Miniatures starting kit

 I had a friend start in the hobby miniatures painting and I put together a basic list of simple items that they should think about having in addition to paints and brushes.  Some seem quite obvious, and some less so.  I share it here with you.

Good brush set - you don't really need a lot of brushes.  You can get by with three good brushes - a 1, a 000, and another brush for dry brushing.

Good paints - find a few that you like.

Liquid model glue - for styrene figures and models.  I use Plastruct but Tamiya is also nice.

CA glue - for metal and resin figures and moddels.  I used to buy Zap-a=gap but it always dried up before I could finish half a bottle.  I'm currently using Gorilla Super Glue in regular and gel.

PVA glue - for basing.  Most brands are fine. 

 

  

Emery boards – for sanding.  You can get a bunch in a pack at the dollar store.

 

Cheap brushes – for glue or terrain.  You can pick up a pack at the dollar store.  

 

Cheap paint – for terrain or bases.  The Apple Barrel or Americana type paints at Walmart, or dollar store.  At least a black, brown, and two tones for you bases.

 

Ziplocks bags – different sizes.  

 

Reaper (or similar) dropper bottles with a medium mix - for thinning paint.

 

A few slick mats for gluing on.  Like the kind stickers come on.

 

A few thick newspaper – for a drop cover to protect you r table from spills or splatters.

Plastic gloves - useful when priming.

Chip board sheets - like the back of a legal pad, or a cereal box.  Useful for crafting terrain or bits.

 

Paper towels or facial tissue - to remove paint from brush when drybrushing, and to clean up spills.

 

Possibly also get the following:

A craft knife and cutting board

Toolkit - or pencil/shoe box.  For holding your tools.  A container or spot for your paints is also handy.

Small holders for tokens/bits - the dollar store has many different types.

 

Also needs:

more brushes - larger, smaller, extras.

Small wire cutters - for cutting models, sprue, and wire for bits and pinning.

Side/flush cutters – for cutting sprue.

Dedicated water holder - for cleaning brushes.  Distinct enough to avoid drinking accidentally.

Tweezers - I don't really use them but some people really find the useful.

Clips/clothespins - for holding some pieces while the glue dries.

Toothpicks - for applying paint, glue, and for crafts in terrain.

 

Optional:

Wood rods/skewers

Silicon popit – for mixing paints

Bandages - have handy for when you cut yourself

Stir sticks, craft sticks (popsicle), wide craft sticks (tongue depressors)

Dollarama jewelry chains

Christmas hooks (instead of paperclips) - much easier to cut for use in pinning pieces together, or to replace hoses for the figures or terrain.

 

Later:

Figure holder – or blutac and cork or bottle to hold figure while painting.

Helping hands device - to hold pieces when gluing.

files - a flat, round, and half round.

Sharpener for craft knife - to extend the use of your blades.

Spare blades

Used blade holder

brush cleaner

Flashlight – for finding pieces that fall on the floor.

Nail polish remover – for fingers that get stuck by CA glue.

Cork sheets - for terrain.

Clip boards/hardboard - for bases for the terrain.

Foam core

Work tray? - to be able to move your setup easier if you don't have a dedicated spot to work.

Notebook – for marking down your paint mixes to match later.

This is only a start.  You may find other essentials as you work.  Good lighting is always helpful.

 

Starship Troopers - want more

 So lately I've come across a few Starship Troopers references in my feed.  First I saw a youtube video about making the armor from foam.  It's been one of the costumes that seemed pretty easy, except for the helmet.  But we haven't really done much in way of costuming lately.

Then I came across this video, where someone shows off their collection of figures.  Since I've been getting back into painting, it made me want to get some more figures.  I have all of the books and a bunch of the figures.  But not all of them.

It does make me want to get more figures,  While ebay is always an option, I can also get some of the non-movies metal figures direct from Rebel Minis. After my next purchases, I will probably try to get some of them.

Old Toys

 As a child of the Eighties, I lived through a golden age of toys.  With the adoption of plastics, there was very little that could not be done for toys.  Model kits were still a common thing and, even though I never managed to get into them, model trains and rockets were readily available.

 

I had a few early Lego sets, from before the minifig, and some of the early space sets.  The non-rectangular fancy elements were very few and far between back then.  We would build spaceships, and hide secret compartments inside of our builds, but Lego was fairly pricy back then and I did not amass a huge collection.

 

I had even less Playmobil.  They were even more expensive than Lego back in the day but have become much more reasonable as they haven’t increased nearly as much as other toys have. 

 

Both of these companies have embraced licensing.  I picked up some Lego Scooby Doo sets, including the big castle.  I have yet to get around to building it though as I don’t yet have a good place to display it.

For the Playmobil, I bought a bunch of the Ghostbusters figures, and the Ecto-1.  I did not buy the building as again, I don’t have proper room for it.  I picked up the Scooby Doo gang and the Mystery Machine.  They had blind bags of the ghosts/creatures and I got most of the first wave.  I even picked up the Back to the Future figures, and got the Hoverboard Chase set and the Advent calendar on sale.  I finally saved up enough to get the Delorean.  I don’t have any interest in Marty’s Pickup Truck set except it includes the Jennifer Parker figure.

The James Bond vehicle and the A-Team Van are priced much too high for me, being over $100 each.  I don’t have enough interest to justify the cost.  The same is true for the Enterprise.  While it would be neat, at over $500, the price and size are so out of scope to even consider.

