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When ordering items for a 6mm army, make sure you're really, really, REALLY certain that everything is in a compatible scale. There's nothing worse than finding out that your infantryman makes your MBT look like a toy.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
After what happened last night, I will reiterate something I and others said before: Don't paint or model when you're drop dead tired. I was working on Cypher (for the monthly challenge) late last night, and while I was drybrushing I bobbled him. The mini struck the frame of my bed where I was sitting, then the floor. His arm and backpack came off. Luckily, he didn't have a lot of wet paint all over him and the damage will be a quick fix, but it just goes to show how being tired can lead to stupid things happening .

Same goes for ordering online. I ordered 100 square 25mm bases accidentally.

When you've invested in a set of clay shapers it may seem the conical 'bullet' shaped one is the most useful, this is not the case. Only use it for rough work, neaten up and sharpen details with the flat bladed one. The conical blade leaves small creases in the putty that create an amateurish rough finish.

Also bear in mind that miliput and and 'greenstuff' mix perfectly well (at the expense of miliput's clay-like solubility in water). It creates a solid, more heavyweight, medium useful for blocking out large pieces.

Just sit down and paint.

Thinking about getting stuff done yields a lot less finished work then actually putting a brush onto plastic. Sit at your bench, pick up a brush, open a pot, and paint. Even if it’s just a single layer, that’s progress.

There are a lot of ways to get and stay motivated. Find what works for you.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Same goes for ordering online. I ordered 100 square 25mm bases accidentally.

No, what you ordered is a 10"x10" floor tile system for your next diorama.

Here's one that is probably obvious to most of you: deal with mold lines on your models before you assemble them. It makes it so much easier. I decided to post this because I was looking at my Bloodthirster model and noticed it had a fair amount of mold lines on various parts of it . Fortunately, most of the major ones came off alright, but some of them are hard to get to with the model built.

Spray-painting a basecoat onto 6mm models? Don't use a continuous spray - use quick bursts. Continuous spray tends to cover over details, while bursts can be layered for effect to cover all parts of the model properly, while keeping the detail.

Did we run out of tips of the day? Surely the community must have more tips!

What about rivets? I know there are lots of schools of thought.
My personal favorite is using a a hole punch (1/16") to make rivets out of plasticard. Works great!

There are many other ways to make rivets too:
Cut thin plastic rod into slices to make rivets.
Camkierhi makes some fantastic rivets with a nail punch.
Apply PVA glue directly to the model (there's even a Dakka article about this I believe).
If you have a Britta water pitcher, save the filter and harvest the plastic beads from inside. (Never tried this myself).

Don't sit on your high elf spearmen. Even a few Strength 3 hits can cause a very sore bum-bum...

 thegreatchimp wrote:
Don't sit on your high elf spearmen. Even a few Strength 3 hits can cause a very sore bum-bum...

Over the years I’ve heard a few people suggest sharpening spears/swords/etc. Don’t do this. It might sound like a cool idea, but nothing but tears lie down that path.

A couple of air-brush related tips:

You know that pot of paint there, the one that's thickened up but with added thinner is perfectly good for hairy-brush painting... Don't use that for air-brushing, it'll likely have bits in it and they will clog your air-brush and mean you have to spend the next hour cleaning it out.

And
Having spent the day carefully air-brushing your model bright yellow, don't go and put a big, black fingerprint on it.
Check your fingers before picking up a model.

I find bone coloured primer to be more useful than white primer a lot of the time, especially when using washes for the bulk of the painting.

It has a warmer tone to it that takes washes and inks very well.

A zombie can look great with bone primer, red wash on the skin and some green/brown washes on the clothes. Takes hardly any time at all.

If we ever hit 365, I'm tempted to get a calendar made.

My tip for the day is not to wear cotton or cotton blend trousers if using superglue.

Superglue spill combined with cotton causes extreme heat, and can catch fire.

On the plus side my curtains were closed.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
If we ever hit 365, I'm tempted to get a calendar made.

My tip for the day is not to wear cotton or cotton blend trousers if using superglue.

Superglue spill combined with cotton causes extreme heat, and can catch fire.

On the plus side my curtains were closed.

There are a significant number of drawbacks to working without pants. Just saying...

Painting is about the only time I wear pants at home, gives me a place to wipe the water off the brush.

 Cleatus wrote:
Did we run out of tips of the day? Surely the community must have more tips!

What about rivets? I know there are lots of schools of thought.
My personal favorite is using a a hole punch (1/16" to make rivets out of plasticard. Works great!

There are many other ways to make rivets too:
Cut thin plastic rod into slices to make rivets.
Camkierhi makes some fantastic rivets with a nail punch.
Apply PVA glue directly to the model (there's even a Dakka article about this I believe).
If you have a Britta water pitcher, save the filter and harvest the plastic beads from inside. (Never tried this myself).

Wish I could find a decent inexpensive hole punch - but then I'm looking in scrapbooking supplies might be easier place to get one. Leather punch for instance - which I have not yet investigated.

