Pre-assembly when painting resin?

[Astartes Consul]

Hi all,

 

I'm going to be picking up some FW kits soon, and having never had anything from FW other than terrain, I'm a bit new to resin.

 

What are people's experiences with painting of resin parts prior to assembly? I assume that for individual models it's straightforward, but for vehicles, etc., is it viable? I don't want to part assemble, dry fit, and paint something, only to find that the resin has warped during painting, and I can't re-adjust it without ruining the paint job.

Edited March 22, 2018 by Major_Gilbear
Clarity/spelling

[Koryn]

Forge World can be hit and miss. Best thing to do is check all pieces on opening of package for warping(easily fixed with hot water), mould slip (very frustrating) and bubbles(cured by green stuff or glue). Some of the guys at Forge World customer support are gems others are a headache. If everything is in good order it is time for a toothbrush and soapy water and give those parts a good scrub all over to get rid of the mould release agent or your paint will flake off your model after application. Next cut those funky chunks of resin sprue away from your holy grail of games workshop miniature/vehicle. Next dry fitting is a must and knowing how to pin is a good skill to learn and this is the best time to see how everything goes together before you start gluing and painting.

The vehicle models are not straight forward and most instructions are not in simple GW format. If you have any other questions I am happy to help as most others will be on this forum.  

[m_r_parker]

It might be easier if you let us know which kits you'll be picking up, as the advice will be largely dependant on that. 

 

For general advice on preparing ForgeWorld resin there's a ton of threads in the General PCA forum detailing how to best prepare them, I should know as I've contributed to them. 

 

With regards to warping of resin, you're generally not going to see it warp between dry-fitting and final fixing unless you've done something like leave the component next to a radiator or in a window sill during a sunny day. I think the most you'll have to worry about is a part coming to you with a bit of a bend in it, and attempts to get it 'straight' don't hold and it returns to it's warped state. Mostly I find that's down to long thin pieces, like swords and combat weapons, and shouldn't knacker up any attempts to get models assembled. 

 

And as Koryn mentioned a lot of FW kits have either no instructions or very limited instructions. Only for the stuff in the past 12 - 18 months do you get any sort of detailed assembly instruction, and that really depends on the complexity of the kit. The newer Leviathan and Custodes dreadnoughts have great instructions, character series models have very basic assembly diagrams, and things life the Imperial Fist Phalanx Wardens or Templar Bretheren have nothing.

 

If you let us know what you're getting, we may have had some experience with those kits and give you some solid advice.

[Major_Gilbear]

It's highly unlikely that the resin will warp just from painting.

 

That said, the nature of most non-infantry kits from FW is such that you should aim to assemble as much as possible prior to painting. Things like pinning, puttying, sanding down, etc., are really important to get a good-looking model, and you won't be able to do this after painting. Leaving a turret or sponson or such off is fine, but I wouldn't have too many small sub-assemblies if you can avoid it.

 

Infantry is more forgiving - you can leave arms or heads on a long-ish pin for painting, and then trim them down a bit and glue them into the model at the end. I would ensure things like weapons are glued into hands, and pads are glued onto shoulders before painting though.

 

Assembly is pretty straight-forward, although many FW models come with no or limited instructions - dry-fitting of components before you trim and glue them is therefore recommended so that you can check how everything fits together. Cutting, drilling, and filing resin is also reasonably easy, but for vehicles you want to invest in a small razorsaw to remove the big blocks of resin from the larger parts.

 

The main things when working with resin are:

 

1) Wash the model with dishsoap and warm water when you get them. This is also easier to do when the parts are on sprues.

 

2) Clean up and assemble your model(s). Any areas that are to be glued benefit greatly from being trimmed and filed to get the best possible fit. At the very minimum run an emery board or gently scrape over the surfaces being glued - this removes a tiny amount of material which both roughens the surface and removes any possibility of lingering mould-release spoiling the strength of the joint.

 

3) After you've assembled your models, wash them again with dishsoap and warm water. This removes any tiny bits of crap arising from the assembly process, and also ensures that any oils or grease from your hands/tools are removed as well. It's a trivially-quick step, and I find it helps.

 

4) Handling your models as little as possible, prime them with a good quality automotive primer. The high solvent content in these types of spray means that they stick to the resin much better than most hobby sprays. Do make sure to let the primer cure for a full 24hr, even if its touch-dry after an hour.

Some people swear by spraying on a matte varnish first, but it's really the solvent in the spray doing the job anyway, so I feel it's better to just get a good spray primer to start with. As you're in the UK, you should find what you need in Halfords.

 

5) Paint as normal, and then seal at the end with a good varnish (spray or brush-on, gloss or matte; whatever you prefer).

 

Hopefully that helps! :)