Assembling & Painting Mounts & their Riders - Procedure?

[awcamawn]

How do y'all go about assembling and painting cavalry models (including humanoids riding beasts/dragons/giant dinosaurs)? Assemble mount and rider separately, paint separately, then attach together? Any trick to making sure you don't mess up your paint job if you are attaching two fully painted pieces? Or do y'all prefer to fully assemble the model then paint? Does it depend greatly on the model in question? Any general tips or lessons learned from cavalry assembly would be appreciated. 

More specifically, I am completely new to the hobby and am wondering how best to proceed with my Sisters of Twilight and Sisters of the Thorn models. I have the Thorn's Steeds of Isha complete and have just finished putting together the dragon mount of the Sisters of Twilight. Am I right in assuming that these models in particular would benefit from painting rider/mount separately, as each Sister stands upon their mount rather than sitting (leaving any unpainted area or any area that was simply hard to reach or paint properly underneath the rider easy to notice)? I'm no perfectionist and have not painted anything since grade school, just want to have some fun learning to paint to a decent tabletop standard while avoiding any mistakes during assembly that could make life hard for a novice painter later on.

Also with a big, detailed, oddly shaped model like the forest dragon should I wait to pin it to the base until after I have spray primed it? Perhaps even wait to put it on its base until it is fully painted? If I do wait to attach him to the base, what is the preferred method for manipulating such a large model while priming and painting? Go ahead and put some long pins in the model's foot and stick those into a large cork or the like? Any rule of thumb for placing such a spindly model on its base to where it won't look off center later?

Maybe I'm overthinking the whole thing and can still achieve a good, tabletop level paint job by completing a full assembly now before moving on to painting. Anyone have any experience with these models in particular or other cavalry models who stand atop their mount (necropolis knights?) or have some other atypical pose besides the normal posture of sitting flush astride their steed? Thoughts? Assembly strategies? What have your experiences been?

[PhoenixTheCat]

I just go with keeping the rider(s) off the mount and the mount off the base. 

[Nin Win]

After all the painting is done, if the models sit well without any glue, then I'd go with PVA/white glue rather than superglue.  If any squishes out or goes where you don't want it, it can be cleaned up with a wet brush even after it's dry.  It's not a good choice if you need the glue to keep the model in a position contrary to gravity though.  Only for those that already sit well in place.

[awcamawn]

Thanks for the input y'all. Being so new to the wargaming hobby I find myself second guessing and overthinking a lot on things like this; ultimately learning by doing is part of the fun. I think painting the pieces separately will indeed be the simplest solution. Didn't think of using PVA glue in that way either, could work really well for the sisters.

[Nin Win]

PVA is up to the task of holding plastic riders on.  I've even used it on some metal miniatures in the past.  It only works though when the seating of the rider is good enough for it to sit in place on its own.

Also, if you saved some of the plastic sprue/tree you can make handles from that for mounting the riders while you paint them.  Or if you have a pin vise and drill bit, you could mount them on a wire/paper clip.

You don't need to go anywhere near this long, but this is sort of the idea:

Maybe something more like this: