Sunday Terrain Piece and Late Saturday Product Review

I have been out of town this weekend, so my Saturday product review is a day late. All the same, let's get on with it.

This week: Woodland Scenics Hot Wire Foam Cutter

I spent the better part of the day in the garage playing with one I purchased recently. I've not quite got the techniques down, but the actual product is sound.

Most of the advanced terrain-builders already know that Styrofoam is the way to go when it comes to making cheap terrain. The problem lies in cutting the stuff. Saws can sometimes be too coarse, making a huge mess and scattering little bits to the four winds. The beauty in a hot-wire cutter is that by using heat, it creates no mess. Unfortunately, the side effect of this is that noxious fumes tend to be released when cutting the most common forms of styrofoam (polyurethane sheets). Thus, all hot-wire cutting should take place in a highly ventilated area, such as directly outdoors or in an open garage. Also, as always when working with any hot instruments, burning yourself is always a hazard. Use ample caution.

I picked this up at a hobby shop for about 27 USD. It was on clearance, luckily. I imagine you can get it for more or less, depending on where you are located.

The basic usage for the cutter is simple. You attach the wire to two positionable-posts on the guide, and you can start hacking away for some rough cuts. Alternatively, you can use the posts to adjust the angle of the cut by inverting the cutter on a flat surface and feeding the piece to be cut through it like a jigsaw. There are some attachments available to purchase, such as a different bow and guide to make more accurate straight cuts. I will be needing to purchase one of these...








As for the Sunday Terrain Project, I didn't have time to actually do anything, but I dug up some articles for you to peruse through. I found these on a website I frequent, "www.TerraGenesis.co.uk".

Here is one that is similar to my foamcore ruins, but more intricate and advanced. I thought some of my readers might appreciate the link:
Foamcore Ruins

This article on making building wall molds for resin casting out of art foam (38 cents a sheet at walmart) was interesting too. I will have to try it.
Art foam wall molds from craft foam

Last but not least, I have a lot of left-over sprue. Here is an article on a very novel way to use up that sprue! I may have to do this to get rid of some of it.
Sprue Vegetation

Hope you all had a great weekend! Now back to the grind!

Saturday Product of the Day: Granny Grating

Everybody who has been making their own terrain for a while has probably come across this stuff at some point. It sells for about 2 USD for a pack of several sheets at most department stores that carry stitching/sewing supplies. It is commonly used for cross-stitching or embroidery, but we know it for a different purpose.

It makes okay fences, especially the thinner plastic varieties, but for it to hold paint it needs to be lightly sanded on both sides. What it really shines at is making floor gratings. Again, it needs to be sanded to hold paint, but the end result looks pretty good.

A less commonly known use, that I thought of today, is a screen. I never can find a sifter when I am digging up dirt from the driveway to use for basing material (who wants to buy ballast anyway?), and the wife never appreciates it when I do find one.... of hers.

The sheets are fairly large, so will cover large bowls easily. Pouring the collected sample through filters out most of the stuff that is too large for model basing, making the so-called "Granny Grating" double the bang for your buck! If you don't have at least a few sheets of this in your hobby supplies, go get some now! It's only two bucks, that's about the same price as a 20 oz. soda! This product is well worth the minimal investment.

Saturday Product of the Day: Scribus

Ever wonder how those webzines make their pdfs? I did. So, I looked into Adobe InDesign. Unfortunately, the student version of the program ran at over a hundred USD! What? How can I afford that? I needed an alternative program. FREESOURCE HO! I found Scribus on Sourceforge.net, and immediately started tinkering.

This program is great for creating professional-looking PDFs with little or no experience neccessary. The program is free for download, and has extensive support via the Scribus website. Look for it at www.Sourceforge.net.

The next post will be the result of what I have been laboring over all day! Stay tuned!

Saturday Product of the Day: The Forge (and alternative methods of building lists)

I used to use the well-known Army Builder by Lone Wolf Development, but recently I have had issue paying 40 bucks for a program they will not support as soon as the next version comes out. So, I delved into the realm of free; buildings lists in programs such as MS Excel and Word. This worked for a while, but I found it still involved a lot of page flipping. So I did an internet search and came up with a nice, free little program named "The Forge".

It is freeware made by a guy named Peter-Anthony Pappas, and you can download the program at his website: http://www.thedigitalfoundry.com/forge/ . He also offers a "Pocket Forge", which will run on most palms and pocket pcs, but this is not freeware. I believe it is shareware, and the full version can be purchased for a small fee. Go to his website to learn more about Pocket Forge, as I do not personally have any experience with it.

As for the Forge: you have to download army lists from a yahoo-based group, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/forge-files/ , which requires membership. Not a big deal, because membership to yahoo is free.

