Something Old, Something New : Painting Tools

Two of my weak areas in hobby are organizing and pawing figures as I paint them.  I know it's better to use a painting handle but still haven't determined the holy grail for a versatile figure holder that meets my needs/criteria.  I think that I might have a DIY solution in mind that puts the ticks in all of the boxes but until then I have a less complicated solution specific to an upcoming project.

A humble beginning the Grande Armee.

One of the ambitions for a slow burn project in the New Year is Naploeonics.  I'm gravitating toward the French because I think the variety of uniforms and the absolute involvement of this force in the conflict would guarantee plausibility in any theatre during the period.  At the moment I have some Dragoons and commanders (Including Napoleon) to putter at and during their painting I had some time to reflect on how much I was handling them and how much better it would be to have better control of a casual but large scale project.

Bore a hole with a drill.

Since I'm more a model painter I typically base figures individually.  Until looking at the Black Powder basing conventions I hadn't really thought about basing multiple figures on a single base with any regularity.  This was going to be the norm for this project and I was concerned about how I would paint around and through interposing models.  Thankfully, more practical people than me have painted Napoleonics and the figures are based on small plugs that are then joined onto communal bases once they are all suited up.  Fantastic!

 

Inset the magnet and glue.

Since this is an on again off again project that would involve some mass painting;  Ideally 8 figures at a time in infantry blocks usually and was frequently going to be shelved in lieu of other painting endeavours I decided to magnetize some small corks so they could be plopped on a tin and easily moved about without knocking things over.

Good enough for Quaker Oats.

To begin I drilled a small hole into the base; around the size of the 4mm rare earth magnets I have kicking around so I could inset the magnets into the bottom.  I used superglue to bind the magnets in the holes but a small piece of epoxy might have done the job as well or better.  If you want to make some for yourself mind the polarity of the magnets.  I kept the lid on hand and removed them as I prepped the corks so I could track their orientation easily.

This is the special effects and useful bit.

For the time being I still don't have fancy universal figure holders but for minimal efforts this simple adaptation on an ages old painting convention should give me some ease and organization when I get into this project.  Nothing amazing here but the magnetization of the corks should make for a rock solid platform when aside or stored away.  Tipping miniatures make me sad.   

A tiny drop of glue should keep a plug in place for the duration of the paint.