Unlike Tinweasel, I had no problems finding cheap glass beads thanks to ebay, I got 120 for £4 with postage. My beads arrived this morning and I immediately gave them a go. They work like a treat, a couple of drops of water and a glass bead, a good shake and they're like new.
I'd highly recommend reading Tinweasel's blog and giving it a go for yourself.
7 comments:
I had read that blog post, found glass beads on Ebay and then forgot to buy them! I will now - thanks for the reminder :)
I use pennies--though I'm not sure they help... have you actually tried the glass beads yet?
Don't waste your money - add small chopped pieces of metal from the miniatures excess tabs and whotnot. Doesn't cost anything
@W39 - yeah, they work really well.
@Siph - I've kept away from metal and flash bits as Tinweasels article says they can taint the paint as they corrode.
For another tutorial on paintmaintenance go here:
http://santacruzwarhammer.blogspot.com/2009/02/paint-maintenance.html
we did this in feb of last year.
cheers
Mike
Santa Cruz Warhammer
I just found this post, thanks for the link - glad to hear that using glass beads are working out for you!
I went through a variety of agitators before settling on glass beads: tab clippings, bits of sprue, zinc-plated BB's; they all work to greater or lesser degrees, but have their own problems.
White metal, esp. w/ a higher pewter content, generally starts to "degrade" in reaction w/ the deionized water in most acrylic paints - it's not the white metal so much as the other elements in it: copper, tin, antimony/bismuth, etc. I've seen "lead bloom" in action and decided I didn't want impurities sloughing off into my paints.
Plastic sprue clippings were inert, but too light to shift paint and didn't do much other than float and take up pot space.
I thought zinc-plated BB's were "it" (non-reactive & weighty!) 'til I noticed the outer plating cracked through use, exposing an unstable core - got a number of old pots now w/ rusting BB's stuck to the interior.
I finally went w/ glass beads - fairly cheap, as inert as it gets, weighty, and don't occupy much space in the pot. Been using 'em for well over a year now and haven't looked back. I also bulked up my supply in another craft store necklace sale!
No worries on the link mate, it's an excellent idea and it's working wonders for me.
Have a look at ebay for alternative source of beads. I don't know woh this compares to your necklaces, but I thought it was a great deal.
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-POUNDS-ASSORTED-COLOR-OPAQUE-COLORED-GLASS-BEADS-LOT_W0QQitemZ150407317421QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2304f987ad
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