What sequence is best for building a model?

[adabiri2]

Which is best route to go for building a model? Do you scuff and prime/paint everything on their racks then assemble and repaint?

Do you assemble, then sand, prime/paint? In the past i've always done a lil of both..

[scalemodelworld]

For me, if I'm going to spray pieces, I remove them from the tree first. For things like the engine, I build all the pieces that will be the same colour, then prep it as one piece.

Pieces that are going to be brush painted depend on how big they are and where they go or how they fit. If they're small, individual pieces (like the gearstick, seats or radiator hoses), I'll often remove them from the tree, use blue-tak to hold them and brush paint them prior to assembly. Some pieces attach to another piece that will be the same colour, so I'll glue first, paint second. It's pretty rare I'll paint anything at all while it's still on the tree - but that's just me.

For the body, I usually test-fit things like the front and rear end to see if they can be attached prior to the interior tub and/or chassis being attached. If so, I'll glue them on and then I can paint the body as a single piece. Where I live in Australia, its quite humid, so if I don't paint all the same coloured pieces at the same time, they will have slightly different hues when they're put together. So I always paint the body, front and rear ends, hood, etc at the same time. Lately, I've taken to attaching the mirrors to the body, masking the chrome "mirror" and painting it all while attached.

You can check out some of my builds at my blog to see what my results are like.

[rhs856]

I posted this on a similar post a while back, but here's my basic progression:

1. Wash parts while they're on the trees.
2. Cut every part off the trees one by one, trimming off excess and sanding mold lines and the like as I go.
3. After sanding a part, I put it in a plastic bag labled with the car and color that the parts need to be painted. I usually have a bag for flat black, gloss black, body color, interior color, metals, and other.
4. I put together like-colored subassemblies (engine, frame and suspension, etc) and sand off the glue and seam lines.
5. I prime everything by color (to keep it organized) and spray bomb the flat and gloss black parts.
6. I hand paint the stuff that needs to be hand painted. This includes blackwashing the grill and anything else that needs it.
7. I assemble and detail the rolling chassis, engine, and interior.
8. I paint the body, pretty it up with wet sanding, clear it, and pretty that up, too.
9. Install glass.
10. Finish assembly.

Each of these steps is also liable to have something like:

3b. Accidentally break something.
3c. Cry.
3d. Raid parts box to find replacement.

or

8b. Mess up paint.
8c. Cry.
8d. Purple pond.
8e. Goto 8b. Repeat as necessary.

Due to these unforseen circumstances, I sometimes will start by prepping and painting a body. If that goes well, then I continue. If it doesn't, I'm not as likely to get burnt out and relegate the model to the "started, but unfinished" stack, because I haven't put a ton of time into everything else.