Painting horsemen

[beckerdo]

I have a question for you painters. When molded in multiple pieces, do you glue riders to their horses before priming and painting, or do you do something else? If something else, please share your time-saving ideas here.

When trying to save time, I usually glue riders to horses and then paint. However, when trying to do a nice job, I usually do any number of time-consuming things. For instance, in 25 mm, I usually use boards with large nails in them and then I hot glue the rider to nail head. In 15 mm, I usually use popsicle/craft sticks, and then I glue a dowel perpendicular to the craft stick, and then glue the rider to the dowel. While all this gluing does cost time, it does save time painting by allowing better access to the figure and fewer painting mistakes and smears.

Any other ideas for how to paint horsemen quickly?

[Ivan]

For 15mm I always assemble and then paint.

[<giovanni>]

I normally paint the pieces separately and then glue them together! but i have seen my brother figures that looked nice so far! he glued the rider to the horese and then painted it, they were looking as good as saparately painted figures so i guess you can glue pieces together and then paint them! a good thing to avoid leaking from the legs to the saddle would be a good ink wash to cover smaller mistakes!

I think it will work ok!

Giovanni

[Odious Asparagus]

my experience with painting mounted figures has led me to assemble and then paint. some glues don't work well on a painted surface, and you don't get a secure hold. you could paint them separately, but make sure there's bare metal to attach the figs.

[Chris Halverson]

always glue then paint the paint will help the miniatures stay togehter (double glueing)

[Chris Halverson]

always glue then paint the paint will help the miniatures stay togehter (double glueing)

[Redwilde]

Paint separately. Then scrape off contact spots on each piece and glue.

Also, search this topic for lots of earlier discussions. keyword: "nail" will pull up big threads.

[David Kuijt]

I'm with Redwilde. Prime, paint, then scrape off contact points and then glue. You can find contact points easily by putting the rider on the horse and pressing or rubbing slightly.

[Maerk]

I'm painting the riders of my first two armies seperatly from the horses but could not glue them properly together. Now I know why.

Thanks for the tip with the contact points !

[imported_Slartibartfast]

For 25mm I usually pin my riders and this also helps with painting - drill a hole in the seat of the rider and mount on wire stuck in a cork - an ideal basis for painting. When painted pull the rider off and insert pin in the hole and attach to horse.
Easy! And a much more secure attachment for your rider too!

[Matthew Bailey]

I think that I saw someone else mention this, but I will drill a small hole in the saddle and one in the bottom of the rider. Then I can pin the two together when I glue them. This will help emmensely (or is that immensely?) when you have Cataphracts mounted 4 to a base. It will help you to be able to keep them attached to the horses and to keep them out of each others way on a crowded base...

[Gary Pomeroyq]

I always paint them separately, but before assembling them, I scrape a spot of paint & primer off of the top of the saddle and bottom of the rider where it won't be noticed when they are together.

[Roland Fricke]

I do something similar when bonding the horse and rider. Scrape paint and then I use an exacto blade to score a few deep lines into the saddle and the underside of the rider which gives the adhesive something more to grab than a perfectly smooth surface. Usually I carve a pound symbol on each side " # ".