Glue or Paint first?

[MarcAwsome]

So I have the legs, torso, backpack and head attached to my guys. But I've been holding off whether or not I should glue the arms and guns or wait until I paint the rest of'em, and paint the arms and guns seperately, or should I just glue it all and deal with the tight spaces later? My first painting job was a standard bearer, so this wasn't an issue.

 

Also, I got this all purpose glue which says it's good for for wood, plastic and metal for the metal arms, heads and packs to be glued to the plastic torso. Is this good? Or do I absolutely need superglue?

[Warbringer]

Which models?

 

Tactical Marines

Generally i build them up and leave the gun of for these

 

Assault Marines

Just build and paint whole :)

 

I would use either plastic glue or super glue.

[plasman]

My method: paint, glue, then paint again over the glue drips. :P

[Jacinda]

There is no one proper way. Whichever is most convenient for you. I tend to paint the backpacks and arms with weapons separate and then assemble afterwards.

 

I use superglue mostly because it is fast. You do not HAVE to use it if you prefer something else. Be careful with plastic cement because it physically melts the surfaces of the plastic and welds them together. While this is a strong bond, if you ever want to change weapon loadouts on your models (and you probably will at some time need to change a few) the superglued pieces can be popped apart but the plastic cement joints will have to be cut or sawed off; trying to break it loose will most likely ruin the piece.

[Kierdale]

I usually glue the legs to the base, the torso to the legs (giving thought to pose), then paint the head, arms, weapons and backpack separate. It takes a lot of time, but I'm usually worried that I won't be able to paint the hard-to-reach (yet still visible) areas if I put it all together first.

I also agree with Jacinda that superglue can be better than plastic cement as you may wish to change things later (and if you anticipate changes then magnets are even better).

[Furniture]

Personally, for tactical marines I've started to build them first, leaving the backpack and gun off. I paint everything, and then glue on the pack and weapon with superglue when it is all done. Sometimes an exception to the rule might be something like a missile launcher marine, where I leave the arms off too since they get in the way and the launcher is already attached to the arm.

[mactire]

depends on your skill level i think. like kierdale legs and torso first paint everything then glue, it is slower but i find it more rewarding in getting all the detailed bits ( dont game just collect so am not in any hurry and paint skills not the best ). i find any of the glues work well just be careful as some supermarket generic superglues are quite watery and may run on the models.

[NemFX]

i glue then paint, ive seen some nice models made from the inverse, but ive also seen alot of models get wrecked by too much glue, or the weird glue fumes effect that makes them mostly white.

[MarcAwsome]

I'll try and glue everything but the weapon and pack then. I noticed painting the areas between head and pack, and waist and pack tough to do when I painted my first guy.

[red_starrise]

For tacticals or anyone holding a weapon that obscures a decent portion of the figure, I assemble them up to the stage of the gun first which I leave off & usually stick a push pin into the barrel as my paint handle. For assault marines, I build them except for the jump packs which make painting parts of the head & shoulders difficult as well as fully painting the pack, so I leave those off & paint them seperate. I always glue my figs to their bases for ease of handling when it comes to painting them but I use a tacky glue that after drying it's easy to pull apart if I choose which means I can easily detail their bases afterward plus as the codices change & new weapons become available/better/worse/cheaper/more expensive it makes it easy to swap them out as needed.

 

For termies, usually I go ahead & assemble them as very rarely do they have weapons or poses that make painting difficult but if I'm doing bare heads, I usually leave those off of termies & paint them seperately as it can be hard to paint them well w/ the collar.

 

BTW, what is the name & brand of the glue?

[MarcAwsome]

Elmer's Fix-All

[Ironwulf]

Okay, that Elmer's glue isn't really appropriate for assembling Space Marines. Go out and buy some plastic model cement, like Testor's. That's best for assembling GW plastic kits. Get some superglue for assembling metal models, and sticking metal parts to plastic, and vice-versa. Keep the Elmer's glue around for when you're applying sand and gravel to your bases of your finished models. That's what it's best for.

[MarcAwsome]

Okide dokie, thanks for the tip iron pokie.

[striker8]

The whole thing with assemble first or paint on sprue really comes down to how it works for each individual. Since everyone works in a different manner sometimes one or the other technique just works better for a person. I always recomend that people try different methods including hybrid ones so they can find their personal sweet spot since there is no wrong way.