Painting molded in exhausts and other details

[slownlow]

What techniques are used to paint exhausts, fuel tanks,brake lines,etc.? Or is it easier to cut the floor pan loose from the frame and scratch build that stuff? 

 

[John Pol]

I usally cut the floor pan out and replace the floor with plastic leave the gas tank thou. Use a dremel cutting wheel to remove the floor than to paint the gas tank get some silly putty and put it around it than you can paint it once done remove silly putty

[Snake45]

I'll sometimes paint the rear of the chassis flat aluminum or steel, then mask off the gas tank, then mask it off and paint the rest of the chassis matte black, or primer, or whatever.

For exhaust, I usually hand-brush with Testor Steel, but I've been known to use a Silver Sharpie on them, too. But usually the brushed Testor Steel.

These might not be the VERY best ways to do things, but as I usually display my models right-side-up, I don't really care.

[Mark]

I still paint nearly everything (except bodies) with a brush.  When I'm dealing with the molded-in-exhaust chassis, I'll paint the exhaust first (sometimes by brush, sometimes spray).  If there's a molded-in transmission tailshaft, gas tank, or shock absorbers, I'll catch those too.  Sometimes I'll paint the shocks in an odd color to make them stick out a little, because the 1:1 parts are often odd colors out of the box depending on the brand.  Next step is to paint the areas adjacent to the molded-in detail, usually with acrylic paint so the chassis paint won't mingle with the exhaust color where the two meet.  The border between the colors is always where the raised detail meets the chassis.  I seldom try to freehand the exhaust detail to only a given depth.  Anything that has to be removed can be done easily enough at this point.  After all those areas are done, then the rest gets painted with larger brush(es) one area at a time.  Molded-in leaf spring detail gets painted with a brush after all of that, with only the flat part of the spring getting done.  I don't try to freehand the thickness of the spring as seen from the side, unless there is raised detail there to work with.  I haven't done a red-oxide primer underbody yet, but when I do I'll probably do the primer first and then paint the raised detail.