I am working on my second model, an Academy 1/72 Spad XIII. I want to paint the entire plane in dopped linen, except of course the wing and cabane struts which will be wood, and engine cowling, LG, etc. All of these parts at some point need to be glued to a wing or fuselage that will already painted. For example the cabane struts just fit in a tiny indentation in the fuselage, and the wing struts into tiny holes. It seems I would need to find away to remove a speck of paint from the fuselage to attach the cabane strutts, and somehow not get glue anywhere on the wing except in the tiny tiny hole for the wing strutt, My first attempt to do this failed miserably on a practice model.

So I guess I have a more general question, how do you glue tiny parts that require painting before installing them to other parts which are also already painted? There must be an easier way. I'm sure this is posted somewhere so please forgive.

I'm now wondering if I should just assemble the entire aircraft and paint everything after...sloppy it will be.

Thanks for any help.

You need to scrape away the paint from the mounting points. I find that dentist's burrs are a good tool for this, as well as a sharp hobby knife. Very often you need to spot touch-up the paint afterwards.

I was kinda afraid of that...

It's not so bad as it sounds; you get quite good at it with a little practise.

Yes, what Jessie said .

And another couple ideas is simply learning to build it all at once and do the base color painting (in your case the doped linen color) and then go back later and paint the other bits like tires, metal cowlings and struts with a brush.

And also you could, after cleaning up any mold seams or ejection marks, paint struts and wheels on the sprue, then paint the metal cowling and build the model. Then mask the already painted bits and paint the linen color.

Gary

Use paint as your adhesive. I often use matte varnish to secure parts where 'styrene cement would damage a small part.

Wow, your second model and you're building a bipe? Brave man.

I often attach small pre-painted parts to painted assemblies using a drop or two of Tamiya Extra Thin. It eats right through the paint at the point of contract.
Joel

lol...someone gave me some kits years ago. Considering them practice models.