Hints and Tips

The creation of this page resulted from a suggestion from John F in mid 2026. In John's own words: -

I first started painting figures (old Airfix) way back in 1960. Despite the passage of all that time, when it comes to painting and model-making I am still finding new ideas, products, tips worth trying. It started me thinking about other club members who must have similar experiences, even if not the number of years. As a club we must have literally hundreds of years of painting and modelling.

With that in mind, I suggested to Neil that it might be worth adding a ‘Hints & Tips’  (H&T) section to the club website. Whilst some of the H&T might be old hat to a few, they may be new to others. Various topics spring to mind such as new products worth trying, painting and modelling ideas, tools, shortcuts, re-cycling and new books to name a few.

• Product recently tried – ‘GRIP’. This is a Cyano (superglue) activator. I previously  used a small bottle with a pump spray. This had the disadvantage that you had to remove the pump mechanism and replace a screw top otherwise the activator soon evaporated. GRIP comes in a 200ml spray can, easy to use and no loss through evaporation. It costs around £5 per can, only slightly more than the old 20ml, repeat 20ml bottle. Submitted by John F.

• Hand sanitiser. Apart from the obvious use, have you tried it for cleaning brushes? It is 70% ethanol alcohol, so removes acrylic paints. I put about half a teaspoon into an old jar. The sort of small jar used for jam at catering establishments. Work your brush into the liquid. You might be surprised how much paint is removed from a brush you thought you had just cleaned in water. Wipe brush on kitchen roll. Repeat if needed, then swill brush in water as normal. I have even used this on brushes which I had previously given-up on. Whilst it won’t make a new brush for fine detail, it can revive sufficiently to use for terrain work or block painting. It works on both sable and synthetic brushes. Submitted by John F.

• Re-cycling old brushes, or rather the wooden handles. The brushes that are beyond repair can still have their uses. How many times do you open a paint to find that dried paint needs to be cleared? Using a length of the wooden brush handle, I drill a hole in the wider end. Into this I superglue a length of steel wire. It is useful for clearing the dried up nozzle. In the same way, a needle glued (point first) into a brush handle, leaves the eye of the needle as a useful applicator for supergluing those small and fiddly items. Submitted by John F.