Sunday 21 November 2010

Hobby goldmine and the kindness of friends ...

Recently, I stumbled across a hobby goldmine whilst out shopping with the family. We were in our local shopping center or mall for those across the pond. In the basement, there's a large market area that's made up of lots of small independent traders. We'd nipped down to get some food from the cafe and after eating, little man needed the toilet, so I took him. As we rounded the corner to the toilet I spotted this tiny hobby shop, and when I say tiny, I mean tiny. It was 8ft square and packed full of hobby goodness, models, tools, paints. So, after a delve into this goldmine, I came out with a few bits.

First off, I picked up a 1/35 scale military accessories kit from Tamiya. Quite a bit of the stuff on the sprues is a little overscale for 40K, but there's plenty that I can use as stowage on my vehicles.



One of the bonuses of the overscale stuff is that they'll be perfect to use as guides for my sculpting, so expect more green stuff stowage coming soon. There's also a little dog on the sprue, so you might even see a regimental mascot a la Admiral Drax style.

I also pickup these Tamiya weathering kits. I've never used used powers before but I've seen great results achieved with them. My only concerns is I'm not sure how to fix the powders in place on the models so that they don't come off and also, I'm not sure how they'll look on my models with them being heavily washed in devlan mud already. I'd be grateful for any tips or links you guys can provide.


My other purchase was the Microscale range. Once again, I've never used them before, but the results I've seen are great, so I'm going to give them a play and let you know how they turn out.


Finally, I wanted to give my mate Mike a shout out. Me and Mike are always swapping bits and recently he passed me some IG models. First off, he gave me a completed chimera. It's already been built and primed white, so I'm not sure whether to strip it or just go over it with black as I prefer all my models primed black. Also, it's the new style chimera which doesn't really fit with my current forces which are all old school. Since it's got a more advanced look to it, I might convert it up as the regimental command squad transport which means I'll have to put a regimental command squad together. I think I've got the making of another 'project'!


Mike also gave me one of the new punisher tanks still on the sprue, so that'll help bolster my armoured company - Thank Mike!

So, plenty of hobby goodness and more plastic for the plastic crack mountain!

6 comments:

Andy Gooda said...

I haven't used weathering powders yet, but I think what your meant to do is after using the powders, give your model a coat of varnish to hold it in place.

This has put me off using them because I have a fear of Varnish Sprays

Zzzzzz said...

Serendipity.

Nice.

Admiral Drax said...

Awesome. Jealous and very happy for you, mate!

- Chris.

Wolfy said...

How to attach the powders in place really does differ by powder. for example, the powders I use you rub on with your finer, cotton swab or a brush, and you dont need to secure them in place (As long as you dont go mental with it and apply loads). Once dry they dont rub off or discolour etc.

For other powders you should be looking at using a spray varnish (I used gloss car varnish then paint over matt artists varnish to take the shine away again). It really does depend on the powder itself, how heavily you are going to apply them and how often they are going to get handled.

For some great tips on weathering powders and other techniques, grab a look at the Imperial Armour Masterclass from forgeworld if you can (Its well worth the money). Its an awesome book, and, which i found strange for a GW book, tells you how to do everything without using all GW tools and stuff.

Another method I read in that very book is to give the powder a dusting with hair spray and you should be good to go so long as you dont constantly rub it.

If your wanting to get the "Runs" (lol) ... in the sense of rust marks where water runs off the chassis, then you need to be mixing the powder with white spirit or some other sort of solvent.

Hope this helps, weathering powders make a fantastic model look amazing.

Cheers

Ralph.

Mark said...

Fantastico! It's like Christmas when you have a find like that, and even more so when it's packed full of so many useful things.

I've been considering powders myself. Looking forward to seeing them added to your work.

Col. Corbane said...

@Andrath - Sounds like we're both singing fromthe same hymn sheet mate. I guess I've got to give spray varnishes a go at sometime.

@Zzzzzz - It certainly was mate :-)

@Drax - Cheers matey!

@Wolfy - Cheers mate, I've got the masterclass book, I've just not built up the courage to try the techniques. I'm just so scared of my models frosting up, especially considering the weather at the moment.

@#2501 - Cheers matey, it miht be a while before yousee the powers in action, so don't hold your breathe - lol