"If you have a Britta water pitcher, save the filter and harvest the plastic beads from inside. (Never tried this myself). " <- actually trying this right now! One major drawback imo - getting rid of all the charcoal it's mixed in with. I may report back later how I accomplish this, if I accomplish this, if anyone's interested. Just looking at it right now I'm extremely tempted to make it one of those useless "you're not really listening to me/obeying me/or you did a bad thing (tm)" chores for one of my minions, I mean, children.

err anyway, so my tip, you know those plastic trays made for glittering, primarily in scrapbooking but other crafts as well? They're made to retrieve the remainder of the glitter you use, via a pour spout. They're crap for glittering - someone needs to tell martha stewart et al that glitter + static in a plastic container != to getting all your glitter back, or even most of it. And as for cleaning it... ugh! BUT! my point: they're great for doing bases with turf or sand or rocks or whatever. Much easier to get the majority of your stuff back. Probably because said turf,sand and rocks aren't flippin flat, like glitter.

 Dr H wrote:
A couple of air-brush related tips:

You know that pot of paint there, the one that's thickened up but with added thinner is perfectly good for hairy-brush painting... Don't use that for air-brushing, it'll likely have bits in it and they will clog your air-brush and mean you have to spend the next hour cleaning it out.

And
Having spent the day carefully air-brushing your model bright yellow, don't go and put a big, black fingerprint on it.
Check your fingers before picking up a model.

On a similiar note, vinyl gloves, available fromt he pharmacy by the 100 for very little, make air brushing, and even painting sooooo much easier. If you need to handle models that don't have fully cured paint, then they will stop the paint rubbing off (to some extent) and you can pull them off, and have clean hands after painting!

Vinyl gloves also mean you don't show up at work the next day with one blue hand

Guildenstern wrote:
"If you have a Britta water pitcher, save the filter and harvest the plastic beads from inside. (Never tried this myself). " <- actually trying this right now! One major drawback imo - getting rid of all the charcoal it's mixed in with. I may report back later how I accomplish this, if I accomplish this, if anyone's interested. Just looking at it right now I'm extremely tempted to make it one of those useless "you're not really listening to me/obeying me/or you did a bad thing (tm)" chores for one of my minions, I mean, children..

If you use an inclined plane (a tray of some kind, held at an angle) and then the beads will roll downhill, the charcoal will not (quite as well). I used a brush to push the material upwards and let the beads roll to the bottom.

There's still a few beads in the charcoal and a few bits of charcoal in the beads, but better than mixed:


Also, keep the charcoal and use it for basing.

Put your exacto/craft knife down before your scratch that itch on your forehead - very nearly just blinded myself!

 Nevelon wrote:
Over the years I’ve heard a few people suggest sharpening spears/swords/etc. Don’t do this. It might sound like a cool idea, but nothing but tears lie down that path.

Tell me about it (sigh), I still have a broken off wight's doomblade embedded in my backside. Which might be funny excpet it sets off the metal detectors in the airport. Every time.

 Dr H wrote:

Guildenstern wrote:
"If you have a Britta water pitcher, save the filter and harvest the plastic beads from inside. (Never tried this myself). " <- actually trying this right now! One major drawback imo - getting rid of all the charcoal it's mixed in with. I may report back later how I accomplish this, if I accomplish this, if anyone's interested. Just looking at it right now I'm extremely tempted to make it one of those useless "you're not really listening to me/obeying me/or you did a bad thing (tm)" chores for one of my minions, I mean, children..

If you use an inclined plane (a tray of some kind, held at an angle) and then the beads will roll downhill, the charcoal will not (quite as well). I used a brush to push the material upwards and let the beads roll to the bottom.

There's still a few beads in the charcoal and a few bits of charcoal in the beads, but better than mixed:


Also, keep the charcoal and use it for basing.

Ahhhh duh >< awesome sauce! Thanks!!

 Nevelon wrote:

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
If we ever hit 365, I'm tempted to get a calendar made.

My tip for the day is not to wear cotton or cotton blend trousers if using superglue.

Superglue spill combined with cotton causes extreme heat, and can catch fire.

On the plus side my curtains were closed.

There are a significant number of drawbacks to working without pants. Just saying...

I started working with pants, then the glue set fire to my leg.

 thegreatchimp wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Over the years I’ve heard a few people suggest sharpening spears/swords/etc. Don’t do this. It might sound like a cool idea, but nothing but tears lie down that path.

Tell me about it (sigh), I still have a broken off wight's doomblade embedded in my backside. Which might be funny excpet it sets off the metal detectors in the airport. Every time.

Once had my hand speared on an unsharpened spire from a GW ruin. Significant hand damage.

I am never going to sharpen anything

It may have been mentioned before, but write down your paint recipes! If you don't, you'll end up doing what I did earlier this week, painting 4 Marines from the samw squad in 4 different shades of green that are just close enough to look decent, and just far enough apart to bug anyone who likes things consistent (like me). And I still haven't perfected the method, so I know Number 5 is going to look different as well...

keep meaning to, keep forgeting ><

Always keep a clean brush beside you so you can quickly pick it up and clean off stray paint if you make a mistake.

Rivets - I found liquid green stuff works well for smaaaal rivets, I use a toothpick or something simmilar, just put a little dot where you need the rivet, let it dry and repeat till its high enough - then I use a brush and some water to just smoothen the gs around the rivet.
For larger rivets try mustard seeds or poppie seeds, I have not tried it as yet.

For orky rivets, I drill a small hole, glue in a rod and snip it off.

I just cut a plasticard rod into tons of little slices that I keep in a container and simply glue them on.