Painting on Sprue?

[Auxryn]

I was listening to some podcast (probably the Overlords) and heard someone say that as a kid he had always painted his models on the sprue, then put them together fully painted.

I just got a shipment of new models and I'm not in a huge hurry to get them onto the table, so I was thinking of giving it a try. At the very least it would make it easy to prime and base coat, though I am concerned about touching up the bits where you snip them off the sprue. Also, glueing painted surfaces will mean using super glue and not plastic glue.

Has anyone else tried doing this? Any hints or warnings?

[Primarch]

I'm not sure it would be worth the hassle to be honest, but if the models are plastic and you are using GW paints, the plastic glue should still work as it will melt through the paint as well. Super glue won't work that well as you are gluing paint to paint, not plastic to plastic.

[Spevna]

I'm not sure it would be worth the hassle to be honest, but if the models are plastic and you are using GW paints, the plastic glue should still work as it will melt through the paint as well. Super glue won't work that well as you are gluing paint to paint, not plastic to plastic.

I've never tried it but I think it would leave you with more to paint. If you glue together a space marine, the bolter across his chest cuts out a bit of paint work for you. Paint the bugger on the sprue and you have to do the whole thing. And, as Prim said, watch out for melting.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I was thinking of doing that but I have never done it.

I did base coat a few spruces.

[me_in_japan]

*MiJ's eye twitches a bit*

Sprue painting

Bad auxryn! BAD auxryn!

Here's why:

1) impossible to do lighting properly - which way is up? Which bits should be lighter/darker? It's far easier to tell of everything is assembled.

2) unity of colour - getting colour matches across all the bitz will be very difficult(assuming its not all just monochrome)

3) how exactly do you intend to remove all the mould lines/sprue nubs once it's painted? Surely you'd just end up filing off all the paint you just on?

4) assuming by some miracle you could manage (3), you'd still be left with little grey spots all over the mini where the sprue had been attached to the bit. You'd have a hella time matching those spots with the surrounding area. I suspect you'd end up repainting the whole bit.

So, that's why painting on the sprue is a bad idea

If you really want to speed up your painting, get an airbrush, and do some zenithal highlighting. 3 shades, baddabingbaddaboom, lovely mini just awaiting details.

[Konrad]

I only paint on the sprue sparingly. Right now I'm working on a Konvertin' a little 1/48 scale bulldozer into a SquatOrk Kontraption. I'm painting it in pieces...main tractor/treads/dozerblade assembly because it's got some fiddly bits. I base coated some of the bits on the sprue, just because it was a little easier to get it done that way before assembling. But generally, you don't need to bother.

[Auxryn]

I may only do this with the new set of Crisis Suits I got. I've already put some suits together so I know how it goes, and it should be faster if I can at least do the base coating this way.

[me_in_japan]

Don't doooooo eeeeeeeeet! NooooooooooOooOOOOOoooo!!!!

Crisis suits aren't hard to paint. Honestly, do the following:

1) assemble body.
2) assemble legs and arms, and also head
3) spray the various assemblies in a dark shade of your chosen color (let's say burgundy red). Make sure they're all covered. Either use an airbrush or just regular spray can. If you're worried about gluing later, put some blu-tac on the surfaces that will later be glued.
4) assemble the model fully, glue it.
5) spray the model from about 6" above its head with a brighter shade of your chosen color (let's say bright crimson red). Start spraying off to the side of the mini, then swoosh it across like a plane spraying crops.
6) give the whole thing a quick wash with a dark red/brown
7) pick out any plate edges on the upper surface of the model with a somewhat orangey red.
8) do details

Any bits you can't reach with your brush aren't important, because we won't be able to see em anyway.

I guarantee that you can get the whole squad done in a day using this technique with an airbrush, and in 2 days if you use a spray can (cos the paint takes longer to dry)

[jehan-reznor]

Ignore some fanatics here

Paint the way it works best for you.

The only thing that i paint on sprues sometimes are Space Marines Shoulder pads and heads.

But usually i put the figure together (pinning not glueing) and use the left over sprues to stick on the assembled arms (and/or heads) on, and then paint them.

[job]

I think you've done well picking up the gist and the pointers. Personally I used to paint on the sprue in HS but I've stopped that habit. Certainly there are advantages of easily getting to places, but I think Konrad has the best solution. Sometimes you can make mistakes or leave yourself in a bad place when you remove it from tr sprue and begins assembling (what of things don't fit? Or you mixed up two lines? You need to remove a mold line or do some greenstuffing?)