Hello again all, Joe M. here. In the second part of this series I am going to talk about how to go about buying the equipment you need through getting your first models. My goal is to help keep you from making some mistakes I made when I started out.
Ok, now we start spending money, and we are going to spend some here. The trick will be figuring out how to do all of this while spending the least amount of money. I don’t know about you but I am on a tight budget and I wish I had known this before I started. So what is the first thing you should buy for your hobby? Paints? Tools? Models? Nope, the first thing you should buy is a case to carry your models in. Trust me on this, you will regret it if you do not. Games Workshop makes some nice, but expensive, cases that are perfect for 25mm base size models. Anything larger than that though and you are going to be cutting foam in the case. If you search around online you can find a number of cheaper solutions that work very well, some of which are more easily customized. For the more advanced hobbyist there are companies that you can tell them what models you have and they will make cases specifically for those models, but they are very pricey.
Next we move on to tools. This is a touchy subject with people as they tend to swear by certain brands of tools. Here is what I think you need:
- A pair of hobby clippers. These can be gotten at any craft store
- A hobby knife. This is just an exacto knife, get lots of blades.
- A set of diamond files. Your local hobby store will have these.
- A mold line remover. This is debatable but I recommend it for the beginner as it is less likely to score your model if you make a mistake. Your local GW store carries these.
Editors Note: you can also get blades for your Exacto knife that fill this role too. Typically cheaper and replaceable.
- A good set of paint brushes. Look for Kolinski Sable brushes if you can find them. They are very pricey and right now hard to get due to international tensions Embargo in place from the Fish and Wildlife people, should be lifted in a couple of months. I would recommend going online and research and talk to more experienced painters about what they use. While you will spend more on them a good set of brushes will save you money in the long run.
Editors note: I personally use Winsor and Newton Series 7 but recommend Raphael 8404 as well.
- Sandpaper, fine grain. Talk to other hobbyists about what grain to get (hopefully my editor will insert his recommendation here)(EN: 800 grit at the roughest, try to get some 1200 as well, any finer and you will likely need specialty products.) Then go to the local hardware store and get that grain.
- A desk vice with rubber for the clamp. Very important if your hands are not perfectly steady. Both can be gotten at your local hardware store. Glue the rubber to the clamp to protect your models from it.
- Plastic glue. Get yourself some good plastic glue. Any hobby store carries it.
- Super glue. Get some thick and thin. Walmart is a good place to get it cheap.
You will probably also want an airbrush and compressor. Get a gravity fed brush and a compressor with a tank if you do. The initial reason you will want this is for priming and basecoating your models. Eventually though you might want to use it for more complicated work.
Ok, now to buy some models. Don’t worry about what army you are doing yet. Go to GW and buy a $10 set of 3 space marines. These will be your test models. Next week I will talk about building them and what you will do with them.
Here is a pic of where I am at on the painting challenge. I am redoing the red lines.
Larry: A solid article, I did, as you may have noticed added notes here and there, mainly for recommendations and I’ve minor fact correction. Thank you for reading!