Hobby Tools – Tiny Plastic People

28 May

My Favourite Tool: Pipe Cutter

HobbyHobby Tools

My Favourite Tool. A fly-by look at one tool in the hobby space - what it’s for and why it’s good. Pipe Cutter This time: A pipe cutter. I have two of these tools, a larger plumbing sized one and a smaller hobby version. Both are great ways to produce smooth and hassle free cuts in piping. They’re intended for metal, but they’ll also do a reasonable job on plastic. Each one is a thread which tightens to clamp the pipe against a rolling blade. Then you rotate the tool/pipe until the repeated pressure quickly cuts through the pipe wall.…

10 Sep

My Favourite Tool: White Ink

HobbyHobby Tools

My Favourite Tool A fly-by look at one tool in the hobby-space - what it’s for and why it’s good. White Ink This time: White Ink I like most inks for painting, but I love white ink. If I look at the level of all my ink-bottles, only black and white have any noticeable decrease, and the white is down by a whole lot more than the black is. What makes white ink different from white paint? It is very opaque compared to how thin the ink is, and it comes out the pot the perfect viscosity for painting with.…

17 May

My Favourite Tool: Two Water Pots

HobbyHobby Tools

A fly-by look at one tool in the hobby-space - what it’s for and why it’s good. This time: Two Water Pots Very heavily used jars Maybe this is something everyone already does, maybe it will help some people... Rather than one water pot, you have two water pots. Why do this? When you’re painting, the water serves several purposes, to keep your brush lubricated, to thin your paints, and clean old paint off your brush. Some of these really don’t go well together. So that’s it really, one pot is for cleaning the paint off the brush, the other…

06 Mar

Bitz a Wonderful Life

Hobby, TutorialsGetting Into, Hobby Tools, Why I Love

Converting, Kitbashing, and Why It Might Be For You! A quick safety note: some of the tips here involve chopping and hacking your miniatures in ways that weren’t intended by the designers. Be careful when using sharp tools! There are a raft of valid and understandable apprehensions over kitbashing; the worry of putting valuable plastic at risk, concerns of “ruining” a model, uncertainty over costs, fear of failure, and plenty more. I’d love to say that they’re all unfounded but honestly, I’ve experienced every one of them during my time in the hobby. But that needn’t stop you! So why…

18 Feb

My Favourite Tool: Proxxon Thermocut

Hobby, TutorialsHobby Tools

A fly-by look at one tool in the hobby-space - what it's for and why it’s good. This time: the Proxxon Thermocut Hot Wire Cutter Got foam that needs cutting? Want to make a large amount of terrain, very quickly? You might consider a hot wire cutter! The proxxon thermocut The elephant in the room, is this an expensive tool? Yes, it's not cheap, about as expensive as a larger Games Workshop kit, but I will tell you now, if you have anything beyond a passing interest in terrain building: you want this in your life*. With no exaggeration, you…

03 Feb

My Favourite Tool: Magnet Key

TutorialsHobby Tools

A fly-by look at one tool in the hobby-space - what it's for and why it’s good. This time: A magnet key. Never glue in a magnet the wrong way again with this one neat trick. My magnet key. Okay, it’s deceptively simple but I went a long time without having something like this. Maybe other people are missing one too. I’ve always keyed my magnets individually for the job they were doing, so my Adeptus Titanicus warlord carapace weapons are a different direction to the arms, doesn’t cause any problem. Except, I occasionally slip up - then it is…