After the Gluey Mess of Christmas 2018 (assembling the ammo feed of a Primaris Aggressor Sergeant), I added a Citadel Assembly Handle to my hobby toolkit. Naturally, I’ve only used it for painting so far.

The theory sounds good – it helps avoid smudging or rubbing paint off your models while you’re painting them. What I’ve also noticed is that I’m a tidier painter while using it. I’m guessing that’s because I can hold the model more steadily using my whole hand instead of finger and thumb on the base or having it stand on my palette.

Even if you’re better at assembling than I am (most people fall into this category) and just want one for painting, I’d still suggest going for the assembly handle over the painting handle. While you’re painting, there are two ways of looking at the clips designed to hold bits in place. They’re either annoying and get in your way, or they make great finger rests while you’re painting at an awkward angle. Incidentally, the arms which the clips attach to stay in place pretty well. Hopefully this continues to be the case over time (comment below if yours are holding up or have gone a bit slack).

So just a short public service announcement which might help if you’re on the fence about getting one of these. It’s definitely one of my better purchases for the ease of painting alone.