I was showing a friend my airbrushing setup, and he said I should share with others the rig that I use to hold my armor models, so I have both hands free for the airbrush.

So here's what I use...





It is an 11 Inch Adjustable Friction Arm that I picked up on Amazon for about $15 bucks I think. It is used in photography, but I mounted it to the top of my spray booth. For painting hulls, I cut and drilled a piece of 1" dowel and threaded a 1/4 20 stud in one end, and epoxied a rare earth magnet at the other end.





Yea, I countersunk the magnet to get a better hold on the magnet, those suckers are strong.

Then I epoxied a piece of sheet metal to the inside of the hull,



and then threaded the dowel into the arm...



...and now I can place the hull into almost any position...





For turrets, I made a different bracket out of a part that came with the arm, a piece of scrap metal, a couple of nuts, and a bolt with a small rare earth magnet epoxied to the end...






...and now with another piece of sheet metal epoxied to the inside of the turret...







And that's my rig!
Now for the disclaimer, it can be a little frustrating to get used to at first, as the joints have to line up with a slot to make deep bends in them, but with a little patience, and experience, I find it works great. One thing to watch out for is those MAGNETS! they are so powerful, they can snap really hard to the metal glued to the model, and as a result, some small parts can pop off (especially PE) if not secured well. Try it on a practice kit first, and experiment with different size magnets.

I hope this can help someone, it has really allowed me to get much better with my airbrushing, especially for detail work, since I can be much steadier using both hands on the airbrush.

Quite ingenious. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Sebastian, it was fairly inexpensive too.

Cool rig! Can we turn it into a Feature for the website? (These forum posts disappear over time, as new posts pile up on the front page...). I should be able to harvest the pics and text from your post, so you won't need to do anything extra.

BTW, when I saw the "hands free" title I wondered how you hold the airbrush!

Sure Tom, put it wherever it will be the most helpful. As for the title, I was thinking it was not exactly the best description, but couldn't think of a better one LOL!

Can't see anything but little icons instead of the pictures.

Not sure why Alan, I can still see them on my computer, gonna need some outside help with that one.

A good solution. Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
K.

Thanks K. I apologize for the fuzzy photos, my digital camera is kind of old, and the operator is not very good either!

Brilliant

Very nice. Now watch one of those pro modelers with his own product line put a version on the market for $99.95, LOL.

You can put something thin like a piece of card board from a shoe box and place it in between the magnet and metal plate to reduce the magnetic pull if needed.

Thanks!

I just ordered one!

Cheers Rob.

Very handy John!

Kind regards
Steven

I tried that Greg, but it caused the hull to slide when set at an angle, risking it falling off. maybe if the cardboard was coated in something sticky, but not glue. I found that once I got used to dealing with the powerful magnets, and taking the proper precautions , (i.e. making sure the pe is secure, or leaving it off til later)
I did not need to do anything else.