Build Sequence

[bluestringer]

I painted a lot of stuff on the sprue trees, now I'm having problems getting parts to stay glued, and the glue is making a mess of the paint. I've tried scaping off paint but it's hard to do in some of the tight spots that need the glue. I've tried different glues. all seem to have the same effect. What is your sequence, do you put parts together then paint, do you follow the instruction sequence? How do you build your kits? 

[espo]

Pre painting a part that is part of a subassembly usually isn't the best way to go. Most parts that have to be glued to another usually need some truing of the surfaces and even a seem that will need a small amount of filling to hide the seem between them. Any paint on the meeting surfaces will weaken the bond between them and as you're finding you usually have to repaint the parts anyway. 

[bluestringer]

Ok, I see what you are saying, a lot of stuff can be assembled then painted as long as it's going to be the same color. What if you are assembling say the engine, a chevy engine's block, heads, pan, etc. will be chevy red/orange, so you can assemble those and paint the assembly, but the exhaust manifolds will be steel. Do you go ahead and assemble them onto the heads, paint it all, then go back and hand paint over the manifolds and the other small parts that are a different color? 

[Classicgas]

Assemble the block, heads and intake  if same color as engine, paint it, and paint balance of parts off the engine their respective colors. Also i always paint off the trees. Every part needs some sanding to remove mold lines, true them, etc. No way to do that on the tree.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Classicgas

[Zippi]

Yup.  Gluing any and all assemblies together first and then painting them is what I do.   I cut almost everything from the trees as flash needs to be removed before painting.  I normally glue the parts to a skewer or tape it to a paint stirring g stick to spray paint them.

[Miatatom]

  On 5/16/2021 at 8:21 PM, bluestringer said:

Do you go ahead and assemble them onto the heads, paint it all, then go back and hand paint over the manifolds and the other small parts that are a different color? 

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Yeah, you can it do that way too. 

[Rodent]

Yes, in the case of my '69 I wanted to replicate an L78/L89, so I assembled the block, pan, and front cover and used 1:1 engine paint over Tamiya pink primer. The heads, intake, and transmission were later painted aluminum. I actually used three types of aluminum paint, but it all kind of wound up the same color. The carburetor is a mixture to try to replicate a Holley. Exhaust manifolds are painted steel, but aren't installed yet. I need to drill the heads for plug wires.

 

[Steamboat]

For me it depends on the part. As previously mentioned, I assemble most of the engine first and then paint it.  However I paint a lot of parts right on the sprue. I spend a lot of time cleaning up the parts while they are still on the sprue. After paint, I touch up the attachment points to the assembly and where they attached to the sprue. 

For parts like seats, dash and headers there is generally so much prep work needed that I can't do them while still on the sprue.

[StevenGuthmiller]

I agree to an extent with the "paint as an assembly" theory, but probably much less so than others might.

I almost always assemble the engine block halves and heads before I paint, but in most cases, I leave off the pan, valve covers and intake manifold to be assembled after.

Part of the reason for this is that many times I look at individual assemblies as a separate model as I progress and it's much easier to do all of the intricate carb linkage and fuel line detail for example, if the intake manifold is not attached to the block.

Sometimes certain parts can just be in the way as you work.

As an example, the oil pan in most instances, just makes assembly of the other details more difficult, because I can't set the engine down on a flat surface and keep it vertical while I work.

Therefore, for me the oil pan gets installed relatively late in the process.

 

Sometimes you have to look at the big picture and the logistics of how the build will commence to strike the right sequence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve

[Zippi]

Nicely put Steven.  Is that solder for your linkage and if so what size?

[bluestringer]

Great tips, thanks all. I think I have a better understanding now of how I need to do my building and painting. I'm not going into the fine detail you guys are doing, those are some great looking engines. I do want to try putting on spark plug wires, but that's as far as I will go. 

[Oldcarfan27]

  On 5/17/2021 at 12:11 PM, bluestringer said:

I'm not going into the fine detail you guys are doing, those are some great looking engines. I do want to try putting on spark plug wires, but that's as far as I will go. 

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In Steve's case, his only need gasoline to run! ?

[StevenGuthmiller]

  On 5/17/2021 at 10:41 AM, Zippi said:

Nicely put Steven.  Is that solder for your linkage and if so what size?

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The majority of the linkage in this case is constructed from stretched sprue.

 

 

Steve