Smaller Fuselage Parts Place on or After Priming??

No hard rule on this, it depends on the plane, and the color scheme.  The general rule, however, is if a part will be painted the same as the area surrounding it, go ahead and glue it on before any painting or priming. If it is going to be a different color, and is too delicate to mask, put it on late in the build. For every other situation it is a judgement call.

Glue on all your covers, your ventral strakes/fins, windscreen before paint. Most else is personal preference or a judgement call Like Don said.

I agree with Don, The only deference is I will sometimes leave the canopy off and hand-paint the frames if it is too difficult to mask. For the A-10 I would glue it on first.

The forum's search engine is to the right of your post. "SEARCH THE COMMUNITY".

Steve

I've been debating the answer to that question myself. I've got a 1/72 scale L-39 Albatros kit by Eduard and it included PE parts... and  I mean tiny PE fuselage parts (antennas, and the like.).

I'm no airplane modeler, but I'll offer this. There seem to be a lot of widespread misconceptions about primer on plastic models. Modern hobby paints are formulated to stick directly to styrene. Primer is not necessary to make the paint stick.

The big function of primer on a plastic model is to provide a consistent color under the finish coats. Modern paints do an incredible job of covering the surface in thin coats, but if you have a yellow part glued to a black part it will take lots of white paint to hide the transition.

I'll bet that A-10 kit is molded in grey, and slightly different shades of grey are the colors of the finished product. If you filled the seams with white or green putty, a shot of grey primer will be a big help. But it the primer is about the same color as the styrene, it's perfectly safe to stick on additional parts and spray them the same finish color with no primer. You just don't want to ask the finish coat to hide a sharp contrast between colors that it's covering.

On the other hand, a coat of primer (if it's not too thick) won't do any harm. Your choice - but don't worry about the paint failing to stick.

Here is a short list of Modern Hobby Paints that you will absolutely have to primer the model before painting them on.

Vallejo (and the rest, made of that formula, AK, MiG, Italeri, Color of Eagles, etc)

Lifecolor

XtraCrylics

AKAN Acrylics

MisterKit

Badger

Humbrol Acrylics

Model Master Acrylics

the Aeromaster and Polly Scale were hit and miss, some colors need primer, some don't

I don't know about MisterPaint yet, but, that is a fairly new line, I am sure we will get info on their use sometime soon.

If you are using a water soluble Acrylic, just get some Badger Primer, and then when you lift your tape off after your color coats, you won't be one of the hundreds going online to complain that your "tape is bad"

If you are painting outside, or if fumes aren't a problem inside, then put your first coat of paint on with some easy to get Enamel, and use that as your primer (or as your first color)

The main decision as to whether you put the tiny/narrow parts on before or after primer is how much you are worried about buildup at the part to fuselage joint. You don't want a bolted on antenna to look "faired in" at the base of it, when it should look like it was bolted on.

For those, don't worry about scraping off paint to "cement" them in place,,,,,,,use clear paint, Aleene's Tacky Glue, Superglue, Watch Crystal Cement, or Gator Grip water soluble superglue, all of those can stick parts onto a painted surface.

Washing the model can also help with paint adhesion. I have been doing it that way since 1969, and I have never had to post "helpppp, my paint didn't stick"

I know "real hobby products" cost more,,,,,,,,,,but, if you use them all the way through a build, you won't be posting it either.

Rex

Maybe my modeling paints will stick to plastic, maybe they won't.  I am not sure what all determines it- maybe whether the mfg uses release agents and what they are, maybe it depends on how much I touch parts before I paint (finger oils do affect paint adhesion).  So while the paint usually sticks without priming, it doesn't always.  So I use primer to guarantee adhesion.  I find priming easier than striping a bad paint job with spots of poor adhesion.