Glue or paint first?

[Yug]

I recently bought a battle of Britain set  (spitfire, refueling tankers etc ) Thought I'd paint the parts before assembly, but had problems sticking it all together. Anyone got any tips for me. 

[GeoFF03]

Mating surfaces need to be free of paint for the glue to react with the plastic.  Sand or scrape off any paint traces from those areas.

[nmcabecadas]

I usually glue large "blocks" first, as the fuselage, wings and rudder, then paint, finally add small parts, however there is no magic formulae. Its a matter of logic, think ahead and imagine how can a step be done after finishing other without damaging anything. Sometimes, its impossible not to redone the same work, but carefull planing spare lots of time and the need to access areas where no brush can go :)

[DavidJC]

There are better modellers than I, and those far, far more experienced. But when I approach painting vs gluing, I look several steps ahead and try and work out which is going to make the most sense. For instance, interiors I will do prior to gluing anything major. If a whole sub-assembly can be made up I will airbrush it in one go. The Airfix new Hurricane cockpit is an example there: many of the cockpit pieces form a sub-assembly in itself. Rather than paint each individual piece then glue, I looked at the instructions, contrsucted what would make sense, then airbrushed the whole thing. However, I will mask with Maskol (or whatever) mating surfaces.

 

On the other hand, exterior surfaces I won't do until major halves are mated together, but that doesn't mean I will assemble, for example, rudder or flaps at the same time. Again I will analyste the instructions and see what can be fitted - by dry-fitting - later if that makes more practical sense. That applies to fragile things like aerials. Many flaps though I will airbrush separately, unless they have camouflage: the only practical way to do that is to attach the flaps so that the camouflage can be applied accurately and neatly.

 

My way of working is to look ahead, even before you glue the first bits together, to see what can be (or needs to be) painted prior to assembly or after. For me it's all about forward planning. When making Airfix's Sea Vixen I considered the masking and how that needed to be applied, and came to the conclusion it would be better to apply the dark grey first, then the white. That flies in the face of most advice which is to put the lightest colour on first. But after considering the masking and the rest, it just made more logical sense - and made it easier.

 

What can be glued together as a unit for painting the same colour? Are there any other pieces, glued together or not, that can be painted at the same time to save time? Is that piece, the same (or even different!) colour, going to make things awkward if painted and glued now, or not painted and glued now?

 

My way is no more correct or wrong than somebody else's, but it works for me.

[gary watson1707820320]

Chicken or egg debate. It all depends on what you can safely get away with  painting before assembly. We all have different safety levels.  

[gary watson1707820320]

There are better modellers than I, and those far, far more experienced. But when I approach painting vs gluing, I look several steps ahead and try and work out which is going to make the most sense. For instance, interiors I will do prior to gluing anything major. If a whole sub-assembly can be made up I will airbrush it in one go. The Airfix new Hurricane cockpit is an example there: many of the cockpit pieces form a sub-assembly in itself. Rather than paint each individual piece then glue, I looked at the instructions, contrsucted what would make sense, then airbrushed the whole thing. However, I will mask with Maskol (or whatever) mating surfaces.

 

On the other hand, exterior surfaces I won't do until major halves are mated together, but that doesn't mean I will assemble, for example, rudder or flaps at the same time. Again I will analyste the instructions and see what can be fitted - by dry-fitting - later if that makes more practical sense. That applies to fragile things like aerials. Many flaps though I will airbrush separately, unless they have camouflage: the only practical way to do that is to attach the flaps so that the camouflage can be applied accurately and neatly.

 

My way of working is to look ahead, even before you glue the first bits together, to see what can be (or needs to be) painted prior to assembly or after. For me it's all about forward planning. When making Airfix's Sea Vixen I considered the masking and how that needed to be applied, and came to the conclusion it would be better to apply the dark grey first, then the white. That flies in the face of most advice which is to put the lightest colour on first. But after considering the masking and the rest, it just made more logical sense - and made it easier.

 

What can be glued together as a unit for painting the same colour? Are there any other pieces, glued together or not, that can be painted at the same time to save time? Is that piece, the same (or even different!) colour, going to make things awkward if painted and glued now, or not painted and glued now?

 

My way is no more correct or wrong than somebody else's, but it works for me.

 Oh ya, I agree with Dave 100%

[Yug]

Thanks for the great advice. I think l 'm ok on planes  (I've made enough of them ) Struggled with the refueling vehicles but I think If I had to make them again I would do it better. I found the RAF Rescue ship particularly difficult to make  ( especially the gun ) and paint for that matter. 

[Jonathan Mock]

Thanks for the great advice. I think l 'm ok on planes  (I've made enough of them ) Struggled with the refueling vehicles but I think If I had to make them again I would do it better. I found the RAF Rescue ship particularly difficult to make  ( especially the gun ) and paint for that matter. 

 

That's good Yug, you're not doing anything wrong that any other modeller hasn't done done over the years, it's all part of the learning curve, stick with it.

 

And - at the risk of self shameless promotion - a modelling book also helps. ;-) 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Airfix-Book-Scale-Modelling/dp/1844861260

[Dave Leeman]

Yep, that probably is 'shameless self promotion'!

 

Great book though, well worth the asking price

 

 . . . Dave Leeman (keeper of a comprehensive reference library)

[Yug]

Just got your book Jonathan. Absolutely facinating , even thinking of investing in an airbrush.