Hobby Grips, Miniature Holders, Painting Holders – many names for a single high-demand product. Painting Holders are a topic that comes back time and time again at painting facebook groups and forums. Hobbyists seek advice on ‘which one is the best’, ‘where to buy’ etc. The thing is that in general ‘the best’ is what works for you and while Painting Holders are a rather expensive addition to your hobby tools collection – it does not have to be this way. Below is a Tutorial, or rather just a simple idea on how to create your own Painting Holders in large numbers and most importantly – for cheap.
To create your own Painting Holders you will need any of these, or similar items:
* 30-40ml Plastic/Metal glass
* Plastic fluid container (from Pharmacy)
* Wooden cylinder
* BLU TACK
The choice of material, to create Painting Holders from, is up to you. Depending on what you choose the price, weight, re-usability, durability and aesthetics will vary.
Plastic is the cheapest, but also the least durable. Plastic glasses work best if glued one on top of another, to improve stability and durability. Even then it will break from time to time, plus is very light, which might lead to miniatures toppling down once set up on the workbench. Plastic is a very good choice for large Painting Holders, as they are stable and not too heavy. Plastic can be easily cleaned with solvents which is a bonus, when you want to mark some information with a marker.
Metal is very durable and has great re-usability. Can be cleaned with solvents, is medium weight. Compared to professional Painting Holders, metal glasses are still pretty cheap (You can probably get between two to five dozens for the price of a single Painting Holder!).
Wood is the heaviest and has the most adhesive friendly surface. It is also the most expensive of the three and is, in time, affected by water. Still it is very classy and feels great in hand. Wood is the only one to support pins. If you like to paint your miniatures unbased, or aim to get just a few Painting Holders, wood might be the best choice for you.
Personally I started with plastic, but got frustrated throughout the years and moved to metal as a result. I still use plastic for larger holders, as it seem to work fine when closed at the bottom.
Preparing your own Painting Holders is pretty easy. Press a ball of Blu Tack to the top of the glass/container and push a Miniature onto it. Just like that – it is done! Consider adding more Blu Tack for larger holders, so that miniatures are immobilized.
* No, if properly mounted the miniature would not fall off. I have painted hundreds of plastic/metal miniatures like this and none have ever fell off the Holder.
* When choosing items to be used as holders – stay open minded! In my case the revelation of using metal glasses instead of plastic came out of nowhere!