trying to paint it in-situ will be a waste of time

I did mine in situ last year;
rubbed it down a bit to get off the loose paint and rust then applied Smooth Hammerite. (edit - with a brush)
It's not perfect but the visible parts look fine.
Lie on a bit of old carpet and get comfortable so you don't have to crouch down.

You could mask the surrounding area with old newspapers to protect from getting sprayed.

I've used High Temp BBQ paint from B&Q before now on exhausts and covered the stand in-situ while I was at it.

Waldorf wrote:trying to paint it in-situ will be a waste of time

I did mine in situ last year;
rubbed it down a bit to get off the loose paint and rust then applied Smooth Hammerite. (edit - with a brush)
It's not perfect but the visible parts look fine.
Lie on a bit of old carpet and get comfortable so you don't have to crouch down.

Thanks - I might give it a try. What about the springs? They look rusty as hell. btw its not the leg bits of the stand so much as the top bit where the springs are thats utterly awful.

when I re painted my silverwing mainstand last year, I took it off, wasnt to involved, just rubbed it down and sprayed it with smoothrite, I was amazed, it came up like new.