Painting hidden/unseen interior parts...

I do not. I have seen people on forums and in the magazines finish and detail aircraft fuselage interiors that can only be viewed through a couple of microscopic windows. I also do not detail the inside of aircraft wheel wells. This can only be seen by holding the model upside down and mine go into a glass case and are not handled anymore. Unfortunately I have no one to view them that would give a flip about them at all 

Chris

Like I am a moderate politically, I vary on this issue- the devil is in the details.  If it is very hard to see the assembly, I will not, but if I (and others) can see with some effort the interior I will, depending on how much work.  For instance, if it is a large airliner, and I will have to scratch build the floor and all the seats, and the windows are tiny, I will not.  But if it is an older, smaller airliner with a dozen seats, and the floor and seats are in the kit, I certainly will.  So it depends on the specific model.  If engines are visible with a removable hood or cowl I will.

You will get a lot of opinions on this question. This really comes down to "to each his own".  Some modelers are OCD and want to know it is there, others want a challenge of max detail, and others build only what can be seen.  I have over a 100 kits in my stash and limited numbers of hours I can build each week so I build only what can be seen when the model is sitting on the shelf.

I paint everything, if it's seen or not.  Unless of course the aircraft will have the landing gear bays closed, then I won't bother painting inside those.  Out of all the kits I've built, I only ever did one gear up.  I prefer gear down so it can either sit on a shelf, or I can hang it on the wall.  I take the time to paint everything cause it takes me longer to get through the kit, might as well get my moneys worth of time out of it.  The longer it keeps me occupied the better.  Unless it's just a junk kit, and I'm spending all my time playing with putty and sanding, lol.

I sort of draw a line at 1/72 multi engine interiors.

In fact I'm looking at the Revell 1/72 C-54 cockpit. The cockpit windows are small to begin with, and the decal set I am going to use has very nice opaque cockpit windows with sun highlight effects on them. So why not.

Somehow this never is an issue for ship models.

I do everything if nothing else for the fact I know the parts are there.

Sometime's I Will paint / detail  " The living crap" out of a kit ( I have been known to put 1/25 scale Beer can's under pick-up seat's) I have also built a 1/87 scale camp car that had only two small window's and a door at each end. Full interior, 4 set's of bunk-bed's, a table ,4 chair's a potbelly stove, and a bathroom ... ( there were clothe's and blanket's  scattered all over. ) When I completed the model, both door's and one window were all closed.... so the only way to see ANY OF IT, was with a flashlight , through a window roughly the size of a dime .... if the dime was square.

Yes, I will paint the wheel well's on plane's unless their wheel's up.

Yes, I will paint the interior of a tank .... or submarine connong tower ( not the interior of the "pressure hull"..... I'm not TOTALLY BONKER'S ) 

   Are you sure about that last statement LittleTimmy? LOL, SORRY just had to poke some fun at ya.

    Like most of the fellas here I'm not into using up expensive paint on parts or places that will never be seen, not to say I haven't done it. I usually get lost in the thrill of the moon and stars aligning just right and my airbrush runs right that I wind up painting everthing.

armornut

   Are you sure about that last statement LittleTimmy? LOL, SORRY just had to poke some fun at ya.

L O L ! ! ! 

You know what's really funny ? When I posted that, I told my wife what I posted and then told her... " Watch. I bet you $5 that the next post will be Armornut. And he's gonna "run" with it" ( meaning you were going to"Prove" that I really was "Bonker's )

Thank's for not letting me down .... now, ... where's my $5 Woman ?? !!!

Generally not, however, make sure that indeed the area cant be seen after the build.

Several years ago I read a biography on Steve Jobs. Steves adopted father was a very talented handyman/craftsman. Steve said he remembers his dad teaching him to have pride and build quality into your work. It included not neglecting the craftsmanship of your work that well never be seen by the end user. Steve mentioned this had a great influence on how he approached the design of Apple products. At least during his tenure at Apple.

    LOL, LT, LOL...glad I could help ROFLMAO. Ya know $5.00 in your pocket is $5.00 your wife can't commit to the "honey do" list. Have a GREAT day my friend.

      On thing I have started to do is build up as much of the kit as I can in sub-assemblies or kinda do a "mock up". This gives me an idea of what really needs to be painted. Makes the build take longer however it does help.

My rule is if it's visible, even just a tad then it gets painted and detailed otherwise no. 

Why would one spend time and effort to as an example paint and detail an engine only to seal it up making it impossible to see the detail? IMO that is counter productive but it's up to the individual.

If it can, or will, be seen I will detail and paint it.

Jim