Paint before or after?

[jkristia]

One more question, and this has probably been asked before, but I will ask again (guess it’s obvious that this is my first scratch building)

I have finished the foam core, and I’m almost done cutting all the styrene pieces that will be glued on to the foam core. Now of course I’m not really sure what I should do first:

1; paint the styrene before gluing it and the do touch up after it’s installed or
2; glue all the styrene and then mask the window openings with masking tape before painting

I have tried both ways with commercial kits before and both with a so-so result.

What color(s) would you recommend to use. It’s a coalmine with sheet metal walls. I have tried light gray, but it doesn’t look too convincing. Of course I know that I need to weather if once it’s done, but which color would you choose for the “base” color?

Your help is as always appreciated.
Thanks
Jesper

 

[jon-monon]

On your second question, try this (it's reversable/removable if you don't like the result) wrap alluminium foil over one of the parts and burnish it in so the details show through the foil, then paint it black or brown, then wipe off most of the paint before it dries. I haven't tried this yet, but plan to. I don't know if you want the dull side out orthe shiny. It should look like galvinized steel. If you like it, you could add the foil using spray contact adhesive rather than wrapping a part. This might work really great or maybe not, but I'm gunna try it.

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Model masters makes metallic paints, I would use one of these for the base coat, followed by weathering.

Gary

 

[kettlestack]

Jkristia, I suspect that painting before assembly is the way to go and "touch-up" afterwards. But it does no harm to develop both methods to find which suits you best. We all have our "favourite" ways of working and the ideas which are expressed in The Gauge often lets us get better ways of doing things. I owe a lot to the guys on The Gauge for pointing me into better ways of doing things.

That's a good tip about the aluninum foil Jon... I'll have to try that.

Errol

 

[n-scaler-dude]

Back in the days of my model building youth I got in the habit of painting everything that was a different color before gluing. I'm pretty new to scratchbuilding MR stuff but I'll probably adopt the same philosophy as well.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by Gary Pfeil
Model masters makes metallic paints, I would use one of these for the base coat, followed by weathering.

Gary

Their "Stanless Steel" or "Steel" color followed by a thin wash of diluted india ink makes a very conviencing metal siding color. The aluminium colors are too bright.