LotusArenco

I’ve done it with the blunt end of a drill bit (1.5mm?) to push out the old one and a cocktail stick to push in the new one. There’s probably a ‘how-to’ online somewhere, or better still, here’s a post from on here: Mart

I’ve stripped acrylic painted plastic wargame figures many times over the years, painted with various brands of acrylics. If you can stand the smell, old fashioned neat brown Dettol works wonders (but make sure to wear gloves when handling). Past couple of years I’ve started using IPA, which if anything works even better than Dettol. (https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235039981-space-marines/&tab=comments#comment-3069470 scroll down a bit, there's an example of the effects of using IPA) Never tried it myself, but you can get ‘original formula’ Windex off of Amazon and ebay, but if it’s for the ammonia content it might be easier to go to the chemist/Robert Dyas/Homebase etc. and just buy a bottle of pure ammonia. Mart

Hold your horses there! A Teflon needle bearing will set you back £3-90 from Barwells. https://barwellbodyworks-shop.com/gb/105-patriot/657-50-046-needle-bearing.html I’ve got a Badger 200 that’s well over 20 years old, admittedly it’s a bit like ‘Trigger’s broom’, but it still serves me well. Mart

How did it work out for you, any good? I picked up the cheaper version (£10) of this yesterday. Consisting of an unbranded 555 5-12V motor, a chuck and a bracket. Screwed down to an old bit of MDF and wired up to my mini drill speed controller with banana plugs and croc clips. So far so good, I’ve turned a few bits of plastic tubing to shape for my current project, and I’ll ‘wallace and gromit’ a few add-ons so I can add a sanding disc and a cutting wheel. Not too bad for a tenner. Mart

Now up for pre-order. £75. https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Bandai-Space-Marine-2019 Mart

Apologies, I shouldn’t have used making a wash with gouache as an example. Gouache is one of the most opaque water colour type paints available and can be reworked back into a liquid form after it dries, much like kids poster paint or that nasty distemper they used to paint ceilings with. (Isn’t distemper what they used to winter camo tanks?). Artists quality gouache is highly and finely pigmented and you should be able to thin it down to shoot through an airbrush, once dry I’d imagine you’ll be able to spritz it with water to get the weathered whitewash appearance you’re after. As I said, never tried it myself, but I’m thinking that gouache will act in small scale very much like its full scale whitewash counterpart. Mart

How about something like designers gouache? Never tried it myself as a whitewash, but I do use it in my homebrew panel line washes. Mart

My go-to place for sheet styrene and other modelling bits and bobs is the 4D Model Shop, but I see that you’re across the pond so you may be better off looking for somewhere more local. Carbon fibre rod is used in scale radio control aircraft, I’m sure you’ll have somewhere supplying the RC fraternity closer to home? http://modelshop.co.uk/Shop/Strip-Shape/Circular-Rod/Carbon-fibre/Item/Carbon-fibre-rod/ITM3557 Edit: This place even has 0.28mm, so smaller sizes are available. https://www.easycomposites.co.uk/#!/cured-carbon-fibre-products/carbon-fibre-rod Mart

I usually use brass or copper rod and tubes for my in-flight models. Mainly just because I like the look of them, and as I can’t hide them or make them invisible, I just polish them up and make a feature of them. For what you’re after wouldn’t something like carbon fibre rods work? You can get it in 1 or 2mm and even down to 0.5mm. Mart

In the car park at work today. Mart

Yes. Recently I’ve only been using my airbrush to paint small wargame miniatures, and I picked up that tip from watching numerous figure painting youtube videos. They seemed to be achieving a much better result in just using the flow improver so I thought I’d give it a go. So far I’ve used it to thin Vallejo model color, model air, game color, Liquitex ink, the newer Humbrol acrylic and Games Workshop acrylics. You do still occasionally get some tip-dry, but nowhere near as much as I used to. Mart

