Airbrushing 1/48....take it apart to do so?

[Majestic]

So, like the title says, those of you that have customized (or have experience otherwise), do you think its necessary to completely disassemble a 1/48 in order to airbrush paint it (and have it still look great)?

I recently customized a 1/55, and the sheer number of parts to keep track of during disassembly/painting/assembly was mind-numbing.

(My experience was tarnished by some weak and broken screw housings during reassembly of an old jetfire - lesson learned there, if you're customizing a 1/55, use one of the new Bandai reissues, I'll tell you that for free. Having an entire shoulder explode into uselessness after painstaking paint/prep....grrr.)

I'm sure that disassembly is always going to be better than painting it whole, but wanted some professional opinions here...keep in mind I'm merely an airbrushing beginner. Yes, I know this sounds like a lazy request, but I'm wondering if I'm wasting time disassembling or not.

Thanks in advance O Masters of Paint!

[Anasazi37]

In a word, definitely. Anyone who's done a few 1/48 customs will tell you that disassembly is the only way to ensure a good-looking valk. And if you think the number of parts on the 1/55 is mind-numbing, just wait until you see how many the 1/48 has. On top of that, there are many parts that could potentially rub up against each other and cause paint scrape. You'll have to do a lot of sanding and modifying--especially around the knees, chestplate, backplate, backpack, etc.

[Hikuro]

I was once a man who wanted to customize his 1/48......and someone told me from up above, "Take a look at your instruction sheet and you will see." ................... you can guess why it never happened.

[Kurt]

Taking a 1/48 apart and re-assembling it is very easy.......

[nightmareB4macross]

Well what you could try is doing a custom on a smaller version of the VF with less parts...

I recently converted a Bootleg 1/100 from a VF-1J to a VF-1D. Mostly using the main components of the Bootleg and the head from a Bandai VF-1D Super Strike Kit. I know this goes a little further becaus of the kitbashing but the same principle of simplicity apply.

If you first try with something small then you can more or less have a feel of what to expect when custom painting 1/48 VF.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Sorry, I should have read your first entry more clearly instead of just typing...sorry.

Edited August 13, 2004 by nightmareB4macross

[do not disturb]

Taking a 1/48 apart and re-assembling it is very easy.......

indeed.

i thought it was going to be a pain in the butt, but its fairly simple to take apart and put back together....just do one side at a time a remember where all the screws go.

seriously, theres only 2 different type/size of screws to begin with, a flat head which is the smaller and if IIRC, there only 4 of them and they fasten the front and rear chest plates. the rest are all "round" headed which are all the same size so it doesn't really matter if you don't remember where they go as long as you dont' have any left when you're finished.

besides, you'll never know if you can put it back together, if you don't take it apart first.