They're too much money when Tamiya ones already cut so cleanly and require barely any clean up after. They stay sharper than any cheap pair you buy off Amazon. I had to use a pair of very cheap clippers recently and it felt like I was using garden shears to cut parts.
Came here from community features. Rip Tamiya. I happened to be watching a documentary on Hornby and Airfix and their efforts to turn the business around featuring James May. It was posted 27 August 2024, Figured some in the thread would find it interesting as did.
Their 123 nippers are really really good. Nice sharp cuts before the godhands come in.
There was a 10 episode series called Hornby: A model world made by the UK network Yesterday. It follows a product from the research and design stage up to release each episode. With autistic Hornby fans and their home lay outs here and there. I'm not a Hornby modeler and I hate Airfix kits but the series was enjoyable. Seeing the length the researchers go to get it as accurate as possible made some interesting stories.
I'm going to buy another pair soon. A pair of cheap Amazon clippers, a pair of those and a scalpel is all you really need to model. I will rarely get out a file to sand something down because of fit but never because it's not cut smooth or flat. You could use the 123 nippers and not clean up the nub after and get such a close cut most wouldn't be able to pick out the nubs. I wouldn't unless it was a speed build weekend project but you could.
Are they any good? I always see arguments online about this or that paint brand but I'm not sure if there's merit or if it's fanboy slapfights.
I'm biased because I started with Tamiya. That said, I do like some of the Citadel stuff. They have a lot of "organic" or other bodily goop colors that are available right off the shelf. If I want blood or alien guts I'll just use their paint instead of inconsistently mixing together vehicle themed paint. I think alot of the hate Citadel paint gets is due to the people that use it. GW fans are the goyest of goys so its fun to dog on them.
They're fine. They're a bit hotter than most acyrlics and don't brush as well but they're fine. Pretty much any modern paint line are good these days. Even Army painter fixed their problems with the new fanatic line. They went from the worst but acceptable if you knew how to use them to actually good.
War paints are Army painter. Their washes and speed paints (2.0, the originals reactivate when painted over) are their best lines.
You do 1 test model not the whole batch. If you're thinning your paints correctly you can put on 20 layers and not lose detail.
I do. I'm doing 8 or so. Trying different things for each. There's where the set up time became an issue. Set up for 15 mins, paint half a dozen hands and faces (lets say 2 minutes per mini if being generous), wait to dry (15 mins), second coat (6 mins), teardown (15 mins).
Then I must be doing something wrong, because I'm following the whole "thin them down until it's the consistency of milk" strategy. Any thinner and it's basically a bad wash. Even with my thick coats, most of my results still show the base coat through raised areas like cheeks. Recently I got Army Painter barbarian flesh and it's at least a workable skin colour, unlike previous ones, but I still need to do a second coat.
That's basically what I'm doing.
You need to learn to paint. The problem isn't the tools or the models.
This is the first time I've ever messed with miniatures this size (since I've developed patience and skill over the past 20 years) and I've come to realize a few things.
