When To Primer/Paint?

I'm building my first studio scale scratch build and I'm going to be starting the kit bashing phase soon. My question is when should I primer and should I paint the parts as I glue them down or do I assemble the whole thing, primer/paint or what? I've seen pictures of some of the models here and it looked as if they were fully assembled and then primer/painted but how do you reach those "hard to get" places like under pipes, behind things, etc. if you go that route.

I know weathering comes last but before that I'm kinda lost.

Thanks in advance.

 

Well it really comes down to a piece by piece case really. It all depends on what you're building. If I'm building a kit one of the first things I do is a dry fit run to see of course part fit, but also if I'm going to have to do painting ahead of time. "If I put this piece in place now, will I be able to reach that crevass? And if I put the arm in place now will I be able to paint the strap underneath it?". Sometimes things do have to be painted ahead of time, other times it all can be painted at once. You'll also run into points where you can leave parts off until after painting so you CAN reach hard-to-reach spots...

Perhaps if you told us what you're building we might be able to give you some painting step advice....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Aegis159 @ May 8 2006, 06:36 AM) [snapback]1240486[/snapback]</div>

An Escape Pod:

http://www.rpf.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=109620

 

hehehe I knew that, I was just testing you

Seriously though, there will be parts that in the end you'll want to leave off until you get the base form of the pod painted. Especially if there are layers of parts on top of one another somehow. really it just comes down to how confident you feel wielding a paintbrush/airbrush..... and whether you want to redo some of the previous painting if you goof and get some paint where it's not suppose to be

 

As suggested above, I like to mock the model up and make any adjustments to it. I usually use a small dap of glue to hold the stuff together. Once I am happy with it, I break it all down again. I then final sand, primer, paint and reassemble. Granted, it may vary from model to model.