Securing a pilot figure for painting

[NARSES2]

Been there, done that. I just put it down to Douglas Bader being a test pilot. 

He came to our school once, we had a lad who'd had a leg amputated and one of the masters who'd known Bader in his RAF days got him to visit. He gave a pep talk during assembly and the ovation he got from 600 boys afterwards still reverberates in my head   

[Mossie]

I use similar but with some double sided tape I got from Poundstore. I find it can be a little difficult to remove all of the  Blue Tack from a part.

Also got various sizes of clothes pegs. The small ones were meant for hanging Christmas cards but the intermediate size ones I swear are for dolls clothes 

I've got some of those small pegs as well, picked them up from a craft shop.  I've found a lot more uses for them than I expected.

[kerick]

I shaved one end of a bamboo skewer flat and glued a mini clothes pin to it. Then I sanded the tip of the clothes pin flat and trimmed the corners at a 45. Some I filed a groove into the touching surfaces to hold round objects better. They have many layers of paint on them by now.

[NARSES2]

I've got some of those small pegs as well, picked them up from a craft shop.  I've found a lot more uses for them than I expected.

Must admit I've found mine incredibly useful. Picked them up at Flying Tiger Copenhagen in Croydon. They always have loads of useful seasonal nic-nacs.

[The Rat]

I see a lot of people using the skewer method, and I see the attraction as it's fairly easy. But the advantage to the tape and paint bottle method is that it still allows you to get everywhere necessary, you don't have to have some material on hand to stick the skewer into, and its 'footprint' on the bench is no larger than the bottle, unlike a slab of foam for the base of the skewers. 

[zenrat]

Toothpick goes into one of these...



...and that goes into one of four holes drilled into an offcut of 3/4" pine board.