Anyone care to share their workflows?

I think everyone builds differently, and there's really no sure-fire method that works better than the others.

When I build aircraft, I paint, detail, and weather the cockpit before the fuselage halves are joined. This includes PE seatbelts too. I, like everyone else, generally stuff wet tissue into the cockpit, although I typically add masking tape to the edges to completely cover the cockpit opening. If I'm building a serious, hardcore model, I'll get canopy masks and spray the frames. If I'm building for fun, I'll hand-paint the frames with a liner brush.

With armor, I'll assemble anything that requires the camo color on the tank, including the road wheels. I don't glue the wheels in however, and I remove them and spray the rubber or weather the steel rims after the basecoats and washes are applied. This ensures consistent weathering and tonality on the model.

Pioneer tools, machine guns, or anything that's not painted in the camo colors will be added after painting is done. Tracks are generally added at the end, but before antennas and other fragile parts are added as the final step. Painting is typically an on-going process during the build, and I rarely follow instructions, at least as far the order of construction is concerned.

Ships are an entirely different story. I'll assemble and paint the lower hull first, complete with weathering and decals, then I'll build, paint, and detail each deck level, painting and detailing as I go. The final steps for ships are the photoetched rails along the main deck, and the rigging.

That's how I do it...

Jeff

Desdinova wrote:

I usually assemble more or less anything except for the landing gear or weapons, or anything else that gets in the way of painting the fuselage. Once the fuselage is airbrushed I attach the rest, which I've painted seperately, with superglue and clear coat it. For cockpits, I'll either glue on the canopy and mask it with Tamiya tape, or, if I want an open cockpit, roll a thin worm of Blue-Tak and press it around the edge of the cockpit, and press the canopy on so I can paint it with the rest of the fuselage. Then I rub off any excess Blue-Tak. This keeps the canopy on and secure, and also keeps any paint from entering the cockpit.

That is a wonderful idea I have had paint blow into the cockpit before and ruin the canopy like that! I never thought about using blue-tak to seal it with! Thank you Desdinova!!!

I usually assemble more or less anything except for the landing gear or weapons, or anything else that gets in the way of painting the fuselage. Once the fuselage is airbrushed I attach the rest, which I've painted seperately, with superglue and clear coat it.

For cockpits, I'll either glue on the canopy and mask it with Tamiya tape, or, if I want an open cockpit, roll a thin worm of Blue-Tak and press it around the edge of the cockpit, and press the canopy on so I can paint it with the rest of the fuselage. Then I rub off any excess Blue-Tak. This keeps the canopy on and secure, and also keeps any paint from entering the cockpit.

Well, I think the very first thing I do when I get a new kit is to open it and get the instructions out and look them over. I usually open each bag of parts and look through them to see what, if anything, si missing. By studing the instructions some, you can get a feel for what can be left off and what should be put on. Just make sure you look them over good. You don't want to put something on to soon that will be a problem, and you don't want to forget to put something inside the fuselage before you cement them together. It also depends on the paint scheme. If its camo, you will need to put as much on as possible, but if its a single color paint job, you can get away with less. Look for things that will have visable joints, if you assemble these and clean the joints prior to painting, it will make it less time consuming than if you have to paint, fix the seam, sand, then paint again. It also come with experiance, it helps to know what color parts need to be, and what order they go on, again, just refer to the instructions before you start building and try to get a game plan.

luis, the kits I've built usually need you to place the cockpit within the two fuselage halves. It simply won't go in after you've glued them together.

As for masking, the two simple methods I know of are either to attach the canopy and mask the glass, especially useful if the canopy frame is the same colour as the fuselage, although this can be a bit tricky in 1/72, or stuff the completed cockpit full of tissue and cover it in Maskol, then spray away on the fuselage...

I tend to use brushes at the moment, so it's not as much of an issue for me.

Humm... have I always taken the easy way out by doing car models?

Maybe someday I'll have to try something different...

Do they have any planes, boats, tanks, whatever in 1:24th or 1:25th scale?

I wouldn't mind getting one of those Bi-wing planes or what are they called... sea planes with those pontoo things. I could add something like those to a dio with my cars. But now how to add a tank with a 57 Chevy cruising the strip...?? 
Maybe those aren't hard enough?
Dang... 3:50 pm... what happened? I missed a whole night and day, forgot to sleep... AHHH it's Saturday already. 

Do modelers really paint cockpits first on Aircraft? how do you mask it when giving the basecoat for the fuselage?

With my AFV builds, there really is no specific workflow because it will vary from model to model - often based on my own whim. I've constucted some and not painting a thing until the entire model was built. I've also had builds with 5 or 6 intermediate painting sessions throughout construction. In both cases, I've been happy with the end results (although nervous about getting there).

I can't remember who said it originally, but the saying goes something like, "If you can see it, you can paint it. If you can't see it, it doesn't need painting." While this isn't true 100% of the time, it's still a fairly valid point.  

I'm glad I'm not the only one.  It's nice to know that, for all those successful modelers for whom it "falls together out of the box", there are some of us for whom it, well, doesn't!

benchman wrote:

What I'm always thinking about is how to NOT paint myself into a corner by gluing together something that makes it impossible to get access to another part that needs painting! I really have to think ahead of myself.

I tend to forget about this when I'm assembling figures.  I get going putting them together only to realize later that it's now about impossible to get the brush into those small spots.
 

I've struggled with these sames questions....especially since I'm building my first model in over 20 years.

As for myself, I decided to challenge myself by doing a Stug III with lots of PE. Everytime I sit down to do some work on this model, I try to approach this challenge by not being in a hurry and with some forethought. It's not going to be perfect... and that's ok. It's going to give me some experience and that's how I'm going to learn how to tackle all those nagging questions about when to paint what and in what order, etc.

With my current project (a Stug III ausf G) I've probably spent about 12 hours or so mainly just putting on PE parts and some Zimmert. I might be about half way through this part of the project.

What I'm always thinking about is how to NOT paint myself into a corner by gluing together something that makes it impossible to get access to another part that needs painting! I really have to think ahead of myself.

These forums are a great resource for information......I spend about as much time checking out the forums as I do modeling. As I get more experience I don't think I'll need to rely on the forums quite so much.

benchman

thanks zokissima, thats pretty much how I approach AFVs myself at the moment.  I have an Italeri T-26 in the early stages at the moment and I was thinking of trying the "two-halves" approach. It just seemed to make manipulating tracks a little easier without the fenders etc in place. My main concern will be matching the two halves. I guess this is why the Lord invented mud!

Well, for AC or Auto, I don't build too much, so I tend to follow the instructions.

 

With armour, my major interest, I will tend to leave the wheels off the vehicle, and build the undercarriage, attach the upper hull and turret, with as many pieces as possible that I know will be the same base coat colour. From there, there is a lot of small detail painting and glueing.