Painting larger models (Vehicles)

Hi all, I've been trolling these forums for a while looking for inspiration for some paint schemes and conversion ideas.
I have been looking at some of the vehicles painted here and wanted to know whether most people:

A. paint the parts before assembly
or
B. assemble everything then paint


My thoughts on the 2 were;
A - if you paint before assembly, when you begin to glue and assemble does the glue ruin your paint job?
B - Because of the detail, is it a pain/impossible to paint everything once assembled?

Any links to project logs that have some visual insight to this would be really appreciated

Also I'm beginning to magnetize everything too, has anyone magnetized their vehicles?

Hi The Stump,

I think you can´t paint the Raiders and Ravagers properly after assembling them. So I will paint them in parts and then glue them together. If you are carefull while glueing there is no problem with it.

Perhaps I´ll take some pictures when I build my first raider.

Michael

Demagoge wrote:

Hi The Stump,

I think you can´t paint the Raiders and Ravagers properly after assembling them. So I will paint them in parts and then glue them together. If you are carefull while glueing there is no problem with it.

Perhaps I´ll take some pictures when I build my first raider.

Michael

Thanks I really appreciate that! It would be great to see someone elses process.

I've not tried any DE models yet but in my 10k Blood Angels army I've always painted before assembly. Where possible I will glue together anything that I can to form sub-assemblies before painting though. It can be a pain in the neck due to glue etc but I prefer it this way.

I would answer C:partially assemble and paint. I found that the hulls of Ravager/Raiders are a bit of a bear to assemble after painting. I glue the hulls and decks together, paint them, and keep the crew and sail assembly separate.

Evil Space Elves wrote:

I would answer C:partially assemble and paint. I found that the hulls of Ravager/Raiders are a bit of a bear to assemble after painting. I glue the hulls and decks together, paint them, and keep the crew and sail assembly separate.

Yeah i tried to partial assemble some of my ravagers but I'm trying to find a sweet spot where i can assemble as much as possible before painting becomes too hard.
When you need to glue these final parts on (crew etc) do you scrape back the paint on the areas you want to glue? Do you have any photos in your projects logs that would show any of this?

Evil Space Elves wrote:

I would answer C:partially assemble and paint. I found that the hulls of Ravager/Raiders are a bit of a bear to assemble after painting. I glue the hulls and decks together, paint them, and keep the crew and sail assembly separate.

Ditto

I tried both ways - it is significanlty easier and faster to paint while not assembled.

You may want to assemble hull, just hull of raider/ravager and paint it, it is ok, you will have just slight uncomfortable time paitning engines, they will be in a really tight spot.

Venoms - 100% paint unassembled. In batches. Just for speed. And paint cockpit before assemble - cause it will be very hard if you assemble.

That is coming from aibrush user.

I'm with ESE and lonewolf, I assemble the main hull etc but leave off the sail assembly (it pushes in quite securely after painting, particularly once it's undercoated) and the crew. The dissie/dark lance mount on the front pushes in nicely after painting as well. The engine nozzles can be a bit tricky but if you're doing metallics with a wash and drybrush highlight it's not too difficult.
Re: the hangers on, it is possible to paint them after they're attached, but just test fit them first to make sure you can get your brushes everywhere you need!
Sorry, no part-assembled pics, though if you look at my project log in my signature, there's a few pictures of my raider painted using the above method.

TIP - if you're keeping the sail assembly sseparate, be careful and don't attach it too many times or rotate the sail too much, it can stress the plastic and snap the peg off, and that would make you look silly (voice of experience talking there!)
TBE

I lightly glue the crew members to a base before priming them(makes it easier to paint AND keeps the bottom of their feet paint free for gluing to the decking.) I don't worry about the decking paint. They seem to stay on fine. I might be able to post a picture or two tonight of some WIP vehicles on my desk, though I think that you get the idea.

Re : the sail assembly, i tend to lightly file the pegs to make them fit VERY easily allowing me to move them around as much as i like

lonewolf wrote:

Re : the sail assembly, i tend to lightly file the pegs to make them fit VERY easily allowing me to move them around as much as i like

ooops, yes, do this even if you are gluing it into place. I do the same with the pegs at the bottom of the sail assembly that plugs into the deck. They won't slide in if you don't...

as lonewolf says, probably sensible to file them down a bit - they do fit if you don't, but it takes a lot of careful application of force (ie - NOT a hammer) to get them in properly without snapping anything.

Come to think of it, I've got three raiders still in their boxes on my desk ready for assembly, (hopefully get started on them tonight) so I'll take some pics as i go along to show you what I mean.

EDIT: Pic of the initial assembly for a raider, I'd undercoat in these sections.
[img][/img]

Evil Space Elves wrote:

I lightly glue the crew members to a base before priming them(makes it easier to paint AND keeps the bottom of their feet paint free for gluing to the decking.) I don't worry about the decking paint. They seem to stay on fine. I might be able to post a picture or two tonight of some WIP vehicles on my desk, though I think that you get the idea.

In the past I have done this but found the models to glue only to the paint and not plastic to plastic, have you had this issue?

Also @The_Burning_Eye - Thanks for the pics

TheStump wrote:

In the past I have done this but found the models to glue only to the paint and not plastic to plastic, have you had this issue?

Also @The_Burning_Eye - Thanks for the pics

I've only had a problem on one of the Venom gunners. The good thing is, once they pop off they take the paint on the decking with them. 2nd time's a charm?

I guess it kinda depends if you are using an Airbrush or spray can or not. As mentioned by Azdrubael, its pretty much impossible to paint a raider pre-assembled. Batch painting raider and venoms in pieces is pretty fun, as i recently discovered..... heres some wip pics of the batch i did.... was easy to assemble them afterwards, as long as you are careful with the glue.





Imagine doing that whilst they are assembled.... not fun.

As for the question about scraping the paint off before gluing.... yes, i do do that, but only in afew places. You dont need much glue to hold stuff together really, especially the dark eldar kits are they are excellently made.