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I gotta say that for how sad this sounds I'm still not 100% sure what I need to get started modeling, I swear its my ADD kicking in again or maybe heresy, not quite sure though...

Anyhow I've made a list of a bunch of stuff I want to go about getting, but I'm not sure if its worth buying it all for Games Workshop as they tend to hike the price of said items up at least 30 - 50%.

Here's my list thus far, please feel free to add to it;



You'll dually note I haven't included Paint Pots on the list, as I'm planning to get those straight from GW for simplicity and continence sake, If I'm gonna pay out the aft, it might as well be for the colorful part.

So thoughts, opinnions, suggestions, words of wisdom/snarky comments, on what I should get and where?

UPDATE:

I've gotten around to buying a handful of things and so far I'm happy with all of them, though I haven't gotten to use some of them (like the glues), heres what I got at the moment, let me know of any more must have buys;



Any other suggestions?

Absolute minimum stuff you'l want is;

Sprue cutters; some precision flush cutters.. gw's ones are fine, but as you say pricy, shop around

A craft knife, with some spare blades, X-acto are fine, swann & morton are good too. These are not specific to plastics.. just craft knives in varying shapes and or stengths.

Set of good needle files; theres lots of crap ones, citadels ones are alright, many tool shops will do them ,jewelers files are about the same. Not specific to plastic or metals, just good quality files. If an abrasive can abrade metal models itle do all the others too
Nail file emery boards can do a nice job if your stuck.

Pinvice ; not essential, but really helpful, I got a citadel one as I had touble finding one locally, but theres loads online.

Super glue, poly cement, pva glue dont get any of this from GW... for some treaosn their plastic glues dont 'weld' the pieces like its supposed to. contacta, humbrol,gale force 9.. some other names to look for. I use Humbrol. Super glue, any cheap super glue is fine Liquid or gel glues... both have uses, nice applicators can be worth paying for. I like Loctite Gel control. Pva.. cheap kids craft glue for sticking basing material down.

Brushes, I dont really like citadels ones, I find they dont last long at all, that said theres worse out there.
Best would be artist quality Kollinksy sables (winsor and newton spring to mind, but theres a few brands)

palette; could be as simple as the lid from a plastic tub or a cd, or a purpose bought palette. Anything glossy and shiny would do the tick.

water cup ; I use a jar from a dorito's dip but well any cup or jar should do the job.

Supply of paper towel, multi pack of kitchen towels.

A tray, matt or work station .... citadel do the paint station.. which seems a tad pricy but also handy... merh your call.. a kitchen tray or a cheap cutting mat would do.

Tool box a cheap plastic tool box to keep your bits and bobs in.

Some more non essential, but really handy stuff is; Acrylic matt medium, acrylic flow improver and fluid retarder (all 3 from an art supply store, liquitex make some nice ones)

Brush soap for maintaining expensive brushes (from art supply store) ; more important for natrual hair type brushes than synthetics... synthetics will split and fray no matter how much care is taken of them in my experience.

Paint, I like Citadel ones, but vallejo also look decent and would be my next choice if there wasnt a local GW store to buy citadels from at my convinience.

Army painter do toolage too, maybe a tad cheaper than GW, but still marked up for being hobbyist tools. If you cna find them from a tool shop, they will probably be cheaper.

What to buy from Citadel: paints and models

what to buy elsewhere: everything else. BSI makes great glue, as does Loctite. Cutting mats are better deals when not stamped with Citadel. Buy brushes from art stores at a better price et cetera...

GW's modelling tools are just rebadged items from other manufacturers. There's nothing particularly wrong with them, and getting them from GW can be convenient, but you may be able to get cheaper prices elsewhere.

Rather than one file, get several, including some 'jewellers' type files (just a few mm thick) in various shapes (triangular, round, curved etc) - this makes a huger difference when cleaning up models.

If you're planning on doing conversions, a razor saw is strongly recommended. And get some tiny drill bits and a thumb vice to hold them - great for drilling out gun barrels etc and also pinning.

As I do for most "Big Chain" companies I suspected that GW supplies tended to re-branded, overpriced, and under quality, or any combination of the forth said.

