(Originally posted to A Year of Frugal Gaming)

I’ve been on a painting spree recently, trying to get my Dark Elves painted before the end of the year. I’ve also realised that this is a bit of a long shot, but it won’t stop me trying! I’m one of these people who appreciates the skill of someone doing a great job (as Dave mentioned last week), but I just have to do it myself.

My painting method is to take all the models of a particular type or unit, and do them as one enormous batch. There’s normally two or three different groups, at various stages, all nicely arranged and separated by paint pots to show what I need to do next. When painting a Wood Elf army in one go, this meant 48 archers in my mega-batch (some were halfway done while others were still being assembled!) and currently, I have about 60 corsairs. It’s a bit daunting at first, but it’s nice to see them all progress along slowly, then at the end the final details go on incredibly quickly – usually a tiny spot of colour on each model, and a dozen can be finished in a few minutes. The satisfaction as they are all finished together is brilliant, and because I do them all together they are all almost identical in quality and style.

Because of this, I tend to follow other people’s guides (often Games Workshop) on how certain things should be done, if I like their style of (for example) sea dragon cloaks, and I’ve not painted something like that before. I’m not confident about my ability to pick colours well, and I’m definitely not sure about which paints to use to produce a certain layering effect, or what base paint for a certain output.

This brings us, via the scenic route, to a new tool I’ve discovered recently – the Silicon Dragons Color Match 1.0 (and I’m aware of the spelling, it hurts me too). By following guides by Games Workshop, I will only be told what Games Workshop paints I need. I’ve got some colours that have been discontinued, renamed or replaced over time and if I can help it I’d rather use something I already have than buy a new shade of brown, when I have five or six sitting there almost full. I also look at other paint ranges that are cheaper, and wonder if any of their colours match the ones the guide tells me to use.

The Colour Match tool from Silicon Dragons is free, and allows you to match two different paint lines to see what paints from one company match the paints of another one. In many cases, it’ll show several possible candidates and you can eyeball a match and say ‘well, it’s a little less red than I need, but I can mix that up.’ Even better, some shades (but less than I expected) are dead on exact, and a good shot to replace a more expensive line with a cheaper one.

The match data is collected from volunteers across the world, anyone is free to post in a sample to be incorporated into the tool’s database as long as they follow certain guides. This helps take an average of batches which may leave the factories in identical pots but have a slightly different composition. It all gets a bit technical for me.

The only ‘gotcha’ I found when using it (although it appears to have more options now I go for a screenshot!) was that I had to research the paint lines I looked at to tell whether or not they were for air paint spray gadgets. I found uncertain advice that they should be OK for regular brush painting, but were pre-thinned for the spray application so possibly less strong a colour? I couldn’t really tell.

Regardless, this is a great tool for frugal painting, since it is free (frugal already!) and can help find a cheaper alternative to recommended paints if you, like me, are slavishly following someone else’s recipe. It’s also a great tool for frugal gaming, since it will help encourage painting and painted models always outperform unpainted ones. The dice can tell.

First post on miniature wargaming! About time!

I've noticed over the past year that this hobby is not designed for random searches on a work computer. More than once, I've been blocked by an internal filter from searching for sites that describe 'paint stripping model acrylic'. It got worse when I tried to look for 'latex' - I quickly clarified that with 'model latex rubber' and wished I hadn't! These are, of course, perfectly innocent search terms to a wargamer but some overzealous web monitors don't always get the context...

Unrelated to these searches, I came across A Year of Frugal Gaming last year. It is a one-man project to 'spend less, game more' and is extremely interesting - offering game reviews, money-saving tips, modelling projects on a budget and advice on how to make some money from your hobby too! One of the most useful tips was how to remove paint from plastic models... effectively, completely, quickly and without damaging the model.

The secret is Dettol antiseptic disinfectant.

I too, now, know the joy of wandering around a house in marigolds, holding a toothbrush and stinking of disinfectant. I have, in my collection, a lot of partially painted and poorly undercoated models from the mid-90's, when I started collecting Dark Elves. I've been looking for a way to strip the paint from these models for a long time, so I can start again with the experience I've gained since then. There's models undercoated white (a nuisance for an evil army to paint over), most of them done with car body spray rather than proper acrylic spray (it was cheaper back then...) and most effective paint-stripping techniques have a tendency to melt plastic.

What I've Learned While Dettol De-painting:

• Wear marigolds, and remove wedding rings!
  My fingers began to itch the first few nights I did this, and a couple of days after a particularly brutal session I spotted lots of skin flaking off. Marigolds are essential.
• Honey-coloured disinfectant
  I initially tried a lime green Tesco variety, figuring it would be cheaper and just as good. I was wrong, it was a complete dud and barely touched the paint.
• About 24 hours is right
  I've not yet performed the experiments to work out how long is too long, but I imagine that anything that works as well as this will eventually damage plastic models.
• Put down paper, or take it outside
  Not the time of year for it at the moment, but toothbrush scrubbing will make a mess and the paint scum flying off tends to stick to things like sinks and kitchen worktops and really aggravates spouses and mothers. I found that scrubbing under the surface of the Dettol is better, but not great once it's really mucky.
• Paint will come off as a gloopy scum
  This will stick to and stain your toothbrush, and float in the Dettol and get onto other models. Keep a piece of tissue near by to wipe your brush on.
• Wash models off after stripping
  I used an overnight soak of warm soapy water.
• You can reuse the bowlsUp to a point, you can use a bowl of disinfectant more than once - but it's slightly less effective each time and will collect a lot of paint scum in the bottom (this makse cleaning the models harder).

I was very pleasantly surprised by how well this works, and even my mother-in-law pitched in and brought me a bottle of Dettol last week. She explained that she wasn't sure whether I wanted the original one, or the new purple one 'that smells of lavendar'. I briefly contemplated an elf army that smells of lavendar, and as fitting as that may be I opted for the original in the end. There may be a missing market niche for thematically scented base inserts... anyone have any thoughts on that?