Sticking things to other things before sticking them to the main thing

[Valkyrion]

When you want to paint on a stick, e.g epic infantry on lolly sticks, how do you stick the mini on?

Ditto with helmets or heads that you want to spray a different colour or something and it's not easily done on the sprue?

Is it just superglue?

 

And apologies for the wordy title!

[sbarnby71]

For me it's superglue as you can (usually) snap it off the stick once you're done. I stick with cheap superglue for this as it more likely to snap the bond when you need to remove it. For helmets and heads I use a scalpel blade to cut the superglue bond. 

[LameBeard]

Recently I stuck my mini marines to coffee stirrers with double-sided sticky tape and was very satisfied with the results. Some was even sticky enough for a second round of marines.

 

For shoulder pads I often use blue-tac to stick to spare bits of sprue. I don’t know why, because they always fall off at the most inconvenient moment. For now I am simply spraying them on sprue and will touch-up later.

[Mysterion]

I find Blue-Tac works best for me, it's less messy but the part can move around so you have to be careful

[DarkMark]

A spool of modelling wire or paper clips is very good for heads, arms, or even whole models. 

[Rusted Boltgun]

I have been using wire (cut down paperclips) and a mini hot glue gun for my sub-assemblies.

The hot glue is applied as a blob to the wire, pause for a few seconds and then gently hold the piece to it for a few more seconds. 

Do it too early and the glue goes into crevices and has to be removed with a craft knife / scalpel.

 

 

The wires are hot glued to corks to fit in my painting handle. I've had a couple of pieces ping off and need to be re-glued but I think I have the process down now.

 

I leave heads on the sprue and glue the sprue to a cork.

 

Edited July 24 by Rusted Boltgun
More detail

[Valkyrion]

Thanks for all the help so far; would these work or would the spray maybe melt them?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BZCMN448/ref=sspa_dk_detail_5?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0BZCMN448&pd_rd_w=JaHYw&content-id=amzn1.sym.46187d6a-4306-4bc6-830c-7b2085e0e39f&pf_rd_p=46187d6a-4306-4bc6-830c-7b2085e0e39f&pf_rd_r=ARRD0RW2HSTTYM8TR17F&pd_rd_wg=yfYaA&pd_rd_r=b9c2c3fb-7679-4166-aaaa-00a0585a1c19&s=industrial&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

 

[Sky Potato]

For Legions Imperialis infantry, I’m a big fan of snipping the sprues. The Astartes Infantry are laid out relatively well for this, with only the row with the standard bearer not being the easiest to work around.

 

Once everything is painted, I snip the infantry off the sprue, scrape the bottom free of the sprue connection and any primer with a hobby knife and they’re ready to stick down.

 

I originally tried superglued Infantry onto coffee stirrers/lolly sticks, I find doing it on the sprue is a lot more stable.

 

For other sub assemblies, I really like the Citadel sub assembly holders - https://www.warhammer.com/en-GB/shop/citadel-colour-sub-assembly-holder-2021?queryID=8c53af02cf4e803140e16b72e8219901

 

I think they’re great and I use them loads. 

 

They’re made of the same plastic as regular sprues, so they can be plastic glued. The pointy end can be snipped to flat surface for easier gluing. What I’ve done for the Skaven is actually drill a small 1mm hole into the push fit base point and then plastic glued the pointy tip of the sub assembly holder in, which is probably overkill. They fit in the Citadel spray sticks and in the large painting handles as well. What I’d like to see would be the diameter of the push fit base contact points changed to the same diameter as the sub assembly holders, but I’m not holding my breath.

 

Sometimes I’ll use blue tack in conjunction with the sub assembly holders, as in the Deathwing Knight and the Red Scorpions backpack x - generally, I’m using the blue tack to mask the glue connection point.

 

I’ve also made use of pins in corks, as can be seen in the Fists photo above. Generally, I’ll do this for FW models where they’ll get pinned to the base anyway. When I do this, I’ll use at least 2” of 1mm Brass rod, superglued into the base contact point. I try and have as much brass rod inside the cork as possible to keep it secure, and I’ll use a dab of superglue or liquid mask where the rod enters the cork to keep it in place and stop it from spinning.

[Valkyrion]

 

Thanks for all the help so far; would these work or would the spray maybe melt them?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BZCMN448/ref=sspa_dk_detail_5?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0BZCMN448&pd_rd_w=JaHYw&content-id=amzn1.sym.46187d6a-4306-4bc6-830c-7b2085e0e39f&pf_rd_p=46187d6a-4306-4bc6-830c-7b2085e0e39f&pf_rd_r=ARRD0RW2HSTTYM8TR17F&pd_rd_wg=yfYaA&pd_rd_r=b9c2c3fb-7679-4166-aaaa-00a0585a1c19&s=industrial&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

 

 

 

Pardon the vanity of quoting oneself, but it behooves me to let you know that these do work perfectly fine - they stick well (i use a two foot length of 2x3" packing struts from washing machine and fridges and the like), don't melt with spray, and can take a vigorous drybrush to boot. 

[sarabando]

I use a spot of superglue to stick my minis to bottle tops if done right squeezing the bottletop makes the mini pop off cleanly.