SPA Modeler

Curious if anyone has a specific build order when working on a kit? I seem to be all over the place, and forget things....all the time. Perfect example was today. I was going to gloss coat the Hawkeye I was working on, and then paint the inside edges of the landing gear doors while it dried. Realized I forgot to paint the outside of the doors with the rest of the plane So I painted them, then gloss coated everything, now I'm stuck waiting for paint to dry. I'm thinking I need to have an "order" to follow with each build so I don't forget stuff like that. But I'm not sure if it would work since every build is different.

Like you said, every build is different. Can’t say that I have a hard order for building, but depending upon the project, I like to get sub assemblies done before starting painting. Next painting the sub assemblies that cannot be painted later, then getting the sub assemblies put together, addressing gaps, then on to the next stages.

Keyda!!!

Aircraft, ships, sci-fi subjects:

As a rule, I usually go step by step. Painting, I try to get it all done at once; landing gear doors, flaps, etc...

Sometimes I'm all over the map building components and painting them; wing halves, rudder / tail halves, armaments / belly tanks, cockpit, etc....

Struts, landing gear doors, fiddly bits I'll set aside for last after decals are applied.

Auto kits.... I'm all over the place.

Not me keyda81, well only if I've built the same kit multiple times... But as you know, every kit is it's own story. My biggest issue is when I am forced to take long breaks -- several weeks or so -- in the middle of a build. When that happens I have to figure out what I was doing when I stopped.

That is me “to a T”. I call my ethos the. “Dog poop” method. It is all over the place. I get so distracted these days.

I guess I'm not the only one then, lol. I think it's been a good six months that I wasn't at the bench. So I attempted to go small and picked a Tamiya P-51 from the stash. Everything was great until I went to put paint on the thing. Was going for bare metal, and the black gloss coat just did not spray well. I attempted to fix it, and tried again. Still a nope, so rather than keep fighting with it I trashed it, and for some stupid reason pulled the Kinetic Hawkeye out and started on that. I read a review, and watched someone else build it, and honestly seemed like it wouldn't be all that difficult. I couldn't of been more wrong. It's not a great kit, and I just feel like I'm floundering like a fish out of water, and shouldn't of picked this kit after not being at the bench for so long. I'm out of touch, and feel like I need some kind of standard build procedure. But I suppose I do this with every build, now that I really think about it. I'm in the final stretch with it now, just weathering and final assembly left.