First paint or first assemble?

[vargen666]

Maybe an obvious question, but I'm only used to building static modelkits. With Zoids there are a lot of moving parts that are placed over eachother, and thus difficult to mask before airbrushing.

So my question is: What is the prefered order when painting (airbrushing) a Zoid? First paint the parts after clean-up, and don't worry about the seams that will be visible when, for example, two body-halves meet? Or is it prefered to first assemble the Zoid and then do a lot of tedious masking before painting?

And I have a small side-question to this: I noticed the Zoids (and other japanese semi-toy modelkits) come with stickers. I was wondering if there's a place where they sell waterslide-decals or dry-transfers for these kits? I know I can make my own. But in my experience it's tedious as they're ever so more fragile than commercial decals, and above all I can't print white.

Hope you guys can shed some light on the above.

[Snowflake]

it's easier to leave them on the sprue, but you get better results if you don't
either way try to leave paint off of pieces that are going to fit into other pieces (theyre gonna be covered up anyway)

[vargen666]

Thanks Snowflake, that's what I figured by looking at people's re-paints.
I think I'm going to just cut everything off the sprues, dry-fit as much as possible and then spray all the parts seperate. Assemble, and then do some weathering and battledamage to the Zoids as a whole.

I hate painting on sprues as it leaves the spots where the parts connect to the sprues uncovered, and it's tedious to clean the tabs up without damaging the paint.

I'm still worried about the stickers though... Do you guys cover them (and the whole model) up with a satin coat to tie them in with the paintwork or do I just have to learn to live with stickers not being decals?

Man, I feel like a n00b to this. I know how to not screw up a regular modelkit but this toy-like moving stuff is so new to me. ;D

[Snowflake]

I think people who hate the ... 3d-ness of the sticker.. just trim it up extra well so there's no edge left... if that's what you meant. if you meant the shinyness, no idea.
The thing about leaving unpainted spots due to sprue marks is.. those spots would show up on a normal model anyway, unless you're really really good at cleaning up the flash. Then again I'm less picky than most

[Maethius]

Gotta agree.... leave them on the sprue for paint and the majority of inkwashing. I usually assemble them, then sticker them, then paint any soot or dirt details.

[SkyKnight]

Well, there is no definite way of building a model kit; you gotta make decisions as you go. I usually start to looking thru the instructions and try to create a mental picture on how the building process will go. There some small areas that you do want to paint while its still on the sprue, and there are larger areas that you may want to paint later when assembling is done.

[Maethius]

Good point, Sky. It also helps me to look over the pieces on the sprue and see if the kit has lots of hidden or interior parts that might be hard to paint after its assembled. Sometimes color is a factor, too. If you have a white kit you may want to paint it on the sprues because it would be easier to remove more of your wash, but if you are doing a recolor that is very different (dark plastic to bright paint, especially white), you'll need to de-sprue the pieces, clean them, then paint them so you avoid the "dot" syndrome... when the original color peeks through, or when you have to dot paint to cover those spots.

[Chuckles]

A bit late, by I've tried several of the approaches mentioned and I found that my best approach is to actually build the model first, then disassemble and paint it. That way, I get to have fun building it again. ^_^

[vargen666]

Haha, that is what's happening right now. I actually mostly finished my Heldy, but the motor is giving trouble again. So I had to dissasemble the painted Zoid.

I think the motor simply isn't strong enough to actually run this Zoid. And with the painted parts, even though they're mostly light coats of sprayed paint, don't really help in that aspect. I think I'll just settle with this and hope it'll miraculously run again when I reassemble. Apply stickers and semi-gloss coat and call it finished. Have to move on.

[Snowflake]

batt-op zoids are a LOT more forgiving in that regard