Painting small parts, brush or spray?

[Bullitt]

Questions:

1) Do most paint small parts on the tree, then assemble, or assemble & then paint.

2) Do most spray paint  motors and parts, as well as interiors and seats, or do you use brushes.

Looking at some finished jobs on here (WOW), wondering how the painting gets done so well.

Thanks

[Dave Ambrose]

I've done it both ways. Spraying on the tree, then touching up works best with flat, non-metallic finishes. But, for the most part, I assemble them into some rational unit, do any necessary filing and fitting, then paint them.

[Ace-Garageguy]

...assemble them into some rational unit, do any necessary filing and fitting, then paint them.

Exactly. 

By "rational unit" he simply means, for instance, everything on an engine that's the same color.

You'll find that sometimes cylinder heads, intake manifolds, bell-housings and transmissions are the same color as the engine block, sometimes not.

You'll also get superior results spray-painting your parts, no matter how small they are.

Primering small parts or assemblies prior to painting also improves the appearance usually.

There are a variety of methods you can use to hold things while painting them.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/108917-holding-small-parts-for-paint/

Edited February 1, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[Snake45]

I never paint anything on the tree/sprue. You have to get it off there to get the molding lines (and, all too often these days, flash) off of it.

I'll both hand-brush and airbrush small parts, depending on what they are, what color they need, how prominent they'll be on the finished model, the phase of the moon, and my general mood at the time.

[6bblbird]

I hate brush marks and globby finishes no matter what size the parts so I tend to spray everything. I will often drill a small hole in the part ( on the glue side) and use toothpicks in the hole to hold the part while spraying.

WF

Edited February 2, 2017 by 6bblbird

[Miatatom]

What Snake said.

I always remove all the parts from the sprue, sorting them by color and then sanding them and 95% of the time, I spray them. I usually use strips of masking tape on a flat piece of cardboard if there are lots of parts. If it's just a few, I'll stick them to bamboo skewers with double sided tape.

[Pete J.]

I like the rational groups idea best.  It does two things for me.  First groups such as engine, chassis, non engine drive train, interior, and body tend to put similar color parts together so I can load the airbrush up and shoot a series with the same paint.  Second it keeps me going in logical groups and when I finish one, I get a sense of accomplishment that gives me a boost to go on to the next part.  I short, it helps me keep interest to finish the model.  I rarely do and entire model in a single run so breaking it into smaller steps help me get through to the end without loosing interest. 

Edited February 2, 2017 by Pete J.

[slusher]

Spray all parts off the tree..

[peteski]

When I was a teen building my models I used to brush-paint small parts on the tree. Now that my modeling skills have greatly improved, I remove all the small parts off the tree, prep them, pin them (or otherwise fasten them to some temporary holder), then airbrush them.

[Warren D]

I build as much as I can in sub-assemblies based on color.  I'd rather do my bodywork on unpainted parts as most of the hobby paint I use has very fine pigments that show flaws easily.  I do use a brush as needed but prefer an airbrush.

[gtx6970]

I never paint anything on the tree/sprue. You have to get it off there to get the molding lines (and, all too often these days, flash) off of it.

I'll both hand-brush and airbrush small parts, depending on what they are, what color they need, how prominent they'll be on the finished model, the phase of the moon, and my general mood at the time.

What he said,  I always spray  the body (90% of the times its rattle cans ) and then the  interiors main color is sprayed  I'll  then pick out any secondary colors and/or details with a fine brush .  The chassis  and engine get spray painted as an assy . If the trans is molded with the engine I'll brush paint it once the engine is dry .

If I can get reasonably close to the color I want, I use rattle cans. I just cringe at the idea of dragging out the air brush to paint a model car and try to avoid it if I can , Thats just me.

 

The past few years Ive gotten away from really detailed builds so most of my stuff the chassis gets assembled and spray bombed semi gloss black . Then and only if it can be easily seen once assembled ,,,,, I  'might'  go back and pick out some details  in silvers or greys (gas tanks , and exhaust tail pipes as an example )

I'm building a pretty detailed Johan Superbird kit now and all the detail  / trivial stuff is trying on my patience to  work on it. So it takes all my effort to sit down and mess with it sometimes. To be honest  there are days I wish I would have just built it box stock ..it would have been done a LOOOOOONG time ago if I had