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Scratchbuilt buildings - order of doing fiddly bits


spikey
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I'm getting the hang of this scratchbuilding lark, and am generally happy so far except for one thing, and that's the best order in which to do the final bits and bobs.

 

Right now, I have a plastic card factory building on the bench, the shell of which is Wills brick sheets and the roof of which is Slaters tiles.  Still to is (brush-) painting of the walls and roof, then the fitting of the pre-painted window frames and doors from inside.  After that, it's a couple of noticeboards, gutters, downpipes, and a pair of external sliding doors plus the track from which they hang.

 

Question is, is it best to paint such fiddly bits then subsequently fit them to the walls having carefully scraped the paint off them where I need to glue, or what?  Once you have the basic shell, what's your normal order of doing things to complete the building?

 

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I always fully assemble the building before painting. Yes it means painting can be really tricky but I prefer that to having to scrape off paint and then try to touch up the gaps afterwards. Maybe I am clumsy but I usually get glue where I dont want it and it the building was painted I am sure I would wreck the paint job somewhere.

I also do this to some paint brushes to get in awkward places.IMG_5284.JPG.8ae90f0a4b49d4b52ebe7840d5fbc831.JPG

 

Stu

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8 hours ago, spikey said:

 

Question is, is it best to paint such fiddly bits then subsequently fit them to the walls having carefully scraped the paint off them where I need to glue, or what?  Once you have the basic shell, what's your normal order of doing things to complete the building?

 

 

For me it depends. And depends on various factors such as will the location of it when fitted in place be easy to access for painting or difficult to reach all its surfaces, is it easier to paint when attached or as a separate fitting, etc.

 

I'd suggest considering each part on its merit and assess each separately.

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I am doing a big kit bash on 3 ratio station buildings, the ratio instructions suggest you paint the building at several steps, the first being once the shell is built, next paint the window and doors as well as their frames separately.

 

To me this seems to be good advice but I will be careful as to the type of glue I use when sticking the frames to the walls. Recently I have come across an industrial strength superglue which I may use to attach pre-painted things like downpipes etc

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  • 1 month later...
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In all the buildings I have constructed, I have always painted windows and doors seperately before fitting them, simply because I know that I am not capable of painting them neatly enough once they are in position. Most windows and doors are not structural - that is, they don't bear any load - so applying glue to the painted surface is sufficient to hold them in place securely.

 

Al.

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Any form of scratch building is much the same, in that when doing anything you must consider if what you are doing is going to affect anything else in the build sequence. I am building a station building at the moment, I have painted and then glazed the windows and doors prior to fitting, this has meant I have had to paint the building first and make the roof detachable (until I am ready to fit it permanently) and will paint it prior to permanently fitting it. A bit like chess in thinking several moves ahead, but being flexible enough to revise the plans as unforeseen issues crop up 

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