How to prime a mini that has a drill up it's butt?

[driller]

For years I primed my minis AFTER I glued them to the bases. Now I'd like to glue them to the bases after I'm all finished painting them - but how dou I prime a mini that is sitting on the end of my drill? (wait, that didn't come out right...) Serious question, I swear!

[Mitch K]

When I paint cavalry I do horses and riders separately. To hold the riders to prime and paint, I drill a hole into the same area you're describing and hot glue a pop rivet in place to act as a "handle". The rivets drop into one of my figure racks or into a bit of foam if I'm spraying.

Same  principle applies here, I would say

[Westfalia Chris]

Another option would be to use stiff wire which is inserted and glued to the drilled hole, then mounted on a piece of wood (jeez, there really is no way to talk about this issue that isn't awash with innuendo). After priming, you could remove it from the wood and re-mount it on a bottlecork which would make it easier to handle, too.

[gi6ers]

Pin it into a pain base with pva then just prime as you normally do and take it off the base when you are done...

[Za Zjurman]

Another option would be to use stiff wire which is inserted and glued to the drilled hole, then mounted on a piece of wood

This made laugh out loud. 

[grant]

Carefully!

[FramFramson]

His username make it even better.

[driller]

His username make it even better.

yeah I would have never thought that one day it'll bite me in the a... oh, for...

[Daeothar]

Just replace your, ehm, drill bit, with some wire, like suggested. You can then even use your pin vice to hold the wire.

I usually use paperclips for this purpose; bend straight and cut off at the appropriate length. Superglue into the pre-drilled hole in the foot (or whatever) of your mini. When priming, I stick the wires of the minis into a piece of foam or  pre-drilled wood. Then, when painting, I use a pin vice, or I stick the wire into a cork.

And when the painting is done, I cut the wire, so I can use it as a pin for basing...

[Glitzer]

I painted my Perry ACW Union cavalry by drilling them and mounting them on some toothpicks (I even drilled a piece of wood to mount all 24 of them onto it at once). After painting I just cut of the toothpick (I might have painted and sealed it for commanders, but i surely just left it that way for rank and files).

For pinning Minis to scenic bases (those fancy ones made out of resin) I also used paperclips. You can glue minis to dedicated painting bases (smoothed down with some drilled pin holes) with normal glue (I use UHU for this) this ways they can be easily removed with a sharp hobby knife after painting.

[Froggy the Great]

I always just glue the riders to the horses pre-priming.
And I have been enjoying this thread quite a lot.

[Glitzer]

I always just glue the riders to the horses pre-priming.

In ACW I need dismounted riders a lot. I never did this before either.

[FramFramson]

I always glue riders on pre-priming, because gluing on top of paint is usually a recipe for figures snapping off their mounts.

[grant]

I too just glue everything together: just open the box, and start pouring.