Miniature Wargaming: Hobby tips, tricks, techniques and useful tools

If you come across something hobby related that you feel might be useful to our community members, share it here!!

 

Interesting thread. I've also got a pair of Vince Venturella videos to share. I found these two to be immensely useful...

 

Some size comparisons between WHFB/TOW and AoS models:

 

That's interesting!

 

An index of wargame painting channels.

 

For anyone daunted by the idea of scratchbuilding terrain, here's a vid that gives an easy introduction to the art that's inspired me (it's a tutorial for model railway buildings, but of course the principles can be applied to any historical wargaming building, and fantasy and sci-fi ones too with some extra thinking behind the construction):

 

Mostly stuff I picked up from my father:

- Pencil crayons can be used for edge highlighting.

- No file? Fine grit sandpaper glued to the side of a popsicle stick can work as a reliable substitute in a pinch. The same also applies to sanding blocks.

- Turpentine is a good substitute for brown washes, especially if you're trying to invoke the appearance and texture of grime at scale. Mind the smell while it's still wet though.

- Windshield washer fluid and iso-propyl alcohol are both suitable cleaning agents for brushes and airbrush parts alike, and can in a pinch be used to strip paint off of models. However, iso-propyl alcohol can be exceptionally harsh on gaskets unlike washer fluid.

- Cotton balls are good masking filler for exposed cockpits when painting.

- To facilitate building a model, never skip out on dry-fitting the pieces together. If you must, lightly airbrush along the seams where the parts meet during dry-fitting, so as to be able to better identify where adjustments (typically via sanding) need to be made before you glue the parts together.

 

Hopefully!

 

Future floor wax really is a miracle of science. I use it as do so many other for thinning paint and I recently did an experiment with it and craft paint. While the craft paint is still craft paint, Future allowed it to stick together and flow so much better. The normal nasty matt finish was made into a nice satin, almost gloss, but instead of five or six coats it only took two and a half. I also use it to thin Vallejos Game Wash. I was gifted a bottle and hated it and it seemed to matter how little or much I used it just was horrible to put on a model. Using Future with a 50/50 mix of Game Wash it transformed into an absolutely fantastic shading liquid.

 

Color Guide. Contrast Paints over various primers.

 

https://www.chaosbunker.de/en/2022/08/15/citadel-colour-contrast-part-4/

 

I will respond to this thread when I get home from my day out. I just found this thread while taking a quick second to browse.

 

Awesome. Your contributions should liven up what has been a pretty quiet thread.