn't see. Big stuff gets put together first unless I want to paint the inside.

[Captain Tezdal]

I put together everything pre-painting aside from the bolters and backpacks.