Anyone else have issues protecting the peg at the bottom of squadrons from receiving excess paint and sealant while painting? When I don't protect them somehow the peg accumulates too much paint/sealant/wash to fit into the pole. I've been using stir sticks and painters tape to protect the pegs on both ships and squads, but doing it for 300+ individual squad minis takes ... A VERY LONG TIME!

The stir sticks I have are too large for the squad peg to fig snuggly so I have to use some painters tape inside the stick or the squad falls out of the stir stick. For squads with an easily accessible peg I can wrap just painters tape around the peg but most pegs are buried within the squad's wing or hull, preventing me from wrapping tape around it. Anyone have a better system for this? Sure, I can try to be more careful while painting/sealing/washing so that I don't get anything on the peg but that will multiply my work time by several factors and some paint/wash/sealant always gets on the peg.Here's a pic of my (slow) stir-stix solution.

Not really a solution, more of a.. parallel consideration.

I rarely do anything on my single stick anymore. I have to do Defenders that way, because there's not enough space to get one of my painting line tubes in there...

The holes are drilled snugly enough that the models can actually rotate in that hole with a bit of force - so although it looks, for example, that I'd miss parts of the underside of the phantoms and decimators there, I can actually reach everything with a quick twist. The curved nature of the tube helps with that - if it were a square block, there'd be no chance and always something missed.

I mostly just hold he models by the tiny nubbin for lines and details. Or put them on a stalk for dry brushing and detail work. Any paint on the stalks scrapes off easy enough with a fingernail.

I mostly just hold he models by the tiny nubbin for lines and details. Or put them on a stalk for dry brushing and detail work. Any paint on the stalks scrapes off easy enough with a fingernail.

This is what I attempted for my initial set of minis, the core and many fighter pack 1. It was very hard to get the goop of one peg and having to do it for 100s of minis (i have a lot of packs!) would have taken weeks. I instead used a super-heated metal shaft to bore a bigger opening in my stem so the goopy squad peg would fit. It was a big hack but worked, and I'd rather not go through that again, hah. I like Dras's flute stick thingy.

I paint them on a clipped q tip tube I tamped them into. Protects the peg as well, I stand them in modeling clay.

Find plastic qtips. Cut both of the ends off just below the cotton buds and remove any cotton that might be hanging on. Very carefully using your xacto knife, insert the tip into one end of the plastic tube with the edge of the blade facing up then make a 1/4" cut. Just do the one cut. Take your model and force it into the end you just sliced. You'll find that it provides a nice grip to the model and is usually strong enough to hold the corvettes as well. Get a hunk-o-styrofoam and poke some holes in it and you have a drying rack.

I sacrificed one top half of a squad piece for painting, stick my squads in the stand, and no worries of the peg getting painted.

I've always found slicing the q tip to make it too loose, just forcing it in is good, and the model won't spin then.

I just bought 3 brands of q tips, one had a good diameter (perfect for new squad packs, for the old ones I stretched it out with the tip of an old brush that had no hair left).

There is enough of the peg in the q tip that doesn't catch paint, so when I mount them on the base they fit well enough.

I just added QTips/swabs to my grocery list! any idea of the brands that work? QTip is a brand.

I just added QTips/swabs to my grocery list! any idea of the brands that work? QTip is a brand.

You're in Canada, right?

Qtip Brand Q-tips won't work. Here, they've got a solid cardboard stem.

I've heard rumours that Johnsons & Johnsons brand still have the plastic stem, but I havn't been able to buy a pack yet to sort out.

Q-Tip Brand Q-Tip in Canada:

As you can see, there is a hole - but its barely a pin-width wide, and the stalk is like, rolled cardboard that doesn't take cutting or separation well.... Avoid those.

Thank Dras. I'm not in Canada, but I'm close, being near Buffalo NY, and often attend their Ontario/Toronto events.

Thank Dras. I'm not in Canada, but I'm close, being near Buffalo NY, and often attend their Ontario/Toronto events.

Right, I know I'd heard you mentioning many times playing in Ontario, and I figured I applied occam's razor to it - Apologies for being wrong

But yes, you might want to aim for "cheaper" and "no name" brands here for it... The plastic is getting harder and harder to find...

I prime the fighters first, then I use a dab of hot glue (via hot glue gun) on the end of a metal nail. Gently put the fighter peg into that, let sit a few seconds, then set the nail in some 1.5" thick insulation foam as a holder.

When I'm done painting I'll gently work the nail loose from the hot glue and everything fits great.

I just paint the squadrons whilst they are on their flight stands (though usually only 1-2 fighters per stand to leave more space, using excess stands from the unassembled TIE and X-Wing squadrons afforded by having purchased two Cores).

I use a brush on primer, though, and not a spray on primer. But I imagine fighters could be sprayed with primer and then still put back onto the flight stands to paint. Slips of paint onto the stands can easily be gently scraped off with a hobby knife (or even a toothpick or fingernail).

The brand here is Publix so if you're not in the SE USA, you've probably never heard of them. I'd avoid Qtip, I think they are all cardboard. Check some of your grocery chains and look for their brand.