Not to be a PITA, but is there a good one stop shop, online or IRL that I could find most of the stuff you guys listed? Or is it better to buy these things piecemeal? I think I'm looking at atleast 300 dollars for everything I need to get started, tis the heresy of this hobby I suppose...

Also HairySticks (hur hur hur ), you say that GW glues don't "weld" the pieces togeather, what do you mean by that? They don't leave seems? And if they do make them one piece how could I "un-weld" them if I decided to change weapons or convert them?

Well the plastic glue is supposed to melt the two plastic surfaces together, permanently. Its just a solvent that 'welds' them together. The GW stuff doesnt seem to do this, or atleast not in my experience, and I mayaswell have used superglue as the bond from superglue is stronger, and can also be easily snapped apart.
Plastic glue isnt even necessary, many modelers wont use it, knowing that with superglue they can choose to break it back down and strip the paint off, starting the project again at a later date. You can get by just fine with superglue alone, using pins in anything that superglue struggles to hold up. (thats where a pinvice becomes required)

You're budget of $300 ( whats that ? roughly £150?)
Sounds reasonable as an innitial investment. Its nice to see that your under no delusions about being able to do this hobby on a shoestring budget. That said, its totally understandable (and advisable) to shop elsewhere from Games Workshop for everything except the models themselves (even they can be bought for upto 20% discount elsewhere fairly often from 3rd party retailers), paints if you want to use them, and the rules books. All their flocks, tools, glues, spray paints, the airbrush thingy etc are all overpriced, most of its is good quality kit (except the flamer style airbrush thing... which is more of a kids toy than a paint application device; better airbrushes are available anywhere else that sells them!) and as such its not the end of the world if you cant find any alternatives for odd bits of kit to buy them form GW, just use them as the last resort knowing theres a better deal somewhere else.

I don't know of a one stop shop for you in america... Seems like something the natives might help you with ebay has a lot to offer (lots of trash stuff too tho), model train specialists and the likes will probably have lots of tools for you (and scratch building materials), I hear Hobby Lobby and Michaels being suggested often as places to get hobby bits from, but i've never been to usa, never seen one of these shops or their stock theres always talk of a printable 50% off coupon for those places when people are airbrush shopping (50% off a $100+ pro level airbrush would never go amiss hehe)


you mentioned need of tools for metal models, GW have been phasing out metal for quite some time, theres hardly anything left of the once glorious metal range of theirs. Its been replaced bit by bit (ongoing) with finecast stuff... which is controversial in its own right hehe im sure you can dig up some of the finecast hate threads, I've only got one model made in it, Belial Deathwing Company Master, I've not painted him up yet, he wasn't miscast or anything, but his sword is rather wavy lol!Word on the street is that hot water and a bit of counter bending will sort it out and that bent/warped parts are 'normal' :/ ... enough said on that matter. Did'nt impress me, and I've not got naother finecast yet. But you may not actually ned tooling for metal figures... depending on what you plan to be collecting. (Ofcourse other manufacturers make lovely metal mini's and you may well purchase one or more of those)

Avoid GW hobby supplies like the plague.

You don't need an entire array of paintbrushes if you buy nice ones. I have three main brushes (Raphael 8404, sizes 2/0, 0, and 1) that I do all acrylic work with. I bought a cheapie set of various sizes from Micheal's for a few dollars to do everything else with (mainly alcohol-based paints and oils). The trick is you have to take care of them with brush soap/conditioner. I've been using my current Raphael brushes for over a year and the tip is still near perfect.

For plastics, all you need is a decent plastic cement. I use Testor's Model Master cement because it is easy to acquire (my FLGS sells it) and it works extraordinarily well. I am not a fan of using super glue on plastic because of the brittleness of the bond and I don't agree with the reasoning of the "tearing models apart to change them later" argument, that is why we magnetize models.

Gale Force 9 makes a decent set of files; a set of 12 (different shapes and sizes) for about $13. Army Painter's sprue cutters are pretty cheap too, they're about half the price of GW's. As others have said, a pin vise is wonderful tool. Plenty of people out there make them, find a nice cheap one and buy it. I would also recommend a nice pair of tweezers, they'll come in handy.

