painting small parts off the figure

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megroot

A Fixture
Joined
Jan 7, 2004
Messages
28,394
Location
Netherlands, Arnemuiden
hey Folks,

As many off you i tried yesterday evening to paint small parts far away from the figure.
I mean painting arms, haversack's, bedrolls etc. I want painted this anymore at the figure because some spots cant be painted.
So i glued these parts with cyanoacrylatic on a toothpic but after a half hour they come off.
I tried it once with epoxy but this can't be stripped so, the part wouldn't fit anymore.
Now here's the question.

How handle all you guys with this problem.

Marc.
 
Marc,have you tried pinning the parts to the figure in addition to gluing it down ? Just my 2 cents worth. Cheers !
Kenneth.
 
Hello Kenneth,

It is not the glueing on the figure, i pinning the parts.
It is when i am glueing the parts on the figure, some spots cannot be painted well.
So, some off the painters here on the planet, painting the smaller parts not on the figure but on something else for example a toothpick.
I have tried that, but the parts came loose of the toothpick. Now i was wonder how do you fellow's do that, painting apart the small parts.

Marc
 
Marc,what I do is create a small depression on the end of the toothpick,glue the pinned portion of the piece there with adrop of superglue and spray some superglue accelerator on it to harden the glue. After painting,just gently snap off the glued part from the toothpick. HTH. Cheers !
Kenneth.
 
Depending on the size of the piece, I use blu-tak, just plain modeling clay (non-hardening kind) or white glue ("Elmer's"). I have also used one-sided tape for tiny parts, doing one side at a time. If you pin the part, use the pin to secure the part. Also, don't limit yourself to toothpicks. Try sticking the pin directly into a ball of modeling clay.

Happy Painting!
 
I glue on as many of the figure's parts as possible. Yes, that does make it difficult to paint some areas, but those areas are typically in shadow anyway and require less precise or less careful painting.

I don't use superglue, as I've found it results in a somewhat uncertain bond. Two-part epoxy, while slow-going, is much stronger.
 
I've used the metal pin part of a "map pin", the ones with little colored spheres at the top. In the US you can buy them in any office supply store. Chop the sphere off and sharpen that end. Works with metal or resin parts, but, obviously they have to be fairly light. Often they'll hold well enough that glue isn't needed.

All the best,
Dan
 
super glue holds ok for vertical bond but does a poor job on sheer. Meaning that you can't pull an arm away from the figure, but if you press down on it, it will easily snap off.

I pin everything, from arms to gas mask cannisters with a piece of brass wire. It just adds some strength and is easily cut for application
 
Marc,
I will usually drill a small hole in the area of the part where it will be glued to the figure. A spot of superglue on a pin, stick it in the hole and, voila! It should last the entire painting session. If you are going to pin it to the piece, use epoxie; otherwise the part can be twisted off the pin before glueing it on the figure, because as mentioned above, superglue has little strength in shear.

Have fun
Herb Forgey
 
If the part has a pin in it for attaching to the figure, I put it in a pin vise. It makes a comfortable handle, and you can put the vise into a can or a coffee cup until the part dries. If the part is too small to pin, I will hold it with cross-action tweezers, then touch up the place where the jaws were after assembly. Like Steven, I like to assemble as much of the figure as possible before painting.
 
I like to paint separate pieces individually if the location on the figure will cause any problem with painting an adjacent area - like an arm that's held close to the body, which makes getting a brush to its inside and the side of the chest difficult or impossible. This is also very much a problem if you are airbrushing, which forces one to paint in subassemblies much of the time.

I used to use Blu-Tac on the end of a wooden dowel a lot to hold parts temporarily during painting but now I drill and pin as much as possible so that I can hold things securely in a pin vice, plus of course these help ensure a good join during final assembly.

For scabbards and other things too thin to pin I often just rest them on the palm of my left hand for painting (wearing a rubber glove with the fingers cut off to keep sweat off the part). For small parts I still use a bit of Blu-Tac, although I use it as little as possible because it's old and stringy and often leaves a little residue behind which needs to be cleaned off! If I remember correctly when it's fresh this isn't a problem :)

Einion
 
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