arclance

The plastic bases soften a lot but don't melt in the oven so I do not bake them on them. They just slump into a sad flat disc if you do bake them with sulpey on them. I cut wooden bases out of 1/16" fiberboard to match the plastic bases and use those to make Sculpey bases. I put the Sculpey on the base and press it into the mold. If the sculpey is still attached to the base I trim it using the base edge as a guide. If the sulpey is loose I trim as close to the base edge as I can with a pair of scissors using the base as a guide. I then put them on the wooden bases and bake them in the oven. I re-attach them to the bases with superglue if needed. Then I trim them with a scalpel and sand them with a dremel tool to remove any remaining overhang even with the wooden base. I then fill any gaps between the base and the Sulpey with whatever lefover gap filling medium I have out that day and sand that smooth once it sets.

Just make sure its aluminum and not a cheap steel one or it will be rust city. It only needs to soak for about a half hour to flatten the paper, the water won't stay hot long anyway. It should not be any more likely to rust than if you soaked it in the sink before hand washing it.

I soak mine in a rimmed baking sheet (the kind you make cookies with).

That is why I always write down what I need to buy otherwise I forget something.

For solid color shapes like Space Marine Chapter Badges I cut paint masks on the vinyl plotter at work from adhesive backed paint mask. You end up with the same shape but it looks more natural on the model. I made a lot of these for a friend who has some nerve damage in his painting hand and was getting frustrated with matching what he had done before the nerve damage. When I do freehand I practice on something else before I try it on the model to be sure I can actually do it first.

That does not work with the small bit you use for pinning. There is not enough surface are on a bit that small so you just end up with a large wrap of tape that does not hold the bit firmly and deforms.

My old green stuff is so hard that it cracked plastic bases in half when I tried making bases on Basius pad with it.

For feet like this I drill an angled hole through the flat part of the shoe and then bend a pin so the exposed part of it is perpendicular with the bottom of the shoe. To get the bend in the right place I insert the pin into the hole and mark it with a sharpie when it is all the way in and them remove it and bend it with pliers. I have to do this often with models in a walking pose but it works for heeled shoes with small heels as well.

Yes GW released the Generals Handbook which has points values and rules for using them for almost every unit. It has raised the popularity of Age of Sigmar drastically. My local store actually had to restock some of their old Warhammer Fanatasy stuff because of interest in Age of Sigmar. The store had a large stock of Tomb Kings someone ordered and never picked up that I had been slowely buying because I wanted the models. I tried Age of Sigmar with them since I already had them and it is fun but definately less complicated than 40K (never played Fantasy). It is fun and a lot more accesible than other tabletop army battle/skirmish games. It would be a good way to introduce someone to these types of games instead of throwing them into the deep end with 40K. The fluff is still mostly lame and no one around here really follows it much beyond reading summaries on the Internet. They realllllly spend to much of their time and art budget on the Stormcast Eternals (aka Sigmarines) and Khornite Warriors of Chaos.

I'm pretty "meh" about them too. But I'm not digging KD as much as I used to, I've got other "crushes" on different miniatures right now. My tastes change every now and then. I still need to paint up some of my KD that I have on hand too. I might want something from it but I need to check my list of what I already own at home to be sure. Mostly I hope for KD to re-release something I want than for them to release something new.

I have a old package of green stuff that is exactley like that. I found it bad for sculpting and making bases with Basius pads. It was like trying to use chewing gum that had been chewed for several hours first. I only use it for green stuffing magnets in place where super glue would not give enough support to keep the magnet in position until it sets.

That was what trying Raphael and to a lesser extent Da Vinci was for me. They tened to split or not hold their shape and the tip of one Raphael sort of instantly dried while I was using it. My W&N brushes are nice but don't hold their shape as well as the Rosemary & Co. brushes I have so I can't justify the price to get more of them. When I got my Rosemary brushes I split a order with the best painter I know locally who wanted to try some. He liked them and thought they were not quite as good as the old W&N he used to use years ago when he could afford them. He also likes that they had sable riggers which he had been looking for under a different name because he uses them for freehand.

I have a couple of the Tamiya ones that I like a lot. They cost a bit more than other options but I had gotten annoyed with my cheap ones not holding bits straight so I got something different. They hold the small thin bits for pinning feet to bases with sewing pins as well as the larger bits like 1/8" for larger magnets. Some other generic looking ones I have seen don't hold the ~1/8" bits.

