Painting and assembling, which route do you take?

[jbwelda]

I try to get the chassis up on wheels and of the proper stance, alongside building and detailing the engine and trans. then usually the interior along with body prep and kind of finally, the body and paint. then the challenge is to fit it all together and frequent test fitting helps, but I often find last minute crisis of one sort or another. no matter how much test fitting I do, I know its going to require finessing when it comes to final assembly

jb

[Psychographic]

For me it usually starts with cutting the heck out of the body, then making the interior tub fit the hacked body, followed by either cutting and modifying the frame and suspension if I don't scratchbuild it. Next is the engine and painting each part once I know everything fits together.

Edited November 15, 2014 by Psychographic

[slusher]

I always do body the body paint first and sometimes 3 or 4 at a time. I paint all my parts then assemble and detail as I go along the build. I always want my paint on the bodies to be a certain quality before I do anything else..

[highway]

Everything on the chassis is black. Always flat black, no exceptions. Steering, driveshaft, tank, etc... All black.

I gather everything that's flat black and paint it while still on the trees.

I think you'll find that there ARE quite a few exceptions to your flat black decor scheme....

Yes Cliff, there are. Even if most of the parts are black, Miles, it doesn't hurt to add a little color variance to it by using different shades of black. The same holds true for interiors or anything else that is primarily one color. This is the chassis for my 09 Challenger, and a little careful painting and different shades of color can make BLAH into something that can stand out.

The same with the interior, it is mostly all the same color, but I used a semi gloss clear on the seats to change the color effect slightly.

Before the clear was applied to the seats:

[highway]

Oh, and as for my answer to the topic, it really depends on the build. If the build is a big rig or race car, the frame (and rollcage in the case of racecars) go together first then painted as a unit, but many regular builds usually get pieces painted while on the sprue then assembled or like colored parts assembled and painted as a unit.

[jbwelda]

I explained above how I usually approach a build, but I don't build customs or vehicles that require heavy body mods. if I did though I am pretty sure I would do the body first, at least to make sure the build looks as good as I visualize in my head, before devoting a bunch of time to the rest of the build.

and I can see the point of a flat black undercarriage. its basically saying "this doesn't exist and its only here to support the part that matters". I can dig it. in fact I kind of like "ghost" stuff like that and have even left plastic bare plastic color (usually white) to represent the detailed part that could or would be there. basically a place holder sort of thing. probably no one viewing it gets it or even realizes it, but that's totally ok by me.

jb

[Chuck Most]

As a rule, I paint subassemblies as a unit. If the engine is supposed to be all (or mostly red, it's assembled and and painted red as a unit.

There are exceptions- for that red engine I just mentioned I might leave off the oil pain and paint it as a separate part because the sump may be too close to the bellhousing, and paint won't get into the area between them.

[W-409]

I like to paint the body when chassis, engine and interior are mocked up and I have seen that they fit. Otherwise I would probably mess the paint job while doing the mock ups.

On the body, I like to glue the front and rear valance panels on place before painting, but otherwise I usually paint parts before gluing them together. For example I think that an engine is really easy to mess up with too much paint so that it looks like the block and cylinder heads are all one piece.

[Tom Geiger]

Joe Cavorley was a master builder who died about 15 years ago. He was happy to teach anyone who asked, so I latched onto him and learned much of what I do today. Back then I wondered how guys got their models done with perfect paint, and perfect details throughout. I was always screwing that up during assembly from excessive handling, or having to trim and improvise to get the thing to actually fit together. And much of it was kit provided assembly nubs that didn't actually fit together.

Joe's technique was to sand all the kit parts flat, and then implant bits of straight pins as the assembly points. There are also those parts that will snap together and he'd make sure they all fit wonderfully while the model was in primer. He'd get to the point that the entire model was assembled while still in primer. Then he'd pull it apart, paint all his assemblies and then reassemble it cleanly and without putting wear on the new paint since he had prefit everything. The pins became his glue points and they were all calculated to be centered so there would be no glue showing when done. He also could use a minimal amount of glue since the model pretty much press fit like a snap kit.

[bobthehobbyguy]

Joes technique sounds like how a full size car is done. Build it up so all the fab can be done and take it apart finish all the pieces and then finally assembly.

sounds like a great building technique.

[Snake45]

I always want my paint on the bodies to be a certain quality before I do anything else..

I see the logic of that. And I've often done things that way myself, though I've never really rationalized it the way you did.

One thing I haven't seen anyone mention is, I like to gang-build/paint when possible. For example, if I'm building a Chevy, when it comes time to paint the engine, I see if I'm planning any other Chevy projects in the foreseeable future so I can build and paint those engines at the same time, long as I have the airbrush fired up.

