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Hey, I'm on a tight budget $20 a month at the most for painting and modeling my IG and i need some suggestions on how to make that money last, but i want to at least attempt to be able to place in painting and modeling competitions.

Any and all ideas welcome.

GW Washes.

Though expensive, you can throw Devlan Mud over any green paint and you've got a great looking paint-job.

i need cheap though, because i can only spare $20 US for anything related to 40k

Steal?

We can't really guide you on your purchases without knowing what you already have.

Do you have primer?
Do you have paints? if so which ones?
Do you have brushes?

That being said, you could do the following for tabletop standard paint:

Wal Mart Color Place black primer $1
GW foundations: Tallarn Flesh, your choice of green and perhaps Dheneb Stone(if they are cadians) $11.10
GW Devlan Mud Wash $3.70
GW Standard Brush $5.35

Total comes to $21.15 before tax if you have any. This would give you plenty to do for a month until you have another $20 to buy more paints to round out your guardsmen.

i have everything but washes, and modeling supplies (GS, flock, etc0)

You just need the bare necessities! You don't need magnifying glasses, special lights, or 5 brushes! I have two brushes,a size 0 and a 1/16th....both are small and I would not want to paint a tank with it...guess a 3rd brush may be useful if you have tanks to paint. I guess what would help is a list of your haves...for starters what paints do you have? You can also save money by buying things that do not say Games-workshop or GF9. A gw pin vice is 15 bucks, an off brand one I bought is stainless steel and cost me 8, came with 4 drills as well. I actually prefer Duplacolor primer over gamesworkshops, it costs less and in my opinion is just as good if not better than GW's product. Amy painter is spendy, but is a time saver. Your list of needs may vary but...

Here is my short list:
Good hobby knife/kit, exacto knifes etc. Again, non brand names are cheaper and usually just as good (sometimes better)
Small file or files..same as above.
paints (this actually can get up there...) I like vallejo paints, colors and dispensers are good.
2 or 3 brushes (really only need 1....size 0 or 1 is decent)
Primer
Matte finish. Just a good idea to help protect your painted models.
Plastiglue or super glue.
Basing of some sort (sand etc. free/cheap!)
Chunk of greenstuff for fixing /filling things.
Pin Vise/hobby drill.....since I have metal models. I use a drill the size of most paperclips (1/32nd), it is small..and you can pin with paperclips!

Primer, paint, brushes, hobby knifes and glue are on the top of my list just due to my painting process. Obviously Gotta assemble and remove lines etc. before you can paint. I usually base after the model is painted....so that for me would be a purchase later on, same with a protective matte finish. Stick with your core army colors and add paints as you see gaps to fit. I have plenty of colors I thought I would use..and well...I do not.

In place of the GW Washes, which are great, you might want to invest in a wash recipe of your own.

Les Bursley posted his wash recipe here on Dakka a while back and I finally gathered the cash for supplies from Dick Blick to make use of it.

They are a little more glossy than GW's washes, but the consistency is pretty much the same and there's a broader range of colors available. I recommend getting black, sepia, burnt umber, and payne's grey ink to start with since you can match the washes that most folks use the most - Devlan Mud, Badab Black, Ogryn Flesh Wash, and Gryphonne Sepia. The Flow Aid will last forever, but the Matte Medium gets eaten through pretty quick.

Alternately, you could look into Apple Barrel paints (craft store/Walmart) followed by a Minwax dip. It looks remarkably good and when you're doing masses of IG it will save both time and money.


Also, you can find a variety pack of brushes at the larger craft stores for about $20 that give you about 20 brushes to work with. You want the sets that come with a little apron for the brushes to sit in - the plastic bag variety pack is really not what you're after, too poor quality. I got this set last year for X-mas and have found it very useful for blocking in colors and for the larger brushes for terrain and vehicles.

You also don't need to buy GW paint.

As Gavin stated, wash recipes are fantastic and Dipping is great for painting troops en masse for a good tabletop standard.

For me:

Devlan Mud, Badab Black, Ogryn Flesh & aileen's craft glue will run you right about $20. I'm assuming you already have a hobby knife, if not, drop the badab black & ogryn flesh this month & buy a knife & a set of blades at wal mart. Then next month get another bottle of devlan mud (I go through one a month & I do space marines lol) & then Ogryn Flesh & Badab black & some tacky glue from wal-mart & a tube of sand from the dollar tree for $1 for your basing.

I only recommended GW paints as that is what most people have access to. If you can, use the Vallejo or Reaper equivalents.

As for making the washes, it isn't exactly a budget move as it has a decent up front cost, but is a long term money saver. I make them myself and love them, especially soft body black.

I don't have a set of drills and stuff for basing and conversions, which my army is heavy in. Other then that it's washes which i make myself but atm I'm completely out, but on that note I'm no where near to priming my models and if you want to see where i am on that, just look at my blog which is the link in my sig.

If you are wanting green stuff on the cheap,

http://www.back2base-ix.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=264&added=1

36" for 13 bucks is a pretty good deal considering the price for GW green stuff.

For consumable modeling supplies, (sandpaper, x-acto blades) never buy from your hobby store. Sandpaper can be bought a lot cheaper at your local Home Depot/Lowes. X-acto blades can be found cheaper at Office supply stores. Normally products with a "Hobby" name attached to them usually means jacked up prices. Although sometimes you get you pay for so buyer beware. If you have something like a Dollar store around, check out those places.

