What is your build 'process'?

shepherd

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Joined
Nov 12, 2013
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So I'm pretty new to doing this [building plastic kits] 'properly',
but for quite a while I've been watching techniques, tutorials, how to's, reviews, etc etc on putting kits together but not seen much that covers the 'whole process' of how others go about their builds.

The reason I ask is during my builds so far, I find my self 'building in to a corner'.
Now I do study the instructions before starting, and triple check before I glue anything together etc etc
but often times in the concentration on putting parts together I find I've glued something on that I would have liked to air brush on it's own before attaching to the whole build.

So my question is how do others 'keep track' of their builds, the parts that may need to surround other parts you'd like to attend to separately, what order do you do things in etc etc.

Hopefully this make some sense, just looking for some tips and insight.

I guess this covers 'Painting' and 'Construction' just seemed 'Construction' was more appropriate of the whole topic.

Thanks.
 
If I want to make sure I paint something before I attach to another part ( like say attaching landing gear wheel wells to wings on an airplane) I circle that part of the directions and write something to remind myself to paint it. Like I might write "Paint this part first" so I know to do that. Or like if I was gonna assemble a car dash, if it's possible I paint it and detail it before I attach it to the interior of the car, but I make sure I circle it on the instructions.

It also helps to write down a kind of build outline. Like what majore parts you can assemble that you can paint together with no problem and do those first and then look at what needs closer attention. Same with decals.

There isn't really a wrong way to build a kit, just figuring out what works for you is the hard part.

Hope this helps you in some way. Take care :)
 
Thanks, this is definitely helpful, seems so obvious now ::)

I had started just crossing off part numbers as I attached them but, yea just making some notes on what parts may be important on first read through is a good plan.

Most importantly immense patience! Some of it is just wanting to see the whole piece together!
 
I'm not sure about others but the smaller parts I'll paint then put a red sharpie over the # on the sprue and on an index car write the # and color so when's it's cut from the sprie I know the color to touch up that spot..Also I build in sub assemblies; engine,interior, chassis etc. Then assemblies are mated in the order they need to fit together..
Hope it helps but I think every modeler develops their own process for this. That's part of the fun of the hobby, isn't it?
thanx and enjoy building..
 
A lot depends on the subject, a car engine us usually lots of different small parts that need to painted separately it can be easy to miss a bit so I always get the parts together and test fit before paint.
Body parts are much easier :)

Again w aircraft there tends to be lots of small parts that all go together inside a large body and there is nothing worse than seeing a part on the bench you forgot to put in so I always keep the parts in some sort of tray or organiser so nothing gets missed.
 

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