Acetone = Nail Polish Remover. Buy cheap in large bottles at Walmart. I guess I learned something today. XD I knew it was in nail polish remover, but didn't know where to buy. Wound up at CVS, purchased a pretty large bottle for $5. I'll let y'all know how it goes! xo Tay Many nail polish removers that contain acetone (there are acetone free options) are diluted. You can get bottles of acetone at most hardware stores cheaply.

I mix the Tamiya clears with their thinner in small amounts on the concave side of glass beaker lid. This lets me see if they are thinned enough for brushing and monitor their drying easily. The Tamiya clears at least have a long shelf life, I have used some of my fathers 10 year old jars and they work fine.

Swann-Morton has a US distributor called Cincinnati Surgical. You can order direct from them though the blades only come in 100 packs. If you know you will use up a 100 pack eventually it is cheaper than the markup you pay to resellers who break up those 100 packs on Amazon.

I asked them about a slow to ship order once. The answer I got was to the effect that they drop off groups of packages to USPS on Friday but USPS reports the creation of the shipping label when they put it in the box. Mine sat for six days before USPS got it.

I'd be really careful with that. At the library we reject anything with the faintest whiff of mustiness, as it will spread to our entire collection. I have a box of good, but suspect, books that sits in my basement so it doesn't contaminate my main collection. Probably going to get tossed in the next purge, it's not worth the risk to keep them in the house. Defintely could be worth tossing the box and maybe seeking out a download of the rules so they can be tossed as well. If it is just the smell with no visible discoloration you can sometimes get rid of it by laying the books out in the sun for a few weeks in the summer. The sunlight (an low humidity if you are luck) can kill some of the things that can grow on a book and cause that smell. If they have only absorbed the smell from other books airing them out like that can get rid of it too.

Personally I don't have the room to store stuff that size once painted safely unless it is for a wargame I am actually playing because those are stored for travel to games. There are only so many places I could keep it once painted where someone would not damage it and they already have things displayed there.

I have done that as well. I spent years trying to find comforatble socks (and shoes) and found Wigwam "Merino Silk Hiker Sock" at $22 dollars a pair. They are actually comfortable and last years so they end up being cheaper than most socks in the long run.

I have... and either my Search Fu is bad or the bay hates me. Maybe both. You can setup a followed search there and wait to see if what you want shows up later. I do that sometimes to watch for someone selling at a resonable price instead of price gouging something hard to find just because they can.

Definitely remember that. Your paint won't dry if you forget to thin the Flow Improver enough.

Thanks for the warning. Have you ever tried the Golden GAC-500 on Bones? That was their recommended airbrush isolation coat. I was looking at Varnishes on Blick and there were several more types of acrylic polymer varnish there that you might want to try in your tests. They had the Lascaux varnish I saw someone mention using on the Reaper board before.

This product "Polymer Varnish with UVLS" is water based. Maybe you are thinking of the "MSA Varnish with UVLS" which has a similar name and is mineral spirit based? Golden's instructions for using the "Polymer Varnish with UVLS" line says to thin them with distilled water. I like that Golden specifically says this can be thinned since that makes it easier to brush it on without getting the coat too thick. It also recommends applying a "Isolation Layer" before the varnish to help with interactions between the varnish and the paint or painted surface. This is their recommended "Isolation Layer". That might be useful for decreasing the chance of Bones reacting with the varnish. It also means you can remove the Matte Varnish with ammonia without damaging the paint if you don't like how it turned out. You may want to test the Satin as well since Golden says this about their relative matteness.

Actually, that's the main way I buy minis other than the occasional KS. Direct from the sculptors or small studios on FB. I've done this quite a few times as well and have had great luck with it! *knocks on wood* There are a lot of amazing sculptors out there who don't have websites, but do sell limited releases on their FB pages for very reasonable prices. It's a good way to support people who are just starting out or do it on the side for fun and practicing their craft. I don't do much on Facebook except follow things that only update reliably on Facebook and to have a way to contact friends other than by phone. I would not come across anyone who only operates out of Facebook except by accident or referal so I have not even seen much like this before. I never use my real name on Facebook because it is a massive datamining target so performing a financial transaction over it won't happen (at least with my current account). ub3r_n3rd is the only one here who I know had a chance to come across my Facebook account since I commented on one of his "Ub3r's Ubsession" posts.