Curious as to "paint it" philosophy

A very import Navy rule is "If it moves salute it, if it doesn`t  move paint it. And that is why many of us paint our models.

I appreciate the comments and advice - thanks guys! :)

Dodge

If you do a "paint-by-number" kit and leave the white area unpainted, you'll see the numbers and that's ugly (well, paint-by-number are ugly anyway but...)  Same thing applies for plastic kits, if you leave somthing unpainted, you are revealing to everyone that it is made of plastic instead of trying to give the illusion of a different material.  I hope we convinced you!

The first rule of all good model biulders is PAINT EVERYTHING. Its been said above, but unpainted plastic just looks like unpainted plastic. Gluing, sanding, filing, weathering will all leave variations of tone,and if you do all that and not paint the model, it will just look like a toy.

From my Dad a former Merchant Marine in WWII, "If it moved, we saluted it, if it didn't, we painted it." Not bad advice for modeling, either.

Unpainted plastic looks like, well, unpainted plastic. There's an oiliness to the finish that even when polished to a gleam in cars looks like plastic. For military vehicles, you almost always want a flat finish, not glossy as with unpainted plastic. Also, if you have decals, they will not adhere well to plastic. There are also often slight variations and swirls in plastic, most notable in silver. Glue will be very visible as well, even iif well sanded. Filler? Fogeddabahdit! How you gonna blend that? Different parts may also have variations in shade. When cutting from the sprue, you'll have to dress the piece, sanding etc. That will show up s different shade and/or texture.

Yeah, if it's inside and buttoned up and there's no viewing access, don't bother. But, as a wiser modeler than I once told me, "If there's any chance someone's going to see that part, paint it."

Well, I am probably the least qualified person to answer, but I'll throw in my .  If I can't see it, then I probably won't bother.  Other than that I do because otherwise it looks just like a piece of plastic and most of my models are usually replicating metal, fabric, or wood.  Almost everything I have ever modeled has been painted (or bare metal) so I really never thought about not painting it (until I mess up).  Hope it helps.

Because plastic looks like...plastic.  By painting and weathering, aging, ect.  You can make it look like metal, wood, rubber, or whatever it is supposed to be.  Every part that can be seen on the model should be painted in some way.