How do you paint a puttied, sanded, glued and primed model kit?

[shiyao]

This question might have been asked before, and if it has, I apologize. My search turned up only tangential answers.

So, my situation is this:

Thus far I have been building my model kits by PAINTING everything first with an airbrush before snapping together. This means, of course, that I CANNOT get any puttying, sanding etc. done - if I did I would spoil the paint finish.

But I *do* want to get rid of seam lines, potholes and the like. I really do. Does this mean that I have to mask every &^$#@%&^$#@ thing? I guess kits these days have fewer and fewer seams that require sanding, but some of them are still pretty obvious.

Incidentally, is it true that anything on earth can be masked, given enough patience?

SECOND QUESTION:

This pertains to test-fitting. Looking through all the WIP builds on MW and on other sites, I notice that somehow everyone test-builds/test-fits their kits before putting on the paint. So my question is this: do modellers actually do the whole cut-the-male-part-diagonally-across thing when they are test-building? Does that not take up an IMMENSE amount of time? If not, how are these super-duper modelers doing their test fitting? I would like to test-fit too, but the cut-male-part-diagonally-across thing seems to be really inefficient, time wise.

Thanks in advance! Sorry if this should be under a Super Topic, I really have no idea.

[shiyao]

(re: part 1 of my questions)

Like for instance, how did pic #1 turn into pic #2 (L to R, attachments below)?? really just "masking"? even if you removed the parts into sub assemblies there'd still be a LOT of masking. and a LOT of waiting for paint to dry.

[David Hingtgen]

Basically---yup. Painting is done last. Think about all the aircraft models with camoflage--the camoflage doesn't follow panel lines or subassemblies at all. Mask mask mask...

And Tamiya masking tape is worth the price.

[zeo-mare]

yup alot of masking is always required, and i second the tamiya tape, it is well worth its price.

chris

[shiyao]

ah ...

how about the test-fitting bit? i suppose the answer is "YES WE SNIP OFF MALE PARTS BY THE DOZENS EVERY TIME" ?

[Chas]

ah ...

how about the test-fitting bit? i suppose the answer is "YES WE SNIP OFF MALE PARTS BY THE DOZENS EVERY TIME" ?

Well as far as I know that only really applies to snap-fit kits (a-la Gundam). With your standard (glue) kit test fitting is not a problem as the parts do not 'snap' toghther and so cheking for poor fit issues is not difficult, all that's needed is a good eye and some tape every now and then.

As for snap kits, I've read about the cutting of the male pins on a diagonal, but some folks also bore-out the hole in the female part as well. However, from what I remember, you can for the most part just pry the pieces apart. If your careful and patient and do it correctly (loosen one side, then the opposite side back- and - forth) without using too much force they come apart without any harm being done.

[cokefiend]

I try to pre assemble a kit as much as I can to figure out what CAN be painted before assemly and what HAS to be.

Im curently building a VF2 ss, It can all be painted before assembly without any worries about puttying afterwords because it is a transformable mech and should therefore have a certain amount of seam lines are to be expected.

Check out WmCengs buildups for the best tutorials if you havnt already.

Gundams and mechs are another matter entirely. I recomend reading this tutorial here to give you a good idea how to proceed.

http://www.fichtenfoo.com/02GiantRobots/02c-MGHowTo.html

It all comes down to preference really, Ive seen lots of build ups but Ive adapted them to what works for me.

[promethuem5]

I personally HATE masking (can't do it well at all) and have lerned to just bone up and do any detail by hand.... I spray base coats and such, then jsut brush paint everthing else.

[shiyao]

thanks for the replies guys. i actually *have* read fichtenfoo's MG tutorial before (some 273763232 times), as well as gone through wm_cheng's buildups. but they didn't mention much about test-fitting and (detailed) masking technique.

dannychoo's gundam for busy people tutorial had some insight, but i think spraying parts on the sprue is generally not a very good idea (you have to spray twice, to cover nip marks).

i guess it's mask mask mask then.

so, for clarity:

HOW TO MAKE MODEL KIT

1. Cut parts off sprues

2. Put unassembled parts into boxes, according to subassembly

3. Paint parts according to colour withthe aid of skewers, blu-tack and croc clips

4. MASK MASK MASK MASK

5. Paint details on, taking care not to spray outside masked area

6. Remove mask, spray GLOSS COATING (FFA)

7. Panel lines + Decals

8. Spray FLAT COAT (Tamiya flat base 30%+ FFA) / Top Coat / Mr Color Flat (?? how to use this last one??)

9. Make diorama

10. Enter into BAKUC

11. Make a lot of money

12. Die of cancer

[zeo-mare]

yup that sounds almost about right however after you cut the parts from the sprues, you usually want to sand the sprue marks off the parts with a light grit sandpaper this will make the finished product look much better.

Edited November 10, 2006 by zeo-mare