HOBBY - PAINTED: [Imperial Knight] [Build and Paint] [Speed Project] [CCoN]

Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/TjBsGJS

I bought this guy on CCoN's sale in February. He was soaked in soapy warm water over night and then rinsed with a heavy spray of cool water. Then left to dry for like a week. I could have done just over night but I put it off. I took a lot of time to write out details of the process in the Imgur gallery so I won't elaborate on that here. However I've had a lot of questions about random hobby stuff like tools, paints, etc. recently so I figured I'd put some of that here.

• On Distraction I have a shit tone of models to clean, prime, assemble, paint, display, take pictures of, play with, stare at lovingly, and otherwise do shit with. A big hurdle to doing anything is remembering how much you have to do. Distract yourself from that. Work someplace you can watch TV or listen to radio, watch games, something, and also plan that you will be doing so. There is very little of the modeling process that requires super dedicated focus unless you are a golden demon painter. Generally it's better to just develop a routine and get busy than it is to obsess over perfection. Perfection comes with time and repetition. I am a better painter today than I was 10 years ago not because I watched the perfect video tutorial but because I painted like a thousand miniatures. It's actually super easy to strip a bad model's paint job with simple green, then use a debonder to disassemble it, and start over. And if it is unrecoverable a replacement from a recaster is probably cheaper than the cups of coffee you'll buy while assembling it. Personally I drink a beer and watch 80s movies while assembling shit… actually I also write stuff like this too while doing so.

• On Tools Lets see, I generally use the following tools or have them at hand. There is no particular order here or anything more important than anything else, just buy what you need as you need it and keep it ready for when you are doing projects:

• Close or Flat Cut Hobby snips, both plastic and metal varieties. I use them to cut the resin or plastic sprues as well as trimming brass rod for pinning.

• Micro or Hobby files. I have 9 sets of hobby files and use only three files, quarter inch flat file, eighth inch flat file, and eighth inch triangle file. Anything the other files do can be done exclusively with those three. When you can no longer feel a regular vibration when you run a fingernail down your file replace it.

• Sanding Sticks and Sand Paper. Foam core sandpaper works really well for sanding large flat surfaces like the bases on figures or surfaces on a tank. A lot of hobby stores have this type of sand paper if not you can grab it a home improvement store. For detailed or curved surfaces I use sanding sticks or emery boards instead. Emery boards tend to be good for large surfaces where their stiff nature helps you apply pressure across a larger surface area. Sanding sticks on the other hand are good for really tight locations because you can bend them to fit where you need. That said sanding sticks are annoyingly expensive at hobby stores but you can get them dirt cheap on amazon. Likewise emery boards are overpriced at hobby stores so go swing by a Hair and Nail supply store, you can pick up a huge variety of grits and quantities for really cheap.

• A good Xacto knife. I generally use a pen style Xacto knife for my cutting. Find a knife that feels comfortable in your hand so you can cut easily. Everyone will tell you to cut away from you, its fine if you don't. Only cut with the tip of the knife, when the tip is no longer sharp get a new blade. Imagine the tip of the blade is a pen and put that tip where you want to cut to and apply even firm pressure. Cut in slow deliberately controlled strokes, no yanking or sawing or extreme pressure.

• A Dremel or similar rotary tool. I use these with ultrafine drill bits and diamond spur grinding bits (generally round and cylander shaped hobby ones). The drill bits are used for pinning while the grinding bits are used to remove large sections of plastic or resin.

• A medical mask or similar filter mask. Generally speaking resin isn't really as toxic as people say it is but it still gets in your lungs like any fine dust and can make you sick. Any type of filter mask will work I just use medical surgical filter masks because I can buy 25 of them for $10 USD at a medical supply store and they are generally hepa filters which are good for painting too.

• Disposable micro applicators. I saw these in the model car section of my local hobby shop and picked them up for $10 USD for 25 of them. Then I discovered them on amazon for $5 USD for 100 of them. They are amazingly useful for apply glue or paint in controlled areas. They are particularly helpful if you are using thin super glue and don't want it running all over the place.

• Storage bins. So have you ever finished a project in a day? Do you have pets or kids that get into your hobby area, or maybe you just use the hobby area for other things and need to pack up your projects a lot. Buy hobby storage. I pick up cheap plastic drawer organizers or tackle box drawers whenever possible. This helps me start projects, sort bits and pieces, and prevents me from losing things easily. I don't generally worry about where I store these bins as they tend to get moved from place to place as I work and empty them.

• A tea serving tray. So for mobile work spaces GW started selling a hobby try for like 50 bucks a few years back, I thought it was stupid. Then about a year ago I picked up a serving tray from a home goods store. It cost like $14 USD but it is a portable 14 by 22 inch work space that has a lip to prevent losing bits and handles to carry it around. I picked up a cheap cutting mat and trimmed it to fit the inside and can store my tools in it without them rolling off or my current projects without knocking things off. This is invaluable when you spend so much time faffing about moving projects around like I do. And it’s a damned sight cheaper than that stupid plastic work try GW makes.

• Exhaust Hood. Ok so when I say exhaust hood I mean the cheap paint hood you can find for like 30 bucks on ebay or amazon. I generally have it going when I'm sanding, dremeling or painting. It's cheap, its quiet and it gets the worst of the fumes out the window. It won't clear out spray paint fumes or strong glue fumes though but it will make your workspace tolerable.

