Five Unsung Hobby Heroes

My hobby constitutes an important part of my wellness plan.  Taking a load off and hitting the bench is a time for relaxation, clearing the head, rejuvenation, and taking a breather from all those other things in this great experiment we call life.  Painting, modelling, and creative endeavour fit the bill;  Fucking around with finicky materials and the interruptions they entail, Not so much.  Here are five simple items it's awesome to have on hand when the paint must flow.

 

Ah, everything laid out for a nice relaxing paint session.  Can you identify the 5 hobby helpers?

There are plenty of helpful articles out there that are going to extol the virtues of wet palettes, airbrushes, and quality brushes. You aren't going to get any argument from me. I recommend all of them heartily but presenting an echo chamber article doesn't give the reader any value for their time and makes me sound like I'm just blowing wind for views with such a clickbait title. I do want your views, but I want your interactions and your personal hobby insights. I may say something is awesome, but that's because I think it is. This space like Void Spaces will never have any ads; Unless you went there recently and bought something from, "Ultimate Life Clinic" in the comments section. Don't do that. Hopefully the items I suggest here are something you might not have considered, and that you could easily adopt without much overhead if you thought it might work for you.

As long as the working end is clean it's all good.

Paint knives rock. When applying wet materials for basing it's hard to beat the utility and precision of one of these. Whether you are working with GW technicals, a Vallejo or AK product, or mixed up your own compound with a gel medium, paint and sand a paint knife tapers fine enough that you can lay down the groundwork cleanly around a figures feet. Works fantastic for larger terrain projects to and your can lay material down like butter on toast. Always keep your blade clean so the tool will work best for you. Don't worry about the handle so much. I don't.

Don't pick your nose with this thing it really hurts might hurt.

Paint poker? I don't have a better name for it, but it serves me well. The one downside especially in warm, dry temperatures is the dropper sealing up with dried paint. What a pain it the ass, and squeezing, "Just hard enough" rarely ends well. You could use a paperclip just fine, but having a dedicated tool means a dedicated place for it and that means you don't go digging when you could be getting things done. I make my paint poker from the end of an old brush and a good sized needle I crimped the eye end off. I bored a hole into the brush handle and sunk the not pointy end into the hole with a gob of superglue and a bit of green stuff. I have a rare earth magnet on one of my bench lamp that the needle grabs onto so it's always in hand's reach when I encounter seized droppers.

So many different versions you'd think I'd get it right.

Cork Mark 3. The final evolution? I'ved used corks as painting handles for years. Factory handles have an appeal but paying for 50 of them doesn't. I tend to have a lot of different models on the go at one time so I need a ton of handles. Sinking a rare earth magnet into the base and having a metal cover on hand gives you a place to keep you models freestanding without fear of them falling over on their own. They can also be squirreled away on a tray for storage if you favor a well organized pile of shame and spare corks can be sored on any metal surface; Upright or otherwise. The most recent cork mod wad cutting some grooves into the top side of the corks. This solids up the grip of the blue tac on the handle like a boss. Remember to work your blue tac well prior to application and refresh it if the model sits for weeks at a time. Do that and you won't be cursing my name.

I only use classy poofy paper towel.

Paper towel. Yeah but treat yourself to the good stuff. There is no reason not to have this on hand when you need a nuclear paint solution. If you spilled so much wash that you have no time for a selfie before it will flow out of your painting area onto that priceless rug you inherited from your great grandmother or the Dude you'll be wanting paper towel. On the more optimistic side blotting a brush while painting is the way. If you want to paint eyes with thinned paint you won't be wanting excess. It's a great way to refine the point of your brush without resorting to mouth pointing like old people (guilty). When you put away your brushes after rinsing them bleeding excess water out of the hairs is good for then for they go back to storage, particularly if you keep them upright like me. Lastly everyone needs a good bit of paper towel to prep a drybrush prior to dusting a model.

Visit my blog and see astounding photographs.

Having a plastic bag on hand is helpful. At it's most basic throw a piece of white board inside and you have a helpful background if you want to eyeball a colour before applying it anywhere. With lamps overhead that white surface also gives you some nice reflections and improves the ambiant light in your work area. Finally, if you ever have that wash disaster that never happened a non absorbent, flexible, and manageable surface can be picked up, curled and poured right back into the offending pot with minimal waste.

Not my other hobby.

If you got this far I hope you've found at least one item that is new to you that you might considering giving a go. If not maybe there is some suggested use that missed your attention the first time around. If you got em all and don't have any use for me at all congrats you win the prize. After the article come to my old white van and I'll give you a sticker. Have fun, play nice and stay away from creepy vans.