Painting before assembly

I painted many minis before completely gluing them and haven't problems with the glue.
I use:


And most of the times I pinned the parts earlier.
Just like here:


After gluing I checked if the colors/light were good, sometimes paint up a bit and then put the varnish.
Now I rather glue the minis together before painting (like Naffatuns -http://www.coolminiornot.com/412831 ), but some poses really need painting in parts.


PozdRawiam / Greetings

 

I try not to put paint on the areas to be bonded and I don't use accelerant (I use a teensy ball of GS in the joint instead).

Superglue bonds with paint in the way are weak bonds (it only grabs the paint).

 

If your using super glu, you can replace the spray by just lying a thin coat of water with a brush (some just use their breath to moisturize the place to glue).
You'll get pretty much the same results without the spray issue.
Also, try to get a thin coat of glu instead of a drop. The thinner the coat, the quicker it dry and the stronger the bond.

 

It's all about surface area and intimate contact with superglues. The pieces fitting as close as possible to each other, and maximised surface area in contact with the glue. Shiny doesn't have as much surface area as "dull".
Which is why lightly debuffing an area works (light sanding of parts to join) works better than leaving them shiny (it also removes any surface oxidation - lead and tin oxide will both limit the adhesion of a bond just enough).

 

Definitely giving that moisture trick a try. Thanks!

 

I usually only assemble the parts that will give me easy access while painting. For instance, if a mini is holding a gun in a shooting position with both arms, I leave the gun to be painted before assembly. It makes it far easier to paint the least visible parts under the gun.

What I do is leave the area to be glued fully unpainted (that includes no primer) and remove anything that might have ended up there while painting before gluing. If I remember to, which I should more often, I also file very slightly in a single direction for easier bonding.

I use superglue at the moment.

 

The biggest glue/paint issue I’ve ever had is attaching things so that I’m glueing paint to paint instead of metal to metal, as mentioned. It’s a very fragile bond and you’ll just rip the paint off the model.

I usually only paint parts individually if they are exceptionally hard to reach, such as the Gao Rael sniper’s face.

 

This is the brand of CA glue I use. It cures very fast and I only have to hold the piece in place for about 10 seconds before I can let go and have it cure the rest of the way on it's own.

Much like others here, when I do a sub assembly I paint the piece completely and then glue it on, leaving an unpainted area where the join is to be. With CA glue the trick is to get it right on the first try. When a piece falls off and you have to re-glue it, it leaves behind residue that makes future bonds worse and it will also affect the fit of the piece, this can be huge pain when you are trying to get wrists to line up with hands etc.

Something else I wanted to mention just from personal experience, is to stop using accelerant altogether if you can. Accelerants, while they do speed up curing time by a lot, result in a more brittle bond that is prone to breaking. My old models I've used it on are constantly breaking and in need of repair. You're much better off getting a good quality CA hobby glue with a fast natural curing time.

 

If a piece breaks off you need to scrape away all the old glue before attempting to reattach.