[bob terry]

I look at the instructions first. I then remove the parts from the sprues and place them in baggies in order of assembly, or I'll place like components together. For example, the engine will be one baggy. Front and rear suspension in another baggy. Interior in another and so on. Then I go back thru and clean up everything and glue parts together that require it. By this time I nearly have everything memorized and the instructions are hardly needed anymore. I prime everything first, Then I group together parts that share the same color and paint them. I'll then paint everything else, The body being last. I use a dehydrator so I can prime and paint an entire model in about 5 days. I roll a piece of tape on old spray bomb caps and attach the parts. This does of course require turning the parts to get all sides painted that need it. I use clear storage totes to keep the fully painted but unassembled kit in till I'm ready to build it.

[Old Nasty]

Everything on the chassis is black. Always flat black, no exceptions. Steering, driveshaft, tank, etc... All black.

I gather everything that's flat black and paint it while still on the trees.

A real car is made up of many individual parts & naturally each one has it's own color & texture. I've found that the easiest way to detail a model is with paint. On a typical chassis I may use up to a dozen different colors to emphasize these different components. Steering linkage, shocks, springs, traction bars, driveshaft, axles, etc can all be highlighted with some simple color variation. With todays metalizer finishes this is much easier than you might think. It all depends on how much time you want to put into a project. The same holds true for all the subassemblies. Engines will really pop if you pick out the various colors of the parts that make one up.

[cobraman]

I almost always paint the body last. Many times I have had to or wanted to change something and it is much easier if the body is not painted. I will often prep and prime the body while other parts may be drying.

[Tom Geiger]

A real car is made up of many individual parts & naturally each one has it's own color & texture. I've found that the easiest way to detail a model is with paint. On a typical chassis I may use up to a dozen different colors to emphasize these different components. Steering linkage, shocks, springs, traction bars, driveshaft, axles, etc can all be highlighted with some simple color variation. With todays metalizer finishes this is much easier than you might think. It all depends on how much time you want to put into a project. The same holds true for all the subassemblies. Engines will really pop if you pick out the various colors of the parts that make one up.

Yes! I must have a dozen different gray spray cans as well as metalizers and blacks just for this reason. Add in clear gloss, semi-gloss and dullcote and you have an infinite amount of shades to make it all stand out

[microwheel]

I always test fit everything I work on. As I'm testing fitting and cleaning up parts, I plan out my detailing, since I do alot of heavy detailing, sometimes this requires modifying or even replacing alot of the kit parts. It's kinda like customizing a 1:1 car, mock up- test fit-modify- mock up some more, modify some more, and test fit some more. Once Im happy that there will be no fit issues and I have a fully planned out build, then and only then, do I do any painting. What I paint first depends on several things, first things is the type of paints I plan to use, if it's a slow drying paint that will take a while to cure, I would paint the body to let it set and cure while Im working on other area of the model. If it's a quick curing paint, then painting the body can be done anytime, and I paint as I build.

[TimKustom]

Joe Cavorley was a master builder who died about 15 years ago. He was happy to teach anyone who asked, so I latched onto him and learned much of what I do today. Back then I wondered how guys got their models done with perfect paint, and perfect details throughout. I was always screwing that up during assembly from excessive handling, or having to trim and improvise to get the thing to actually fit together. And much of it was kit provided assembly nubs that didn't actually fit together.

Joe's technique was to sand all the kit parts flat, and then implant bits of straight pins as the assembly points. There are also those parts that will snap together and he'd make sure they all fit wonderfully while the model was in primer. He'd get to the point that the entire model was assembled while still in primer. Then he'd pull it apart, paint all his assemblies and then reassemble it cleanly and without putting wear on the new paint since he had prefit everything. The pins became his glue points and they were all calculated to be centered so there would be no glue showing when done. He also could use a minimal amount of glue since the model pretty much press fit like a snap kit.

This is precisely how I build my models. It takes a little extra time, but it will save time and frustration when it comes to painting and final assembly.

[Jim Whalen]

I normally clean all the parts first, put subassemblies together and then paint all the parts to the model. If it is a big model (e.g. a truck) I might do the subassemblies as separate models to relieve the boredom of cleaning so many parts. If I am kitbashing or converting models I make sure everything fits before committing to paint - learnt that lesson the hard way! Doesn't always work though and I find myself having to redo things

If I have multiple projects on the go I try to paint parts that are the same colour together to save time. Since the paints I normally use (Zero) dry quite fast I don't need to have parts waiting around to harden before continuing with the build.

Good thread - I like all ideas suggested by people!

Edited November 20, 2014 by Jim Whalen