Mounting parts for painting

[Rowland]

@Dr. Clock I thought I would move the discussion here…

Re mounting parts on “Sprue Spiders” I’m having a devil of a job making the bits stick.  I’m using Loctite super glue but it doesn’t want to set quickly so I have to hold each part steady for what seems like ages it’s become a right old faff.

 

To anyone else…how do you mount your arms, pauldrons, etc for painting?…

[kabaakaba]

Blutack.

Sometimes loctite. But again I use 406 and they have hella different formulas. 

406 especially for plastic and rubber.

[lhg033]

I use the GW sub assembly holder for some things with a small dab of normal plastic glue to stick the part as needed.

Or I just use a cut off piece of sprue for bigger/less fiddly bits - again with pastic glue usually.

Sometimes I'll use a paperclip with a drilled hole 

 

 

I have teh GW assembly stand (I dont think they sell any more on their site) that has arms with soft grips on thr end to hold things too and a slot for the painting handle to sit in - makes holding things in place a lot easier

[kabaakaba]

They sell now xl holder and separately subassembly holders and small bits holders so you can combine it altogether 

[Rowland]

1 hour ago, kabaakaba said:

Blutack.

Sometimes loctite. But again I use 406 and they have hella different formulas. 

406 especially for plastic and rubber.

And @Dr. Clock I was using a superglue gel which was quite old, I tried one of the small, liquid type and it was conveniently quicker.

@lhg033 I will take a look at those.

[Rowland]

Well, this was my original method…blu tack on wooden blocks.

 

Now I prefer Dr Clocks method….

And when life gives you lemons…

I looked at the Citadel sub assembly holders…I bought the smaller base holder thing and never got on with it.  Sometimes a model would pop out and swapping models was a faff.

I bought some cheap glass bottles with screw top metal lids which feel lovely, especially with some weight added and I have about 24.  So a magnet  on the models base and or bluetac and they’re good to go.

Those sub assembly holders are a neat solution if you go all in with the system but doing it cheaper is satisfying.  Unless you run out of Christmas present ideas.

 

 

Edited July 16 by Rowland

[WBRBloom]

Have you tried using the alligator clamps/stick,  used in airbrushing? As I understand it, you do make use of sprues to mount some parts and paint/spray paint them, you might find these quite handy:

 

 

[sbarnby71]

I use staples, flatten them out with some plyers/grips then use them as pins to be super-gluded, drill a hole in the item apart from shoulder pads, I glue them inside the pad.  As the staple is thin, it's easy to snap off, pull out and you can cut them in half and double up, 10 staples, 20 items.  I then stick them into wine bottle corks.  You can re-use the pin to pin arms and heads to the body if needed.

[Rusted Boltgun]

I use hot glue to attach elements to either paperclips or pieces of sprue.

Paperclips are then attached to cork to go in my painting handle (I have a Garfy handle that corks can slip into).

I use a mini hot glue gun as I tend to get in a mess with super glue (stuck myself together too many times already) in the little loctite tubes. 

 

[Rowland]

On 7/17/2026 at 8:37 AM, WBRBloom said:

Have you tried using the alligator clamps/stick,  used in airbrushing? As I understand it, you do make use of sprues to mount some parts and paint/spray paint them, you might find these quite handy:

 

 

They wouldn’t be “strong” enough for my ham fisted dry brushing technique.

 

3 hours ago, Rusted Boltgun said:

I use hot glue to attach elements to either paperclips or pieces of sprue.

Paperclips are then attached to cork to go in my painting handle (I have a Garfy handle that corks can slip into).

I use a mini hot glue gun as I tend to get in a mess with super glue (stuck myself together too many times already) in the little loctite tubes. 

 

I’ll have a think about hot glue.  I’m still frustrated with superglue.  There are times when it just doesn’t seem to want to stick.  I wonder if I wriggle it minutely.  Sometimes it just grabs, others I may as well be using water.

[Rusted Boltgun]

You do have to be careful using the hot glue. Really hot and it sticks so well to the part that it can be hard to remove, you have to dig it out with a craft knife and be very careful not to spoil your paintwork!

There is a sweet spot where it grabs and holds but is also easy to peel off once you finished painting. 

Something like... put a blob on the end of the wire, count to three, then hold the arm (or whatever it is) against it until it holds in the position that you want. 

[Dr. Clock]

18 hours ago, Rowland said:

I’m still frustrated with superglue.

My Super glue tips:

 

1: Use a tool for application - I basically use a paper clip as an applicator, not the bottle tip itself. This is for precision of placement and volume control, and it cuts down on bottle clogging. Often the drop on the paper clip (my chosen tool) will be too big for the application, in which case you can easily knock some off on. piece of scrap before putting on the model.

 

2: Clear your tip - after taking some glue, make sure you clear the bottle tip - sometimes it takes a minute for the glue in the tip to flow back down. Knocking on your desk a little should get it to flow back down, but sometimes you need to express a stubborn glob of excess to prevent a total tip clog. 

 

3: Countdown - When gluing flush pieces (flat to flat), just get used to holding the pieces tightly together for a set length of time. Personally I count down from 25 in my head. Not slow but not fast. If that doesn't work, I'm probably not holding it flush enough, so just reset your grip and count again. After a second attempt, you probably need to scrape and reapply... and then in the worst cases I will do two countdowns before checking the bond.

 

4: Product - Right now my standard is Bob Smith Industries Insta-Cure+ Medium formulation. The thin stuff is ... too thin. And I did have one bottle of Medium that was somehow way too thick, but mostly it's good. I've also had good results with Hot Stuff Super T in years past, though it was also pretty thin, and the bottle a bit harder to use and maintain. 

 

5: Accelerator? I know some people like an accelerator spray, but I've always done without (not least since the air flow in my hobby... closet isn't amazing).

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[sbarnby71]

Another point on super-glue, if you just want to hold something temporarily (stick a part to an old sprue off-cut for painting), I use the cheap stuff, as cheap as I can find.  I use an old piece of plastic conduit and put the super-glue on that, then use a metal dentist pick to get a tiny amount to apply to one surface (I never apply super glue from the tube to my pieces), then do the hold it tight for 25 seconds.  This gives a good enough bond to allow me to handle the sprue while painting, but also allows me to snap it off when done.  I use long(ish) sprue off-cuts, as the longer they are the easier to use a lever action to snap the super glue bond.