From time to time I see various designs of painting stands on the internet. However, they are either not nice enough or too expensive. Most of them are wooden (laser-cut) but some of the ones I have seen are 3D printed.
Naturally, I thought that since I already have a 3D printer, I could try to design and make one myself, just the way I want it. I looked at some designs, took some ideas and combined them into my own design. This is actually the 5th iteration of the design but I like it enough to call it “final”.
Most painting jigs are cross-shaped but I realized that for most of the cases you only need 3 points of contact (2 for the wings and 1 for the fuselage). Therefore, I adapted my desing to a 3-pronged one: 3 axis, 120 degrees apart.
Furthermore, I designeed it so that it will fit snuggly on the small plastic turntable that is usually included in chinese-made painting booths (like the one I have). This way I can rotate the whole thing very easily.
I designed the vertical brackets in 2 sizes: the “normal” is 55mm tall and the “XL” is 70mm. I think that for most of the cases the normal will be enough.
As for the heads, I designed 2 different ones as well: a flat one (usually for the wings) and a curved one (for the fuselage). You can mix and match them as well, according to your needs.
One last thing about the heads: if you turn them upside-down, you can use the pointy ends (16mm screws) as contact points for the landing gear bays of the plane that you are building. This way the head does not need to touch a freshly-painted surface.
I measured the largest part (the base) to be able to fit on my Anycubic Cossel Linnear Plus “Delta” 3D Printer with a table of 220mm diameter. This means that you should be able to print it on most of FDM printers.
I used PLA plastic filament at 0.2mm resolution and 20% infill. Supports were not needed.
The jig should be able to accomodate most aircraft scale models up to 1/48 scale. The largest one that I tested it with was the F-14D Tomcat in 1/48 by AMK that I am currently building.
3D Printed Parts
| Item | Quantity needed |
|---|---|
| Triscelion Base | 1 |
| Axis | 3 |
| Axis XL (optional, instead of the normal Axis) | 3 |
| Axis Braces | 3 |
| Curved Head | 1 |
| Flat Heads | 2 |
| Thumbscrews | 6 |
You can find and download all the 3D printable parts here.
Other Parts
| Item | Quantity Needed |
|---|---|
| M3 hexagonal nuts | 6 |
| M3x16 screws | 6 |
| M4x16 (or M4x20) screws (contact points for the landing gear bays, for the reversible heads) | 3 |
| Rubber Bands (optional) | 3 |
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