Painting on the sprue

[MILD]

G'day guys- I am just curious as to how many people here paint the smaller components whilst still on the sprue?

At the moment, it is the way I am painting- mainly to preserve the part number to make assembly easier. This means touching up those areas where I clip the parts. Another observation I have made is that when painting on the sprue I am less inclined to remove all of the flash, mould lines and other defects which is either me being lazy, or my dodgy eyes prefering to hold the item and view it from each angle and run my fingers all over it to feel out the problems.

In the past with wargaming miniatures I have made up small assemblies and then painted them as a whole. The difference there is the models have a nice little base to hold which makes life so much easier, where as the car sub-assemblies obviously do not.

How do the old and bolds solve the problem? Do you paint on the sprue, have special stands made up to hold completed sub assemblies for paint or is there some other super method I'm missing?

Thanks in advance gentlemen.

[Scalper]

I paint on the sprue. the i touch it up after.

[Stang67]

I stick them to well...a stick more like a shish-kabob stick with sticky tac. I don't like to go back and do touch up. I have a hard enough time getting them painted right in the first place.

Thanks.

[Joe Handley]

Leave them on the sprue, clean them up while knocking off sprue that's not totally needed to hold them in place, and paint...then touch up if needed.

[Harry P.]

Nope.

Remove parts from sprue, clean up and sand as needed... then I attach the part(s) back onto some scrap sprue with a tiny dot of CA in a place where it won't show on the finished part, and paint. Or, depending on the shape of the part, I might stick it onto a loop of masking tape doubled over so the adhesive side is up. When dry, snap it off and assemble. But bottom line, remove from sprue, then paint.

[Jairus]

I always remove from sprue, clean and sand the locator point and assemble into logical sub assemblies. I then airbrush the subassembly and dry brush and detail.

Have not painted on the sprue since I was in grammar school or thereabouts.

[Jon Cole]

I paint on the sprue, as long as the attachment point won't be a problem later on. If the part is to be painted black, I may use a Sharpie marker instead of paint. Sometimes the part must be removed b4 painting. No matter when it comes off the sprue, the mold lines must be cleaned up. I still need to work more on that.

[E St. Kruiser50]

I have a simple little system that's worked well for me for about a dozen years. In the first pic you see tooth pics, a set of micro-mini drill bits, a cordless Dremel with an accessory drill chuck for mini-drill bits, and a couple chunks of floral foam from Michaels Crafts, that I cut into smaller pieces.

I drill a small hole in a plastic part that is usually already been cleaned up and readied to be painted, and insert the tooth pick into the hole for handling while painting, and the rest of the time it's in the foam block, either waiting to be painted, or curing after painting.

For really tiny parts the tooth pics can be sanded down to a very tiny point and one of the smallest drill bits in the set can be used in the plastic part. I usually use a larger drill bit most of the time as it makes handling not so "tedious" or "Spindly" . The round tooth picks are tapered, so it makes for a nice tite fit, especially if the hole is drilled deep enough - DUHHH .

Or, if you can't drill a hole in the part, I cut off the end of a tooth pic to flatten it a little (depends on the size of the part), add some "Super-glue" - ZAP IT, for a quick set, stuff it into the block of foam, and your set for the next part, and everything is easily accessible, and can be nicly organized and arranged.

In this second pic, I have a stash of these blocks, because I may have 2, 3,4 or more projects going at one time, that I'm detailing parts for. A nice supply is always handy , and helps keep project parts separated and organized - I LIKE ORGANIZED .

And lastly here's a "Family pic" of a whole buncha parts - LOL

Edited July 3, 2010 by Treehugger Dave

[Eric Stone]

I'm always tempted to paint on the sprue, but that doesn't allow me to properly take care of flash and mold lines, so it ends up being more effort than it's worth to paint, cut off, clean up, remove mold lines, and touch up paint. I use lots of masking tape stuck to clothes pins, and I usually paint long block engine assemblies as a unit while leaving the transmission bare, or a small wire engine stand that sticks in the back of the transmission.

[MILD]

Thanks for all the replies.

For the engine assembly I have been assembling that prior to painting and then use a skewer to handle it. The various other smaller items such as suspension components etc, I'm thinking I might seperate them, clean them and then use waste sprue to hold them during paint.

Cheers.

[charlie8575]

I've found for me that it depends.

