Budget Painting Handles

For a long while I've used bottle tops as paint handles. They do the job, but as my hands get older I'm finding it painful to hold them for long periods of time.  Recently I used an old toothpaste lid which was taller and more comfortable to hold*, but top heavy; fine for light minis (like the goblins I painted here, check out the first photo of the third goblin) but not ideal. However, turned upside down they were much more stable, but with no upper surface. Clearly I needed to fill in the void.

The obvious material was hot glue and I added a metal nut for extra weight and stability. I finished it off with a milk bottle cap, which I trimmed down once the glue had cooled.  I'll use blu tac to hold minis in place.

The raw materials, just add hot glue

All stuck together

Trimmed and finished

This works fine for minis with bases, but if I'm preparing minis for clear basing I remove the broccoli base and glue wire into the feet.  In the past I used crocodile clips to hold the mini for painting (as with the Apache band here), fastened to BBQ skewers, and stuck in holes drilled in a block of wood. This tends to be a bit unstable and fiddly.

I decided I might as well upgrade these too, and thought about just filling in with hot glue around the skewers. Then I tried the bolts that came with the nuts I used earlier and they fit nicely in the tops and the clips screwed onto the thread. Much better!

The raw materials, again, just add hot glue

Clip screwed on to the bolt

Two completed painting handles

So two different model paint handles at very little cost. The only outlay was a pack of eight nuts and bolts from the local 'cheap stuff' shop. 

I've not used them much yet, but they are bound to be more comfortable than the old caps or the skewers. 

I'm sure other toothpaste lids would work, or indeed other lids or tops. They just need to be relatively tall compared to the width to keep them stable.

EDIT:  Crocodile clips are easy to get hold of online, 5 amp clips are sufficient.  The nuts and blots were 40mm long M4 bolts, which are just the right size for the clips and long enough to attach the clip to, but not so long as to be unstable.

*I've been saving these for a while simply because they have an interesting shape.  I have used them as rocket exhausts in scrap piles.