I have been using corks for painting sub-assemblies for a long time, but when you have 14 reavers to get through thats a lot of corks for bits and bobs. I have seen people paint pads by taping them to a flat surface but I really wanted the ability to work with a lot of pads assembly line style and access every angle. A good solution dawned on me the other day. Old plastic sprue! With some quick clipper work and a little super glue to add a handle/stand I had what I was looking for in about 10 minutes.
These are from the BAC box and had perfect spacing, it is the frame with the combat blades on it. Like I said earlier, I added some cross bars for stand-ablility and to act as a handle.
Next a simple dot of blutac in each pad, squish it on the rack and you're all set. Keep the blutac away from the pad edge, this attention to detail will ensure you don't have to do touch ups after you remove them.
This makes a perfect platform for painting the pads 360 and has the added bonus of adding in the airbrush batch approach to painting I use.
I basically painted the graduated line on multiple pads with a single pass of the brush, but the pads are still far enough apart if one needs extra attention.
When using the rack for batch painting don't go one pad at a time. I did all the bottom lips, top lips, then the design. This adds speed as you are doing basically the same motion on each pad.
The rack also makes the general washing and clear coating super easy. 14 pads, all done but highlighting in about 40 minutes after priming. I have limited hobby time during the school semester, so anything that adds speed without detracting from quality is a worth while hack and I thought I would pass this one on. One of the added bonuses of doing pads this way is when you are finished with them and remove them from the rack you have a circle of raw resin inside, this ensures a stronger resin to resin bond when you put them on the Marines.
Hope you guys find this helpful.
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