MASKING BODIES / BUMPERS

I have had problems with one certain masking tape before leaveing residue on paint and since then only used Tamiya's and have no problems. As far as BMF goes, it's not as scary as most people think to work with, very easy really and if you mess up it comes right off.
As far as building and painting. With cars I tend to paint everything before assemble for the most part just because of all the different colors there are. For stuff that is the same color over a big area I will assemble first just to rule out the chance of the glue messing up the paint.

Niclas, is Alclad only an airbrush product? With regards to masking paint can come up and Niclas is right that something with not too strong an adhesive is important. What works for me on painted items, and finite details, is BareMetal Foil. Stuff can get expensive though. Still, when properly applied, it can be cut to nearly any shape and has no bleed thorugh. I've had luck with it.

Welcome to FSM Auto section!
As long as the paint is dry there is no problems masking it of and paint another colour. Make sure to use a good tape with not to strong adesive, I prefer Tamiya masking tape that comes in a variety of widhts and hardly ever bleeds under if properly applied. The easiest way to make a chrome bumper is to use Alclad2 chrome paint, it's a real killer product and I can't understand how I survived without it before.
Front and rear bumpers on my Impala is done with Alclad2 chrome...


...and I'm more than satisfied with the results.
As for which order to assemble and paint that differs from time to time. But I tend to put together as much sub assemblies as I can and then paint them before joining the lot together.
Don't know if I'm making any sense, feel free to ask again if you wan't to know anything else or need to get anything of this clarified.

Good luck!
Niclas