This brush was washed in my water cup but it's not as clean as it appeared. Speedball Pink Soap is fantastic for getting that hard to see paint out of your brush, extending the life of your brush, and keeping that tip sharp! I think a quick wash in Pink Soap is a must after every time I paint. Even cheapo brushes will last longer and hold their shape. For the price of the soap, I probably save 10 to 20 times the cost in brush replacement. #miniaturepainting #hobbyreview #speedballart #speedball #painting

This is why: BardicBroadcasts! I know this has been viewed more than a million times already, and I may be a little late to the party, but I love everything on the BardicBroadcast YouTube channel. The Bard himself and I have a number of things in common, including a love of Dwarfs, keeping a book of grudges, wrestling, and a love/hate (really just love) relationship of Games Workshop products. While I'm not as big a fan of video games as the Bard, but I appreciate his artistic eye that he demonstrates during his cracking boxing/unboxing and review videos. I would hazard a guess that he has some artistic training on his character sheet as he shows us the keen eye of an art director with his spot-on commentary. He admits when he likes something that hearkens to a fond memory or a predilection for a certain genre of game, but he's also self-aware and warns the viewer of those prejudices. However, he also freely admits when his expectations have been challenged and his mind...

As I've mentioned before, I'm not just a mini wargamer, but I'm an avid comic book fan as well. While I don't write a comic book blog, it feels like I should write a post on miniature-based comic books when I find them. However, I want to stress that I am not just a comic book fan. I'm a comic book fanatic. I've made comic books. I've written comic books. I co-own a comic book store. My 5,000+ book collection takes up a second bedroom in my home. I proposed to wife in a comic book. I'm friends with other comic creators. What I'm trying to say here is that I know comics inside and out and I can be quite a comic book snob.  This is my grain-of-salt warning. London based Titan Comics has been publishing comic books based on licensed properties like television shows (Doctor Who,) video games (Assassin's Creed,) and other comic properties (2000AD) for almost 40 years. In October, they released the first issue of "Warhammer 40,000...

Citadel Hobby Clippers If you're a hobby addict like I am, or if you have army ADHD like I do, you tend to spend a lot of time chopping, clipping, or gnawing bits of toy soldiers off of grey plastic sprues. When I first started playing miniature games, most models came in blister packs and you needed needle-nose pliers to bend foot tabs so they would stay in slotta bases. Sure, plastic models were available but if you bought them, you probably cut them off the sprues with an X-Acto knife. About the mid-90s I picked up my first pair of Citadel clippers and they have been faithfully freeing models from their plastic prisons for many years but they have become so dull that I was no longer getting clean cuts. So, I decided to splurge and buy a new pair of Citadel Fine Detail Clippers - which retail for $33 USD. Holly surgical chainsaw, Batman! Do you remember that first time you held an X-Acto knife in your hands? Do you remember feeling like you could cut through a car door b...

Somehow, I managed to lose my round, needle file. It was my favorite file and I used it on just about every model I own to clean away flash and sand down mold lines. The sharp tip and round body could reach any nook and cranny on a model and it worked great on plastic, metal, and resin. It could fix anything and I really miss it. To replace it, I purchased a three-pack of angled files from Army Painter. The store didn't have any needle files on hand, but I thought I might give these a try. As you can see in the photo, the files are "L" shaped and I've never used a file like this before. There was a "flat" two sided file, a sharp wedge-shaped file, and a wide-angled file. On the same shopping trip, I also picked up a blister pack of metal British Combat Engineers and Flame Thrower from Bolt Action and thought they would make a good test subjects for my new files. After fumbling around quite a bit trying to figure out how to hold these correctly, I hav...