How to paint fully constructed models? (E.g Carnosaur / bastiladon)

Just a bit of a back story. I purchased a bunch of unpainted models that were fully glued from Ebay. For the smaller ones such a skinks, saurus warriors / temple guard it shouldn't be too much of an issue. However for the bastiladon and carnosaur where you usually paint the mount first and then attach the saddle / platform after, how can I go about painting it? I'm not sure how I can reach in the nooks and crannys underdeath them :/

 

Basic rule of thumb is: If you can't see it, why does it need paint?

 

If you angle it slightly you can look under the saddle, but you're right, it shouldn't be THAT big a deal, it's just going to bug me a bit that's all :c

 

This is often a bit of a dilemma for me as well. Cause i hate painting some fully constructed models.....but i also tend to make a mess of gluing, and i hate messing up a paintjob with glue even more. I do agree with the what you cant see you should not paint....but there are often things that you can see, but still cannot propperly reach.

 

Use a largish soft brush to get your base coat color into those nooks and crannies.

 

This is a perfect description of how I feel.

 

ehh... those models don't look that difficult to paint assembled,
Cold one Cav on the other hand... (man those are hard)

 

I would probably paint those hard to reach areas first with less detail / layers than the rest of the model since you won't be seeing them too often, and can't really reach well enough to do a better job!

 

I agree with @Gogery, sometimes it's very easy to see some parts that are almost impossible to reach when the model is fully assembled. In cases like this, I will add as many details as I cleanly can, and leave it with less details.

 

This.

A good color to use is something dark and shadowish. Reaper's Brown Liner (09064) is a great choice for this. What you can't easily reach is a permanent shadow, one layer of paint and done.

 

remember that if you water your paints down with medium then the paint should flow into the hard(er) to reach places better

 

Are you talking about something like "lahmian medium" that GW carries?

 

Yeah, that's the one. There are others out there as well.
I've almost started trialling the use of Windex as well. So there's that as an option as well.

 

Using Windex instead of lahmian medium?

What is the advantage of using a medium to thin down a paint instead of water? Sorry for the basic questions, but I've never used a medium. I always just use plain old water thin down paints.

 

Using water to water down paints does just that - waters them down, and lowers the viscosity or "strength" of the paint. Medium makes it flow better and thins it out without it losing any bite (pun intended).
Perfect example is this - making a glaze (try it for yourself to see the difference):
One brush of paint mixed with 3 brushes of water = weak and often leaves watermarks on edges of painted areas
One brush of paint mixed with 3 brushes of medium = paint is very thin, but still behaves like paint


Lahmian Medium, my life changed the day I met you.

 

So the GW staffer wasn't just trying to con me into a sale with his enthusiastic description of Lahmian medium? So do you always use a little with your paint, or only when you make glazes and such? How much of this stuff do you go through?

How does this compare with GW's version? GW's stuff is expensive, it would be nice to find something of equal quality but for much cheaper here in Canada.

 

98% of the time I use medium