>>8677686I just painted the searchlights and AA-guns of my Shit George V straight to sprues, so it depend on the kit and whether you want to see through the trouble.
Before painting i did though remove most of the flash and since they were mounted on sprues in two spots detached the part from one of the spots, and also removed some of the sprue so I would get most of the coverage.
Pic related. Red parts were parts of sprues that I detached from parts.