Hobby: Strictly Average Top Tips, Too!

Hello again boys and girls, children and Unicorns of all ages – it’s Tuesday all over again!  The article I was working on wasn’t quite ready for public consumption, so I’m dropping some more Top Tips on you.

Top Tips are what I call generalist hobby tips and tricks on Strictly Average. One Monday I got the bright idea to bundle a bunch of them together and voila! ‘Hobby: Strictly Average Top Tips’ saw the light of day – probably one of my better received articles, all things considered.

I followed that up with ‘Editorial: Top Tips, the Blogging Edition’ – and now you’re up to date!

Let me say in advance, there’s a theme to today’s article, so give it some thought as you read.  Let’s move on: here they are, in no particular order.

The wet palette!  I’ve had this for about a week now and I’m wondering what I ever did without one.  It works so much better than you can possibly imagine unless you have one – and I’m sincere about that.  Get one!

Here you see it’s closed.  Basically, there’s a sponge of water with a special paper on top; the paper draws the moisture through it and keeps your paints dry wet.  Seriously, this is so good it was going to be an article all by itself. And still might be. I got mine for $15 bucks at Michaels.

I don’t know what to call this tip, except maybe Innovate! with a capital ‘I’ and an exclamation point.  This bag was designed to carry textbooks in, but it works perfectly as an army case.

I know you can’t really tell scale, but it’s larger than the army cases you can buy. A buddy of mine saw these at a clearinghouse and recognized the potential; he picked up like 5 of them.  Price?  Nothing.

Nothing is my favorite price!  I stroll right up to the counter at the local Mega-Mart and ask for empty cigar cases.  They make awesome boxes with endless uses. So Innovate! You can spend the money you save on miniatures.

Here’s another easy one.  Display boards are required in some tournaments; meaning you earn Battle Points for having one!  More than that, it’s cool to display your army on and better to transport it around a hall.  You can buy them, but they’re easy to make.  This is a cheap cork board covered in watered down Elmer’s Glue and then flocked in random patterns.  It really didn’t cost much and it’s sturdy as all get out.

Here’s another practical idea… in the sense nothing is more practical than a box!  Mini cases are great, but it sucks to pack models away when they die – just stand them up in your box.  My friends have custom made ones, complete with army designs, but it doesn’t have to be that extravagant.  I got this box at Hobby Lobby on clearance for $15… so know you know how much I’m willing to spend on something!  On game nights, I’ll take my army to the store in this.  Easy.

I have a couple plastic bins dedicated to random junk that I think might one day make terrain.  Of course, you have to get around to doing it, which I do about once a year.  Then I start back over…

Here’s some nifty ideas other people came up with.  Brother Captain James – a friend of Fritz and Jawa (Hi, Jawaballs!) – typeset his army list, complete with pictures, on card stock for Da Boyz tournament last year.  Paul, a member of the 40K Wrecking Crew and a talented graphic artist, built a bunch of Imperial Seals and gave them to his opponents at Wargames Con. In both cases these innovations were a great ice breaker and a friendly gesture that stuck long after these events.

The measuring tapes are also key chains – did you know they sold those?  Check at Wal-Mart and you can buy one cheap.  Tackle boxes make awesome token sorters. On the right I’ve got one for Warmachine.  The smallest is for Confrontation, but I’ll also grab it when I play D&D with the guys…

(Careful ladies, I’m taken!)

…and the large one is double-sided; one for 40K the other for Warhammer.  Practical and inexpensive.

Speaking of inexpensive, these gun cases cost $10 at Wal-Mart and I can usually fit an entire army in one. That’s 4 to 5 times cheaper than GW’s. There’s something to be said for quality, but considering I have 12 of these small ones in my game room, filled with minis… you do the math!

There was a theme for today’s Top Tips, and if you guessed ‘Recession’ or ‘Budget’ than congrats!  People are struggling; my hope is I’ll save even a few of you some pocket change.

Thoughts / comments / hugs et al.?

Author: Brent