The Ship Model Forum

For a submarine, you can glue first and then paint for most parts without worrying about hindering paint access afterwards. The exception would be for the inner sides of the conning tower/sail, where you might want to paint the deck in there and the inner surfaces before putting it all together.

The cements normally used when working with styrene consists mainly of a solvent and will weld to parts together, rather than act as medium of glue in between them. If parts are painted, the cement cannot work as desired.

A bond is only as strong as the weakest interfaces that are involved. So when you e.g. glue together one or two painted surfaces, the bond will only be as strong as the paint adheres to the surfaces.

Certain paints, such as organic solvent-based enamels (e.g. Humbrol) will fuse with styrene and form a firm bond, but plastic cements do not really dissolve the paints sufficiently to achieve the 'welding' effect, as observed, when glueing styrene to styrene.

Other paints, such as acrylics only form a surface film that physically sticks to the surfaces, rather than through a chemical reaction.

PU resins are an altogether different matter, as they have to be glued together with contact cements or CA cements.

So assembling first or painting first, depends very much on the material combinations that are concerned.

In general, I would assemble parts first that structurally belong together, while details can be stuck on after painting, once precautions as per above are taken.

If parts require little to no clean-up, I paint them on the sprue and touch-up later. Some parts are easier painted as sub-assemblies.
Examine parts break-down and instructions and assess method.

A little of both.

While some people like to finish building before painting, many will build sub assemblies and paint them before attaching them.

Some parts can be painted before attaching.

It depends on the model and your preference.

Do what you think makes sense.

Hello everyone!

I'm newbie in the forum and in plastic modelism, i want to build a 1/144 classic german u-boot, which is the consequense, first i paid all the pieces at the straw, or glue them and paint at the end?

Thanks.