Hi Everyone:
I thought that forum members might be interested in a technique that I use for air brushing very small parts - such as grabions, horns, rails etc proir to installation. Faced with a daunting task of painting minute parts [lots of them] for a resin model warship that I was building a few months ago, I tried the method mentioned in prior posts using double-sided tape to hold the parts. I found this very unsatisfactory as you could only airbrush one side, then you had to turn it over to paint the other side. What was needed is a method for temporarily holding the part in the same configuration as it would be when it is installed on the model. Brainwave! I had some glazing tape in my workshop and this does the trick perfectly. In case anyone is unfamiliar with this stuff it is a thin strip of sticky black mastic material about half inch wide and about one eight inch thick. The tape comes in a roll with a release paper between the coils on the tape roll. You cut a piece [a few inches long] from the roll and stick it to a cardboard or wood surface and then peel off the release tape on top. You can then mount your small parts into the tape - it is quite sticky and will easily hold anything securely in the same configuration as they would be on your model - then you’re ready to airbrush or rattlecan spray paint without the parts flying off into neverland. For example, you can hold railings for a loco in a vertical position so you can airbrush the railings on all sides. When dry, the small parts can be removed easily and glazing tape residue does not stick to the plastic or brass part that you have painted. I have found this a very easy way to “hold” items that you are working on for painting or fine glueing. I haven’t tried it yet for holding parts for soldering but I think this might work also. I always need about 4 hands to do soldering, which I am not very good
Nice idea I’ll have to give it a try. thanks for sharing
I like the idea too. I am just about to paint the small castings on my gas station and I was wondering how I would do it. Thanks.
Use a brush! Why do people think that everything needs to be airbrushed? By the time you set up the airbrush, mix the paint, spray the item, clean the airbrush etc., etc., you could have got hold of a small paint brush and finished the job, had supper, gone to a movie, gone for coffee after and been home in bed before the airbrush job is finished. 
That’s true using a brush for some jobs makes sense. However if your small part is highly detailed, then an airbrush is needed - using a brush “floods” most of the detail off. In any event, the use of glazing tape is also useful for brush painting where this is appropriate.
Alan
Alan
I use the same technique but, I used my granddaughter’s play dough. It works very well. I just stick some on a plastic turn-table I got at the craft store, and then stick my parts in it and spray away. Works great.
Sam
I am a bit confused - how does this method differ from using double sided tape? If the detail part is sufficently strong to handle the glazing tape, it should handle any masking tape (either double sided or doubled over masking tape), and you can place the parts in most any position with any sufficently sticky tape (or playdoh). Do you press the parts into the glazing tape?
One neat trick I learned from this forum, for spraying delicate items which might break from being stuck to even blue painters tape, was using a piece of Press & Seal from Glad - held the delicate pieces tightly during the spraying, and I was able to remove the painted parts w/ no damage. Not my idea, saw it on this fourm and also I think in the MR workshop column awhile back, bit pricer than using masking tape, so use only as necessary. (Also worked when I recently had surgery and had to have a PIC line in my arm for a few weeks - since this arm port couldn’t get wet I wrapped the Press & Seal around the port before I showered, and it worked very well).
It’s different because you can prop the small part upright by pushing it a small way into the glazing tape since the tape is a mastic and is soft and sticky. You cannot do this with any double sided tape or masking tape that I know of - you have to put the small part down flat onto the tape and then you have to turn it over and paint the other side. In doing this you often pull some of the fresh paint away from the the newly painted side when you’ve finished. Example: You can vertically prop a grabion up on the pins that will eventually be used to secure them to a loco, rolling stock or passenger coach, and paint all sides in one step with either airbrush, spray can, or brush. You cannot do this with tape. As I mentioned in my first post you can prop up vertically a whole loco rail in glazing tape - no way you can do anything like this with masking tape. There is some double sided tape that is a little softer, thicker and really too sticky [Staples - used for mounting pictures etc] but it is way more expensive than glazing tape and doesn’t work so well as glazing tape. Hope this helps to clarify things.
Alan