Monday, February 29, 2016

Looting the Craft Store


Perhaps one of the best locations to find inexpensive, quality modeling supplies is your local craft store. These businesses carry a wide variety of products at extremely low prices. Seasonal sales and in-store coupons can often save you 50% or more! I bought my Patriot airbrush at 40% off at Michaels Craft Store. 

Here in the states there are a few different options for big-box craft stores and many independent local retailers as well. These stores are treasure troves of inexpensive, high quality modeling and terrain supplies. The following are just a few of the various supplies I spied during my last trip to the craft store.


There are a lot of great materials for creating foliage.

Florist wire is a great material to have on hand for modeling, sculpting, and terrain building.

Sand of various sizes are available for all your terrain and basing needs.

Styrofoam cutters and glue are great tools to have for terrain making.

Floral foam is easily sculptable and makes for great terrain.

With a little greenstuff stress moldes can help you adorn your vehicles and terrain.

This stencil immediately made me think Necron!

You can never get enough cogs and the scrapbook aisle has some great ones for you.

I would love to use some of these to create a clock tower for my gaming board.


A variety of stencils are available for adding detail to your terrain or models.

These textured panels for use in scrapbooking would make great textures for gothic buildings.

Microbeads are an invaluable tool for creating rivets, eyes, and pustules.

Hole punches make great rivets! At craft stores you can find hole punches in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Balsa and basswood are great materials for making terrain and plinths.

Looking for Dulcote? Look no further! Testors Dulcote is by far the best matte finish I have ever encountered. I like the rattle can but it is available elsewhere in bottles for airbrushing if you prefer. I prefer to buy out my local craft store.


Various sizes and densities of foam board are available in both the craft and framing sections.

Clippers, crimpers, benders, and tweezers galore!

Jewelry wire comes in various sizes materials and even textures. Some are perfect for power cables.

There are countless sizes and types of chains available at craft stores in the jewelry section. Real chain beats a sculpted one any day!

There are various hole punches and other tools which you may use to either emboss or punch rivets for your modeling.
Balls of various sizes can be useful for a number of applications. Ball joints, eyeballs, boils and pustules can all be created with the use of these beads.

These gears and cogs can be found in the jewelry/bead aisle and make a great addition to steamp punk, industrial, or Ork models.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Awards Showcase


I've added a new page to the blog - Awards - Here I'm keeping a collection of pictures of my models which have received awards at the various model competitions I've attended.

Take a look around your local area and see what model competitions you might be interested in entering. It's a great opportunity to meet other modelers, trade techniques, get inspired, and motivation to not only complete existing projects put start new ones. As a result of attending numerous competitions, I've been motivated to step outside my standard subjects and start a few different projects.

Friday, February 26, 2016

www.theartistorwar.com


I pleased to announce that the Artist of War has an official url www.TheArtistofWar.com. While you may still link to this blog via the blogger address this new URL is just a precursor of things to come!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The Walking Dead: All Out War Kickstarter Campaign



There are only 5 days left in The Walking Dead: All Out War Kickstarter campaign but that's plenty of time to get your feet in on the ground floor of what is bound to be a smash hit in the tabletop wargame market.

The Walking Dead: All Out War is the latest spawn of the uber popular comic book series which also gave birth to two AMC television series. The game is described on the Kickstarter page as follows:

The Walking Dead: All Out War is the survival miniatures game from Mantic Games, based on the characters from the pages of the bestselling The Walking Dead comic series from Skybound Entertainment. Your group will be pitted against other groups - in a bitter fight for supplies...but beware, the Walkers react to your every move. In this game everyone and everything is trying to kill you.

Gamers have already pledged over $ 430,000 toward this project ensuring its funding. Pledge levels start at $75 and go up. That might seem like a lot but it includes everything you and your friends need to play the game. With IA rules for the walkers you can even play alone.

Check out a great walk through from the Beasts of War:


 Head on over to Kickstarter and make your pledge today!

Monday, February 8, 2016

WIP - Catachan Ork Hunter - Update


I got a little more work done this afternoon. My Catachan Ork hunter now has hair and a couple of souvenir Ork teeth hanging from his right shoulder guard.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

White Metal Games - The Cons of ‘Pro-Painting’


Take a minute to read this great article on Bell of Lost Souls by Caleb Dillon: The Cons of 'Pro-Painting'. He really puts the world of professional miniature painting in perspective. And after you've finished reading the article stop by his webstore, White Metal Games. and take a look at his work.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Outstanding Customer Service


Recently I picked up a few pots of Citadel technical paints from Games Workshop. I purchased the paints at a store in Las Vegas while I was on vacation. Later, when I got home, I opened each of the pots to inspect the paints and found that both the Armageddon Dust and Astrogranite texture paints were dried out. 

What I was left with were a couple of pots with rubbery lumps in them.


I had heard many positive comments about Games Workshop's customer service so I thought I'd contact them and see if they would be willing to replace my paints. I sent the above photo to their customer service department and quickly received a reply asking for my name and mailing address. That same day a replacement of each paint was mailed to my home free of charge.

It isn't often that you find companies willing to stand by their product. After hearing plenty of other positive stories I can now definitively say that GW upholds its commitment to quality customer service.