To Paint Or Not To Paint

[cool arrow]

I recently got back into building models to occupy my body and mind while recovering from shoulder surgery. I bought a kit for an '07 Shelby GT500. The parts in the box are either white, semi gloss black or semi gloss gray/silver. The suspension parts are semi gloss black and the exhaust system is semi gloss gray/silver. The instructions call for the suspension parts to be painted semi gloss black and the exhaust system aluminum. Would any of you paint these parts as called for or leave them as is since they're already moulded in those colors? Other than saving time and eliminating paintbrush strokes I don't see any advantage of painting these parts as called for. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Ben

[Snake45]

Unpainted plastic always looks like unpainted plastic. I use this to my advantage sometimes if the interior of a kit comes molded in a color I want, or like.

For the underside? If I had a kit whose chassis was molded in black in metallic gray, I'd glue it together and drive on, but then I'm getting old and VERY lazy. I also wouldn't do that on everything, only on a shelf model or "curbside" build. If you're planning to detail the kit, or do a "nice job" on it, or enter it in contests, you'll prolly want to go ahead and paint all that.

Not much of an "answer" to your question, was it?

[tubbs]

I paint everything. except clear and transparent parts..

[jwrass]

Ben,

My two cents! I recently got back into the hobby as well after a 30 year hiatus. It's my plan to stay in the hobby because I am really enjoying myself. The first model I built I did brush paint the smaller parts and airbrushed the body, I did it that way to start to develop my skill set again. I was pretty pleased with my results.

My current build I'm going full bore all out with details. My thought process is that's really how I want to build, why wait. I won't develop my skills if I don't do the work. I'm jumping into the deep end of the pool.

[10thumbs]

Paint the stuff.

Michael

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Thank you all for your input. I'm not planning on building any show cars but I do want to do the best job I can at my current skill level. With that, I also want to improve my skills which will allow me to get down to the intricate levels of detail. This has done wonders for my brain as I'm having a great time putting these models together.