Hi all, My best wishes for everybody, hang in there! I am teleworking and I do not have a lot of spare time in my hands, but I have been trying to advance with some of the MDF kits I have obtained these past months. I purchased this particular kit through Wallapop. A real bargain for a 3 story building. However, the building is quite generic and a bit flat, so I have been adding some bits here and there to avoid that flatness and add some flavour: drain pipes, support elements and so. Some of those elements will also help to hide the gaps for the steps that otherwise would be visible in the outside. Some pics of the original building: Lobby First floor Third floor In the second pic you can see how the roof is: totally flat, with some lines. Now, with the bits added: As you can see, those bits taken from old 3.5" disks add some depth to the walls and hide the gaps of the steps. Similar concept in the other side of the building. And the roof. Some PS square rod to create a minimal ledge, and two DANISH-BRAND-OF-PLASTIC-BLOCKS pieces to create a interesting detail in the edge and a trapdoor (yes, they are GLUED; I dare to glue these pieces). I cannot decide if I should assemble and glue each story (at least floor and outer walls) BEFORE priming and painting, or if I should assemble everything together AFTER priming and painting. I have seen a dozen videos, a ton of forum threads, and it seems some people assemble everything and paint and other people do the opposite. And now, my question: what would YOU do?
To me it depends on what you will be doing with the painting, I have to done both and they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Like if you want to have the floors and inner walls in different colors it can be difficult to mask and stuff after assembly.
How much detail is there on the inside, and do you want it seen? Then prime, mask and paint them before assembly. INSIDE and OUTSIDE. Be careful here, though. Some mdf kits have such tight tolerances that they may not fit together AFTER the paint is applied (the cuts don't take into account paint thickness). MY buildings don't usually have useful interiors, so painting after assembly is fine.
It's easier to mask everything before assembling. On the other hand, painting assembled building is better. I used to paint buildings after assembling and priming but those were simple cubes most of the time. Nowadays I paint everything before assembling. As others have suggested it all depends on amount of details you want. You might consider painting and masking some elements and then assembling whole building to paint the rest. Like doing the windows frames and floors first, masking those elements and then painting the rest after assembling.
Well, I do not know yet how much detail I want to put in the inside, but I want to take advantage of the inside partitions... so I suppose it will be paint first (both sides of the walls) and then I will assemble everything together. To me the Let's see what happen... in the worst case I suppose I will be able to use a file or a knife and remove the painting in the joints. Thanks for the advice, everybody!
Assembly then paint let's you fill the gaps. Prepainting is easier for hard to reach zones. I prefer a mixed approach. There is also the wallpaper trick, both in the cover (any paper to later be painted) and decorative (printed in scale, just varnish later) senses. And valid for floor tiles. What brand is the kit? Or just someone doing it via Wallapop? Spanish OOP ones would be a different matter. Antiques squad would hunt you down.
No idea; the guy was just using the three story building as three different buildings without gluing anything. He did not remember the manufacturer or when he purchased it. I purchased the building and a lot of other urban pieces from Warsenal in the same lot: 60 EUR the whole lot. The spanish OOP blocks are called TENTE. I played a lot with them when I was a kid. And the prices are astronomical, yes... one of my colleagues collects them and I cannot believe the prices they pay sometimes. Gluing those blocks would be a crime. But the danish ones, that's another story!
