Painting interior as I build

[stephen.s1]

I’m building a full interior Hetzer; and several others.
How do you handle the cement/glue situation when the time comes to join painted major subassemblies? Like walls, bulkheads, floors. Scrape all the long parts of the hull or just lay down the adhesive? It’s easy scraping for smaller parts. Masking seems almost impossible. Should I just leave those hull edges unpainted and then finish the corners with a brush?

[HeavyArty]

I build all that can be that is the same color. Paint all the same color parts, hopefully, mostly in the hull. I then use super glue to attach the smaller parts.

For a good example of the technique, check out my M6A2 Linebacker Bradley build.

M6A2 Linebacker Bradley build

I have started another Bradley project. This time it is the M6A2 Linebacker ADA Bradley. It is a standard Bradley with the TOW box replaced by a 4-shot Stinger Missile launcher and an IFF antenna on the right front of the turret. It was used as a SHORAD (SHOrt Range Air Defense) vehicle in armored and mechanized units from the mid-90s through the mid-2000s. After the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq started and there was no air threat, all SHORAD was cut to almost nothing. The Linebacker was a …

[agincajun]

Stephen it’s a “six one way, half a dozen the other” situation, I’ve always been fanatical about scraping paint from my joins/joints, but sometimes it’s just not feasible to get that done. If you’re using a thin glue that will wick along the join you may want to scrape the contact edge of a bulkhead for example, if you’re using a thicker glue/cement you can spot weld the joint, depends on the visibility of the connection and is it integral to the model’s construction . . . . or if you’re using CA glue it’s irrelevant, it’ll bond to anything.

Cajun

[SSGToms]

Build all that you can before painting. Use thin [width] Tamiya tape on mating surfaces if airbrushing parts that must later be glued. Avoid scraping mating surfaces, as this inevitably leads to removing some plastic, leaving you with seam gaps. If you must glue paint-on-paint, use CA glue.

[GulfWarrior]

My own personal style is I generally don’t worry about scraping the paint off the areas to be joined. I use Tamiya acrylics and Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. That being said, on my current project I did mask off the edges of the parts of the cab assembly. I use an Infini EasyCut Type A mat so I can cut really tiny strips.

Let me qualify that last remark. I just masked around where the windows are going in on the cab.

[Jakko]

I too normally build as much as possible so I can paint all of it in one go, leaving loose only the things that get in the way of painting something else (or its own sides that will be visible but non-accessible, of course). And as mentioned above, the glues I use dissolve paint, so for things that just need to be stuck in place without much force being applied to them after, I glue without scraping off the paint.

Here some examples. A Hobby Boss LWS right after spraying the interior in its basic colour:

These are all the subassemblies I put together so I could paint everything easily.

Crab Mk. I turret with scratchbuilt interior before painting:

Here the separate bits are the turret shell, lower part with basket, gun with mantlet and (not shown) the gunner’s seat.

MiniArt M3 medium tank hull:

I brushed-painted white in all the areas that would be hard to spray with the other bits in place, and sprayed it soon after taking this photo, together with the insides of the remaining hull plates and the other interior parts that aren’t shown.