Tell me about Painting While Assembling

[CraigF]

I've never done this, I hate masking and prefer to avoid as much of it as I can, and sometimes I just don't see how something can be reasonably painted after assembly and still get a half-decent paint job.

I've read that many people paint some models while assembling. Looking at those particular models, it makes total sense. I know you'll have to sand the paint off where glue will go. Any other tricks? I'm a bit concerned about fillets. Some of these models have a lot of areas where fillets are needed for looks, and of course strength at the fins. So then you'd have to go back and repaint the fillets I presume, likely by hand (or else you would have spray painted after assembly)...doesn't that look crappy in comparison?

Two kits I was looking at that suggest painting parts while assembling are the Rubicon and the Outlander. Those are just "for instances" of current kits. I don't see how *I* could paint them according to the pictures (yes, I have no imagination) after assembly. Thanks.

[barone]

Craig,

Weldbond glue dries crystal clear and strong. As a fillet after you paint, it should work well and not require any additional painting.

[chanstevens]

Rubicon is a slightly easier project, as the pre-painted parts that you'd be joining are, for the most part, plastic and don't need fillets. In those cases, I use brush-on liquid plastic cement, and it works great. I do try to make sure the paint is scraped off first, though.

The Outlander is a little trickier, because many of the parts involved are paper tubes. In those cases, I typically draw the bond line on the unpainted part, then cut a really thin sliver of masking tape and mask that area off. Much easier than trying to sand or scrape later. I'll use CA, and typically poke holes in each part with a pin (glue rivets) for strength. For fillets, a light application of Elmer's white glue will dry clear, though a bit milky, so don't smear it around or it will dampen the gloss of any painted area it hits.

--Chan Stevens

[CraigF]

OK, thanks. So it sounds like fillets don't look too bad if added later...but they still won't cover the bare area needed to get good glue adhesion/penetration, without painting over afterwards. I don't know why I'm being so anal about this, it's not like I build museum-quality models and never wreck them... :eek: Still, I like it to look "right" for a few short moments at least.

I hope this isn't too offensive to LMR builders, but I always do any fillets with 2-3hr epoxy. It is so easy to get them smooth and as tiny (or big) as you want. I use micro screwdrivers to put the epoxy on. I'm pretty good at it, they are good fillets. It's my specialty. I don't do anything else especially well, so I have to tell you about this at least. :D I do have Weld Bond, never tried filleting with it, but I bet it would be quite decent, though it can get air bubbles (because of its thickness) that thin epoxy avoids.

I use Tenax 7, Tamiya, or Ambroid liquid cement to glue plastic to plastic. It's so much better than CA for that IMO/E. Each of those types can be better for joining certain plastics, I wish they'd tell which plastic the suspended particles are made of. But any of them seems fine for Estes plastic, so far. I really don't much like plastic fins, but with epoxy fillets they last not too bad at all.