Just returned to building 1/35th armor after being away from the hobby fo 30 years. I’ve been painting the tank hull and turret with the tools and spare track left off the vehicle. I paint and dry brush these small parts still attached to the sprue , but when I try to glue them to the tank they don’t stick very well because I’m trying to glue paint to paint. It appears,from the reading I’ve done, that most modelers install all the equipment when they build the model and then paint the axe, shovel, etc after the camo paint job. I tried this, but found it hard to dry brush these components without getting some of the drybrushing on the hull. What should I do to mask around these tiny parts? Also what is a group build and how does it work?
Hy
Have you tried some super glue for gluing painted parts…some time I also was painting equipment after cammo and than i glued with super attack (I think that this is europeam glue [:)] ! Try to use maskoll (or it is mascol???) and than to paint cammo…so paint equipment ,gluoe on panzer,use mascol to mask them and than cammo!
Hope that this will help you
i generally glue the equipment on first and then paint the camo. im just careful about how i paint the equipment. also, drybrushing can make it get a bit messy. im guessing that you’re drybrushing the metal parts. my method for these is to fist paint it all black, then all steel (or whatever metallic color), and then paint over it with very watered down black (the texture of ink). this gives it a realistic look and is fairly clean. hope this helps.
I leave off all tools, extra track, and small items that do not get painted hull color. I paint them separately. Once the hull is fully painted, I attach the items to the hull using superglue then weather them with the rest of the vehicle. The superglue works great fo attaching painted parts. Once dullcoated, it is invisible as well. Also, if you later want to change tools or take them off for some reason, the superglue will usually snap off pretty easy and cleans upo off the part easily too and the part can be reused.
I leave all the equipment off until after I have finished painting the majority of the vehicle. Since I use PE tool clamps, I glue these on, making sure the tools will fit once all is painted. Then I paint the tools and carefully use CA to glue them on. This way you don’t accidently dry brush them with the wrong color, or worse yet, accidently brush off or break the tools while dry brushing the vehicle.
I install all of the equipment on the hull and paint them after the vehicle has been painted. I tried to paint the tools while on the sprues but I always ended up with glue spots or messy paint when I glued the painted tools to the painted hull. The only exception is crew gear, such as tarps, bedrolls, backpacks etc. These I leave off until I know where I want to put them on the tank.
You can try scrapping off the paint where the glue goes, that way it’s plastic to paint or scrape both sides, plastic to plastic.
Group builds… these are get togethers where a lot of us have the same thing, or same era of things and we build together. Find a group build that you want in on and just tell who ever made it up to put you on the list. When in a group build you get badges that you can put under the ‘signature’ area so every time you post it will be there. For instance, I am in the Cold War GB and the badge is well right under this reply.
Hope this answers your question and [#welcome] to the forum.
Hey; Dragan, Murderdogg,HeavyArty,Peridexion, Kaleu,and Aftermarket–Thanks for the tips. It sounds like I should leave the tools off on kits that have pre-drilled holes or detents for the equipment and then attach them with CA after the camo paint. On kits that have no detents or holes I’ll use the technique of attaching the tools first ; then camo paint and lastly hand paint the tools. Peridexion when I get good at this your SturmTiger ambush paint job will be my goal. Aftermarket; You are my goal for the best weathering job I have ever seen. That PZ IV looks like it survived Krusk. Thanks again Guys[:)]
Welcome to the forums Jim. You have some good advice. For what is or isn’t worth, I paint my tools on the sprue, then touch up. I haven’t had any problems of them falling off during overall weathering. I do as much as possible before applying to the hull. Good luck.
If you want to do any brush work on the tools after you have attached them, one way to mask under and near the tool is to slip a thin piece of paper under the tool. I generally use something like a post-it note.