Hi all,

I have a question. I'm fairly new to armour modelling.

My inclination is to paint road wheels and accessories and then attach them to the vehicle once they've been painted, and the base coat is on the vehicle.

But I've seen many videos and photos by vastly more experienced modellers who seem to construct the entire kit, road wheels and accessories included. I guess they paint the details after.

I thought about this, but it seems like painting the rubber on the road wheels, for example, would be difficult when attached.

Is this just a matter of personal preference, or is there some advantage to assembling everything first that I'm not seeing?

Thanks in advance,

Nathan.

Nathan,

It pretty much is a matter of personal preference. Me personally, I leave the running gear off until until all the painting is done. I mask off the ends of the torsion bars and the holes on the back of the road wheels. Sometimes that little bit of paint can make things tight enough to risk breaking the ends off the torsion bars.

But like I said, it's a personal preference. You'll probably get all sorts of different answers.

Good luck with your work! Be sure to post lots of pictures!

I can't figure out how you can paint a kit after it is completely built. However that is how the actual vehicle is painted.

Don't be fooled by pics of a fully constructed 'professional' model with no paint. Most often the components are 'dry fit' for the photo and then disassembled into sub components for painting.

If you read through some modelling magazines or look at some online videos, you will see this in practice.

The rule of thumb is, not what do other people do but how comfortable are you in painting the part if attached? Not too comfortable? Then paint it first....

It also depends on the model. Sometimes you have to paint the whole lower hull and running gear before the rest of the vehicle because you have to install side skirts.

I usually try to paint the running gear separately. There again it depends on the type of tracks.

Olivier

I always paint the tools and road wheels separately. This is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby. Why give yourself a headache?

I prefer to attach my tools to the vehicle and then paint them.I have a good eye,steady hand,and I slide a post-it note next to or underneath to protect the base.

As far as roadwheels,I always leave them off and paint them separately.

Like it was said,its preference

Just be careful when painting those interleaved Wheels (bogies) on those German beasts! Study those wartime photographs!

Go pick yourself up a copy of the game 'Operation' by Milton Bradley. Get real good at it and you should find it easy to paint the parts on the model.

Personally I will do on or off depending on the kit and how things are laid out.

I'm often surprised at how many model builders today completely assemble a model (or nearly so) and only then paint it. I've always built and painted sub-assemblies even if that required masking on glue points. IMO trying to weather a tank that is completely assembled is going to present problems, e.g. I see builds where someone visibly had trouble getting into the suspension area with the mud and dust. I suppose it can be faster building first and painting later, but it seems to come with some limitations IMO.

I build and complete some 99,5% of the kit before painting. Just keep out transparent parts, fragile items like mirrors or antennas, or things that may hinder painting some areas, like gear sticks or steering wheels.

I wouldn't be too sure that real vehicles are fully assembled before being painted. A number of components (at least in the case of the Third Reich) were supplied by subcontractors in finished form, so roadwheels for example were fitted after being painted. This is visible in images of the MAN factory, for example.

We also know from the restoration of the Bovington Tiger E that there were inner roadwheel faces, hidden from external view, which carried the original external paint finish. There would be no reason to paint these in situ.

So, as you can see the tank is mostly assembled and the tools are already on:


And now they are painted:

How did you make those antennas?

Stretched sprue?

Those are actually the kit antenna. I haven't quite mastered stretched sprue yet; I have only gotten up to my 'varying thickness none of it useful' badge.

For the past 10 years I paint the tools after installation.
I used to try to add them later, but normally I could dry fit them fine, but with glue on them I get all ham fisted and scar the paint.

I see. I was curious b/c the Pz. III I'm building doesn't come with an antenna. May try stretching sprue.