Only certain army lists are currently supported, but ambitious and intelligent fellows have the ability to create their own army lists using the built-in editor of the program. Some current Codexes that are most current include:
Space Marines 5th Ed
Orks 5th Ed
Blood Angels 5th Ed
Tau 5th Ed
Tyranids 4th Ed
Eldar 4th Ed
Dark Eldar 4th Ed
Necron 4th Ed
Daemonhunters 4th Ed
Witchhunters 4th Ed
Imperial Guard 4th Ed
Chaos Space Marines 4th Ed

In other words, for 4th edition players there is no problem at all. All the 4th edition codexes are in there, including some neat stuff like a Creature Feature from White Dwarf, as well as alternative languages in some codexes (Only German for CSM and Daemonhunters / Witchhunters, I believe.)

The program is easy to use, and has no limitations on army lists. Meaning: it will not validate your lists and tell you if it is legal. This requires you to have your codex, and know how many of what can go where, but it does do the math for you. It has some rudimentary stats for each model in an army, but it does not include stats for standard equipment they come with. When you print it, for example, it will include the stats for a Missile Launcher in a Tactical Squad, but not the Bolters. Most players have that stuff memorized anyway, and just need a program to quickly calculate point options. That is what this is perfect for, and it's FREE!

Some other small features add to the usability of the program to this end, such as a feature to add up the selected options only. This can tell you how much points you have delegated to wargear, or how many points worth of vehicles you have, for example. It also includes an integrated dice roller, but I have not found this to be as useful. I imagine it might be useful to somebody.

In short, The Forge is a free and easy way to build some army lists without having to fork out the major dough for the AB suite. Also, it keeps players honest by requiring them to have a copy of their codex, which I support fully. I highly suggest checking this program out at:

http://www.thedigitalfoundry.com/forge/

Thanks for reading!

Saturday Product of the Day: Testors Liquid Cement for Plastics

For today's product, I have for you my plastic model glue of choice: Testors Liquid Cement for Plastic Models, in the handy 1 oz. applicator.

This stuff is fantastic. For putting together plastic kits, nothing bonds better. But wait! There's more! Not only does it do a bang-up job putting together those kits, but it also does not stick your fingers together like superglue does. It also smells kind of like lemons, as opposed to burning hair like some epoxy glues.

Surely there is a downside, you say? The only downside I have encountered so far is that it does not work on metal, wood, ceramics, etc. (Duh.) It only works on plastics. Fortunately, GW is trying to make all their kits plastic eventually, so this works out for most GW products.

Aside from the glue itself, the applicator is also a wonderful product. A minuscule tube, like the needle of a large syringe without the sharp point, is perfect for precise application of the cement where you need it. No more big globs out of huge tubes!

A single thing of this stuff runs you about 7-8 USD at your local department store that sells models. The good thing is that the large 1 oz size will last you a very long time. I have about a 1/3rd of a bottle left, and I have been using this stuff for all of my plastic models since I started the hobby. That comes out to about 100+ infantry models and a couple vehicles! Definitely worth every penny.

A word of caution, however. This cement works so well, that you will not be able to break a model down into pieces later like you can do with superglue-constructed models. Whatever plastic models you put together with this will stay like they are pretty much indefinitely. You will have to cut a model to change it at all. This can be a minor annoyance if your codex changes, and you need to reflect the changes on your model for WYSIWYG purposes. Also, once you glue it, you can't remove it later if you decide you want to magnetize something. This glue is pretty much permanent.

So, in short, get this stuff for easy creation of semi-permanent plastic models. It works wonders.

Saturday's Product of the Day 1: Modge-Podge

I am starting a weekly post on Saturday where I review a product I use in my 40k endeavors. This week I am reviewing an overlooked sealing medium known as Modge-Podge: Matte Finish.

We all know that 'ardcoat from GW is too glossy. In fact, until recently, I decided to forgo applying sealant at all, due to the fact that you can't use a spray can when it is -10 degrees F outside, and you have little ones in the house. So, I began my search for a good product that could be brushed on and would have a nice matte finish. That's when I found this stuff.

About 4 bucks at my local department store, a pretty good sized jar of the stuff seemed like a good deal. When I got home and opened it, it smelled exactly like PVA glue. Naturally, I was a little peturbed that I spent money on what I perceived to already possess. I reluctantly decided to test it, to ensure that I might be able to use it.

Spot testing on my painting surface, I found that normal PVA glue, when thinned with water, still leaves a slightly glossy look similar to a Satin finish. The modge podge, in addition to thinning out more consistently, dried with a much clearer and less shiny finish, like a matte coating should. The best part: it didn't distort color at all! PVA has to be thinned considerably before it can be used as a coating, or it will leave a white residual effect. Modge Podge does not do this unless you don't thin it at all. With a little water, it becomes the perfect brush-on-application sealant!

There you go, my 1st weekly product of the day. I hope it helps!