While the exact quality of them seems to get argued a lot, I've still had pretty good results using cheap, 67 cent craft paint from Hobby Lobby. I just thin mine to varying degrees depending on if I need regular paint or a wash, and there's an enormous range of colors.

Also, in general if you can find a general-purpose craft item (files, hobby knives, sculpting tools) at a craft store, remember to take coupons along when you pick it up. Hobby Lobby and Michaels both generally have a 30 to 50% coupon weekly.

Just to ask because i am planning on getting a resin casting kit which is why i am only spending $20 a month for my models. Does anyone know good sites or stores that sell resin casting kits??

Resin casting is not something that is cheap or if you do it cheaply will yield good results. I have a kit by Aluminite that has all the stuff to start casting simple things. I used it to make some custom bases I had done into enough for an army. It costs about $75 and comes with silicone mold and catalyst and 2 part resin I forget the amounts of each but it was enough to do several small molds and practiced 2 part molds with.

here is a novel idea...why not put the "instant gratification" impulse on hold for a few months and save that $20 and then buy what you want......

"the cheap is expensive...."

Ashton

I've managed to keep my costs down by only getting what I need and when I need it. I intend to buy myself a box of men? I make sure to only buy the paints, brushes etc I need.

I intend to buy more? I only buy what I need that I don't have. I'm on an even tighter budget than $20 a month, so I've had to build up what supplies I have over a long period of time, even now I don't have everything.

Another Idea is to look at job lots on ebay...they can get a bit expensive, but most of the time they are old unwanted stock that needs to be sold, so you actually get at least double what your paying for

Mind you...a four finger discount works just as well XD

Kato,

First off, why do you want to resin cast? What you are attempting to cast? How much of it do you plan on casting? Resin casting is expensive. Very, expensive. And if you don't do it right, you pay.. dearly.. The resin I use is polytek easyflow 40. It runs about $50 for one gallon. That's 1/2 gallon of part A and Part B. The silicone I use is also polytek and it runs about $70 for about one quart. Pretty expensive stuff. Resin kits are ok, if you want to TRY resin casting to see if you like it. Making your molds is an art. Chances are, you may not get it right the first time. Placement of the pour area and air vents are extremely critical when resin casting. Once you ruin your mold, that's it. The only thing you can do is recycle it and use it for filler for your next mold. To me, mold making resin kits are a waste of time. You have a limited supply which is a bad thing because if things go wrong, you're out of luck.

One alternative you can do instead of casting in resin is to use a reusable mold material and green stuff/Epoxy Clay. Reusable mold material like Instant Mold or Oyumaru is a good way to start learning the mold making process. If you mess up, just soak in hot water, and reuse. So far I haven't found any material sticking to Instant Mold yet. Not even curing resin. It doesn't need a release agent. I've casted stuff out of greenstuff/apoxie sculpt by making press molds. Press molds are a lot easier to make then a mold designed for resin since no sprues or air vents are required.

All in all, if you're only looking to cast less then 10 pieces of a bit/mini, then a reusable mold material and greenstuff/epoxy clay is the way to go. If it's more then, go with the silicone and resin.

I don't recommend resin casting for someone on a budget. There is a steep learning curve to getting molds down and casting properly, and it can be expensive. You have to weigh that against what it is you intend to cast. Often times it's cheaper just to buy whatever you intend to cast.

LazzurusMan wrote:Mind you...a four finger discount works just as well XD

Because having a few extra miniatures is so worth going to jail for.

Let's not explore that road, hmm?

second hand market. Go on kijiji or craigslist, and keep hunting. save your money up, and keep hunting. I got $600+ worth of miniatures for $60. It takes patience and a good eye, but the second hand market will reward you.

insaniak wrote:

LazzurusMan wrote:Mind you...a four finger discount works just as well XD

Because having a few extra miniatures is so worth going to jail for.

Let's not explore that road, hmm?

Was supposed to be a joke


Suppose it's too early/late for some peoples humour to be active? ^^


LazzurusMan

Spread out gathering the supplies over time then if you have to stick to a tight budget. Go from most to least important.

As for brushes just pick up some cheap ones from a local craft sure, just ensure that they are for acrylic not water colour and it'll be fine for a bit.

Back when I started the hobby I was only 15 and was on pretty much the same budget you are on now(granted that was 12 years ago when stuff was also cheaper).

For me, I picked up things as I found a need for them, instead of buying stuff that I MAY need in the future.

I didn't go out and buy my $400 worth of hobby paint all at once. I built up my collection over several years.

So really, buy only what you absolutely need for the current project(or phase of a project) and try to save money for bigger expenses like airbrushes or what not.

Well to give a clue to why I'm only spending $20 a month is the fact that I am saving for a resin kit. Right now, all i absolutely need is glue and paint.

The IG Heavy weapons kits have enough parts to make 9 Heavy weapons with no bashing but only enough troops and bases to make 3 teams. If you buy some extra bases and then you have four options: use ordinary guards on them; don't get bases and switch out the weapons as needed; make up only one guy on six bases; or just don't stick the guys down and switch them as needed.

Models are not an issue, it is paint.

Save money on models and you will have more for paint.

The answer you are looking for is get your base colors. The Base colors you use in the first step in painting. Paint to a 3 color minimum and throw on a wash of devlin mud or badab black. You won't win any comps on the cheap, but they are set up for upgrading at a later time. You want 3 good brushes don't buy cheap ones you will spend more on cheap than good and take care of them.
$20 bucks a month can get you 3 to 4 pots of paint or 1 good brush