When to prime?

[Tony68]

I'm building an x-wing model and wanted to ask when is the best time to prime the model? I've started sanding down the rough edges and assembling the smaller parts, such as engines. I know this might be a bit obvious, but this is all new to me so I thought I'd ask

Thanks

Tony

[Mark Yungblut]

Priming depends on many things. First are you doing it in sub assemblies? Second do you have a lot of filling etc. yet to do?

I generally prime after my first round of filling and sanding. It helps to show where the flaws might be hiding. If you are doing sub assemblies make sure that when you go to glue them together you remove the paint/ primer from the area to be glued.

I use a good sandable primer like Krylon grey primer. Unless it is a figure then I use Floquils white figure primer as it is much finer grain and white is a good base for figs.

Hope this helps,

Mark

[ignatz]

Every model is different, so I just plan ahead once I figure out how the model is engineered to come together.

I've been working on an MPC/Ertl X-Wing and I've already primed in sub-assemblies. So here's what I've done:

I assembled, puttied and sanded the wings and some of the engine cowling parts and I primed them. That's sub-assembly #1 and 2 (for each set of wings.
Then I assembled the detail pieces to the top fuselage, inclucing the tail plate and canopy (I'm building this with the canopy closed). I masked off the canopy and I primed that as sub-assembly #3
I primed the lower fuselage as sub-assembly #4

Now for everything else.

All the rear engines, lasers, cockpit, pilot, and R2 unit, and landing gear, I assembled, cleaned up the seam lines, putty and sanded where needed. Then I primed all of those.

I'm pretty much just at that stage now, but what I plan to do next is paint up the cockpit and pilot and then glue that into the top hull under the cockpit (must remember to remove the masking tape under the canopy!)

Base coat the top and bottom fuselages.

Finish painting the wings and then connect them to the pivot post.

Finish painting the engines and lasers and attach them to the wings sub-assemblies.

Install the assembled wing section into the lower fuselage half, then glue down the upper fuselage.

Finish painting the fuselage.

Wash and weather the whole thing.

Well, that's the plan for building it out-of-the-box anyway.

[John O]

I'm a big believer in painting to the largest possible sub-assemblies I can manage. Two reasons: 1) I think it makes the overall construction much stronger 2) fewer touch-ups for the places where final assembly occurrs.

Scale/size of the model counts too. A big X-wing might let you do a greater number of individual subs. For my FM X-wing, which is pretty derned small, I'm doing 5: the two wings/s-foils, the main body, the rear body plug, and the conopy. Something that small is just easier to do if there's more to hang onto.

John O.

[Tony68]

Thanks much for the suggestions guys, they'll help big time. The sub-assembly route sounds like my best bet (especially since I've started that much.) I have say, sanding the pieces can be a great way to relax. At least for me.

Tony

[bluesman]

I clean up the parts before I prime, prime, check for flaws then prime again.

I know people fear primer filling in details, but I use light mist coats and have had no problems.

[Species5618]

Before painting. If you wait and do it last, then it covers up all that work you did.