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 Dr H wrote:

I am not that creative.

Sure you are, kb_lock.

Tip for today: less of those negative waves, man.

Spoiler:

Give something new a try. Possibly on each model you build (this is what I try to do).
And don't give up if at first you don't succeed. You'll only get better by trying again.

Complicated results are often the result of layers of simple processes.
Don't look at the result and think "I can't do that".
Try it out, step by step, and you might surprise yourself.

I'm definitely giving those bricks a try one day. Good find.

Good advice, and I love that movie!

Thought today: Not getting the result you wanted straight off the bat is not truly wasted time. You've been practising, voluntarily or not. Every action you made to try doing so was improving your skill set.
That's how it works!

Miliput reacts like clay when you add water, you can really shape and smooth it out.

Also, trev snapped his tail and my 1mm drill bit in said tail. Trevor: 12, me: 0

I am changing tack to 3mm brass rod going 10mm or more as well as trying to get two rods in there.

And i was having such a good day too!

That's probably another tip, don't give up - I can assure you that considerably worse things will happen to you throughout your life compared to anything that could possibly happen at the hobby table

Dang... Which is the join that's being so awkward? His uh.. bum?
Could you put a bolt through from the outside and just hide it with GS fur? I am not very well acquainted with his rear profile, despite the amount of time he spent in my company.

Agree with persistence. It took 3 months out on my wreck and came back, never gave up entirely.

Experiment, and make notes on what you do. It takes very little time (I do bits of stuff while preparing meals) and you can surprise yourself. Right now I'm experimenting with making still water effects, with tinted polyurethane clear varnish, tinted PVA and Quickshade, in labelled pudding cups.

Also, sample cards are a great idea. A sample card of your paints saves a lot of searching for just the right shade of green or whatever. I have sample cards for paints, washes (on pine strips) and samples of bases, with instructions.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Dang... Which is the join that's being so awkward? His uh.. bum?
Could you put a bolt through from the outside and just hide it with GS fur? I am not very well acquainted with his rear profile, despite the amount of time he spent in my company.

There is a join in the middle of his tail. I've got brass rod and new bits coming now

Keep a small piece of foam near you airbrush area - stick the needles in there when storing them, helps prevent accidents that would either damage them or you!

Tip for today: Always test out your superglue if you've not used it for a few weeks.
That stuff can get funky. One brand I use skins and dries weirdly foamy if it goes off.

Always have super glue.

Experiment. Constantly

when painting white, use a few very thin coats of matt varnish after you are done with the miniature, I find it helps prevent crumbs.

 AUGmaniac wrote:
Find a way to relax before painting. Being super tense can and will affect your painting. One example is I normally go for a short bike ride before I paint.

+1, why I go out running before painting. Nice.

Often when pinning an awkward model it is easier to assemble the two pieces with superglue then just drill through both pieces.
The glue bond can then be snapped off and the pin can be inserted.
If this technique involves pinning through a visible surface of the model it is often easier to just fill that small hole.

Put up too little paint on your palette when diluting, will saye you tons of paint in the long run. Also, if you accidentally add too much water, wait a few minutes for it to disappear instead of adding more paint.

 Matthew wrote:
Put up too little paint on your palette when diluting, will saye you tons of paint in the long run.

I can trump that, put out the right amount each time and you'll be gold. Practice makes perfect but this kind of thing comes down to experience.

I am by no means a great painter, and I cannot say for certain how great my advice is. However, I would always recommend that people look up Doomthumbs. His unique ideas should serve as both an inspiration and a warning to us all.

Stare into the void too long, however...

Always keep a supply of loo roll or tissues handy for inevitable spillages or pot tipovers.

When you know there's still some glue in your polycement tub, but you squezze it and just get air, store it upside down. The remaining glue will gather at the nozzle and will be easy to squezze out. Also keep a pin or small diameter drill buit handy to quickly unblock clogged glue nozzles (which seems to by my recurring curse!)

Always keep a roll of toilet paper on hand. Cleans up spills, and can be dabbed onto a model if you've accidentally put too much paint onto an area.

And if you've really bollocked up the job, you can remove semi-dry layers of paint by putting a bit of plastic glue on your fingertip, rubbing it in until it's a little bit sticky, and then poking the paint off.

Saved my ass a few times, as I'm not a very good painter.

 thegreatchimp wrote:
When you know there's still some glue in your polycement tub, but you squezze it and just get air, store it upside down. The remaining glue will gather at the nozzle and will be easy to squezze out. Also keep a pin or small diameter drill buit handy to quickly unblock clogged glue nozzles (which seems to by my recurring curse!)

Cigarette lighters on the revel contacta (and other) glue needles (once removed) will clear up a blocked nozzle real quick. Hold in a pair of pliers, set on fire, wait for the puff of smoke. Do the other end, wait for it to cool (10s) then put it back in.

 Selym wrote:
Always keep a roll of toilet paper on hand. Cleans up spills, and can be dabbed onto a model if you've accidentally put too much paint onto an area.

TOilet paper can be a little fibrous or dusty. Generally, shred up some kitchen towels into smaller pieces and have those to hand, they don't shed as badly.
Only really relevant on bigger smooth pieces, but it's a lesson hard-learned.

Might seem kind of obvious, but paint large models (like a Soul Grinder) in sub-assemblies rather than assembling the whole thing and then painting it. What a nightmare that would have been...

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Thought today: Not getting the result you wanted straight off the bat is not truly wasted time. You've been practising, voluntarily or not. Every action you made to try doing so was improving your skill set.

Piggybacking with a slightly different spin: Mistakes aren't just mechanical practice, up until the error occurs. Yes, brush control improves by tiny increments every time you put paint to model, but learning to improve upon a sub-standard base is also invaluable. Many painters that start with set-in-stone, formulaic, "recipe" painting learn how to step outside of that narrower (not 'bad,' mind you, just comparatively narrow) mindset by trying to salvage/improve upon mediocre results. Spend enough time smoothing rough blends, tinting 'off' colors, etc. and you find yourself incorporating them into your whole painting style. Some results are better achieved by glazing over one color with another than trying to mix the two... and a fixed mistake may be the only reason you realize it.

Just because a tutorial said so, doesnt make it right (Dafuq were they using nuln to shade Ultramarines? DRAKENHOF M8?)

kb_lock wrote:

Cigarette lighters on the revel contacta (and other) glue needles (once removed) will clear up a blocked nozzle real quick. Hold in a pair of pliers, set on fire, wait for the puff of smoke. Do the other end, wait for it to cool (10s) then put it back in.

You're talking about the metal precision tubes though. I'm talking about plastic nozzles -couldn't put a lighter to them.

Thanks for the tip though, I will give that a go and so hopefully will get more than 2 days out of each glue needle

I have a bottle of the Testors "Liquid Cement for Plastic Models" - the stuff that comes in a red-labeled black plastic bottle with a plastic 'precision' applicator. The included wires help clear gooey clogs, but the main issue in the actual bottle design - even with a clear passage, it's a in' to get the glue to come out. When you finally do, it flows well... until you pause for a few seconds, then it's back to square one.

Got a bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin and haven't looked back!

Comic books can be a great source of inspiration and will give you many examples of successful color schemes.

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

I think mine, today, would be to be brave and experiment with different techniques. For example, in the last few months I've made extiensive use of enamel washes/effects, and dipping. Never done either before in 19 years of painting, but they are simple, effective, and easy.

Take your wrist watch off, turn off your phone, exclude yourself from reality and dive into the Magic of Color.