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Essentials for your studio/work station setup ?


irwit

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Hi all

 

I got back into the hobby last year but it was only really last weekend when it became a viable hobby with me finally getting my office finished and therefore somewhere to paint/model.

 

Between then and now I have purchased the entire set of GW paints (previous versions), an airbrush, spray booth, Vallejo air, tamiya glazes, set of GW brushes ( I think these are awful! much worse than I remember), and some Windsor newton series 7 brushes( fantastic!). I also got some models, the DV set, to start experimenting on, gain a good method of painting and long term get an army together.

 

Here what i have come up with so far.

 

 

Anyway, enough of what I have, that's boring, its what I don't have that interests me, I got the forge world tutorials books and there's load in there I'm after. Some weathering powders look good and some varnishes. I've seen the Vallejo air do varnishes, anyone rate these? I think they will be handy for washes and setting the weathering powders but are there any better alternatives? I plan on using varnishes through my airbrush as herd some horror stories about varnish cans.

 

Outside this modelling wise what do people suggest? Whats the one piece of kit you wouldn't do without?

 

Finally, storage wise, what do you guys use to store paints, brushes etc? Throwing them in a draw as I do at the moment isn't great and is tricky finding the paints each time?

 

Anyway, cheers for reading and let me know what i am missing to really help my hobby out.

 

Thanks

 

Will.

rather than the vallejo varnishes i use pledge multi surface wax (aka klear) for my gloss, and winsor & newton satin varnish.. look up klear on any aircraft modelling site and you'll quickly realise its made of pure win, and the w&n stuff was cheap for me to get in massive quantities.

 

other things that are usefull.. airbrush cleaning station, a rack for all your paints, organized bits storage, a pc/laptop for music & the b&c, a hairdryer for when you're not feeling like waiting for stuff to dry normally, glass display cabinets, a light box, lights, tripod and badass camera.. the entire vallejo model colour range and a load of pigments.

 

and finally a copy of the horus heresy and a plan of which legion to paint! :drool:

Hey dude, on the organisational side, try Miniature Scenery's Paint Accessories, it's an Aussie company that does quick assembly MDF kits for a pretty reasonable price. The standard paint rack holds 33 paints, 12 small and 4 large brushes, then there's other types of racks as well.

 

Cheers,

Jono

Throwing them in a draw as I do at the moment isn't great and is tricky finding the paints each time?
Crazy suggestion time, flip the pots so that they rest on their lids, that way you can see the colour through the bottom.

 

Be careful when opening them though. ^_^

Hey all

 

Thanks for all the advice, your right, how have I not got some music in there yet!!!

 

In terms of varnish, I have read about the Pledge multi surface but have enjoyed the Vallejo air set so much I thought maybe the varnishes would be as good? Although a bottle like that would probably last me a lifetime and no postage costs if I am getting it from the shops. Do both the Klear and WnN satin work OK with an airbrush? How much would you thin them and with what?

 

Just checked out the paint stations too from Miniatures Scenery, they look really handy but I would prefer something that could hide itself after use. Or maybe something I could hang from the wall, my desk doesn't have too much depth so I would lose a lot of my desk with something like that but thanks for the link anyway, they do some really nice stuff!

i have put both through mine neat, though the satin does require a bit more of a good clean out after use than the pledge, for paint storage i knocked up a simple thin set of shelves, takes up very little width & grants me lots of vertical storage.
i have put both through mine neat, though the satin does require a bit more of a good clean out after use than the pledge, for paint storage i knocked up a simple thin set of shelves, takes up very little width & grants me lots of vertical storage.

 

 

Thanks for the tips, do you use regular airbrush cleaner afterwards or something else?

For my paints I use expandable shelves that have three rows so my paints are all right in front of me. They can be found for under $20 at places like Walmart, target, etc.

 

Have you got a pic? Im in the UK so be nice to see what Im looking for?

ah cool, cheers for that, think it will still sit a bit wierd in current office, would prefer something I can hide a little easier.

