If you’ve ever had to airbrush/spray paint a base coat or solid color layer on a 3D model or other item, you might realize how much of a pain it can be to get an even application… this simple yet versatile and easy-to-use modular paint stand can help you achieve easier and more consistent results in far less time than the usual methods. A simple pin/hole system makes it easily height adjustable, it has a flat round shelf for flat-bottomed items, and the middle adjustable center is detached from the base to allow for manual 360 degree rotation of the object being painted. It also has a separate narrow extender for some objects that are hard to paint evenly on a flat surface. Items such as the pictured weapon replica* can be suspended on it and rotated, and smaller items can be temporarily attached to the top end of the cylinder with a simple blob of hot glue (see weapon replica hammer piece*), which can be fairly easily removed later after the piece is dry. If you really want to kick it up a notch, you can get yourself a cheap automatic product photography turntable, cover it in painter’s tape, and place this stand and the paintable item on top so that the whole thing can rotate on its own while you focus on even paint application.

This model can obviously be scaled up for larger items, and can also be used for indoor painting of miniatures, etc.

Helpful Additional tools (not required):

Hot glue gun- for temporarily attaching items to extender

Product photography turntable- for easier rotation while spray/airbrush painting

Disposable wooden chop sticks- can be used as extra extenders

Design Development:

I had just 3D printed some Destiny 2 weapons replicas and was thinking about setting up my spray paint booth in the garage when I realized that trying to paint the barrels and smaller oddly-shaped bits and bobs was going to be tedious, inefficient and inconsistent with the usual method. I really wanted to be able to elevate, suspend, and rotate the items for a better result and the beginnings of this paint stand tool began to formulate in my head. My husband had previously used disposable wooden chopsticks embedded in cardboard and hot glue to elevate and paint some items in the past, but I wanted something a bit more reusable and versatile for various objects. I am less than a month into 3D printing and about a week into experimenting with model design, so this model is the end result of some experimenting and a couple revisions in Tinkercad. It has been such a huge help with the items I have painted so far, I hope it serves you well too!

*3D-printed Items being displayed/painted in these pics are not my own original creations- credits to the originators are as follows:

Cute Fox 2 by miniShev: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6268615

Destiny 2 - Crimson Exotic Hand cannon - base model by Pure_Chaos: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6207244/files

Destiny 2 Ace of Spades (my pic shows the hammer only) by jdflute, full model at: https://www.printables.com/model/339635-destiny-2-ace-of-spades