Simple Miniature Painting Holder for Spherical Parallel Manipulator

Description

A very simple approach to add a holder for painting miniatures to @PhilQc's Spherical Parallel Manipulator that I whipped up this evening. I'd seen it come up this week, and test printed it. A few people in comments elsewhere were also pondering my first though: Miniature painting!!!

I had some plans to expand it and such, but once I printed it I found the fit for a hand seemed pretty good. I have plans for a more robust system, but a simple peg + base platform approach can get people started.

There are three holders to choose from. They are of different lengths and are intended for 28mm miniatures. They are sized to attempt to place different parts of a standard miniature into the spot that is kept centered.

• eyeline
• midline
• baseline

Updates

Update Jan 30, 2025

Just a minor quick update adding chamfers to the end that inserts into the base so that it might make things a little easier, and added the FreeCAD source file.

Printing

Tight Fit Warning

Note that this has been designed consistent with Phil's base model and has exact face fitting. To allow for movement you probably will have to tune your printer with the same allowance that prints his print-in-place hinges correctly for you.

I suggest running a test print with only the bottom with enough to hold on to in order to test your settings before printing a whole piece.

General Printing

Download either the .stl or .step files (step gives better curves IMHO). They should work fine at 0.2mm or 0.28mm (and possibly other layer heights)

Print them as oriented, with the wider platform face-down on the print bed.

There should be no need for supports nor brims.

Use

Insert an appropriate base into the spherical parallel manipulator where the needle holder normally goes. Put a bit of museum putty (better than Blu Tak) on the top then stick a mini to it.

Turn the wheels independently to change the angle, or turn all three together to just rotate the mini.

Coming Soon

I have plans that are getting firmed up for a more advanced set of additions. At the moment they will be for use with the original model. First up will be a simple mechanism to lock down the wheels to prevent movement while being used for painting. A printing handle to attach to the bottom and make it easy to hold for longer periods of time is another planned feature. Then a thread-based way to have a single post that is adjustable and suited to larger minis also will be up. And finally I'll be tweaking some sort of clamp system for the top.
These will be published as a different ‘advanced’ model, as some people might prefer simplicity, at least at times.