Curious - How do you paint your builds?

Armor/AFV Painting & Weathering
1

My usual sequence is to assemble the lower hull and running gear and weather all that. Once dry the tracks go on and I proceed to attach the fenders. While waiting for the wash on the lower hull to dry, I usually assemble the turret then set it aside until all the stowage boxes, tools, etc. are added to the fenders. Headlights and brush guards and antennae are usually the the last things to go one. Once everything is complete the lower hull is masked off and the remainder is painted.

I ask because I’ve noticed some folks paint and weather the turret before they have completed the fenders and upper hull and I have been thinking of doing that with a current build. Soooo, I guess my question is to whose who do the turret is why do you do it that way? Is there some advantage that you see or is it just a personal preference? Thanks.

2

I can see doing the hull and running gear separate for weathering needs but not the turret. I mean I can doing it separately but not at a separate time. I would want most of the weathering to blend together, with similar products and methods. I would track of that in a heartbeat. Maybe the vehicle type drives that. :man_shrugging: to each their own.

3

I am going to, going forward finish the entire lower hull before doing any uppers. I find it hard to airbrush the lower hull when the model is hilly build.

4

The painting sequence can be a nightmare for me sometimes especially if the interior is finished for viewing. Ideally, I’ll paint the whole model and road wheels, but I like to weather the lower hull and suspension before I attach the road wheels. For me this is where it gets labor intensive because the washes need to be applied over a gloss coat. As far as painting the turret beforehand I guess it’s whatever blows your skirt up, just seems like an extra step if the hull and deck have yet to be painted.

Cajun :crocodile:

5

I build as much as possible, usually leaving the road wheels and tracks, tools, and small items separate. Everything gets painted and then the road wheels, track, tools and any other smaller stuff gets added. After everything is on, it all gets weathered as one since that is how it would happen in reality.

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6

I’m a keep it simple guy. If it doesn’t have side skirts, I assemble the entire kit: tracks, turret, pioneer tools, and stowage. I then prime it black and then airbrush the camo or OD. The tracks, road wheel tires, tools, stowage, etc are brush painted in place. I then weather. It’s simple and fast with contest winning results.

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7

As HeavyArty
I usually glue the upper & lower halves together, before adding anything that would get broken during construction.

IF the lower hull has complications, deep armour skirts, or Churchill etc., I will paint as much as possible, wheels & running gear, hull etc, then protect the running gear with Alu foil or Saran Wrap/Clingfilm.

8

I generally incorporate finishing stages into the construction stages. Sometimes the only way to have access to certain areas is when you’re building them, so advance planning and anticipation of how the progress of the model will limit, or even prohibit reaching into areas guides my approach.

For instance, right now I’m building a Trumpeter Scud missile launcher. The way the kit is designed, once the upper hull has been attached to the lower, the suspension and tracks must be completely assembled. However, the fenders which are molded attached to the upper hull will prevent reaching the upper tracks and the complexity of the suspension means that painting the various sub-assemblies (wheels, tracks, lower hull sides, etc.) must be done before they’re permanently assembled.

The crew cab is a large, fairly open structure with lots of visible interior details which includes a floor “module” that fits into the lower hull and a firewall that establishes the lower hull wall geometry. All of this must also be completed and painted before the upper and lower hulls can be joined.

At this moment, I have the entire lower hull and suspension dry-fitted and ready to paint. All of the wheels are loose, and the tracks (glued indy link-to-link type) are made into two runs for each side. I have perhaps two dozen or so interior parts and subassemblies that are also all loose, but dry-fitted.

All of this work is just about ready to start painting and will also need to be final assembled in stages. Only once this is all done will the upper and lower hulls be ready to actually join together and the rest of the kit assembled. There’s no point right now in doing any of the external details for the upper hull and superstructure until all of this “foundation” work has been completed.

I have actually written out a plan for the finishing and intermediate construction stages just to be sure that I don’t forget something and to make the sequence as logical and efficient as possible. This will start off with using acrylic texture gel medium to add 3D earth textures to the lower hull and suspension and culminate with attaching the upper and lower hulls together at which time the lower hull, suspension and tracks along with the interior of the crew cab will be completely finished and weathered.

This is a bit of an extreme case, but more so really just because the model is so large, and I’m doing a lot of extra work on the visible crew cab interior. Still, the overall approach, incorporating finishing and construction stages together, is pretty normal for me.

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