 

Just ordered those forgeworld pigments, some more WN brushes off ebay and the Vallejo varnish set, crackle medium and retarder, brush cleaner and brush restorer. May even put some life back into the GW brushes. I chose the Vallejo varnishes purely from a ease of use point of view, those little bottles are great for using with an airbrush, and Ive been so impressed with the model air I think they should be ok.

I keep my paints in something like shown below, its tall enough for dropper bottles. I don't have a dedicated hobby area though, so this allows me to store my paints away out of site when I am not using them but there might be something better you could do if you have the space to leave this stuff out all the time. I use the dividers to organize the paints by color. Also a good light is pretty essential to me, I personally perfer architect type flourescent ones with some natural light bulbs.

 

http://craftstorageideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/artbin-satchel.jpg

 

http://www.engineersupply.com/Images/alvin-drafting-drawing-products/ES4462-Alvin-Fluorescent-Task-Lamp-md.jpg

 

As far as airbrush stuff a cleaning station is really handy as are a set of small cleaning brushes and Iwata super lube. The lube helps prevent tip dry and makes things move nicely without so much friction. You've already got a lot more stuff than me so I am not sure what else to add, but I find those few things pretty handy.

the vallejo varnishes are good, ive used them myself (i decant my klear into the old gloss bottle after it ran out) its just im a sucker for a bargain :lol:

 

i've been looking for a good strip lamp that i can fit a daylight bulb in (similar to the one gumbafish shows) my current lamp is good but i want one of those ones that stops old ladies getting eye strain whilst they knit ones and ill resign my current one to a secondary source for lighting photos.

I have a display paint rack and it took my paints and modeling stuff from overflowing shoe boxes of random whatever that I could never find to an organized setup where I can find exactly what I need when I need it. All my paints sit in nicely labeled rows two or three deep (for about half as a few colors do not get used as often and I double up those where necessary) and I keep many of my tools hanging on the spaces above with spray paints in the lower area with Dremel and a few other small tool cases as well as the Woodland Scenics Water and Water Effects. Yeah it is not exactly the nicest of solutions look wise, but it is the best for working. I have a small desk under a window set aside strictly for painting with a small shelf between them and I store my brushes in a small tin can sitting on the window ledge, safe from the cat.

For more on the modelling side of things, I recommend grabbing some Raaco organiser cabinets, I use two of the 44-drawer ones to store bitz, and one of the 18-big-drawer ones to store individual projects in when I'm not working on them. It takes fething ages to clip all your bitz off the sprue, sort them, and label the drawers, but everything is so much easier to find that it's worth it, and it reduces the storage space required immensely.

 

For more general use, if you wear glasses, a set of cheapo clip-on loupes are brilliant for detail work. If you have good enough eyesight you don't need specs, you'll have to spend a bit more on the dental loupes that are already mounted on a frame. I couldn't live without at least the 5x magnification one, I use it constantly when sculpting, painting, or doing delicate knife trimming work.

 

Another handy jeweller's tool is a coping saw, you can find them in the UK in train shops under the cheap "Modelcraft" brand, and they give a much finer cut than a razor saw. Just be bloody careful when you're cutting with them, the blades have a tendency to snap if you apply anything other than the proper back-and-forth motion, and you do NOT want to end up with a serrated bit of metal stuck in your finger.

 

I'll also echo the sentiment that daylight lamps are essential. I'd recommend getting two or three, so you can control how much light you give the model and from what directions; the ones with edge-clamps rather than bases are best, as you have more desk space free.

 

Lastly, when it comes time to replace your brushes, go for Rosemary&Co over W&N; they do pure kolinsky brushes of the same quality, but at half the price.

 

I won't presume to give you any painting tips, from the pics you linked to you're far better than me :)

Congrats on getting your very own workspace. It seems like people have covered the majority of stuff that you need. The only thing that I would add are maybe some plants to look at while you work. I have a money tree, two cactus and a young venus fly trap all sitting happily on the shelf behind my desk.

 

 

 

-Kata

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