 

Now I have to save up for a Detolf from IKEA to be able to display them.  I have a space between the bookcases already.

foam figure trays

With the figures finally being painted, I made some trays for the cases I had bought. I found these cases at the local surplus store, Princess Auto, and bought them on sale. The foam is from Canadian Tire, and the foam core is from the dollar store.

I cut the foam core to fit inside the cases. The foam is thick enough for three layers. I pinned the pieces together while they dried. I started with 5 trays.



The pluck foam allows me to adjust to the size of the figures. I used contact cement to fix the foam in the foam core trays and I glued ribbons from the dollar store to the trays to make it easier to lift out.



I started with one tray for each for regular figures for the Marvel Universe game, one for DC Universe/Batman Miniature game, and one for other figures. I need to pluck the foam for the other two trays for the larger figures, and make another two trays for regular sized figures. Then I need to make some trays for Blood Bowl figures.

Game Knight new location

I also popped into the new location of Game Knight, a local game store. They have a much bigger place. It looks really nice. I was looking for expansions for the Firefly board game (which they no longer had) and ended up picking up some figures while I was there.
They had a lot of the Reaper Bones figures. I picked up a dumpster, 5 western figures, and 3 other figures. The dumpster is for scenery for Batman miniatures / Universe / Last Days.

The western figures are for RWNN and Dracula’s America.

The three other figures caught my eye and looked like they would be fun to paint.

I also picked up some 30mm and 40mm bases for some proxy Universe figures. I picked up a 2” base in the hopes that it would be close to a 60mm bases but it is too small.

The Reaper figures don’t come with bases. I almost picked up 25 1” GW-type bases for $5 but decided not to.
I’ll have to go back and get them.

The big and the short of it

I have recently seen figures at both ends of the scale, one very large and one small. Each one invokes a vastly different response with me.


With the new Superman film out, they have released a 31” tall action figure of the main character. It has a whopping 7 points of articulation – legs, arms, wrists, and head. While it is certainly a Super action figure, we can’t help but wonder who the market was for this. It’s so much out of scale with other figures that who would it be able to fight? A giant pillow / rock? Another 31” Superman?

It turns out they had also released a 31” figure for the last Superman movie and even a similar sized Batman so there is always that possibility. Plus, if one is heavily in to making custom figures I suppose one could, with a lot of work, change it in to a Giant-Man, Galactus, or even a Sentinel but all would take a significant amount of modification. An 18” figure or even a 12” figure would have been better in this case.

This one is a definite miss with me. Not a hero I like, way too big, and for $40 it is way too expensive. Even if it was on a super clearance – for $10, I would have to seriously consider it before getting one. Less than that, at $5, I would probably snap up a few – even though I have no use for one, at that price I would find a use for them – even as gothic scenery.


On the smaller side, there is a set of Walking Dead Horde figures at a 2” size that is perfect for army men (or my cowboy figures). The pack is 14 figures (7 each in two colors of plastic) and priced at about $25 or less than $2 a figure. While I didn’t snap them up on Tuesday when I saw them, I’m certainly going to the next chance I get. I wanted to see if my local comic book store had them first - they don't but will see if they can get them.

One pack should be enough to convey the main horde, two would be tons if I can get them cheaper. I can always add to them with hacked up and painted regular figures as needed.

summer break - done

As expected, I didn’t really get everything accomplished on my week off.
I did clear down a bit of the ‘mess’ in the kitchen. I finally returned some empties - I had an empty twelve in the shed and another twelve in the kitchen. I went through a bunch of magazines that Shan had read the week before.

We popped into a Value Village and found a skirt and boots for Gee's costume. I need to dye the skirt but these were two of the big components that I was concerned about.

Then on the weekend, I found my square and cut a bunch of the bases for the western figures and glued the ones I was working on to the bases.

I started to assemble my Deff Dread bits. I don’t have all of the bits to complete one yet but got the torso assembled.

My son pulled out his figures and paints so I started to repaint his Space Wolves.
We even managed to finally watch 24 (2008-2009) off the tapes so now we can start watching 24 off of the DVR. We also finally watched Torchwood: Children of Earth.

I took some pictures with the camera, so will be able to update some of the pictures-to-follow labeled posts shortly.

All-in-all, I’m declaring it a productive week.

May Long Weekend

It’s the long weekend up here. So far we have some plans but not too many. We’ve already started the yardwork – including spreading two yards of dirt and three yards of gravel. We’ve cleaned and set up the pool and have started filling it. We plan to pop into Keycon on Saturday to visit the dealers’ room and touch base with some friends. Depending on weather (which is forecasting rainy right now), we’ll barbeque and maybe have a fire.

Mostly we’ll try to catch up on our TV. We are hitting the buffer on our PVR and need to clean up a bit. Luckily, a lot of the shows are finishing their season.
I’m going to make a solid effort to either base those western figures to finish them, read the codices I got recently, or do some more work on the 40K models I’ve picked up.

Ideally, it should be a relaxing, but fruitful weekend. Hope yours is equally well.

Towards basing and painting

While not actually achieving anything (no surprise) I am slowly working closer to getting some of the western figures finished. On Mar 26 I popped into Michaels and picked up some basswood for basing the figures. I already have some 1/8 but it looks too thick. I had a sheet of 1/16 but that seemed a bit too thin. They had some 3/32 which seemed like it will be just right. I picked up a sheet and picked up another sheet this week as well - both bought using my handy-dandy Michale's coupons.

I still have to check if I can fit them easily on a 1" square base, otherwise I might have to use a 1.25" square base. The plastic figures are quite light so I should be okay and not have to worry too much about them tipping over.

Once I cut out some bases I can hot glue the figures down, and finish off some of the ones I started.