What do you put your mini on when painting it?

[Mordarby]

Currently I am just using a 20oz soda bottle with a little plumbers tack on top to hold my mini in place but there are times when the bottle is to tall to interfere with brush position relative to my light/mag arm. Plus it doesn't hold larger mini's well, and a few other issues.

 

I've noticed some folks are using wood blocks. Are these just custom made or are these blocks people are buying somewhere? If so, where? I'd like to get my hands on some.

 

Thanks,

Mordarby

[Last Knight]

I generally either hot glue my mini to an empty pill bottle, or sticky tack them to a plastic soda cap.

 

Those wooden handle things can be had quite cheaply at a hobby/crafts store (Michaels, A.C. Moore, or local equivalent.)

[MikeD]

Currently I am just using a 20oz soda bottle with a little plumbers tack on top to hold my mini in place but there are times when the bottle is to tall to interfere with brush position relative to my light/mag arm. Plus it doesn't hold larger mini's well, and a few other issues.

 

I use blue-tack to attach my minis to the cap of a 20 oz bottle. That way I have the option of using the bottle as a grip, or unscrewing the cap and using just the cap for a bit of extra gripping area if the bottle is getting in the way. For larger minis you can look around and find juice or electrolyte bottles with larger caps.

 

For really big minis like dragons or other large monsters, I have experimented with gluing to wood blocks, screwing to wooden dowels and just using plastic bases but I have not come up with anything entirely satisfactory yet.

 

Just for the sake of completeness, for really small figures (10-15mm) I will generally glue them in groups to "craft sticks" (i.e. popcicle sticks or tounge depressors).

[Loim]

I like wooden spools. I use poster tack or a little hot glue to secure them, but mostly poster tack. One of the guys who was at Reaper Con has a great method where he uses large prescription bottles with the reversible caps. When he's transporting the miniature he flips the cap and the mini is protected in the bottle.

[ultrasquid]

I used to use beer bottle caps and small squares of foam mounting tape (I was in college, that's what was plentiful), but I discovered that the metal caps rust if I leave them on the palette for any length of time. Quite a mess. I've since switched to the plastic caps from 2ltr soda bottles. I've recently experimented with attaching the figures with poster tack putty, but I'm finding that's not nearly so reliable.

[Deadeye_Jake]

I probably err on the side of overkill but....

 

I was mounting minis with blue-tack to old Partha paint bottles or any small bottle with a flat lid (setting the mini a couple inches above the work surface). However, I had a bad habit of knocking the bottles over, especially with larger or top heavy minis. So I obtained some used mini-CDs and epoxied the bottom of the bottles to them. This makes an almost-klutz-proof holder. Less damage to slow my already slow painting progress!

Edited August 30, 2013 by Deadeye_Jake

[Kormydigar]

I fill prescription med bottles full of clean cat sand (to give them a little heft) and use sticky tac or double sided carpet tape to attach the mini. The larger sized short pill bottles work great for the bigger minis.

[Solauren]

For my smaller minis I've started using the empty Reaper Paint pots, they are good size and I have dozens of them so I can dozens of minis at the ready for when I want to use up left over paint on my palette. (I hate seeing paint dry)

 

But normally if they fit I just use the empty container that my super glue squeeze gel comes in.

 

I want to get some tac or something, because right now I'm just using clay (non-air drying) and they can easily pop off if they get knocked.

[Jasper_the_2nd]

I've always used plastic pop bottle caps, as I have way too many empty bottles handy at any given moment.

I find the poster tack stuff works fine for Bones, for metal minis I use the same stuff but have to be a bit more careful.

Lately I've been using the lids off my vitamin bottles. That way I can put them back on the bottle if I need to, although some weight in the bottle would be handy...

 

Having done mostly Bones since I got back into painting, I was amazed at how tiring it was (by comparison) holding a hefty metal fig for an extended painting session.

[chaosscorpion]

McCormick Spice container and Loctite poster/fun tac.

[OneBoot]

I still had a few http://i.istockimg.com/file_thumbview_approve/166527/2/stock-photo-166527-plastic-film-containers.jpg'>old film canisters from before digital cameras were a thing (gasp!), and I've found that after filling them with some decorative glass marble things that I had lying around that they're the perfect size and weight for what I need. I use poster putty on the bottom of the container to keep the mini in place, and scratched the bottoms up pretty heavily with my coarse sanding needles since the putty kept wanting to slide around.

 

Huzzah!

--OneBoot :D

Edited August 30, 2013 by OneBoot

[Starlight]

I use small plastic clamps attached to the base and hold the mini up by the clamp when painting.

[CashWiley]

Polly S paint pots with blue tack. I really like the heft of the glass and metal pot.

 

For tabbed minis, I remove the tab and pin them to a cork. I also like the cork but might need to weight them, they're top heavy and lack the in hand heft of the paint pot.

[MonkeySloth]

I use binder clips and one of these for the stuff I really won't want to touch (ie long, detailed paint jobs).

 

Here's a mini on a clip

 

Edited August 30, 2013 by MonkeySloth

[trystangst]

Depends on the figure - the Bones I've just been holding as I paint. For more display level stuff, I pin the foot and hold it with a pin vise drill handle.