Some parts I like to paint on the sprue. I don't like handling small parts during painting, as I find my fingers get in the way and I can't paint well. If a part has really heavy mold lines, flash, etc, I carefully clean it up with a knife and perhaps a little sanding.

I've found I like to put together assemblies like engines that tend to be one color, together and paint them on the sprue; it's faster and much easier for me to do it. with some engines, though, I do remove them, put them on a toothpick and prime on my paintstand, before brush painting.

Priming- this is where the sprue is handy. I've found I really like to prime the parts while attached. It makes the priming much easier because no assembly is done (or very little,) and I can get very thorough coverage on the parts. Occasionally, I might need to go and dust on a small amount of primer in hard-to-access area, but I've usually had good results with doing it.

As to the touch-up after removal- that never really bothered me. Enough of the rest of the part is dry so I have someplace to hold while painting.

Charlie Larkin

[Greg Cullinan]

I haven't painted on the sprue since like three months ago

I use these pic n stick,they have adhesive on them,reuseable.

http://www.micromark.com/PIC-N-STICK,7467.html

And this stand and a few like it. Also available at Micromark.

[David G.]

I have a simple little system that's worked well for me for about a dozen years. In the first pic you see tooth pics, a set of micro-mini drill bits, a cordless Dremel with an accessory drill chuck for mini-drill bits, and a couple chunks of floral foam from Michaels Crafts, that I cut into smaller pieces.

I drill a small hole in a plastic part that is usually already been cleaned up and readied to be painted, and insert the tooth pick into the hole for handling while painting, and the rest of the time it's in the foam block, either waiting to be painted, or curing after painting.

For really tiny parts the tooth pics can be sanded down to a very tiny point and one of the smallest drill bits in the set can be used in the plastic part. I usually use a larger drill bit most of the time as it makes handling not so "tedious" or "Spindly". The round tooth picks are tapered, so it makes for a nice tite fit, especially if the hole is drilled deep enough - DUHHH.

Or, if you can't drill a hole in the part, I cut off the end of a tooth pic to flatten it a little (depends on the size of the part), add some "Super-glue" - ZAP IT, for a quick set, stuff it into the block of foam, and your set for the next part, and everything is easily accessible, and can be nicly organized and arranged.

That's really clever, I'll have to try that. I have a number of those foam florist blocks that I used to use for the hydrator in my old humidor back in the day.

Currently I have a couple of 1 X 2's about eight inches long around which I wrap strips of masking tape with the sticky side out. After removing the the small parts from the sprue and cleaning and de-flashing them, I stick them to the tape strips and place the board on my paint table across a couple of spray can lids. I found that lifting the board a couple of inches above the table surface seems to reduce dust problems.

[Ben]

I take all the parts that are to be painted the same color (not body parts) clean all the mold lines and flash and then take a big piece of cardboard, place a piece of masking tape (sticky side up) across the cardboard and then lightly place each part onto the masking tape. I then spray the first side really well and let everything dry. I then remove the parts, remove the tape, place a new piece of tape. Place the parts on the tape unpainted side up, and spray the final coats.

[Dave Ambrose]

I've been using hot melt glue to attach parts to sticks. Recently, I came up with an improved method that uses a couple of popsicle (aka craft) sticks to make a quick and dirty stand.

The attached pictures are pretty self explanatory. Everything is assembled with hot melt glue and literally goes together in a minute.

[LOBBS]

I take all the parts that are to be painted the same color (not body parts) clean all the mold lines and flash and then take a big piece of cardboard, place a piece of masking tape (sticky side up) across the cardboard and then lightly place each part onto the masking tape. I then spray the first side really well and let everything dry. I then remove the parts, remove the tape, place a new piece of tape. Place the parts on the tape unpainted side up, and spray the final coats.

This is pretty much the way that I do it too. The only exceptions being that I'll do as much assembly as possible with mating parts that will be the same color so that I can remove any mismatches or seams that may occur before paint and I make a loop of my tape so that I have a sticky side up for holding parts and a sticky side down to hold the tape down to whatever base I'm using.

[Ben]

This is pretty much the way that I do it too. The only exceptions being that I'll do as much assembly as possible with mating parts that will be the same color so that I can remove any mismatches or seams that may occur before paint and I make a loop of my tape so that I have a sticky side up for holding parts and a sticky side down to hold the tape down to whatever base I'm using.

