Working on a M923A1 'Big Foot'. This is my first truck in many, many years. Frame is almost complete. Should I paint the frame assembly (less the wheels) before putting on the cab and truck bed? Or assemble everything (less the wheels) and then paint? Any suggestions for painting the cab interior? Leave the roof off, mask the edges to be glued and airbrush? I plan on airbrushing (for the very first time also) and would like to do a reasonable first attempt. I have a test subject that I can practice on first but it is a tank.

I've been building for a long time and I'm still looking for the perfect method. Right now I paint everything in sub assemblies. This means using one of the superglues for final assembly.
In magazines and on the web I see a lot of pics of models completely built and unpainted. I'm still trying to figure out how that works. My eyesight and old fingers won't always co operate with painting tiny details on the model.
Good luck with your project.

I always complete my truck models in this fashion. I leave the cargo bed separate, the Cab separate, and the frame separate (minus) wheels for painting. Then I bring them all together in the end assembly. It takes a little longer keeping things separate - but pays off in the end.

Gunnie

- check out the posts on Vodnik's M923 that are on this site. He posted loads of information only a few days ago ! A wonderful reference.

- Real trucks are assembled before painting, so why would you paint first and assemble later ? Of course, some hard-to-reach areas can better be painted before assembly.

- don't forget to refer to the official US army painting instructions for the M923 ! It's so much more fun when you follow the correct pattern.

The only thing I would add to guntruck's thread is that I complete painting the interior before I assembly the cab. Then it is major subassembly painting and assembly.
capnjock