As far as buying online; avoid it when ever possible. I don't know where you live, but always, always buy locally and independent whenever you can. These are the types of places run by the types of people that keep this hobby alive. The guy who runs my local store (Huzzah Hobbies) also happens to live around the corner from me, so I know he isn't just some faceless corporation. If you can, try to find a store like that to patronize. I'm not saying to not buy online (my local shop doesn't carry everything out there), just to use it as a last resort.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

As far as buying online; avoid it when ever possible. I don't know where you live, but always, always buy locally and independent whenever you can. These are the types of places run by the types of people that keep this hobby alive. The guy who runs my local store (Huzzah Hobbies) also happens to live around the corner from me, so I know he isn't just some faceless corporation. If you can, try to find a store like that to patronize. I'm not saying to not buy online (my local shop doesn't carry everything out there), just to use it as a last resort.

While supporting small local business is worthwhile the internet is made up of thousands of those exact kinds of business aswell as the big faceless corporations. If the internet will give you a better deal, delivered to your door than a local merchant can give you when you have to fetch it for yourself.... well no brainer! Value for money speaks for itself, don't feel obliged to 'help out' a shop that can't offer the best deal even if your best friend runs it! Exceptions perhaps being the flgs that you might go to and play on their tables everyweek, those stores are almost always borderline viable on the financial side of things, and in order to maintain the gaming zone they may have to gouge a bit if sales are low...its something a lot of gamers have to deal with...its kind of rude to use their gaming space and never give them anything back after purchasing stuff from their competition exclusively hehe, still dont let a shop extort you for any reason.
Sadly for the shop owner, many of the internet sites are dealing with a much larger customer base, and can offer a lower price point because of volume of sales, its just the way it is, I suggest those shop owners look into joining in with the rest of the world
I would say buy from the local store charging more if you need it right now, if you could stand to wait a few days for delivery then no logical reason to spend more than you need.

HairySticks wrote:

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

As far as buying online; avoid it when ever possible. I don't know where you live, but always, always buy locally and independent whenever you can. These are the types of places run by the types of people that keep this hobby alive. The guy who runs my local store (Huzzah Hobbies) also happens to live around the corner from me, so I know he isn't just some faceless corporation. If you can, try to find a store like that to patronize. I'm not saying to not buy online (my local shop doesn't carry everything out there), just to use it as a last resort.

While supporting small local business is worthwhile the internet is made up of thousands of those exact kinds of business aswell as the big faceless corporations. If the internet will give you a better deal, delivered to your door than a local merchant can give you when you have to fetch it for yourself.... well no brainer! Value for money speaks for itself, don't feel obliged to 'help out' a shop that can't offer the best deal even if your best friend runs it! Exceptions perhaps being the flgs that you might go to and play on their tables everyweek, those stores are almost always borderline viable on the financial side of things, and in order to maintain the gaming zone they may have to gouge a bit if sales are low...its something a lot of gamers have to deal with...its kind of rude to use their gaming space and never give them anything back after purchasing stuff from their competition exclusively hehe, still dont let a shop extort you for any reason.
Sadly for the shop owner, many of the internet sites are dealing with a much larger customer base, and can offer a lower price point because of volume of sales, its just the way it is, I suggest those shop owners look into joining in with the rest of the world
I would say buy from the local store charging more if you need it right now, if you could stand to wait a few days for delivery then no logical reason to spend more than you need.

It's not feeling "obliged to help out" local stores, it is supporting the people that made (and continue to make) this hobby what it is today. Brick & mortar shops with gaming areas are what helps our hobby flourish; without them, we would just be a bunch of nerds sitting at home arguing over the internet. Almost everyone likes saving money, but keeping locally earned money in local hands that will, in turn, use that money to host tournaments, hold painting contests, invest in new games for people to play is what is best for everyone. I'm not anti-online shopping at all, but I disagree that steering up-and-coming the hobbyists to scour the internet for the best deals on everything is the best course of action.

For instance, my shops sells GW kits for 10% off. Yes, I could go through the hassle of finding an online shop that gives 20%, but what are the odds that the guy offering those deals is on the other side of the country (or world!)? I don't mind coughing up a few extra dollars knowing my money is helping the local wargamming community. And realistically, if a shops is truly "gouging" their customers, there is a pretty good chance they won't be in business long.

Sorry for the soap box.

