How to make a painting rig

by Harry Colquhoun, reprinted with permission of New Wave Games Inc.




How to Make
a Painting Rig
Have you ever been painting a
miniature only to find that your thumb has rubbed off all the paint on a
part of the mini? Or maybe, while trying to reach that small nook on the
miniature, your paint-covered hands have smeared a streak of black over
the part of the mini you just spent hours delicately blending? Or the very
worst - you are almost finished painting only to watch the figure slip out
of your hand and disappear into an open paint pot. This article will show
you how to make a dirt cheap painting rig so that you can save your rage
for activities such as driving, while greatly simplifying the painting
process for you.

Many painters attach their figure to a paint pot with a bit of tacky
putty, but I've found that once in a while the mini will fall out
(especially when turning upside-down), or that the paint pot was to small
to really grab well. Here's a picture of one of my painting rigs in
action, so you know what I'm talking about:











The above
rig cost me all of ten cents to make.

To make something like this is very easy. The first step is to go
into your local hardware store and find their lumber section. Most
big stores around here carry a wide range of trim, and the stuff
you're looking for is the semi-circle trim. I bought a twenty-foot
piece of it for $3.50 at Home Depot, and then asked the salesperson
to cut it into 4" pieces for me (look ma - no tools required!).
If you don't have any copper wiring, I'd suggest picking up a small
bit of it while you're at the hardware store as well.

Now that you have the necessary parts, it's a simple task to put the
thing together. Miniatures that have attached bases are a bit harder
to work with, and they're covered in the next paragraph. For
miniatures with slot bases, simply line up two 4" pieces of
wood and put the slot of the miniature in the middle. Press real
hard, and tape the two halves together right at the top where the
miniature is. You can also tape around other parts of the stick to
make it grip the miniature a bit better. See the picture below for
an illustration of this method.

Miniatures without that convenient slot are a little bit harder to
set up, but with a bit of copper wire, anything is possible. As per
the diagram below, wrap a bit of wire around the base of the mini
and twist it up under the base so it is nice and tight. Do this
twice, to form two pieces of copper hanging down. Then use this
hanging bit of copper to secure the mini between the two pieces of
wood. Tape it real tight, and that thing won't budge while you are
painting.








Now you have a convenient handle on your mini!

If you are really ambitious, you can also take a block of wood and drill holes in it to match the diameter of the mini handle. This way, you can stick all your current works-in-progress off together and in a place where nothing can rub up against them while you slave away bringing them to life. Plus, to the uninitiated, it looks like some bizarre voodoo shrine of little people. J

The biggest benefit to having this type of handle is obviously for when you are painting your miniature, but an added bonus is that this makes priming your mini a breeze. You can spray the entire mini in one shot and get every nook and cranny, without having to touch a still-wet mini, or wait for one side to dry. There are fancier ways to make a rig like this, but considering the total $5 price tag for 20 plus rigs, this is a simple and cheap way to make your life easier.