Space Marine Backpacks - Question

[RuneBrush]

Bit of a strange question here, but one that should get the brain ticking

Currently I'm in the throws of assembling up a 'Wolf army - going along great guns but hit a bit of a puzzler. In an effort to make life easier to paint my mini's I've left the backpacks off, as many recent 'Eavy Metal painting guides show. However I'm currently at a complete loss as to how fix them onto anything to actually undercoat, paint etc. I can't be the only person who has done this can I?

I leave the floor to you

 

[plattokeefe]

hi there

what i do is glue a cocktail stick to a spare base and either glue the backpack directly to it or attatch it the the stick with a thin bit of rod just like you were pining an arm to a body.

hope this helps

regards rich

 

[Scherdy]

Not totally sure but can't you put a pin in the side that is going to be hidden against the back and hold it with a pin-vice while you paint? I don't have a marine handy but seems like it should work.

 

[plattokeefe]

yeah shore you can do it that way i just do the cocktail stick way out of habbit lol, it'll probably be easyer with the pin vice

 

[demonherald]

if your doing a few at once then just blu tac them or lightly glue to a strip of wood or plastic whichever you find easiest to handle.. make sure before you spray undercoat the packs and the marines that the two areas where the back packs attatch are masked . Again with blu Tac...this stops undercoat getting on the plastic and means you can still glue them together with plastic glue.

 

[Müller]

Am I the only guy here that actually hold my minis (and parts like backpacks) when I paint them?

 

[devoncodain]

Usually there is a small hole in the backpack right above where the divit is to glue the pack on to the marines back. I glue a toothpick (cocktail stick) in that hole and paint then cut it off later.

 

[Chrome]

I have this habit of taking care of mould lines, priming and doing the main base coat of my minis when they are still on the sprue if I'm making a bunch and then touch the parts up when I remove them. I blame this behavior on old school model kits.

 

[Ritual]

Am I the only guy here that actually hold my minis (and parts like backpacks) when I paint them?

I wouldn't recommend holding the piece you're painting directly in your hand. It's very easy to damage your paintjob that way.

 

[nels0nmac]

When I am painting backpacks, I paint the marine first to a finished level then paint the backpack with the undercoat and finish off the side of the backpack which is facing the marine. When that is done I then glue the backpack on and finish off the reverse side, that is the face visible from the back. Hope that makes sense :0/

 

[rextalon]

Am I the only guy here that actually hold my minis (and parts like backpacks) when I paint them?

You're not the only one, dude. If it's just a marine then I spray everything a base color while it's just laying on a newspaper. Then I paint the whole backpack except for the round exhausts on the sides. If you paint those last you're safe.

If the piece needs to be rotated in my bulbous fingers I simply use the opposite end of the brush to spin it around while it's still in my fingers.

For the body I use hemostats and clip them onto the slot tab or drill a wire into the feet.

Having said that, I have done special projects (Forge World models) where I wanted to spray a lot of little parts all at the same time. I took a dowel rod and covered it in masking tape backwards. Turn the tape so the sticky side is out and start wrapping it around. Then stick your parts to it leaving no parts within about 6 inches of the ends of the rod and spray. If you left no parts near the ends you can safely leave this rod standing against a corner to dry while you grab a fresh pint. (See? You have to plan ahead!)

 

[RuneBrush]

Cheers for all the comments, it's really interesting the variety of solutions people have come up with for the same challenge Personally I'm not a fan of touching any part of a mini with my bare hands as I've found that the grease can have funny effects on the finish of the paint. I think that I'll dig out some rod/cocktail sticks and go down that road (masking off the glue points as well) - I'm currently at 37 mini's that require backpacks so hopefully will have something perfected fairly soon

@rextalon - For small items that have a flat base I quite often use double sided tape and a piece of corrugated card to a similar effect as you use dowel and masking tape. The benefit being that you can leave it flat when you go to grab a fresh pint

 

[Hard Cover]

I'm kind of curious why your not laying them down flat, spraying them, waiting an hour, flipping them over, then spraying the other side.

Anywho, on a couple of backpacks that I'd converted for chaos where I found I just could not get an even coat to the weird ways I'd sculpted them with tentacles and such, I found cutting a toothpick in half then white elmers gluing the thick end in the hole that goes onto the back worked pretty well, then just pushed that into one of those green Styrofoam florist cones worked pretty well.

of course the elmers glue pops out pretty easily and makes a good mask on the holes.

 

[Rogan]

When I am painting backpacks, I paint the marine first to a finished level then paint the backpack with the undercoat and finish off the side of the backpack which is facing the marine. When that is done I then glue the backpack on and finish off the reverse side, that is the face visible from the back. Hope that makes sense :0/

I do it the same way. Seems to be the most suitable solution.
But to be honest: although everyone loves Marines, it's apain to paint some of these minis, isn't it?

 

[Bullitt]

I tend to drill a small hole in the back plate of the pack, then take a paper clip and bend out the straight outer edge 90 degrees or so, then do the same with the 'inner loop' of the clip. Then i snip off the loop part so i end up with a square bracket.

This is then pinched by a crocodile clip (if you clip it in the right area it should stop the clip rotating) and then place two backpacks on the ends of the bracket. Then i can spray two packs in one session.

 

[Kmd]

I have a bad habit of holding minis with bare fingers. But I glue head, backpacks and all small stuff with a little piece of yellow part of putty to cocktail sticks.