Paint before or after landing gear?

anthony2779

I paint + deacal before I install the landing gear,too easy to break things off

I second that.

I paint + deacal before I install the landing gear,too easy to break things off

I usually paint the wells first then fill them with wet tissue. Then I paint the rest of the kit and install the gear before I do any clear coats. However, I can see that on some kits you had better put them on when told to do so and do your best tomask them.

I tend to be hamfisted so if there is something dangling I will break it so I usually save everything hanging or otherwise externally attached for gluing on after all the painting.

I almost never add LG until I am finished painting the assembled model.  LG are generally easy to glue on, very hard to mask.  I am talking about retractables here.  With fixed gear, I may put struts on but leave wheels off until finished.

I'm building a Tamiya F4U-1A Corsair right now, it's pretty much my first build that I have taken more than a couple days on.  I'm trying my hardest take plenty of time and do everything the best I can do.  I was thinking of just installing the flaps, the paint and install the landing gear last.  The wells is already painted and looking at the directions I don't see any reason I "need to" install the gear first.  Or maybe I will paint the flaps later and install them with the gear.  I'm just exploring options that will give me the overall best job in the end.  

Hawkeye is right.  I have done it both ways.  Usually, I install the doors,  paint the wheel wells, and stuff them with tissue before spray painting the underside, then install the gear when the surface painting is complete.  But on some models, you will want to install the gear and doors, paint and mask them, and then spray the surface.  It depends on how the model is designed.

Or you can install the gear, doors and all- and paint the whole kit and kaboodle with the underside color, and later use a brush to add the color to the wells and the gear.  Sometimes that is the easiest way.

Wheels get prepainted and go on last, after all other painting is done....

Much depends on the kit and the way it is engineered and designed to go together. If for example you don't follow the instructions for the Tamiya F-16 when it tells you to install the main landing gear thinking you'll put them in later...well you'd find you make a huge mistake.

Not every kit is the same...you have to have some abstract reasoning qualities to determine if the process will allow you to...test fit assemblies to see if they can be added later.

So to answer question..It depends on the kit and your level of skill.