This is kind of a simple and silly question…however it has been bothering me for a while!
When painting a model, do you paint is as you go (sometimes my instructions tell me to paint this part X color or whatever) or do you paint it all at the end? I’ve been painting it at the end but I was wondering what was the best way to go about doing this.
Thanks!
Comrade, it depends on what you’re building and how you build. Many people build in subassemblies and paint as needed. Here’s our beginner’s guide to building armor. Not the exact kit you’re building, but you should be able to glean some useful techniques and order of operations from it. Hope you find it useful!
I generally paint interiors such as cockpits and landing gear wells as they’re built - to be closed up or masked for later painting - but I generally leave exterior painting until everything else (major) is assembled.
Small bits like gun barrels, pitot tubes and bombs or drop tanks will usually be left till last, mostly to minimize potential breakage or because they’d be hard to reach effectively.
Different designs call for different steps as well. Things like biplanes, for instance, I’ll assemble the bottom wing to the fuselage, but won’t usually attach the top wing until after painting is done. Just easier to manage that way. 
Greg makes an excellent point about interiors. You’ll want to finish an interior before you close it up inside your vehicle. Now, how you handle those individual parts is, again, a matter of preference and, frankly, how much is going to be seen after it’s closed up. For instance, you can paint the parts separately and then assemble them. Assemble some and paint them together and leave others off for paint, or put the whole interior together and then paint.
Car bodies are often painted well before they are on the car itself to save on unnecessary masking and to make it easier to sand and polish.
Tank wheels are almost always painted off the model. Some paint the tracks in the model, others off, or switch techniques depending on the model and style of tracks being used.
I generally follow the instructions as to when to paint. Clearly, interior parts get painted before they become inaccessible. I don’t typically paint exterior surfaces until the majority, if not the entire, airframe is constructed. On my current Ju88 build, I have elected to leave off the wings, stabilizers, rudder, and engine nacelles to paint separately from the fuselage as my engineer-mind sees that as the simplest solution for the splinter camouflage for this build. But typically all of those components would be fully installed prior to painting.
I like to paint each piece individually. I attach the piece to the end of a toothpick (That’s been sanded flat) with a very small of superglue. I have blocks of floral foam that I stick them in.In doing this, I can primer, paint, and weather each piece without actually handling it.
I hope this helps
@Cbowling I love watching modelers like you do this wizardy witchcraft, but it makes me wince. For me, those parts don’t come off the sprue until I know I need them. @Chuckd is another one who clips the parts off, sorts them for painting, and then goes to town. I’d end up with lost parts and and a jumble of nonsense.
Totally agree on this! The guys who cut the pieces off the sprue at the outset of their build are either magicians or have some sort of system that makes it easy to know where each piece is.
I have to paint my pieces on the sprue or make subassemblies and then paint them. But it sure is fun to watch builders like that!
exactly, I would lose track of them immediately!
Good points! The biplane bit IS useful, I painted my biplane with all of the wings on and lets just say it was a disaster 
Hey Chris,that reminds me of my road wheel gardens
Hey! A fellow toothpick/foam modeler. My man!!!. They look like they’re growing nicely😉
I used to use those foam blocks but I now use old cribbage boards that I find at thrift shops or rummage sales. The heavy wooden board doesn’t blow off of my patio table like the foan use to.
We’ve all been down that road… 
Detaching all the pieces before you need to glue them? What madness is this? 
I would never be able to finish the thing!
Nope, this has never happened to me… after the first time… 
Note to self: paint wings of any biplane before attaching them to your fuselage.
Here’s how I do it. If it’s a cockpit I’m building, I’ll go through the instructions, front to back, and identify every part of the cockpit construction. Cut the parts off the sprue, clean it up, attach it to the end of a toothpick with a very small amount of superglue. The toothpick is then stuck into the foam block.
I’ll do this until every part has been identified, placed on a toothpick, and stuck in the foam block. I’ll then take the block and set it to the side, and move onto the next sub assembly, say the landing gear and bays. I also use it for my figures.
Once everything is completed, I can look at a block and know that every piece on that block is one complete sub assembly. I rarely ever mix parts on a block. The only time I do this is when the parts are large and easily identifiable.
Have I knocked parts off their toothpicks
I go back and forth between leaving parts on the sprues until I’m ready for them, or painting them on the sprues then removing them even if I’m not quite ready for them. The latter approach is typically for a kit with so many sprues the manufacturer actually has to get to the latter third of the alphabet. To help with keeping things straight, I have a box full of storage bins (for things like small bits of hardware like nuts, bolts, etc) where I will stash parts that go to the same area of construction. Then I’ll put a slip of Post-It Note in there with a designation of what component the parts are for - cockpit, wheel well, etc - and if there are more than a handful of small parts, I’ll include the parts numbers, or I’ll leave those attached to the sprue but cut the sprue runner away from the main sprue.
I have a concrete floor in my build area. Does that stop tiny little parts from disappearing? Nope!
