The Miniature Miser: Cheap(-ish) Tools of the Trade

    Welcome to the first of Miniature Miser post here at Spellstorm Miniatures!

    I’ve started building and painting my own minis over the last year, and I’m cheap. I’d rather spend my money on the next mini then tools. If you're like me, and saving for the next mini, let me show you how to get started, or enhance your set-up on the cheap. 

    Rather than buy brushes that (I assume must be) made of gold, the fanciest pallet, and an integrated folding travel paint case, I’d like to show you how you some great cost-effective options for getting paint on minis, and still enjoy some creature comforts along the way. I’m not going to discuss the never-ending costs of paint and minis themselves in this article. Stay tuned for that article in the near future. For now, on to cheaper and better things. Also, if there is a term below you aren’t familiar with, leave a comment below. I’m planning to write-up terms and techniques at some later point.

Let's get to it! 

Brushes

    This one is a million painter’s arguments waiting to happen. Why? Because the perfect brush is all down to context and preference. That said, let me share what works for me and why. If you’re just getting into painting, this is an inexpensive way to start. Ready? Opinion or open mind in hand? Good. 

    Craft stores are the source of all things good and cheap when brushes are concerned. I recommend you pick up one set each of natural brushes and synthetic. The closest craft store near me happens is Michael’s. I paint with their house brand mixed value pack and small synthetic pack. The two will run you less than 10$ and get you a great starting set of various size and type brushes. That's less than a single named brand brush.

Why two kinds of brushes, you say?

    Natural brushes are softer and hold as much paint and water as you'll need. They're great for basing and broad strokes layer painting, with minimal brush control, and fine detail without too many trips to the palette. They hold moisture way than synthetics.

    Conversely synthetics tend are stiffer and allow for finer control but don’t absorb as much paint or water, this is good for mixing, dry brushing, and tight spots that need better control over where the paint is going if you're still feeling out how best to paint fine detail.

    Whether you grab the cheap brushes or fork over for Citadel or Winsor&Newtons, one splurge to help your brushes keep up their shape and longevity: The Master’s brush cleaner. It’s often in among the oil painting supplies, but does wonders for acrylic (it's just mentioned further down on the label than oil). Tip here: after you’ve cleaned your brush put a little more cleaner in the bristles and leave it in, (consider it a leave in conditioner for your brushes) and reshape the tip. If you are like me and beat up your brushes a bit, use this technique and they’ll be like new. Or think of it as a wash/shade for brushes: Poof like magic, just ok, is now awesome.

    These are what I use, obviously, your taste, will vary but some award-winning painters (Cough, Sam Lenz) (not me) use these for their projects.

    One thing to note, you may find the cheap glue in these brushes causes the ferrule (I totally, did not know that’s how you spell the name for this part of the brush, you learn something every day…), the metal bit that holds the bristles and the handle together, to fall off the handle, your ca glue of choice, superglue, for example, fixes it right up.

Pallet(s)

    I use and recommend two varieties here, too. 

    

    First: one more cheap-o from-your-craft-store variety, the less than 2$ US small plastic well pallets. I use these but just about anything with a small tablespoon sized divot should work. These are great for dropper bottle shades/washes/tones. They’re also convenient for those paints that don’t thin with water as well, like some brands’ metallics.

    For my daily driver pallet, I recommend a wet pallet. My brand of choice is Tupperware. I’m kidding of course. Any brand of little food container will work. 

    

    Find a size you are happy with, I use 4”x4”, but find what makes you happy. Fold one or two paper towels in half, repeatedly, until they just conform to the bottom quarter or third of the container. Then tear or cut out a sheet of parchment paper (looks like, but is not, wax paper, wax paper will not work well for this) and place it over the top of the paper towels. Slowly pour in water until the paper towels are thoroughly damp all the way up to the parchment paper. Boom. Done, and that is a dishwasher safe wet pallet that ran you all of 5$. See Dan's article for nice photos of this, he uses sponge instead of paper towels and that totally works, too.

Fancier Accessories

    While not necessary, not even a little, some items are nice to have. Here’s a few of those at reasonable prices:

Paint Stand: this fits a ton of model paints (seriously I fit 12 per row with room to spare), whether citadel pot or dropper style. This also fits craft paints, but not nearly as well, also a great way to go cheap on some aspects of the hobby, more on this in a later article.

Brush Stand: Fits brushes, paint pens, hobby knives, spreader tools, pencils, markers, etc… etc… very handy, and very affordable.

Magnifier and clips: I’ll mention this, but don’t actually recommend it. I’ve stopped using the one I bought. It seemed like a good idea, but it was slow to set-up, awkward to use for painting, and only minimally useful for assembling models.

    Why are you still here? The movie's over. Go home. No really, glad you made it this far.

    The next in the series will be on how to get minis cheap and paint options to cut those costs, too. See, ya then. I mean it this time: Why are you still here? There are minis that need attention.

--Mike