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 Mak_the_Knife wrote:
I've always seen people use wine corks for painting models on, but mine were always prone to tipping (or feline'd) over. I was debating getting some of those like bigger, otherly shaped corks, but I had so many wine corks (I have a lot of wine drinking friends that now give me ALL their corks).

So in a moment of "Duh!" I realized I could hot-glue a square of cardboard to the bottom of the cork and BAM! No more tippy corks

Good god. Thank you

Trying to get bases for 6mm scale infantry?

Use 2p (British) coins. Suitable for almost any 6mm game system that allows round bases, and can be attracted to magnetic sheets for storage or movement trays.
Also way cheaper than plastic bases.

To keep with the glue theme the past week:

For plastic glue to ensure an eternal bond pull the two parts away about 5 seconds after first gluing them. Then put the parts back together. This will ensure the plastic from both parts truly bond and become one. The 5 seconds will have caused the two parts to melt somewhat and then bond together stronger after you reattach.

Be very careful doing this though as it can get messy with "strings" of melted plastic floating around and attaching to your model. I don't always do it if I feel the chance of a mess being too hard to stop.

bbarrington2001 wrote:
If you are like me and hate spray painting on primer try Liquitex black Gesso: http://www.liquitex.com/ColoredGesso/?terms=gesso

Don't thin it. Just paint it on THICK. Like if it was paint it would obscure all the detail. What happens is the gesso is self-leveling and will shrink down and not obscure any detail. Comes in grey and black but I've only tried the black. One bottle will last you forever.

I really like Gesso. I use it exclusively for priming now. We have seasons here, so between freezing temps, snow, rain, and humidity, it's hard to find a day to prime. Gesso lets me prime and paint indoors year-round. It's also inexpensive, and lasts forever. That checks a lot of boxes for me.

There's a fantastic article here on Dakka about Priming With Acrylic Gesso:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Priming_With_Acrylic_Gesso

Not all Gesso is created equal. Here's my experience with Artist's Loft Gesso:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/663150.page
You can't glop this brand on like you can with the Liquitex stuff. However if you thin it down with some water, and apply 2-3 coats, you can get the same result.

kb_lock wrote:

 Mak_the_Knife wrote:
I've always seen people use wine corks for painting models on, but mine were always prone to tipping (or feline'd) over. I was debating getting some of those like bigger, otherly shaped corks, but I had so many wine corks (I have a lot of wine drinking friends that now give me ALL their corks).

So in a moment of "Duh!" I realized I could hot-glue a square of cardboard to the bottom of the cork and BAM! No more tippy corks

Good god. Thank you

My suggestion:

Rather than using corks for painting, use the lids of old rattlecans. Their larger diameter helps the old hands not to cramp since you can grip it in a fist rather than just with your fingers.

I just use a bunch of postertack/Blu-tack to keep the model in place.

I tend to pin though, also, welcome back

I think it was red thirst that showed us this but... If you wanna paint gold, get a good smooth base coat of yellow first, otherwise it will never work.

A brown or tan will also work if you want a deeper gold.
I use Browns for things like gold jewellery, shields and armor.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
A brown or tan will also work if you want a deeper gold.
I use Browns for things like gold jewellery, shields and armor.

I love this method ^^ and Vallejo's Old Gold colour, it looks really nice when done

here's a probably-already-known tip but just in case:

when sanding a small part, hold your sanding stick/paper on your table and rub the part against it there, it gives you a lot more control

Pick up some low Rx reading glasses at the drug store to use while painting. 1x or below. They'll help you see what you are painting much better and not strain your eyes.

bbarrington2001 wrote:
Pick up some low Rx reading glasses at the drug store to use while painting. 1x or below. They'll help you see what you are painting much better and not strain your eyes.

Would this work ok for someone like me who already has to wear glasses?

As for my tip, it'll seem kind of obvious although I have caught myself doing it repeatedly. Switch off the ceiling fan in a room where you are painting. The motion of the air will dry the paint on your palette (and brush!) so much faster. No wonder I've struggled on some of the more fine details on my models.

My tips (for what they're worth):

1 ) Don't give up on a model.

What I mean by this is that I've previously spent an age putting the base layers on models and looked at them thinking "this is horrible" and then avoided finishing them.

When I eventually went back to them to finish them, the end result was pretty good.

If it's not going exactly how you think, don't lose heart, get it finished and you'll be surprised at what you end up with.

Worst case, there's always paint stripper!

2) don't let pictures get you down.

