New video: Dave's Cool Tool #1 - Corrugated iron maker

I've been playing around this week with a new gizmo, and it gives amazing results. It's a tool for making scale corrugated iron sheets. Normally I don't like to waste money on single-use tools, but I've been spending lots of cash on corrugated styrene sheet and I realised that there had to be a better solution. Now I can make as much corrugated roofing as I want at a tiny, tiny cost.

I was starting to muck about trying to form my own scale corrugated iron using the corrugations inside cardboard... it wasn't effective.

I saw a couple of online tutorials about making your own tool. Hmmm, possibly...

Then I found this. It's from a hobby shop here in Melbourne, and they invented it themselves. For $20 it looks and performs much better than anything I could have jerry-rigged together, so I grabbed one. And I'm very, very happy with it. (You can kinda tell in the slightly overexcited video - I think I need to get out more...)

It was invented by Brunel Hobbies, and is available from their website - Brunel Hobbies.

By the way, this is in no way a paid recommendation - I have not received any commission, and I paid for my tool like a normal person. When I do find something good, I like to share it with you guys.

Plus, as an added bonus, it just looks slick.

Video is embedded below, but in case it doesn't work here is the link:
Cool Tool No1: make corrugated iron for scale models and dioramas

Cheers,

Dave

New video: Airbrushing - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Last week I had a mixed week with my airbrushing. There was some good - my new Mr Hobby PS-270 airbrush is amazing. There was some bad - I managed to snap off the thread on the tiny nozzle of my old workhorse Sparmax DH-103 airbrush. And there was some ugly - I've realised I'm really rather bad at replicating graffiti on my scale model buildings...

I find graffiti very tricky. It's probably because I never did graffiti when I was an impressionable teenager. But I find it very hard to capture that fluid, smooth motion in the strokes of the pen or airbrush. Because I'm so carefully copying something that feels a bit alien to me, I don't have a fast and easy hand, and I think it shows. Oh well, c'est la vie - as I regularly tell my daughter, we all get better with practice.

But the good news is that I did manage to remove the stuck broken-off thread from inside my airbrush. A couple of people suggested I use an Xacto blade as a sort of jerry-rigged screwdriver, jam it into the broken thread and then screw it out. Hurrah - it worked!

Video is embedded below, but in case that doesn't work here is the link:
Airbrushing scale models - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

Cheers,

Dave

New video: How to make your own fallen autumn leaves for dioramas

Sure, you could purchase commercially available fallen leaves for your diorama. They look good, and it's a little touch that adds a lot of realism to a scene. But they're really, really expensive - $10 for about 2g of leaves in my local hobby shop. Why not make your own? As long as you have a sharp scalpel and a steady hand, it's easy.

It's just turning to Autumn here in Australia, which means there are heaps of dead leaves all over the ground. Slightly annoying if you have to rake them up, but for me they are sweet, sweet free leaves that I can chop up to make little tiny leaves.

It's pretty simple, so I'll stop writing and let the video do the talking.

Video is embedded below, but in case that doesn't work here is the link:
How to make your own fallen autumn leaves for dioramas.

Cheers,

Dave

New video: Scale model detailing hint - drink more whisky!

I've been busy on my second scratch built 1:20 scale building, and yesterday I built a small lock for the door. I'm rather happy with it. While I was building it, I thought I should do a video for you guys explaining the brilliant, brilliant material that I used to make it: metal foil from the top of whisky bottles.

I absolutely love this stuff (the foil that is, not the whisky. Although I love that too...). It's really malleable, incredibly versatile, and it comes free with sweet, sweet whisky. Win/win.

As I outline in the video, there are literally millions of uses for this when detailing your scale models: seatbelts, rifle slings, brackets to mount pipes to walls, plant leaves, clothing, fabric, etc etc. The only limit is your imagination.

It holds its shape forever. It takes paint beautifully (although I'd be safe and prime it first just to be 100% sure). It's available in a range of thicknesses, from almost 1mm to 0.1mm, depending on what bottle you source it from.

Plus, did I mention you get to drink the whisky inside the bottle?

Video is embedded below, but in case that doesn't work here is the link:
Scale model detailing hint: Drink more whisky!

Cheers,

Dave