"21st Century Hobby Tools Trends?" Topic

The only one, I think, I've roundly given over to after many decades of painting is the wet palette. It is simply very good at keeping paint wet and usable until I need more.

* Contrast/Speed/Quick Paints have some appeal in the right context of heavily textured models or as a basecoat for further work.

* I'm resisting the airbrush, though I can see where it'd be handy. But the cost, the noise, the cleaning and maintenance, and the ease of swapping paint colors are minimized out of existence on YouTube. It's not just a spray you can use at your desk.

* 3D printers – I'd be in, but space and the ventilation issues cannot be accommodated at this time in my current abode.

* The one thing I think approaches fraudulence is the use of painting handles. I've seen videos reviewing them, trashing some, praising others, i.e., having strong opinions about handle features. I should say, I've seen thumbnails of such things. I started to watch, then got bored immediately and turned away.

They say it keeps your fingers from touching the models. Wash your hands first, you dolt! It's also wholly impractical for batch painting, as it takes up an enormous amount of space. Plus you still have to touch up the base again anyway. I see no benefit to this solution without a problem.

What have you given in to, and what haven't you, over the years?

My thoughts:

An airbrush is great for priming quick (once its setup) and cheaply. But the cleanup…. A can of spray paint is much simpler.

I love washes… Not mentioned.

I have multiple 3D printers and they have expanded my terrain collection by a power of N. I'll never not have one moving forward. I have them setup in my garage.

I can't imagine painting with standard acrylic paints without a wet palate.

I just use medication bottle caps + Elmer glue instead of any special handle.

The Seifried paints, which I've heard rightly describes as "highly pigmented washes." Really, we call them "speed paint" or "contrast" now, but Duke Seifried was selling half-full bottles of paint and demonstrating the technique in the 1970's. It's "new" but only in the sense of a revival--a good useful, revival, but still…

Points for 3D printing. It's reduced the cost of miniatures to borderline nothing, and ends--or should end, eventually--all those complaints about scales no longer being available. I had a particular character casting I wanted a while back, but couldn't get the Etsy dealer to make one in scale with my other figures. So I paid for the stl file--no more than $5 USD--and my son just ran off a selection. "Pick the one that matches when you get home, Dad."

Well it's not a new technique or product, but a new name. Slap chop – the cool new term for … dry brushing!

3D printing has been revolutionary and of immense impact. I can print units/armies of almost anything. My ongoing costs for doing so are vastly less than buying them from a retailer. There is a learning curve and an initial cost. But both have declined greatly since I 1st started.

Airbrushes have been around forever. I use one and have a spray booth. If you keep a bottle of cleaner and distilled water in spray format near your airbrush cleanup is quite minimal. That makes switching colors pretty simple.

Duke went around demonstrating 'Stain' painting. I used it for about 25-30 years. It is very similar.

Thanks.

John

I'm pretty frozen in my techniques: assembly line painting, figures grouped by pose; simple block painting assembly line style -- same color, same stroke and application on each figure; Minwax Polyshades urethane-stain… I would enjoy new techniques such as Speed Paints 2.0, but… I have 1,200+ painted figures, 90+% of which I painted in the same style. Any new style/approach would stand out prominently.

I want, and like, my style to span all of my figures. I only have <200 to finish painting so there is no point in changing now. Cheers!

I have given over to using painting handles exclusively. I have one original GW painting handle my kids gave me decades ago which is great for heavy models. My other handles are bobbins or pill bottles (I have way too many of them) and blue tack. When painting units I use popsicle sticks attached to handles.

Never cared about my fingers touching models but it keeps my arthritis from being an issue. A lot faster for me to use my airbrush in priming and base coating as well.

I use a wet pallet for larger projects but not for smaller ones.

I should try a wet palette one day.

3Dprinting is a revolution, but the availability of stl's remains spotty for many subjects. It's going to keep improving, of course.