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I just realized this simple trick on how to avoid the following problem:

When I basecoat my miniatures after assembly, I usually place them on a box, which stands on lots of old newspapers spread out over the floor of my garage to avoid spraying the floor. So when I spray from the top (and sometimes angled from the side), I usually only manage to cover about 70% of the miniatures with paint. Their undersides often do not get the basecoat, so afterwards I have to take up paint and paintbrush and cover the remaining areas, sometimes asking myself the question why I bother to invest in spray paint at all if I anyway end up having to basecoat each miniature by hand afterward.

Well the answer is simple: basecoat the sprues before assembly! Basecoating a 2D surface is always tons easier than having to angle your can around three dimensions, and while this doesnt save you from having to pick up the paint brush to cover the small areas where you'll later remove the bits from the sprues using a pair of cutters, exposing plastic, it's still a lot less work than entire areas of your miniature that didnt catch paint.

Or you could hold the models in the air and spray all around. Sticky tack models to a box or just do them individually. If you are concerned with getting paint on your hands wear rubber gloves.

Or if you are doing a whole unit, make a bang-stick.

take 1 piece of 1.5"x 1.5" wood, blu-tac the models to it so they are spread a couple on each side.

Then, when you spray the top of one side, you are spraying the bottom of the next side.

After you've rotated all the way clockwise, switch hands and go anti-clockwise and you'll get full coverage on everything.

I've never like the idea of painting on the sprue. Much better, in my mind, to do all modeling work first and go right from primer (after sufficient curing time, of course!) to paint. Like the rest, I ensure coverage by providing myself every available angle of attack with the spray. Paint sticks (wooden stirrers for large paint cans are cheap, if not free, at most paint/home improvement stores) or small boxes for units, old pill/paint bottles or pins in a vice for single figures/parts.

yeah I spray on top of a box.

(get box, put minis on top of box, spray from various angles.

That is how I prevent overspray and get at various angels.

This would reduce the touchup needs, and then you don't need pre paint on the spure.

Best of luck!

It surprises me that people don't notice they give you the perfect spray tool right there in the box, the sprues Don't spray the models before taking them off the sprue, assemble them as you normally would and clean off all the mould lines, but instead of blutacking them to a box, tack them to the sprue. Tack them to the corners or intersections so they're decently supported and then you have something you can spray through to get the bottom. I usually just do 6 passes, 1 pass from below, 1 pass from above, turn the model ~120 degrees and repeat twice so I get it from 3 different angles above and below.

Some sprues are better suited to it than others, sprues which are flat and have lots of intersections are better for infantry than sprues which aren't flat and only have a few intersections. I tend to hold on to the better ones, but really you can use almost any old sprue if you need.

I space them on the sprue to minimise wasted overspray, about 1 to 2" apart for simple infantry and wider for more complicated models.

I usually just spray outside, but if I have to reduce overspray I make sure I'm spraying through the sprue on to something else that isn't important.

If i only have to spray a couple of models and am too lazy to tack them down, I just grab a plastic bag, put it over my left hand and hold the model by the base and spray it (yeah I could use a glove but I'm lazy and the bag covers a larger portion of my arm, lol).

Pinned to cork master race, checking in

My best tip for spraying is to heat your can up before spraying with the hot tap. Just run the tap and hold the can under it shaking lightly until the can stays warm to the touch (shaking will dissipate the heat quickly at first) This increases the pressure inside the can, and lowers the viscosity of the paint, and helps to reduce the temperature difference when it de-pressurises and drops considerably.

For holding them, I tend to glue them onto lengths of sprue, lolly sticks, or where pinning leave a long pin until later.
Blobs of blue tack and small plastic clamps, clothes pegs are all your friend. Spray paint is cheap per coverage on mini's doing them individually isnt so bad ~ you get the best coat on each one this way.

I cut a large cardboard box diagonally to create a spaying area. Whenever I have models to spray I always put as many as would fit comfortably without getting into eachother's way on a narrowish tray, spray them from one side, then turn the tray around and spray them from the other side.

Some models require a second spraying set to get the underside but infantry models rarely do.

I usually use masking tape sticky side up on a big moveable surface like Styrofoam. Or pinning your models. I keep whatever I need not assembled that would get in the way of paining other parts separate. At least with this option you could always rotate your models as needed to base coat.