Yep, try that if you’re not already. Vallejo has two additives to thin their acrylics for airbrushing, ‘Airbrush Thinner’ and ‘Airbrush Flow Improver’. Since moving over to using the ‘Flow Improver’ I suffer from hardly any tip block and seems to be quite an improvement over the ‘Thinner’. Mart

I’ve used Xtracrylix and Revell Aqua a fair bit in the past, not so much MM but I’ve used Aeromaster and Polly Scale which I’m told is similar. I wouldn’t go as far to say that they are of a similar formula, unless they’ve changed their formula in recent years, the Xtracrylix I have has about half the viscosity of the Revell, and when dry is nowhere near as hard wearing as the Revell. Mart

I built the Revell 1/72 Hunter as XF442 a number of years ago. I did the undersides in LAG and I hope that I did some sort of research at the time to come to that conclusion! Mart

Any use to you? https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/painting-miniatures-by-danilo-cartacci.52337/ There's a bit about painting faces in oil. Amazon have it as an e-book for a tenner. The PlanetFigure forum also has an oil painting sub forum. https://www.planetfigure.com/forums/oils.210/ https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/painting-faces-with-oils.116177/ Mart

Vallejo has 70.995 down as being RAL7016. I splodged a bit of 995 on a bit of white plasticard and compared it to a RAL colour card. The colour card comes with a glossy finish for the colours, but the Vallejo ‘German Grey’ is fairly close considering it dries with a slightly satin finish. Mart

The fine mesh/fabric ('tulle' fabric comes with a small mesh pattern) stencil is something to consider, but of course assumes that an airbrush is available. You might be able to reproduce the effect with spray cans? I did this to a 1/32 harness off a Messerschmitt, and was reasonably happy with the result. Mart

Yep (well three brushes). A much abused Badger 200G (the older version) which I’ve had for absolutely ages. I use it mainly for priming and varnish as it’s incredibly easy to strip and clean. A cheapo knock off Ebay/Amazon brush ‘Fengda BD-135’ which I bought on a whim, and turned out to be surprisingly good for general airbrushing. And an H&S Infinity for fancy fine stuff (which I really should use more often, as it really is a good all-rounder). Mart

It’s been an age since I last made a ship model. I like to display full hull on wooden bases, and to facilitate this I drill holes in the bottom of the hull before I attach the decking. I’ll epoxy a small nut to reinforce the hole, or build up the area I’m drilling into with some thick scrap plastic sheet. To aid in building I use these same holes to temporarily attach the ship to a scrap of wood a bit bigger than the model. It protects the model during building and acts as a useful way of holding the kit. Mart

Hammer Slammers! Mart

Space Marines come in various armour marks, the Primaris are the newest variant. For years* some of us nerdy type Warhammer 40,000 players have commented on the size of the Space Marine figures that Games Workshop produced. They always came up a little short compared to some of the other available alien and humanoid races. Next to a normal human figure these genetically altered 8ft tall ‘Super Soldiers’ didn’t look quite right. The newer Primaris are taller than the ‘classic’ Marines, and not all of us were too happy with Games Workshops design choice (it’s petty, I know, but the older designs are something that I’ve lived with for a long time. it’s a bit like when the new designs for the Mini or the Beetle cars came out). From a sales perspective, Games Workshop introducing a new range of Marine figures was a stroke of genius. The background story for their introduction into the 40K universe also rankled a few of us geeky old timers. The new Primaris figure range is still fairly new, give it a few years to flesh out a bit and it’ll probably grow on me. I do have some, and will paint them up eventually, but I’ll still be looking down my nose at them. As for the Bandai figure, I’m deeply impressed. The thought of Games Workshop working with Bandai is not something I ever thought I’d see. I’ll definitely be buying some of those! (even if it’s a Primaris ) Mart *since the late ‘80s in my case.

