Painting sequence ?

Im a slut that way, I build all different things:) Having an armor fetish right now!!!

I have tried both methods and here are my thoughts. Try building and painting ins "sub assemblys". They may not necessarily correspond to what the instructions say. I find it easier to paint as much of the major portions of the project assembled together as I can. On tracked vehicles, paint the tracks first and if they are indy tracks, paint them first on the sprues and then touch them up after. For rubber ban tracks, paint them before you attach the ends. Try pinning them in a cut out hole in posterboard. Cut a hole just slightly shorter and higher than the track and pin the ends to the foam core board. Then you can paint both sides at the same time. Most new Tamiya tracks let you use regular model glue on them but I still use super glue.

Paint the tools after they are attached to the vehicle and after they have received a base coat of your vehicle colour. You will cover up any areas where glue can be seen on the vehicle. Also, a lot of the new glues do not stick worth a darn on painted surfaces. It is not that terribly hard to paint the equipment on the vehicle and after you have done a few it goes pretty smoothly.

If you are doing something like a Marder or a Wespe with an open crew area, you may have to alter the building sequence a bit so you can paint the crew compartment before you attach the main gun. Either that or make sure and paint very thoroughly with your airbrush from many different angle.

All of the above applies to armour and for aircraft or boats and whatever....................switch to armour.

Thanks for all the imputs, i am going to try the all tools on method with the T-34 that I am working on, and if I am not happy will try the tools off with the Tiger that I am doing next!

I don't build armor so that might have a bearing on my answer. Personally the only time I ever fasten detail parts to an assembly before painting is if they are going to be the same color as the assembly. Like I said, I've never built armor, but if I were doing tools or something like that I'd paint them and detail them separately and then glue them on the hull. A shiny spot from the glue is no big deal, a touch of clear flat will fix that.

I'm the same as my esteamed colleages. Tools, and all the basic items get the base coat and are painted later.It's really not that much more time to detail paint those parts .Plus about the only way to attach them onto the painted surface is with CG and that usually needs to be touched up under the part to get rid of the shinies.Espescially on the smaller parts.I take a couple of O or OO brushes and trim the bristles on an angle that allows better control of the paint down by the hull.As for the road wheels ,I paint them along side while I'm painting the vehicle.I will at times paint larger AM parts or stowage separately as they can be attached easily later due to their size.

Personally, I stick everything on the tank (except the tracks, which I paint off the tank), prior to any painting. Everything then gets the base coat colour. I then carefully pick out the tools, chains, etc. with the proper colours. As Psutton said, it's a bit more time consuming, but at least you don't have to stick any more parts on.

Just my two cents

I'm surprised one of the "experts" haven't jumped in here yet to answer your question. I'll try to get things rolling.....

Unless you do a slop job, it's going to be time consuming. When I was a kid I liked gluing the model together and attacking it with a bottle of paint and a brush. Now we gotta do the airbrush thing.

I think its best to paint the wheels separately. I've read that while they are on the sprue is best. I like to assemble the wheels, then stick them to masking tape and do one side at a time. For the most part the whole model can be painted after assembly, but your right about the accessories. Paint the boxes, chains, tool, tow cable, etc., separately.

I'm eager to hear other input......