Topic: Materials for Dioramas: Finding crates, parts and miscellaneous stuff...

[JDeck]

Thank you Tamer. They came out pretty cool. Yeah your links are best. I just accepted an offer for 5 for $22 including tax and shipping. The more you buy the better the price, but I only need five more plus the extra one I have to make six. That's it I'm not buying any more. I can see myself getting a case of 11 but I'm not gonna do it.

[JDeck]

Again, your containers look spot on compared to Hasbro's! That's why I need to look for some paints when I come back to the U.S. - colors and shades vary quite a lot here in Germany/Europe. That's why I have trouble mixing the perfect shade of orange, blue or yellow for al the Clone Trooper Legions. A little consolation here is that Hasbro and LEGO struggle as well. The 212th Attack Battalion alone has some different shades looking at TSC Cody, TSC Troopers and TAC Airbornes. I think they captures it best on their TLC Cody.

Anyhew - amazing paintwork here, JD! The decals will add even more spice on some of them. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you. Yeah finding the right shades can be frustrating. I like using spray paint for stuff like this, and flat orange doesn't exist for some reason. It's all gloss or florescent. But I found that floral spray, it definitely wasn't ideal but it worked sort of. I just dry brushed it with a couple of different shades of orange, and the black wash darkened it. It's not perfect, some of them are darker than others, but that's weathering.  As far as bottled acrylic I go with either Tamiya or Vallejo. Vallejo is better for dry brushing than Tamiya, but Tamiya you get good consistent coverage.

[Darth More]

Thanks for the great tips, JD! I'll look for some paints from vallejo here then. When I come to Walmart next time, I'll go bonkers for some Apple Barrel paints. But until then I still got my Citadel paints, which worked incredibly well on the blue Snaggletooth for example. Dry-brushing can make an entirely different effect. I'm glad you could order some more crates and keep my fingers crossed that the Gamorrean Guard is among them this time. Again, I think you've done everything right. The paint looks awesome on them - spot on compared to the containers that come with the Imperial Cargo Tank!

[Lance Quazar]

Extraordinary work!  Such a creative reuse of those "Crates"! 

[Tamer]

Man did I have folks on FB yesterday messaging me about those crates. JDeck you are starting a frenzy! Folks really liked what you did with them.

Now I may have found a spray paint that you guys need. It says its popsickle orange, but my wife just used some on an outside rocker project and it looks pretty daggone flat to me.

[JDeck]

Man did I have folks on FB yesterday messaging me about those crates. JDeck you are starting a frenzy! Folks really liked what you did with them.

Now I may have found a spray paint that you guys need. It says its popsickle orange, but my wife just used some on an outside rocker project and it looks pretty daggone flat to me.

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Thanks for the paint link Tamer. It was all Darth More's idea, I just put a 20/20 paint job on them. Had he not posted it I wouldn't have bought them. I was aware of them, but I never gave any thought to the containers. That's good people are again being inspired. They're pretty cool especially for being just a container that most people would probably throw away.

[Tamer]

Well you two are definitely inspiring folks to get these and try it out. I bet they would rock with this paint. Heck krylon sticks to anything and barely runs even if you go full tilt. I used white on a storage locker for my Driver Costume Project and it hasn't cracked, faded, or anything.

[Starchaser]

Yeppers. I use Krylon primer for all my painting projects (including, but not limited to, figure customs). I'm happy with its consistency - and there are sooo many colors.

[Darth More]

JDeck: Ah, no worries, we all inspire each other and that's why I like being part of this community on Imperial Shipyards so much. I thought I was late to the party and assumed everyone had known about those crates already. As I said I got to know them because YouTube suggested me a review about them just recently. I really hope, I can still find them somewhere here in Europe, but I guess they're not distributed here. I'm sure they could be. It's not that kinder surprise eggs are forbidden here as they are in the U.S.


Tamer: Thanks boss! That's great to hear! Didn't know Krylon before. Guess that's one more great material that isn't available here in Germany. Maybe another occasion to share some affiliate links?
Still no answer from Uncle Milton's customer service. Maybe you can just copy & paste my message and send it again. I suppose my message didn't pass their firewall writing from Germany.


Starchaser: Thanks for checking by! I'll look up that Krylon primer. Vallejo also got a variety of different colors for their primers.

[Tamer]

If I can find some time this week I will see if I can contact them and get us some info! If they will respond, who knows?

[Darth More]

Here are some new materials that I ordered to improve my skills and gain more experience with different stuff. I wanted to try a new primer because the loss of propellant is quite significant if you work with spray-paint.
You can also try Krylon's primer assortment as discussed in above comments:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=krylon+primer&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

- This Ugha Warrior (Hasbro 2007, Indiana Jones: Kingdom if the Crystal Skull, is also a good base for some male human or humanoid custom figures.

- milliput Standard yellow/grey self-hardening epoxy sculpting putty
Buy this on ebay or Amazon using the forums' affiliate links (embedded)!

- Vallejo Grey Primer Acrylic Polyurethane
You can buy this on ebay or Amazon.

- Sculpting Tools
You can buy these on ebay or Amazon.



Got my latest order from German etailer FantasyWelt where I also got my Master Painter set from Citadel for 352€ back in 2015.


Vallejo Grey Primer Acrylic Polyurethane 200 ml bottle for 10.53€.


milliput Standard yellow/grey self-hardening epoxy putty was 4.83€ for 113g. Very good price if you ask me.




I needed some new fine brushes to paint my latest project Darth Sion.
The two single ones were 3.31€ each and the set 10.10€.



Big shoutout goes to International Scale Modeller on YouTube for his precious advice:

[JDeck]

I used to use super fine miliput religiously. It's good stuff but it's hard to find here. I like the density, and that it cures really hard, but with enough playtime to do a decent amount at a time. I bought a batch of greenstuff a while back, I still have a lot left. It's much different. It acts like chewing gum, which is advantageous in some ways. I found it's good for sculpting hair.

We have Kinder Eggs but one half is toy, the other candy. We Americans don't like inedible objects stuck inside our food. Especially when it's marketed for small children.

[Starchaser]

Thanks for the supplies list. I just saw my first milliput at a Hobby Lobby yesterday. I'm a "green stuff" user because my son was using it for his Warhammer minis, so I just got familiar with it.

[Tamer]

Great links and tools. I will definitely be taking that to the front pages.

[Art deWhill]

I own Milliput and the Vallejo Primer (in black) and I am super satisfied. The primer works perfect, is easy to apply and makes a super nice surface.
I will look up the brushes because I still have none for doing the detail painting on my miniature. Thanks for sharing all the links.

Cool to see you ordered at FantasyWelt! I am customer there, too Super service and awesome range of brands and products.