Hello Mate. Most of us are grown-ups who still play with plastic toy aeroplanes, I don’t think ‘common sense’ really comes into it! I too use bits ‘n bobs from Poundland. I picked up a few of their ‘Tommy Walsh’ superglue packs a couple of years ago, and have been using it ever since. I’ve found it just as good as any other superglue I’ve owned in the past. Their car spray I’ve found to be quite good, I used it here: LINK to undercoat some bases for wargame figures. It is, as Mike said ‘hotter’ than other primers I’ve used, so go easy and test it on a bit of spare plastic first before committing it to your model. It’s not as good as something like ‘Tamiya Surface Primer’ (which is my go-to spray can primer), but you can’t complain about the price. The best things I’ve found to buy in Poundland are the many flashing battery or solar powered LED lights they have, especially around Halloween and Christmas. They are great for pulling apart and being re-purposed for modelling use (If you’re into that sort of thing!). Mart

Nope! I’ve absolutely not seen tons of Orky stuff in this Imperial Sector recently; I believe they’re all on the planet Vigilus on a massive Speedwaaagh! Being led by Krooldakka. Neither have I spent what little modelling time I have sticking together and converting lots of the little buggers! Mart

A small quote from my grandfather’s wartime exploits! “All the crew were sorry that we had been told to remove the painting of the naked lady on the side of the Lanc., but apparently this offended the W.A.A.F’s as we taxied past Flying Control, as a bomb was shown as coming from a very strategic place!” Mart

Disengage warp drive and prepare for real space transition in…. 3 2 1… Yet again, I’ve spent very little time over the past few months actually modelling. Although, I’ve certainly not stopped buying various bits and bobs off ebay and the occasional splurge on the GW website £££. What had started as an exercise to finish off old unmade figures and vehicles has ended in adding even more stuff to an ever growing pile of shiny new GW plastic crack! ‘It’s not an addiction, I can give it up at any time!’ There were a few times when my workbench looked like an abattoir with various body parts strewn around. I bit the bullet and finally decided to go for a battle force at the time of the ‘Declates Crusade’ which involved both the Crimson Fists and the Black Templars working together in mixed squads. “Both his gauntlets were crimson; he’d served time in the Crusade Company among the best of the best, and on the knee of his armour, a Black Templar cross was proudly displayed. The Declates Crusade, when the Templars and the Fists broke ranks to fight in mixed units, was a point of great honour for both Chapters.” ‘One Hate’ by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (one of the better Games Workshop authors IMHO). The Black Templars are another one of my favourite Marine Chapters. Even amongst hate filled xenophobic genetically modified super soldiers, they take some beating. ‘No Pity, No Remorse, No Fear!’ (They even chain their weapons to their wrists!) Adding a few Templars to my force of Crimson Fists allows me to use up some of my old bits of plastic, and will add some variety to an otherwise dark blue army. The GW Templars upgrade set and some MkIII Marine armour gives a nice look of ‘Knightly Crusaders’ compared to the relatively cleaner look of the Crimson Fists. Some of the poses are a bit goofy looking, but I had fun mixing the different parts from various kits. The GW kits are fairly well designed allowing you to use components from different sets to achieve the look you want. Undercoated with my new best friend – Hycote matt (well, matt-ish) black. On the down side, by doing a ‘Declates Crusade’ force I won’t be able to mix in any of the newer larger Primaris Marines. The established GW back story time-line would have this as being the equivalent of having an F-35 JSF flying in the Battle of Britain! On the plus side, the Declates Crusade was fought against the Orks! And gives me a wonderful excuse to model some Orky goodness for the Marines to fight against. WAAARGH! I’ve got a few days off over Christmas, so I’ll continue rescuing some of my old (and new) GW paints and transferring them to dropper bottles, and hopefully actually get some proper painting done! For any 40K aficionados reading: I’m assuming that Declates occurred before the Rynn’s World incident when the Chapter was still at full strength and if/when I ever play the actual game again the Templar element of the force will just use standard Crimson Fist rules rather than Templar ones. Mart