Weird things bought for the hobby of wargaming hobby

[cbr3d.com]

When I was out shopping on Saturday I went into one of the local charity shops and picked up a rotating CD cabinet at a very reasonable price of just £10. 

The cabinet holds 40 CD's in each of its four sides, so 160 in total.  Looking at the cabinet it struck me that it would make an excellent storage system for figures in the various stages of painting.  As now we only paint above 6mm, 10mm, and 15mm scale a quick calculation and it worked out that conservatively we could use 1 in every 4 of the CD slots at any one time to house figures.  So taking that with an average of 40 figures per 'shelf' (on the ubiquitous lolly pop sticks) that means that about 1,600 - 2,000 figures at any one time can be housed in the cabinet neatly and safely. 

I doubt if I am the first person to have come up with using a rotating CD cabinet in this way, but it got me wondering what else other figure painters have found a use for with other items?

[getagrip]

The only weird thing I use is cheap poker chips to base trees; they're a good size and nicely weighted.

[Leman]

I temporarily mount my figures on small pieces of dowel which then slot into a large block of wood. This block was drilled out with 24 holes by an old woodwork teacher colleague of mine. He used it for holding pencils at the front of the class for loaning to pupils. He passed it to me when he was reorganising his room and it quickly occurred to me to ask him to make the dowel rods. I use Copydex as a temporary fix for the figures, and it also means I can rotate and turn the figures upside down when I'm painting.

[getagrip]

That's genius Leman; I've got two of them in my classroom...hmm...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

About to steal that!

[getagrip]

About to steal that!

Stolen 

[Westmarcher]

Where do you get the cheap poker chips, getagrip?

Teachers are hoarders.

[getagrip]

Where do you get the cheap poker chips, getagrip?

Teachers are hoarders.

Ebay, the works etc.  Usually get about 100 for a fiver or s.

Just had a glance and there's 100 for £6 free postage!

I paint the chips with Vallejo extra opaque green; one coat works a treat 

[cbr3d.com]

I also use the 'stick' method, though for 15mm.  I attach a 1 pence to the stick using a hot glue gun and then attach the figures using PVA.  (We literally have shelves full of drilled 4" x 1/2" planks drilled to hold the sticks, just drill through and then brown tape the bottom of each plank.  The great thing is that you can have a variety of plank lengths depending on number of figures in the unit to be painted.)

Is there any advantage in using poker chips instead of 1 pence or 2 pence coins (or similar if not in UK)?  The reason I ask is that at £6 per 100 poker chips is between 3 and 6 times more expensive obviously.  If there is an advantage then it may well be worth swapping over to use them.

[Fenton]

I have seen lots of poker chips for sale at The Works and in B&M occasionally

[Ithoriel]

I have most of my reserve paints (ie the ones I don't think I need for the figures I'm currently painting) stored in a ticket tray used in libraries for the Browne Issue Ticket System, I acquired it when we computerised all of the libraries. Up on end and turned sideways it gives me 8 shelves which hold Humbrol/ Citadel/ Tamiya/ Miniatures paints quite comfortably. Sadly Vallejo paints are too tall. Need to get a new paint-rack I guess

[Ferb]

I use the plastic tops from bottles of Robinsons squash to mount figures while I paint them. I attach them w super glue and they pop off easily when done.

[getagrip]

Librarians using card storage, teachers using pen storage; misappropriation is such an ugly word

[Subedai]

I used to use plastic milk bottle caps for holding figures, now I use strips of double sided tape on 4-6" lengths of old wooden beading.

Hairspray as both a trial as varnish (in the '70s) and nowadays as a mild fixative.

I don't now where I got it from but I have the business end of a WW II 6lb AP shell that is so heavy it doubles as a weight to keep my desk lamp steady.

Wet and dry paper cut in lengths for modern roads and by association, fixative spray to attach said roads to pieces of thin MDF.

Old or useless DVD's for terrain bases.

Masking tape. use it in dry strips a la papier mache for covering pieces of foam, stones etc when making hills.

Lengths of sisal string for poor man's grass tufts.

Presents for Ma Subs inside sturdy cardboard boxes to use for their future storage capacity.

Any number of children's toys for their usefulness as something wargamey.   



Years ago, when I first started using the internet I was amazed at the ingenuity of wargamers, my wonder still remains.

[cbr3d.com]

For those who use 'super glue' and want an instant bond and end up buying a spray for such try sprinkling on baking soda, it works like magic, is readily available and is a fraction of the cost (but be warned it is almost immediate bonding that occurs).