try these ideas for holding your minis:
(http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee172/hawkins_howling/100_0518.jpg)
2 kinds of wooden dowlings with blue tack and ceramicoat (or Delta coat) paint bottles
(http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee172/hawkins_howling/100_0517.jpg)
(http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee172/hawkins_howling/100_0506.jpg)
an old playdoo can for my friends termies im painting. (i tack it to the other side, this was just a spare can i had to show you.
(http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee172/hawkins_howling/100_0519.jpg)
delta coat bottles that were used with the goblins
(http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee172/hawkins_howling/100_0507.jpg)
I dont like to base mine until I know what base they will go on so I need a sort of bulldog clip on the end of something....
Havent found anything suitable so will have to make one at some point
I generally cobble off any integrated base, slotta tab, whatever and cement a piece of wire to a foot of the mini, then stick it in an old paintbrush handle. I made a handy block for holding these.
Here's my tutorial (gotta add pics at some point!!)
http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/tutorials/pewterpops
I use old Reaper ProPaint bottles filled with sand for miniatures with integrated bases, with the mini blue-tacked to the top.
Empty Miniature Paints bottles for me and a bit of blue tack if I'm painting a mini on a standard base. The bottles are glass and weighty enough that they aren't top heavy with a mini on them. Filling them with water or clean sand helps too. Bigger stuff gets blue tacked or PVA glued to a cork sanding block. If I'm removing the base entirely I drill into the foot of the mini and glue a wire in then mount it into a cork for storage when I'm not painting and hold it in a pin vice when I am. I've got an old display pen holder that I was given free by my local stationers which holds the pin vices upright when not in use.
Drilling holes and cutting off tabs Cheddar? I came out in a cold sweat just reading a few lines of that page !!! I couldnt mutilate my figs in that way, thats blasphemy :icon_w00t: Conversions are the work of the devil in my opinion :icon_w00t:
A vice would be ideal as it goes, just a hand held one which I'm sure they sell somewhere. If not, a paintbrush handle with a small bulldog clip superglued on the end may do the job nicely :icon_wink: