paint and assemble or assemble and paint

For ships, I usually assemble the hull and paint it, paint the deck seperately, and do superstructure as subassemblies, painting each subassembly before attaching to deck. It is almost impossible to mask the deck to paint superstructure.  I airbrush the main deck color, but do fittings molded to deck (seperate color from deck) with small paintbrush.

thanks for the thoughts.  I decided to get a cheap kit to test on, painted the 2 main hull sections, built the rest of the kit into 2 sub assemblies that seemed easiest to hit all the surfaces with the airbrush, and got the base coats on.  I've never really gone beyond a little drybrushing as far as highlites and weathering, so going to have to learn how to weather with the airbrush, but I definitely went through less paint assembling as much as I could.

As to what I build, I used to build US battleships, not because of a particular obesession with the real things (though I do have a laymans interest), but because I liked the challenge level of the kits, and the large scales and high detail.  Coming back I have been focusing on starships, star wars and star trek, since I am a big fan of both.

I have been reading through the past threads for airbrush weathering tips that might apply to starships and aquatic ships, but if anyone has any particulars they wanted to add, it certainly would be appreciated!

Both ways need to be employed for a successful model,of course cockpits and interiors need to be painted first.With an airbrush though,I assemble almost everything I could except breakable and fragile parts and then paint,adding the details later.Its all about planning ahead and thinking about your build as a whole rather then one step at a time.Then you will come up with what works for you

I always answer the question of paint-first or assemble-first with the answer- Yes and Yes.  That is, paint a little, assemble a little, repeat.  The exact procedure depends on the kit- every kit is different.  The first step in building is planning!  Look at both the instruction and the plastic in the kit.  Take the instructions with a grain of salt.  Do the assembly in your mind.  Consider which parts should be painted when.

Some tips.  Look at subassemblies.  Should they show seams as panel lines, or should seams between parts not be apparent. If seams need to be filled and sanded, that must be done AFTER those parts are assembled.  You didn't say which genre of model you are working on.  General procedures do vary a bit with genre.  Depends too on the  paint scheme you will be doing.

A few minutes of planning may save hours of work re-doing.

A lot will depend on what parts you are dealing with.

For assemblies where you need a solid join and that will require sanding to eliminate seams, usually you would assemble first, then paint.  Examples are fuselage halves; top and bottom of wings, etc.  

For "add-on" parts, like wheels, landing gear, antenna, it often works best to paint first, then attach.

For ships, I usually assemble the hull and main deck, then paint.  But for the superstructure, guns, etc., I normally paint, then assemble.

Oftentimes, too, the parts breakdown of a specific kit might determine how to handle the painting and assembling procedure.

This probably isn't much help, since it sort of turns you back toward experimentation.  Still everyone tends to develop their own style, and mostly it's trial and error; and then, error and more trial.

Good luck, and have fun with it--even the experimentation part.