Dont buy any GW tools or supplies, head down to Hobby Lobby or Michaels or whatever you have locally. Except paints I dont use any GW supplies and for terrain, again usee the stuff found at hobby stores it is way cheaper and perfectly suitable for terrain.

If you plan on doing any green stuff work I can definately recommend some "colour shapers". They are rubber tipped tools that look a bit like paint brushes, but don't stick to gs.

Plenty of good advice, so far, but I'll add a few specific points:

Brushes - I have tons of different shapes and sizes, but like ScootyPuffJunior, end up doing the vast majority of my work with two or three of them. Better to get a few quality brushes (and learn to take care of them! Look up The Master's brush soap - it's like magic, for this purpose) that you'll actually use. Aside from your go-to watercolor rounds (Kolinsky sable being the gold standard), you may want a stiffer flat or filbert for drybrushing, as well as a synthetic or two if you'll be working with harsher solvents or want a "beater" brush for spreading glue, filler, etc.

Plastic cutters/clippers - Reasonably nice to have, if you get a decent pair, but far from a necessity. A bit of care is required to actually get clean, flush cuts with them (contrary to advertisements and a surprising amount of internet scuttlebutt), as many sprues have attachment points so thick that the angle of the inner face of the jaws forces the waste away, resulting in tear-outs and distortion at the center of the cut. Best practice is to clip away from the part and clean up with a knife/abrasives (or even a second go with the clippers, as the waste now has somewhere to go) afterward.

Painting accessories - Nothing special about a water cup. Most people seem perfectly happy with disposable plastic (Solo cups and the like). The real item you want to focus on in this category is a palette. Anything non-absorbent, from plastic to metal to ceramic, will work, but I highly recommend whipping yourself up a wet palette, at some point. Plenty of success stories and DIY plans (so simple that I hesitate to even call them that) floating around, so I won't go into detail, here.

Files - A manicure emery board is quite handy, especially the multi-grit, foam-backed ones, but you're going to want some good files. Much like brushes, it's handy to have a variety for those rare tasks that demand it, but you'll likely find yourself reaching for the same few, over and over again, so don't think that you need a huge set to get the job done. Diamond grit needle files are pretty widely available, nowadays, but most of them are a bit coarse for my taste, leaving a rough, directionally scratched finish. They do, however, cut in any direction and without damaging the tool, which works out nicely for hobbyists unfamiliar (or just uncaring) about tools, who prefer to just scrub away at a mold line. I'm a big proponent of single-cut metal files, both for the rate at which they're capable of removing stock and the fine finish they leave (near mirror finish on metal, with decent files and proper technique). Some of mine are older than I am (decades old legacies of my dad's model shipbuilding and a good lesson in proper care and feeding of quality tools being the best practice), but I recently picked up a set from Harbor Freight that pretty much floored me. The cut of the teeth isn't perfect - there are occasional shallow or bare spots - and many are double-cut, but after using them I'd easily have paid five times the $4 price tag. They aren't as tiny as some of the specialty modelling sets available, but I'd heartily recommend them as a starting point.

Saw - It's well worth getting yourself a razor saw, even if you work exclusively in plastic. Nothing will give you faster, cleaner, and straighter (why, along with the fragility of the blades, I wouldn't recommend a jeweler's saw to a beginner) cuts through limbs for conversions, thick sprue, or heavier scratchbuilding materials. Good for use on metal and resin, too, which can dull knife/clipper blades and chip, respectively. Razor saw blades are frequently separable from the handles, which can also hold heavy-duty knife blades and gouges (both the X-Acto and Revell models are like this).

Pin vice - Not on your initial list, but an indispensable hobby tool, as others have mentioned. Along with some fine bits, it's great for drilling out gun barrels and vents, as well as for adding holes for pins or magnets during construction. If you add pins for assembly, you can also chuck those up and it can also serve as a handle for parts during painting. I highly recommend going for a single-ended model with a swivel back, for increased comfort, control, and potential pressure while drilling (double-ended jobs force your fingertips to do all the work). Interchangeable collets are also a must, if you plan to use more than a very narrow selection of bits.

Glue - I use both superglue and plastic cement (the solvent-welding type) regularly, as well as PVA for terrain and basing. Exactly which I use at any given point depends both on the task and the material(s) being joined, but I consider all three types well worth having on hand. Also, glue is the one case where I would say DO NOT, under any circumstances, buy from GW. Most of their hobby products are at least decent, if overpriced. I've heard nothing but complaints, however, about their glues.

