Manual Suction Pen

Sometimes we need to hold small styrene plates, or tiny flats PE parts.

They are difficult to hold with our fingers, and often we can't hold them with tweezers (especially if they have to be glued onto a bigger subassembly) or during painting.

A good solution comes from the electronics world, where they have been using suction pens to hold chips and similar components for decades.

These are simple mechanical objects that work in the same way as a dropper: you press on a flexible rubber part, then place one of the cups on top of the part, and then release the rubber, thus creating a vacuum that holds the part in place.

Keep in mind that these work for small, light parts as the ones mentioned before; they don't have enough suction to hold, say, a tank turret or a plane fuselage.