TMM 006: Hobby Shop Haul and AU Adventure Time

I'm about halfway through the Hello Kitty project and today I've purchased some new tools to help with the project.

Spring Tubing Benders

Since the Kitty is going to be in an industrial setting, I wanted to add small copper pipes. To bend these bars I purchased spring tubing benders. When you heat up the copper, over a candle, you use the benders over the pipe to create a smooth, even bend. It does take a bit of practice but I’m happy with the result. These pipe bending tools are very inexpensive but the pipe is a bit more pricey.

Hobby Saw

A hobby saw is something that I previously didn’t own, I was just using a rotary tool. This tool is more precise and safer. I’ll be using it for cutting pipe and plastic - or cutting anything really.

Electric Pipe Cutting Tool

This is a cute little purple cutter which is essentially a clamp with a rotary tool built into it. It was a bit on the pricier side, and I was taking a bit of a risk because I didn’t know whether it’d be worth it, but the cuts are straight and clean and I’ll be using it a lot.

Rivet Punches

This is a tool I had no idea existed and I’m very excited by it. It punches all different sized rivet shapes into plastic. The results are awesome - I was really surprised. I’ll be using these to break up all the flat surfaces on the Hello Kitty project and it means I can give recycled materials a bit of detail like sprues and plastic scraps.

Hobby Shears

While I was buying things for this project, I also bought some hobby shears because on my cursed monkey prop, I encountered a problem where I had to trim and shape the hair but I didn’t have any tools fine enough to do it. With this I can get really precise cuts to make things look natural. I can also use them on static grass and flower tufts. They also look really cool - like a mini version of sheep shears.

Most of the tools I bought were Master Tool brand, which I think is a Japanese brand. It's a relatively inexpensive brand but the quality of the things I’ve bought has been good so far. It’s also what my local hobby shop sells and I think it’s really important to support your local hobby shop - these guys are the ones who are supporting the local hobby community. I’ve seen many times where my local shop has given out second hand models and paints to people just starting out or those who are limited by budget.

My local shop was kind enough to gift me some old space marines which I’m utilising for this project. I decided that the diorama needed a more human element to give a sense of scale and more visual interest. I wanted to make bootleg space marines that were like a knock off brand of War Hammer, so I sculpted on top of these old models. I’m going for a retro, futuristic design with them, replacing their plasma guns with ray guns. I made the ray guns out of some copper pieces I found in the camera repair workshop in the TV studio.

Arcane Ugly has been ticking along in the background, particularly by the great people on the AU Discord.

The Discord crew have recently started writing an Adventure which I am hoping we can take public or even publish as a stand alone item. If you want to be involved get onto the Arcane Ugly Discord and join the Let’s Make A Dungeon room.

Luke (Nerd Craft HQ) has sent a second iteration of the tarot card art style and it’s shaping up beautifully. He’s been tasked with making the magician tarot card next so that we can lock in a direction.

Today's Patron Pics are from Mitchell Bolstridge, who created a Mimic gift as a Secret Santa present for a work mate. He used a phone box, some hot glue and milliput - fantastic stuff.

Want to see your work here? Send through a photo and a quick description to miscastminute@gmail.com for your chance to be featured.

I’ve been watching Stark Crafts who is an artist making PlayStation 1 low poly art. I find his environmental art particularly inspiring for Arcane Ugly.

He’s also done a monster bash as well, which you should go check out. I really like following artists in various disciplines because they inspire me in different ways from my own circle.

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