• Paint Sprayer/Airbrush/Spray paint. My general goal is to prime a model as quickly as possible, generally on sprue. I've recently started using Vallejo model primer through a cheap airbrush. If you want to go that route buy a double action airbrush strait away, every other airbrush I've tried is utter crap. The double action is just easier to use and more forgiving of paint choice than anything else I've tried. My airbrush kit cost $70 USD on ebay along with that cheap fume hood, a compressor, and 3 airbrushes. Unless you are going to really learn don't bother with super expensive ones. On the other hand if you are just going to use spray paint to prime have whatever your spray paint of choice around. I use Rust-oleum painter's touch ultracover. They have primer and paint + primer versions, the satins have a super good tooth which are excellent as a base coat. They cover extremely well with a very thin coat. Watch a youtube video on how to prime, it will help. Be prepared to waste a lot of primer. It's fun and starting strong helps things work out well with later painting layers. I picked up a YouCAN refillable paint can I intend to try for priming. It was like $25 USD but promises to be a good cost savings over my 3 primer cans a month habit I had last summer, LOL.

• Brushes. My last count of my brushes was something like 300 of them. I go through brushes a lot. I buy cheap brushes a lot. I buy pretty much any brush on sale that is sized 20/0, 10/0, 5/0, 000, 00, 0, or 1. I also keep around a lot of 1/4 and 1/2 inch flat brushes. The tiny brushes are obviously detail brushes. The larger brushes are for applying large areas of flat colors like on vehicles or when priming with a brush. Older large brushes I use for scumbling, applying washes, or effects colors. I also buy 2 inch makeup brushes which are amazing for dry brushing.

• Paints. Paints are a personal choice for a lot of people. New GW paints are crap in my opinion, this is largely due to the shit design of their bottles making them dry out ridiculously fast. Vallejo paints are also largely crap as well, they separate too quickly, don't mix properly, and tend to be too thin to cover correctly. Generally I feel GW's "Two Thin Coats" line is bullshit, a good paint covers in one coat. Sherman Williams doesn't sell its premium paints saying "Covers in just coats" no their slogan is "one and done" for a reason. Model paint companies need to learn how to make fucking paints. I buy a lot of Folk Art Multi Surface Craft Paints and… what I'll get made fun of for… Martha Stewart Craft Paints. Generally brighter colors in Folk Art are fantastic and the darker colors in Martha Stewart are really good. I sprinkle in there some of the Vallejo Game Air, Model Air, and Mecha Color for various things like priming and under coloring with the airbrush. Also, nothing is exactly like Boltgun Metal… Old boltgun metal is fantastic. Further, you will never find an actually good Gold, they are all shit be prepared to do 90 layers of gold on every fucking adeptus custodes model. I blame the inability to make a good gold as the reason that non-metallic metal painting has taken over the hobby.

• On glue: I never understand people's choice on glue. Every model glue and super glue I've encountered has a perfect use case which I generally feel is pretty shitty. I use a glue which I've found to be excellent in almost every scenario. It's Super-Gold+ Odorless Gap Filling Glue. It's a Cyanoacrylate glue but has no odor making it excellent for use in doors for long periods. Its thickness is a bit less than average superglue making it flow better and its drying time is roughly 30 to 45 seconds on average (pressure and moisture effects this). It works with ABS plastic, Foam, Resin, and Metal equally, it even works quite well on glass though it's not transparent so it leaves marks. The manufacturer makes a retarder, accelerator, and debonder which are excellent as well as thinner and thicker versions if that's your thing. The company is Bob Smith Industries, though you'll see them rebranded by various hobby stores like Hobbytown. They are also cheaper than most of the dedicated model glues. Even cheaper if you go to Menards or Home Depot to buy them from their glue section.

• On Straitening Resin Resin bends with heat or if it is moved before it solidifies completely. The biggest frustration I hear is "XXX doesn't fit together cause it is warped". Straitening resin can be done a couple of ways but what I find the easiest is the following: Go out and buy a cheap electric kettle. I got one for $3.5 USD from a thrift store. Also pick up a cheap large bowl, something that will let an entire landraider sit in for a while. I picked up a set of 3 plastic mixing bowls at Walmart for $5 USD, one is dedicated for stripping models with simple green, another is dedicated to soaking resin models in soapy water to get rid of mold release, and the last is used for ice water when straitening bits. If you don't have them already get some long hobby tweezers, I like the locking kind but any will do. Simple process, bring your kettle to boil then shut it off. Using the tweezers dip your bit into the extremely hot water. I swish it around in the water slowly until the water resistance makes the part start to bend. Once it is bendable pull it out and shape it into the position you want. You generally have 1.5 to 3 minutes of work time with a warm part. As soon as it is in position dunk it straight into the ice water and hold it for as long as your fingers can tolerate. Then pull it out and let it air dry someplace cool. If you heat and cool resin repeatedly in a short period of time it can develop surface cracks because the porous resin absorbs water and causes it to expand in places when it heats. LET IT DRY OVER NIGHT. Also keep your stuff clean and use separate pots for everything. Hot simple green can discolor resin, too much strong soap can soften or even dissolve some resins, and dirt, grime, or paint just builds up on the surface of a model making it harder to prime/paint. If you have bits that need to fit tightly together like a rhino chassis, remove sprues before starting and once hot rubber band everything together then cool it while all together.

• On pinning: I use very thin brass rod to pin. Generally this is because I am only pinning delicate parts. I don't want the brass rod to add rigidity. The point is to add more area for the glue to adhere and widen the point of failure. Same idea as a peg when gluing wood. Extremely thick rod or stronger rod like piano wire will make a joint inflexible. This leaves both less resin to hold and a pin that won't flex in the event of a drop, the result the pin doesn't flex and the resin around it shatters if dropped. Thinner rod will bend or come loose before it breaks the resin around it. This generally leaves the model intact. Either way I have to fix the model but it's easier for me with thinner rods. My rod is 0.020 Inch or 0.51mm.

Submitted May 14, 2018 at 10:08AM by dynath https://ift.tt/2KXIOYw