Putty/sculpting tools - Not exactly beginner stuff, but since it's been mentioned... Kneadatite (a.k.a. greenstuff/GS), Milliput, and other epoxy putties are great for cleaning up joins and rough spots, filling gaps, and assorted sculpting/conversion work. They all have slightly different working and cured properties, so some hobbyists have favorites, change putties or different tasks, or even intermix them to tweak the behavior. For working them, much can be done with makeshift tools - bits of bent and polished wire, wet toothpicks and popsicle sticks, etc. - but a proper set of sculpting tools comes in handy. Squadron's set is popular for polished stainless tools, but I've recently discovered the joys of the color/clay shapers that Flinty mentions. I find the extra firm size 0 set to be quite nice to work with. While I still use the metal tools for some tasks, I find that I end up using a knife blade more often than them, with the color shapers doing the bulk of the work.

Absolutely none of it should be purchased at GW.
I like The War Store; they have a good selection of tools at reasonable prices.
I would add a small hand drill to the list of essential tools. I've also found an inexpensive boxcutter a stronger and safer tool than xacto blades.
I use loctite superglue; it's not only the strongest bond I've found but one of the most inexpensive glues as well. I use Tacky Glue (gold bottle in the walmart craft section) for basing and some scratch building work.

I even buy my paint at Walmart and get excellent results with .99 cent matte primer and apple barrel acrylics. (Though I will admit GW paints are smooth and cover well, particularly the difficult colors like red. However I've been painting long enough that I know how to layer; it's just not worth the whopping price difference to me.)

I've even found a bag of those cheap walmart fake sable art brushes (Chinese Kolinskis no doubt) to be surprisingly good when you maintain them with brush soap. (Though that's cutting it a little too cheap. You'll want to hit up a real art store like Michaels or AC Moore for at least a detail brush or two.)

This is quite a lot of information to take in, but I grateful for the flood of information, I prefer lots of it to only a few sketchy bits of it!

I can tell from everyone's reviews that of all things brushes are what I shouldn't skimp out on, though I'm no da Vinci I'm planning to the best damn paint jobs I can on them, they are a representation of me after all!

Also believe me I'm all for supporting local, often even family owned shops, I feel more then anyone that corporate America and big business are killing local traders and forcing them to hike up their prices just to get by, its a sad, growing nature of our modern world.

Getting to said local stores is currently the problem, that being said though I am an adult at 24 years old (even if I remain a child at heart on the inside ) I don't drive or own a car, the reasons for this being rather personal, as are my reasons for not being able to get a ride to my FLGS at the moment.

The internet really is one of thee greatest resources for just about anything these days, but I as dying generation appreciate holding something in my hand physically, which is why TCG and hobbies like this appeal to me.

Sure you can, flood fill something and have it shipped to you, and say you "painted it yourself" but there's really nothing quite like painting something by hand and even years later being able to remember all the cleverness and hiccups you had painting it, and to that extent how much better you (probably) are now!

Sounds like our on the right track to be honest. As far as painting goes, do your best, dont be disheartneed tat your not the master that you want to be just yet. Do a model at a time, each one trying to improve on the last.Its a rewarding process to see the scale of improvements and when you feel your at a good level (who knows some are natruals at this! lol! ) you can strip the paint from the ones you learned on and repaint, or store them to cherish the process forever .. whatever takes your fancy dont be afraid to experiment with paint as theres a lot of ways to remove it if you change your mind, and you learn in the process.

The modeling side of things can take practise, again some are natruals... it can get a bit engineeriing-ish on the complex kits to get a pro result. and its part of the fun (fr me atleast) if thats daunting, start on the simpler stuff and work up although I believe theres no gw kits as complex as some of the airfix or other scale modeler projects that are around. Boat building looked a tricky one.

edit; damned spellings :( whiskey and typing dont mix well ... also ive realised theres this article packed with info on tools and usefull stuff to go intot he tool box, and what you might or might not want things for; http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/The_Toolbox%21

Updated with a list of things I brought, looking for some feed back on if I made good buys or not...