"Perry British (or any plastics) - Paint before assembly?" Topic

Hello,

I just got my first box of Perry Napoleonic British and I at the beginning of cutting them out, freeing them from the occasional grate and before deciding if I want to assemble them first and then paint them or the other way around.

How did you do it? What is your favourite method?

P

I've been doing the Victrix Brits, and find it best to assemble first, except for the pack, which I only put on after painting.

If you paint first make sure you clean the joint areas before assembly. A painted surface will not glue as strongly as the unpainted part as the solvent action of the adhesive is impaired.

I always assemble first. I've found that when you assemble afterwards it is as much of a pita to go back and clean up the areas that you had to glue together especially since, as RobH mentions, you need to remove the paint from the joined areas.

With packs that will be a nightmare. So you should probably go ahead and assemble first.

I agree. Always assemble everything first – regardless of size or materials. Then spray undercoat – you will find that undercoating fills in most of those silly little gaps and makes the figure 'whole' like a one piece casting.

It seems we all agree. :) Thank you for your replies. I was thinking of going forward in the same way, but I was somewhat unsure. Thank you TMPers.

Mmm. Pita.

Doh!

On my Warhammer 40,000 Imperial Guardsmen I left off the lazgun-wielding arms so I had access to the chests, which worked fine until I mixed up the arms and couldn't remember which fitted best on each model, which meant some ended up having quite bad fits. I'll do this method (remembering which arms go where!) if I get the Perry plastics, or any multi-part kit where the model's chest requires some detail work.

On the original 40k Imperial Guard figures, I painted them on the sprue. Basic colors, clipped them off, cleaned joints and other glue points. Glued them together and touched up the paint jobs.

I'm tempted to do the same when I get some Victrix boxes in.

I tried painting on sprue for the first batch, as i had done with the french. the french were more one peice and therefore easier to do this with.

My last 4 battalions I have glued together first and painted individually. Takes longer, looks better

I'm with the "assemble first, paint next" crowd. If you paint first, before removing the parts from the sprues, you're going to be doing alot of touching up everywhere you had to clip off the sprue, anywhere scraped by a file filing down the clipped part, any joints that don't fit perfectly (paint to paint-wise), etc. I do paint the packs seperately and then attach them, but thats after removing them from the sprue also.

-Scott
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