When I started painting I didn’t really understand the need not be putting your fingers all over your freshly painted miniatures. It was all about getting the painted as fast as I could so I could use them. But when I started taking a bit more care with my painting I started to notice marks on the minis caused by the way I was handling them. And that was when I stared to look at different way to get around this issue. There are loads of different things you can use but this is what I find myself doing the most.
I get bags of corks ether from e-bay or the local home brew shop and use these. The way I do things I don’t base my model until after I have painted it and I always pin my models to the base. In fact I pin just about everything but that’s another story. So when I clean up my models I drill a couple of holes in the feet (or whatever part of the model will joined to the base) and put some florists wire into the wholes. Bur you could just as easily use brass rod or even cut down paper clips. With the model ready it’s an easy job just to press it down onto a cork and there you go an instant handle for painting. I have several different sizes so I can use something that best suites the model I’m painting.
I’ve been using this method for a while but being the gadget fiend that I am when I came across this PK – PRO Miniature holders (75mm £15.10 and 55mm £14.33) I decided to get one and give it a go. It’s obviously a lot more expensive that a simple cork but it does look nice. In practice the bar up the side does make it easier to get a better grip on the model but for me I can’t find any noticeable benefit from it. I think if you are painting to a very high standard this would be of more use but I’m just not that good, but it’s an option worth considering.
The other option I make a lot of use of is to use some old flying bases, I think I bought a bag full for some project that can materialised. For me I find them really useful when I’m painting flyers. Lately that has been for dystopian wars and Firestorm Armada. It’s nice and simple and I think works really well. They can also be used for painting small parts as well. As I said earlier I tend to pin everything so by drilling a small hole in the top of the shaft you can use them to these small items. Heads have been a common one for me.
If you prefer to base your models before you paint them you could always use the cork method but another option is to use screw bottle tops like the ones found on bottles of pop. They are a nice side, tend to have some form of grip pattern to make them easy to hold and as they usually get thrown away they are effectively free.
These are just the things that I tend to use but I don’t for a minute think that’s all you could use. Use a bit of imagination and make use of anything that you have available. Anyway hope that was useful.