I try to assemble as much as possible if the parts are to be the same color as well unless the sub assembly ends up having a lot of areas that will be hard to get paint onto. A semi truck chassis for instance. Once assembled, it's hard to get the spray into the corners and such without excessive build up of paint. In this situation, i'll assemble as much as possible while keeping all areas accessible and then scrape the paint from any ajoining areas to complete the assembly.

[crazyjim]

How are you going to get the mold lines off if the parts are still on the sprue? I cut everything off the sprue(s) and sort by interior, engine, chassis, body, and then decide what color on each part.

[Peter Lombardo]

This may come across as ridicules, but I have one hard and fast rule about modeling, and that is that I have no hard and fast rules about modeling. One time I may paint a part on the sprue and the next time I may not. It depends on my mood and if I am feeling lazy. Maybe that is why my builds lack the extreme detail and cleanliness that some of you guys obtain. I don't know.....I guess I should be more careful and remove the parts....oh, on second thought....

[Dragline]

I remember a post I wrote quite some time ago complaining of mold and parting lines on completed model so I won't dish on that again.

However, I always take the part off the sprue and clean it up. How can you test fit parts without taking them off in the first place?

Sanding parting lines is a simple but effective way of turning mediocre OOB models into show stopping little treasures.

Use the painting tips most have outlined here [i use many of them] and you are good to go.

The idea here is to recreate a 1:1 item and those things don't have the lines the kit has due to the molding process. There are exceptions of course like transmissions and the odd intake manifold.

As always, you the builder must decide how much effort you wish to put into a project to see the end result you seek.

Bob

[Mark Brown]

I almost always use a similar method to what Treehugger Dave described, but I drill very tiny holes and use pins to hold the part. I'll often put the hold where a mounting pin was and let the pin for holding the part double as an attachment pin after the part is painted. I get packages of tiny brass pins at the crafts store and I've found a million uses for them, including holding and pinning parts.

[Foxer]

I pretty much never leave anything on the sprue. Mold line clean up is probably one of my favorite parts of building ... clipping a part off the sprue, fondling and close examining it, scraping it free of mold lines down to the basic part ... excuse me for a few minutes ...

I'm back. Everything goes into zip lock bags with LEFT and RIGHT labels as required to keep separate. Tape labels or sharpie marked when the part numbers will be needed for assembly. For painting, round toothpicks, tape, alligator clips ... whatever works for the parts.

I see lots of creative ideas here for holding parts and will be adapting many I'm sure.

[spkgibson]

i havent seen anyone mention it yet but i'm curious as to how any of you paint body parts while they are still on the tree or sprue. i've seen this quite a few times where a builder has painted the body and parts right out of the box with some of the body parts, most commonly front and rear fascia's or valences still on the sprue. i'm very curious as to how you do touch ups without those areas showing on the completed model. what do you do when the fitment of those parts requires filing or sanding for a precise or nice fit? I ALWAYS cut those parts off the sprue,Clean those parts up,And prime and paint,Then after about 2 or 3 days,I paint the other side,Like the hoods and valance panels,Painting that stuff on the sprue is making more work for yourself,Plus if you have to touch up the parts there is a good chance of messing up your paint job,I just tape the parts to a paint stir stick ,And paint my body parts that way,On some kits,as an example,the AMT 71 Charger,you have to attach and fill the back part of the front vallence panel,and Build up the area around the front wheel wells to make it look right

Dave

[Ragnar]

I never paint any parts on the sprue. I have an assortment of rods with aligator clips, thin dowells with blue tack, and a couple of carrosels with blue masking tape that I use for painting small parts. To keep track of the parts numbers I use small labels made from cheap masking tape with the part number on it, I just stick these labels to the holder I am using for the part.

CHEERS!

Tom

[spkgibson]

So the best way I have found to paint everything in a model kit is to assemble every thing that is going to be painted the same colors,Engines,Suspension parts,seats,ect,grab your self a box of toothpicks,And Q-Tips,cut the cotton off them,insert the toothpick into the end,and then into a peice of styrofoam,after you attach say an engine with the toothpick cut at the end to push up snug into the trans,Or where the fanbelt is glued and paint away,My cost for this method is around $5.00,As far as bigger parts like body panels,velances,Chassis's on MOPARS,Or anything Just tape it to a Paint stir stick,The ones from paint supply stores,At the back of the chassis and you good to go,You don't have to go broke spending alot of money on clamps,stands and such I have used this mehod for years and have yet to have an issue!

Edited July 7, 2010 by spkgibson