I am new to modelling figures. Here is my question. Is it better to paint figures, weapons and gear on the sprue or off? I have been painting almost everything on the sprue. However, when I glue weapons and gear to the figure I have problems with paint running or smearing where the glue is. What's the solution?

For me, I paint the figure with the legs and torso first, to get all the details I can. Then I add the arms and paint them, then the gear. I remove the head and mount it on a wire or pin, and then paint it. Then it can be added to the figure. Then the helmet is painted and added to the figure. Others may do it differently. There are a couple of really good tutorials here and at Historicus on figure painting.

Hi

I build the basic figure first, that way I can take care of any bad joints, I then paint the figure, I then paint and add all the weapons and gear.

Lots of different ways though, just go with what you are happly doing.

Paul

In general, I build the figure as completely as possible before painting. Of course this depends on the figure and how difficult it will be to paint. Weapons are the last item to be glued to the figure. Everything is painted off sprue in order to ensure all seams and mold lines are taken care of. When I do have to glue something that has already been painted, I scrape off the paint on both pieces where they would attach so that I get good adheasion.

Dwain, I think what Art said about paint adhesion is what you are having trouble with. If you are using liquid poly cement it will smudge the paint and parts will not go together properly. Its the same with superglue on painted resin/metal parts. Scrape the paint off the mounting areas and that should sort the problem.

Incidentally, I nearly always build my figures fully before painting. I sometimes drill a hole in one of the feet to insert a piece of paper-clip which is superglued and then placed in a pin vice so I don't have to touch the model when painting. I also find super-gluing them to bottlle tops is good, more stable than a pin vice if you have a lot of clutter on your work space like me!

I could never see the advantage of painting on the sprue .... surely when cutting loose and removing seam lines, the paint work is lost. Its also much easier to fix in place with cement rather than try to glue a painted piece to another.
As others have said, building as much as possible and holding the figure with support placed in a drilled hole feels so much easier.
If you glue is running, you need to use a tooth pick to place the glue instead of administrating directly from your bottle/tube. Gel glue works better in my opinion ... doesn´t run and allows a better grip.

Dwain, a question like that will get you a verity of different answers and then you have to try and see what you like best
I build the complete figure minus weapon and helmet. Then I prime it see if there is any seams left, fill them or file them whatever in necessary then paint with the figure stuck to a bottle cap

I second this. You do whatever works best for you. Just try out each method and roll with what you like best