I've noticed that...

[daggerlee]

...a lot of you keep parts on the sprues even when painting. What do you do about the unpainted sections where it connected to the sprue after painting?

[Lownslow]

touch it up after i remove it from the tree

[daggerlee]

What if the plastic's black and the color is translucent, or you have to sand it? I know that some colors will give you a different shade when you airbrush it than when you handbrush it..

[freakray]

Daggerlee,
I have found that no matter what way I try, I will always end up with a small area that will require some sort of touch up.
If I remove the parts completely from the sprues and airbrush, there is invariably an area near/where the part was held for painting that requires touch up at a later stage.
If I leave the part attached to the sprue and paint it, then I invariably have the problem you mention when the part is removed from the sprue.
So, if there is somebody here that can enlighten us all as to a better way to do this, then it would be appreciated.

Ray

[primera man]

I touch it up last of all.
I cut as much off the part as possible so that in most cases the part is only hanging on by one tiny bit.
I try to leave the bit on that will not be seen when the kit is put together

[Ranger_X]

I only leave it on the tree when I'm brush painting, touch it up with the same paint afterwards. Anything I spray, I take off the tree, cept for maybe the side mirrors, those can be a bitch.

[ales]

I, for one, rarely paint on trees. And I have developed quite a few methods to deal with this (it's amazing what one can come up with!)

Anyway, if you care to, here are the tricks I use (depending on the parts):

Suspension arms or anything that has holes in it (not necessarily "exit holes" - just cut the end of the toothpick until you get the required diameter) are painted while on toothpicks. I go through toothpics like water! Most of the times you will need to touch the parts up, but it's really really mimimal, and sometimes you don't even need to do that! And to hold the part when drying, I use a 2 litre Coca Cola botle with about 1/4 of it filled wih water (for stability) and some 15 holes punched in it so you can stick the oher ends of the toothpicks in them.

Now anyther technique I use is double-sided tape (used for holding carpeting in your house). It's quite sticky and works like a charm! (most of the time) What I use are a few wooden sticks - not too big, like 1cm in diameter and a couple 2 cm in diameter. Now I either cut a thin stripe of double tape and stick i to the end of the stick (pun intended!) or place a larger strip on the side of a rectangular strip - all depends on the parts you're working on. Also I use some sprue that I cut into small sticks, file one end of that stick so that it sticls to the double-sided tape and consequently the part better. For example, when painting wings and spoilers, I do it in 4 steps: prime one side of the spoiler, then, after the primer is dry, prime the other side. Then paint one side and lastly paint the other side. No need to touch up this visible part after this.

Although someimes I do paint parts on trees - when they are connected to the trees in such a place that will not be visible later - like the top of the suspension strut.

Hope this long post will help somebody.
Alex

[daggerlee]

ales, thanks for the post. I have used some of those techniques you mentioned (using double sided tape) but the coca bottle is a new thing to me. I'll have to try that out some time. I much prefer painting all the sides of a piece at once because you don't have to wait for it to dry before flipping it over and painting the other half (if you know what i mean). I have found the double-sided tape I have is too sticky, so lay it down then lay some less-tackier one sided tape over that, otherwise the fragile new paint job will be ripped off. Thanks again

[AceTone]

Something I found to be useful are alligator (sp) clips used for electronics. Hit your local radio shack or even hardware store and pick some up. I then took a 1 inch thick piece of plywood and drilled a ton of holes in it so that the clips could be inserted into the holes. Using tooth picks, spruce, wire, etc, I have the clip hold the wire, toothpick, or whatever with the plastic piece (model part) raised above some distance. I found this to be helpful because you can handle the clips while painting and then replace them into the board to dry.

Another item that I use a lot is a very thick wooden rod (why does it sound like I am speaking of sex?) that is on a base. I have clips taped to the top of this and use it to paint many items (car bodies, tanks, aircraft, etc).

Also, use white glue to hold the piece on the tooth pick. A small dab just for safety sake...

Just my 2 cents...

[GTRRR]

Do you guys primer all these parts (suspension, engine etc) and do you brush paint them or spray them??

[FC in TO]

Here's how I did mine.

Well, I would try to cut all the stuff out if possible since most of them are all held at some rather noticable and hard-to-re-touch areas.

Tehn I would take those left overs form the trees and glue them onto the pieces. Yup, I GLUED them, at some unoticable areas of course (ie. under side of the seat, under the dash, etc.etc..). And then I secrued them on those bamboo skewers for easy handling and airbrushing. Sometimes when there are holes on the model I would just put the skewer in directly to secure them.

I also used the 'tape method' when there's absolutely no place to glue or hold the piece.

I guess a pic is worth a thousand words. Have a look.

[Jay!]

Wow, that's like modern art! :sun: :coolguy:

So the Mobil1 NSX is next from you? *yay!*

[FC in TO]

NSX it is (soemthign for the big NSX fan)

the method not only works nicely but also, like Jay said stands as a piece of art on the table for the guests to admire.

[Honoturtle]

All I do is grab some scrap wood, then toss some tape on it then last the parts. Just wait till the parts are touch dry and flip them to paint the opposite side if desired! Make sure not to use a too strong adhesive tape because it could rip your paint off, or too weak adhesive because you don't want your parts flying all over the place while airbrushing.

[tazdev]

I used to just paint on the tree. however having seen FC's piece of modern art I think I'll give it a go that way. Anything that reduces the amount of touchup work you have to do has to be good