I am just looking over the instructions and kit parts for my Dragon M4A2 [76] in 1/35 and am a undecided on whether to paint the wheel and suspension arms etc before assembly or not, I have read a few build articles and have seen the whole thing built, primered and then painted but have always thought the easiest and more accurate way of doing it would be to paint the individual sub assemblies first.
What are your veiws guys on these points and on my choice of first kit?
Thanks in advance.
I normally do either. I paint the parts and then mask them or I paint the whole vehicle and then paint the parts. To me, it depends on the size of the piece and what is easier. With the wheels on a tank, I like to paint them first and then mask them because they are hard to get to when they are mounted.
David
I usually build as much of the base as possible and paint all rubber tires and tools seperately. I have no idea how one can paint all that after assembly, not to mention the tracks too.
Here is the latest trick that I was able to do it.
Assemble everything with glue for all parts that are easy to repaint later on. For the parts that needs to be base color but need more work, glue it with primer.
The primer (I use Tamiya Liquid Primer), should be strong enough to hold stuff like clamps, most pioneer tools, but you can still take them off easily.
The rest, well, you got the picture…
Ben
I do basically the same as Tiger. I build all that gets painted the hull color as one assembly.
I don’t see the point in leaving it in sub-assemblies and painting each separately, then gluing them on. It makes for more work and then you have to scrape off paint to get a good bond to. I have never had an issue with the paint not covering an area or getting in behind something.
For 2-part roadwheels, I leave the roadwheels on the sprues and paint them black first, then use a circle template to paint the wheel centers, leaving the rubber parts black. Simply remove from the sprue, clean up and touch up the attachment points, and then ad them to the model.
For Sherman roadwheels, I build the entire bogie assembly, but leave the wheels loose where they still spin. Once the basecoat is done, hand- paint the rubber on the roadwheels, spinning the wheel to cover them fully.
I also leave smaller items such as tools off and paint them separately, then attach them with a small dab of superglue.
I gloss, apply decals, and weather, then finish it all up with a dullcote to blend it all together. Tracks go on last, once they have been painted and weathered. Finally, I may use pastel chalks to dust it all up an complete it.
I don’t see how guys can paint the track on the model either.
Good luck.
Ok I just did a tech demo a my last club meeting on this and here we go, First assemble the lower hull first much as possible then assmble the suspension dry fit the suspension to the lower hull do not repeat do not glue the the suspension to the lower hull then build your tracks around the suspension then glue your tracks the the road wheels and the return rollers remove the tracks and lower suspension as a assembly then paint, paint the lower hull,attache the suspension and tracks assembles. Attache the upper hull and build as normal then mask off the tracks and lower suspension then paint the upper hull and remove the mask and weather the model as you would. Now this way of building is easier with german armor (e.g. panther,tiger) but with alittle patience a Sherman should just as easy. Just be patience, this techenique works well with Dragons indy tracks links. So good luck and tell us it goes.