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 master of asgard wrote:
If you spend a while between sittings, always make sure to dust your models before priming and varnishing!

Heh... yes, avoiding the dust and lint in the air greatly improves the finished model, especially on those big vehicles! Every piece I work with goes in and out of a covered box of some sort as I work on it -- I leave nothing on the table between painting sessions, as all that accomplishes is a crap on the model that I have to clean off.

It has the added bonus of stuff not getting lost, too

Gotta admit I sometimes use a clean airbrush to blast anything that got fluffy sitting around. Weirdly entertaining.

If all else fails. Flat black and gunmetal!

 master of asgard wrote:
If you spend a while between sittings, always make sure to dust your models before priming and varnishing!

One of the best buys I made was a rocket dust blower for about €5, it's saved me hours (days?) of painstakingly brushing and cleaning my modelling table. Also blows away plastic shavings, etc, and is great for dusting out the inside of a PC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oQmq_c

Read the labels on your paints, especially airbrush paints.
Priming everything navy blue because it's late at night is never fun.

Wet blending will get you noticed

Spray primer, whether it's the best on the market or the worst, will do better if it's warm. Letting your spray can sit in a small bucket of hot water ("hot water from your sink" hot, not even close to boiling) for a while makes a difference.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, as someone said, your brush isn't wet enough.

Not just re-posting that, but adding to the sentiment... Paint that's too thick just looks pretty bad; paint that's too thin, well, you can paint another layer. There are some folks in the P&M blogs who do amazing work with many, many layers of paint that's practically as thin as a wash. You can get some great blends of color or other color effects that way, too.

Never cut towards yourself.

Blood for the modeling God!

Also, blue tac everything together first when you're doing a conversion.

...kungfujew? Are you related to happyjew?

I always assumed that jew-jitsu would have been better than kung fu

I'll show myself out

1, Not as far as I'm aware.

2, I like puns.

I bet it's been said, but thanks to yesterday I am reminded:

When spraying a protective layer to finish a model after 20+ hours of painstaking layering...

Check it's not a can of grey primer in your hand.

A simple one, but I discovered a very experienced modeller in my area didn't know it... When dissasembling models built with super glue, chuck them in the freezer for an hour, the super glue will become brittle, and pop apart very easily.

Paradigm wrote:A kind of obvious one, but if you don't know how to do something, research it! In this day and age the Internet is flooded with tutorials, ranging from real-tive videos to written step-by-steps and across all levels of skill and detail

Yup.

Human anatomy is not a match for non-humanoid/quadruped anatomy. Anatomy references for both (particularly the former) are plentiful online. Have a look, maybe even a printout, before you pull out the wire and putty.

Shamelessly stolen from another thread.
If you are removing paint with detoll etc and using a toothbrush, clip down the brush bristles so they dont bend in the recesses and are much firmer. Allows you to get rid of those hard to clean areas on a model.

Get one of these multi emery boards. Places like boots should have them. This cost me about c70. 6 different grades of sandpaper from little rough to finishing smooth. Absolute dream for cleaning and smoothing up a fig before basing. The gradients are even numbered for you from 1-6

Never assume you are the only modeler in your area. Those old timer Revel modelers still have a few tips to share.

Treat every coat (other than the base) as if it were a wash as far as thinning goes.

If you are one of the guys/gurls who likes to see drilled gun barrels....

Instead of drilling, think of making the hole with a super warm needle, or a fine tip soldering Iron.

If you are gonna fool with restic, get some sharp blades handy and switch out frequently. The material is so much easier to clean with a fresh blade.

Same tends to go with bones and bendy board game plastic.

For those handbrushers out there, I will say change your brush cleaning water often. Those colors that have bleed into the color water can and will taint the color your are currently applying.

For the lazy, just do it between light, dark, and especially metallic colors. It will still make your life easier.

 Ratius wrote:
Shamelessly stolen from another thread.
If you are removing paint with detoll etc and using a toothbrush, clip down the brush bristles so they dont bend in the recesses and are much firmer. Allows you to get rid of those hard to clean areas on a model.

Thanks for that tip, I've made and modified a lot of tools for scratching off paint, but never crossed my mind to clip the bristles.

Airbrush medium makes a good thinner for your acrylic paints. You can never really over thin - you just make it more transparent.


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 GrimDork wrote:
If you are gonna fool with restic, get some sharp blades handy and switch out frequently. The material is so much easier to clean with a fresh blade.

Same tends to go with bones and bendy board game plastic.

Good, old-fashioned sandpaper is also your friend when working with this stuff.

^I'll give it a shot.

If someone in your house dyes their hair, when they're done, rinse out the application bottle with the fine nozzle.
It makes an excellent bottle to put your thinners and airbrish cleaner in, with that small nozzle you can drop right into the cup with no worries. I keep my airbrush medium in one.

Use different rinse cups for metallic and non-metallic paint. If you find yourself mixing them up in between painting sessions, take a permanent marker and write METALLIC on the edge, and sides. No more sparkly Orks. Well, fewer.

When constructing and gluing clear plastic canopies, either use good pva, or specialist glue, not superglue! unless you dip them in floor polish first, which looks wicked awesome!

Swiffer sweeper sheets are great for catching mold line shavings. Just have one under your model as you file/scrape. Cleans up your work station nicely, and you can just shake it out and use it again.

mockingbirduk wrote:
I bet it's been said, but thanks to yesterday I am reminded:

When spraying a protective layer to finish a model after 20+ hours of painstaking layering...

Check it's not a can of grey primer in your hand.

Omg...I am so sorry! I nearly did a similar thing once, but not with a spray on a finished model.

My tip for the day: watch where you put an open bottle of paint, especially if your workspace is very cluttered like mine. I managed to spill half a pot of Screaming Bell all over the table by hitting the pot with my elbow once. Cleaned up without leaving a permanent spot, but what a waste of paint!

My Nuln Oil has got me about three times that way in the past month. Also just opening it gets it everywhere. Always that bottle.

If you begin to nod off while painting a model youve got hours into, put the model down, close up your paint bottles, clean your brush and go to sleep. I wasted a bottle of paint, ruined a brush and messed up a model when I dozed off a little and my brush slipped on the model. I quickly tried to set it down to clean off the mis step with the paint and knocked over the pot of paint. as I tried to grab it unsuccessfully i dropped my brush which bounced under the rolling chair I was sitting in. As I stood up toclean up the mess in my hand the chair rolled over the brush tip and ruined a newer brush. lets just say i went to bed upset, and didn't even sleep well after that .

I've gotten close with the hobby knife when I was tired too.