[ZMB]

OK, I would love to get some input from those of you out there with experience as far as how you go about assembling and painting Land Speeders and Bikers?

Lets say the army is going to be a White Scars army. It really does not matter as long as the colour scheme is of a light colour and spray basing white or using army painter spray base would be used. I am thinking that the wheels and tires would be assembled first and spray black. a quick dry-brush or two would make the tires look worn and give some definition. The sides of the bikes could be sprayed while unassembled as to not spray white on the black tires. I am thinking that the inside of the wheel-wells would have to be painted by hand a dark grey or black so when the clamshell comes together there is no plastic showing. The biker would be pinned in the butt and painted separately.

As far a Land Speeder? I would bet it would be easiest to just base and paint while on the sprue for all the the detail that will be hard to get to. One thing that I have yet to do is glue pieces together that have already been painted and think that the bonds would be weak. Is that true or does CA have the ability to seep into the paint and bond with the plastic as well?

any of you got some advice, pointers, and what nots for me? Pics are always welcome and tend be a good way to get some rep.

Cheers,
ZMB

 

[realitycheque]

I paint everything before assembly now, but I'd definitely do that with the Land Speeder. It's a bitch to paint when assembled!

 

[ZMB]

I paint everything before assembly now, but I'd definitely do that with the Land Speeder. It's a bitch to paint when assembled!

Do you have any problems when it comes to gluing after it has already been painted or do you take precautions to mask off areas where glue will go?

 

[MarxusTharin]

The only concern you will have with painting anything before assembly is that you will be creating a plastic to paint to glue to paint to plastic bond..Yes the glue is what is holding the two painted pieces together, but what happens when the paint to plastic bond wears out from the stress?

If you plan on going this route, you will need to sand the paint off the glue points. Trust me, I am saying this from experience.. It really sucks when you bump a nice piece too hard, and it falls apart.

 

[Chirality]

With my bikes and land speeders I start by clipping everything off the sprue, removing mould lines, basing it and then partially assemble. It's a pain in my opinion to paint on the sprue before removing it. If you paint it in stages as you assemble it the model won't look bad at all. It's easier this way too because you can tackle the hard to reach spots before putting on the next part. And, as you said, you can base certain parts in different colors separately.

The only model I've never assembled until it was fully painting was my Drop pod.

 

[ZMB]

I am really trying to wrap my head around the process in which to attack a land speeder. For the looks of it, it actually seems that I can get away with assembling all of short of the marines flying inside. I think the best route will be to prime and paint the marines separately and then pin them to the legs. What do you guys think?

 

[realitycheque]

As long as it doesn't involve metal, I've never had any problems with gluing painted parts together. Usually the glue removes a load of the paint when I apply it.

 

[MarxusTharin]

when it comes to adding the marines into the speeder after assembly then painting, you should have no problems there.. You won't be handling them at the point where the marine connects, so you should have very few worries about them getting bumped loose..

And as stated, the big problem is mostly with metal minis, but the same problem also comes with plastic minis that have very little surface area to apply the glue to.. Thus creating a weaker bond as it is.