I painted a chaplain recently and in the flesh I though it looked awesome. I then took a close up picture and then I got to see all of the brush strokes and every little imperfection in super HD.

If it looks good in person, it looks good. Remember that!

Cheers Dakka!

My only tip:

You should get more play-time out of your models...than time spent painting them. Short of competing in painting competitions, don't spend 60 hours on a model you'll use in two games a year for two hours at a time.

TLDR: Get painted models on the table.

People play with their models?

One for today, don't paint when drunk.

Sad times.

 ZergSmasher wrote:

bbarrington2001 wrote:
Pick up some low Rx reading glasses at the drug store to use while painting. 1x or below. They'll help you see what you are painting much better and not strain your eyes.

Would this work ok for someone like me who already has to wear glasses?

As for my tip, it'll seem kind of obvious although I have caught myself doing it repeatedly. Switch off the ceiling fan in a room where you are painting. The motion of the air will dry the paint on your palette (and brush!) so much faster. No wonder I've struggled on some of the more fine details on my models.

Not sure if the reading glasses would help you or not. I'd think a higher Rx than your current glasses would have the same effect.

Good idea about the ceiling fan. It's caused me issues in the past as well.

 D4V1D0 wrote:
One for today, don't paint when drunk.

Sad times.

I think it is fine as long as you start the model drunk and make sure you are in an area where spills can be 'contained'

By cost:

green stuff > milliput fine > milliput reg > blue tac > wood filler > drywall compound > bit's of sprue.

Save your money for models and use the cheapest option that will get the job done. Mix and match by using puttys over rough sprue if you need to fill a big whole or build up a lot.

vladicov wrote:
By cost:

green stuff > milliput fine > milliput reg > blue tac > wood filler > drywall compound > bit's of sprue.

Save your money for models and use the cheapest option that will get the job done. Mix and match by using puttys over rough sprue if you need to fill a big whole or build up a lot.

Don't forget superglue, either with baking soda mixed in or not.

 D4V1D0 wrote:
One for today, don't paint when drunk.

Sad times.

the real trick is to get used to it

nah kidding

So many of my normal tips have already been covered so I suppose I'll just add that I never thin with water and the appropriate thinner makes all the difference (I use Vallejo for, well, Vallejo, GW, Reaper, Warcolours, and the like and Tamiya's thinner ONLY for Tamiya paints and I tend to add a drop or two of Golden's open thinner to most non-Tamiya acrylics as soon as I get them.)

Don't put your cup of tea next to your cup of brush water.

That's why you use vodka instead of water, saves on cups

Dont put your alcohol for stripping paint off plastic into the normal coffee mug you use for drinking tea because its handy. You will forget it dont have tea in it and take a big sip of the isopropyl and it wont taste near as good as your tea usually does.. not to mention a chaos space marine who is being turned back into a dark angel does not taste Near as good as an ice cube..

For gap filling and texturing, I use liquitex modelling paste (sometimes thinned with a wee bit of Golden's open acrylic thinner) and a dropper bottle with a fine line applicator.
I find it works much better than the liquid green stuff and it's far cheaper.

 Guildenstern wrote:

 D4V1D0 wrote:
One for today, don't paint when drunk.

Sad times.

the real trick is to get used to it

nah kidding

To paraphrase Bruce Banner in The Avengers: 'That's my secret, I'm always drunk'. j/k


My tip for today: if you are affixing your models to old paint pots or pill bottles as a "handle", I found it handy to put a few coins in the bottle to give it some weight. This prevents them from falling over (or getting knocked over) quite as often. Half a roll of pennies works for me. Sand would work too.

THIN. YOUR. PAINT. DRASTICALLY.

Experiment with viscosities, but nothing has improved my painting more than thinning my paint. The thinner I made it the better I got, exponentially.

That and a wet palette.

Invest in good storage. Be that monetarily or taking time to put things away carefully.
Don't trust fifteen hour's work to five minutes laziness.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Invest in good storage. Be that monetarily or taking time to put things away carefully.
Don't trust fifteen hour's work to five minutes laziness.

I cringe every time I see someone deploy their army out of a shoebox. It’s bad enough when it’s just unpainted plastic and resin. Things will still break. But painted stuff?

<shudder>

Not enough varnish in the world to prevent rattling around like that.

Two tips today;

Mr Color Self Leveling Thinner is the perfect thinning medium for Vallejo Liquid Gold.

Vallejo Liquid Gold is BRILLIANT for drybrushing, you just need to be somewhat fast about it as once it's dry on the brush, you need to load it up again.