hey everyone....

OK, I have finished my camo job, and am at the stage of putting on a coat of future to seal it against a wash....my question is....when is the best time to pain the details on an armored vehicle, such as headlights, taillights, searchlights, tools, etc.

For lights I am using paint, and then adding white glue for a lens.....should I do this last?, shoudl I do it before I do a wash? For tools I would assume before I seal it with a future coat...which begs another question.....how much of a coat shoudl I put on? Should it just be a misted coat over the the AFV....or say paint it on the same as my base coat would have been?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

I usually do the detailed paint before I seal it with future to put on decals.

I do things a little differently. If I paint with acrylics, I do an enamel wash and vice versa, and then use future only on the areas to get decals (although I cheat when I use dry transfers and omit the future.) I paint he details based on the wash I use. If I think the detail would be in the same lighting and conditions as the area it is in, I will paint it before the wash. Parts that are removed regularly, like tools, are washed seperately, usually with darker tones, to simulate usage. Lights will be wiped off from time to time,so could be done at any time. If you want them to be dirty, paint and wash like normal, but if they are to be bright and shiny, do them last. One last trick I do is to use Tamiya clear acrylics in place of the white glue. I do especially well with the red for tailights. Really glop it on,give it some density, when it hardens, it will be the deep clear red of your cars tailights. This is just how I do it, ultimately, you have to experiment and find what works best for you.

Rob