Painting on sprues or fully assembled?

[Phantomworks]

Hello

 

I was just wondering what the majority of fellow B&C'ers do in terms of painting. I always see GW fully assembling a model before starting to paint it. This is based on looking at their paint guides for example. However, is it not better to start painting the parts directly on the sprues before assemlby for the best affect and coverage, eliminating the need to deal with nook and crannies....

 

I want to start painting a new Space Marine army and really do not want to make a balls of it if at all possible.

 

Any advice appreciated.

 

Thanks,

G

[Maligoare]

I started out painting everything on the sprue, then cutting it off, assembling it, and touching up any sprue attachment points. While this method does allow you access to all the tricky parts, it's only really suitable for a very basic level of painting due to the need for touch-ups along the way, and because it's nearly impossible to get the shading and highlighting right for a source-lighting technique. You also end up with all of the mould lines uncleaned, which really detracts from the model.

 

After I found the "paint everything on the sprue", I went to the other extreme and assembled absolutely everything. This led to some problems where I could not physically get a brush to where the paint needed to go. On its own, this method is also a bit rubbish for anything other than a very open model such as a Broodlord or a Rhino.

 

Now, I tend to use a mixed method. I assemble the base model as far as I can without blocking access to parts of it, and then paint the other parts separately. Sometimes, this will result in a model being painted as a set of different assemblies, and sometimes it will be as simple as leaving the bolter off and painting it separately. Just remember to remove the paint from any glue-points, otherwise the plastic glue/superglue won't work as well!

[Gray Knights]

I started of the same way as you did I now use a system as Maligoare you will figure way you like to paint you different fig's that's best for you.

[Stolid Fox]

I also do a mixed method; for a space marine I assemble the legs, torso, and helmet and then base (including basing material). I then prime that and paint it to "90%" (highlighting up things like the chest piece's aquilla/skull/etc. in particular); I take the other parts -- arms, weapon, backpack, take them OFF sprue, clean the mold lines, and prime those as component parts (be careful, it's easy with these smaller parts to 'blow away' the pieces with your primer; use a tiny piece of adhesive if you must but if so be sure to take a good long time before flipping to do the other side or you'll peel off primer.) and then paint them up to around 90%; then I finish assembly and do final highlights to complete the model.

[Warbringer]

I'm lazy(ish) so i paint my vehicles fully assembled and only what your going to see IE i glue the doors shut on things that i dont want opened up :)

[Phantomworks]

Thanks all, I appreciate the feedback :blink:

[Kierdale]

As Maligoare and Stolid Fox do, I assemble most of the model before painting. In most cases one arm gets left off but everything else assembled. Putting everything together before painting can make it very difficult (for a cack-handed painter like myself) to get to some details. You can see 'em, but just can't get the finest of brushes to them...without connecting with something else on the way!

[Snejk]

Hello

 

I was just wondering what the majority of fellow B&C'ers do in terms of painting. I always see GW fully assembling a model before starting to paint it. This is based on looking at their paint guides for example. However, is it not better to start painting the parts directly on the sprues before assemlby for the best affect and coverage, eliminating the need to deal with nook and crannies....

 

I want to start painting a new Space Marine army and really do not want to make a balls of it if at all possible.

 

Any advice appreciated.

 

Thanks,

G

 

 

In my opinion there are two major downsides to painting on the sprues. First you need to remove mold lines while the bits are on the sprue, this can be tricky. I can barely remove them when the bits are off the sprue (using i miniature file and a small utility knife.) The second disadvantage is that you stioll need to re apply some paint where the bits and sprues were attached. This does not take too long though. But if you also remove mold lines after you base coat you need a new coat of paint. So I just base coat on sprues.

 

Then i assemble the torso and legs with the base, paint those, paint the head, arms, shoulderpads and weapons separate separate, assemble and do the finishing highlights. How carefull i am depends on what kind of modells. Troops i paint pretty fast. Elites, HQs and other non cannon fodder units i take longer to paint.

 

But in the future i'll assemble the body, torso and head first on my HQs, Elites and other modells that i want to look better than my cannon fodder, and paint them fro there.