Down and dirty hobby tips.

As geeks, we face many a problem with budgets restricting our hobby participation. This, and a wicked streak of " I can make it better" have prompted me to grow into a hardcore converter. In the time I have been a wargamer, I have learned a few tricks that make the hobby more fun, challenging, and fulfilling, even when I can't get a game in.


my first tip is to invest in tools. The obvious reason is that some jobs simply cannot be done without the right tools. Less obvious is safety, if you cut yourself using a hobby knife when you should have been using a razor saw, you are not going to have a good time. The next most important reason is quality, if you use the wrong tools, or neglect techniques because you don't have the tools, your models you just spent a great deal of money on will not turn out well, and you are not going to have a good time.

At a minimum, even if you do minimal conversions, you will need:

A pin vice, or hobby drill.

This is so that smaller parts can be reinforced with a pin, because having the arm of a model you spent the last three weeks painting fall off means you won't have a good time. This tool also allows for adding rivets to models, a technique I will discuss in a later article.

A set of clippers, preferably those that can cut flush to the parts you want to work with.

Clippers are a must have, especially if you are working with multi part plastic models. A hobby knife is less capable at the sort of cutting you will need to do, and can result in breakage and injury, meaning you won't have a good time.

A hobby knife, preferably with replaceable blades.

This is another must have, as it will be a workhorse, trimming details, cutting plasti-card ( sheet styrene) cleaning models, and other jobs.

As for other tools, a razor saw, scissors ( nail scissors and regular), files, clamps, rubber bands, pencils, rulers, protractors, and a compass that allows a hobby knife to be attached are ones I highly recommend.

If you will be doing heavy scratch building, I also recommend a cutting jig that allows you to cut at specific angles and a dremel set.

If you invest in the right tools, you will reduce wastage, improve the look of your models, and have a good time.

What a dick!

 I just heard about the terrible service at the company that makes the "avenger"

controller for the ps3. The kind of service that needs to be spoken about, and have

extremely negative consequences for the company.   We have all dealt with missed
release dates, backorders, and other delays to receiving product, but to tell a

customer who has paid upfront, not merely making a deposit to  "put on your big

boy hat" is unacceptable. it is made worse when those who prepaid are paying  

more than those who order later.  In most businesses, such a situation is quickly

remedied, since the company acknowledges that the customer is unlikely to do

return business when mistreated. 

My suggestion is that we refuse to buy another of their products, EVER.

    

Either that, or we release stanley and his 42 pounds of unadulterated hatred and nicotine...



 to read more: http://penny-arcade.com/resources/just-wow1.html

Confessions of a bad dok.

It's been a while since any of us have posted here, and apologies are in order. Unfortunately, school, work and other commitments have kept us from generating new content in a while.



That having been said, I am taking the three week break ti catch up on projects i have been working on, an as soon as i can get a hold of a camera, I will post some pics.  What I have in the works is: a talos for Entropomancer, grot tanks and a kill blasta for myself, black legion plague marines for another friend, and maye work on my own death guard including a prototype for the butcher cannon that will eventually go on a contemptor when I have the funds to purchase one (probably next August).


Here comes the hard part, while I have a good idea for how the hull of the Kill blasta will look, and where to put sponsons for stuff like big shootas and grot sponsons, I am stuck on how I should make the giga shoota look.

I like the idea of making a ton of different caliber guns sticking out of the front, but I also like the idea of two massive rotary barreled guns, like the vulkan mega bolter, but bigger, longer, and far more orky. Fir the rotary cannon style giga-shoota, I am thinking of building an " engine" for it, and mounting a grot that is pulling a pull starter, much like on a lawn mower. The base for the hull is a land raider with the engine bitz rearranged to be more orky, and the trakks from a battlewagon. For the upper hull, It will be built up with plasti-card and bitz from the battlewagon. Both concepts for the gigashoota will see the front doors from the land raider be turned into ports for the ammo hoppers, which will be similar to that from the loota kit, all kinds of bullets crammed into the hopper to mysteriously be fired, despite no links, different calibers, and some pointing in the wrong direction....

So the big question is:  Which concept is better, the array of different caliber guns, or a set of rotary barreled cannons?