Like a proverbial electronic spider amongst the interwebs I spend a lot of time shaking the internet to make useful stuff fall out. It is what happens when you work in the industry and sell your stuff online! It occurred to me that I have a hoarded treasure trove of links and sharing them would be a public service.
Reference Material
It is impossible to have too much reference material, why reinvent the wheel when you can just look at how things are done in nature or by the professionals? Below are a selection of my favourites:
News Sites
With more and more alleged news sites being more about rumour/creating controversy to drive the hit counters (and ad revenue) or being mere mouthpieces for a company it is nice to find a couple which are independent, fair, actually police the comments of their sites to prune out the kneejerk RageHate nutters and provide good content. These two are my favourites.
Tools and Supplies
While a bad workman blames his tools, it is a hell of a lot easier to get good results from good tools. Here are some brilliant sites for the hardware that I use.
Parts Services
I used to be fairly on the fence about services like these, now, I love them. These guys buy boxes of sprues, cut the bits off and then sell them individually. Is it one hell of a mark up? Yes, but would you rather spend £1 or £20 to get that one part off one sprue that you do not have? It has liberated my conversions. Stock is sometimes an issue but if you contact them then they are usually pretty good about letting you know when a restock is coming.
Favourite Miniatures Companies
Aside from Games Workshop these guys are my favourite sources for alternative or just plain weird miniatures. Most are for RPG style models that I do but I have made use of all sorts of models in my armies as well. Take a browse when you've got a cup of tea and nothing better to do, get inspired.
Sorry for the lack of pictures in this one. Promise there will be a more colourul post next time!
TTFN
Reference Material
It is impossible to have too much reference material, why reinvent the wheel when you can just look at how things are done in nature or by the professionals? Below are a selection of my favourites:
- Equusite - A treasure trove of pictures of different horse species and their markings.
- Demon Winner - Many, many images of Golden Daemon winning models from around the world and through the years, great inspiration material.
- Kamouflage - A database of camouflage patterns with images from around the world and through history. A must for guardsmen.
News Sites
With more and more alleged news sites being more about rumour/creating controversy to drive the hit counters (and ad revenue) or being mere mouthpieces for a company it is nice to find a couple which are independent, fair, actually police the comments of their sites to prune out the kneejerk RageHate nutters and provide good content. These two are my favourites.
Tools and Supplies
While a bad workman blames his tools, it is a hell of a lot easier to get good results from good tools. Here are some brilliant sites for the hardware that I use.
- Antenocitis Workshop - An astonishing, almost bewildering array of tools, raw materials, basing materials, adhesives... well, lets face it, they've got pretty much it all.
- E-Magnets UK - Handy little super-strong neodymium magnets for easy storage of large models and for handy attachment of easily breakable parts (I'm going to do a magnets tutorial at some point!).
- Jacksons Art - Woah, this place is chock-full, while most of their range will not be of use to us, their brushes (especially the Raphael range) and their brush cleaners are incredibly useful.
- KR multicase - My new best friends. At a fraction of the cost of GW and almost as tough, their card cases are a godsend, add to that custom cut foam (including trays sized to fit GW cases) and amazing customer service make these guys winners.
- PK-Pro - German company with some innovative products including casting putty. Check 'em out.
Parts Services
I used to be fairly on the fence about services like these, now, I love them. These guys buy boxes of sprues, cut the bits off and then sell them individually. Is it one hell of a mark up? Yes, but would you rather spend £1 or £20 to get that one part off one sprue that you do not have? It has liberated my conversions. Stock is sometimes an issue but if you contact them then they are usually pretty good about letting you know when a restock is coming.
Favourite Miniatures Companies
Aside from Games Workshop these guys are my favourite sources for alternative or just plain weird miniatures. Most are for RPG style models that I do but I have made use of all sorts of models in my armies as well. Take a browse when you've got a cup of tea and nothing better to do, get inspired.
- Ainsty Castings - Makers of resin scenery, especially what we Beard Bunker Dwellers call "set dressing". They have just released an amazing underground station set that just makes me want to march cybermen through it. Their tunnel and cave stuff is great too.
- Black Cat Bases - I mainly use these guys for their textured base inserts. Cast in metal these either drop into the "privateer" style lipped bases or could be blended into bevelled ones. They also have a range of cthulhu style figures that are nicer than the photos give them credit.
- Copplestone Castings - Mark Copplestone makes nice 1920's-esque and Future Wars models.
- Hasslefree Miniatures - One of my very favourites, huge range and nice people. Far too many models to talk about, check them out.
- Heresy Miniatures - Another small producer making some really nice figures, I especially like his Blighted (one of which you will see in my Nurgle army when finished!).
- Perry Miniatures - The Perry twins historical site. Where a lot of the Napoleonic stuff that Maisey and I do comes from. Perry quality at nice prices. Highly recommended.
- Reaper Minis - If you are after RPG minis (especially D&D/Pathfinder) then if Reaper don't have it it may not exist!
- Warlord Games - Another great historical supplier with a large plastic 28mm range.
Sorry for the lack of pictures in this one. Promise there will be a more colourul post next time!
TTFN
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