Hi all. I need some opinons here. Do you think it is easier/better to put a building together first, then paint and weather it or paint and weather it first then put it together. Most books i have read show you putting it together first, but i would think that it would be more difficult to paint that way.
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
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I paint first, simetimes while the parts are still on the sprues, especially if they are small. That may require scraping the paint off surfaces where they will be glued together, but a couple of passes with a knife blade takes care of that. Maybe a little touchup after assembly, then weathering. I model in N scale so it's almost impossible to paint window and door trim after assembly without getting the paint on the building.
..... Bob
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If painting by brush:
Small plastic buildings I put together then paint & weather.
Larger plastic buildings I paint first then put together then weather.
Very large kits I paint & weather before I put together.
If you use an air brush....paint before you put together...weather some before .and after you put together
I do all the boring "as new" standard painting to set the original base colours before assembly... especially with masonry where you want to start with uniformity. Then assemble. Then have fun with detailing...
Seamonster wrote: I paint first, simetimes while the parts are still on the sprues, especially if they are small. That may require scraping the paint off surfaces where they will be glued together, but a couple of passes with a knife blade takes care of that.
I paint first, simetimes while the parts are still on the sprues, especially if they are small. That may require scraping the paint off surfaces where they will be glued together, but a couple of passes with a knife blade takes care of that.
This is very good advice, and everyone putting together plastic kits should pay attention to it. If you try to glue together pieces, particularly flat wall sections, when they have paint on the mating surfaces, the glue will generally not adhere well. You'll end up with gaps instead of solid joints, and your structure may actually come apart later.
I suck at painting so I paint FIRST then assemble. This way if I screw it up then I can redo it without destroying the building. Anyhow, I suppose it depends mostly on how good you are at painting. The better you are the more you can assemble before painting.
Weathering is [sometimes] a different story though. Because often weathering is applied long after the building is made and located. Knowing where it goes in relation to the landscape etc helps in determining the amount and type of weathering.
Also when weathering you may want a certain section or group of building to look the same, which ould be hard to do seperately, but once laid down in a location you can group weather them.
I hope that helps :)
One last note - it's not a race. There's no prize money for finishing a kit in one evening.
I'm like the turtles on the high-speed Internet ads. I don't want things to go too quickly. For one thing, I enjoy painting, assembling and detailing a structure, sometimes even adding interiors.
I typically take a week or two to go from a bag of parts to a finished structure. I do a bit of painting each day, or maybe it's a mortar or weathering day.
I have built both ways and each has it's advantages. If the structure will be easy to paint assembled, I do it that way. But some have areas that might be inaccessible after assembly and require at least partial painting during or before construction.
I used to trade work with a guy that was a great scratchbuilder in wood but was colorblind and didn't paint. Hense he didn't consider that as part of the building process and I had to have him build in stages so I could paint areas that would become inaccessibe or difficult to paint later.
Cal