8:30 'Glue never sets as fast as you like' Unless its your fingers then its milliseconds 😂

Tooth picks and skewers. You can use them to apply super glue. You can cut them at an angle, and super glue sand paper to them to sand hard to reach areas. You can scrape off spill over paint with them after the paint dries. You can use the cap of a paint brush + a sponge+ the skewer+ poster putty to make a sponge weathering brush. You can use them as pikes and decorate your models with Space Marine Headpikes. You can break them and use them as terrain, they are more useful than I thought.

A row of cothes pegs hot-glued to the edge of a shelf is where I clip my brushes to dry after cleaning so as the bristles are pointing down and nothing runs into the ferrule.

Floral hobby wire. You can buy spools of various gauges for just a few dollars. The stuff is great for making aerial antennas for tanks and 'mechs, and works excellent for pinning very small parts. It's also great for making bow strings on fantasy archer/crossbowmen miniatures.

Empty glass spice containers with blue tack to hold models while I paint. They are heavier than pill bottles and don’t get knocked over easy. Bathroom tile caulk for miniature bases. Way cheaper than green stuff and easy to texture and clean up. Dental picks for sculpting tools, hardware store was selling them at the counter. Steel cake pans with lids make great ways to transport and store minis if you magnetize the bottom of your mini, they don’t move! Indoor grow lights are full spectrum and give better lighting for colors when painting. Saws all blades in home made handle, in fact lots of hobby companies sell more expensive cheaply made versions of real tools. If I see a hobby tool, I usually go to a hardware store to see if there is a better tool for cheaper. I also watch the workers at the construction sites I manage. If anyone has ever repurposed something to make their job easier, it’s those guys. They have all kinds of specialty ties and adhesives to hold things temporary or permanent. It’s also where I get all my terrain materials for free. It cracks me up to see people buying xps foam for hobbying. Every job site out there throws away sheets of the stuff every day. Card board, wire, and all kinds of sci fi looking plastic parts are yours for the taking.

I was just using a elec mug warmer to heat my decal water to 130f. It makes decals ready quicker, easier to get off and work with imo.

We arthritic painters and gamers feel seen - appreciated!

I work in a factory, the job I do involves me contorting my hand in a weirdish way. So Tool number 1 is going to be a REAL help for me when I cramp up while painting. But my "hand health" is important to me because I know and work with people who have carpal tunnel and it is no joke. Seriously people, its crippling, be aware of it.

I identify as an old, closet painter.. 42 and I transformed our 2 master bedroom closets into one and build a desk in there. It’s my “cloffice”.

For the overhead supports for the soft shelves, look at "tension poles". Spring loaded, and made to press against two surfaces, you can hang things from them and not have to attach anything permanent to the walls.

From the lady painting side of the hobby; multipack sets of eyebrow tweezers are much finer and cheaper than branded hobby tweezers, clear nail polish is excellent for high shine on gems/bottles, nail acrylic powder with the appropriate chemical is excellent for filling large gaps and can be drilled/sanded/painted and is super cheap (gsw have just recently released this as a branded product), paper clips make excellent rebar for basing and also really fine glue applicators in a pinch and finally nail art liner brushes are the best panel liners imo ❤

Serving tray! Just glued my pallete and water to it with blue tack and that way I have my entire painting setup in one place. Just lift it onto your desk and you are ready to paint!

My friend works for a medical supply company and he 'acquired' a bag of 75 plastic sample bottles. They are hand-grip-sized and you can swap out the screw lids if you want. If I want extra stability I can put gravel and/or plasticene in them for weight. A bit of double-sided tape or blutac on the lid and I'm good to go. Of course I am literally painting on p**s pots LOL 😀

Adding to this, I picked up some silicone sheets from my local dollar store cooking section. They're advertised as being for covering cooked food, however the larger ones cover my painting surface perfectly. They offer a non-slip that won't scratch a fresh paintjob, and you can clean them with soap and water in minutes just like the popup stopper.

prescription bottles. i use a bottle per model when building a warband for skirmish games. I store them in the bottle till I'm ready to paint. bottle doubles as a paint handle. use blue tack to hold model to bottle. also use them to store extra bits. I get them from friends and family that take allot of meds. And it's a good way to recycle.

Surgical needle holders or artery forceps, think grabby scissors with a ratchet on the back that can keep them closed. Super cheap, but really useful for so many things - holding pins and bits of wire, grabbing sponges, assembling stuff.

I was SHOCKED how chic Uncle Atom’s closets are. 😂

I use M&M tubes that the mini candies come in as handles for painting. They are perfect for grip. Have a long handle and you can store your sticky tack under the lid. I also use an old spice rack that has these perfect sized holes on both sides of it for craft paint holder. It also swivels around to the other side. It takes up less space as it is up right and the paint is easily accessed.

Crafter here stumbled on your videos they are awesome. Tip DT or Dollar General has the fabric closet shelves, you can use foam boards as supports sturdier than some cardboard. Also if you use acrylic paint if you forget to wash a brush just soak in Murthy’s oil soap for a day or so tamp it and resoak if needed. Also wash brushes keeps them soft. And you an use styrofoam to stand brushes upside down to dry and olive or pearl onion jars to always keep water at working station for brushes til you wash them. Jars are tall, heavy and don’t take up much space. Us 😊crafters use a lot of tricks!

I once did one of them metal walkways you see militaries use when they have to make semi permanent walkways over damp swampy terrain, kinda also looks like one of them loading ramps you use to load and unload an ATV from a flatbed. Friend asked me how i did this and where i got it... Simple: Its that white plastic packing strap that you sometimes get on large cardboard boxes. Kept one string of it and that lasts foregver. Simply cut a strip fitting to your model. Glue it on the base. Metal, Wash, Drybrush done... if you want you can add rust to it.

Thank you for continuing to indulge my love and desire of weird non-hobby objects for my hobbies.

I have a jewellers non-battery powered sprung thickness caliper. Great for marrying drill bits to brass and plastic rods for conversions and pinning, or general measuring. Also a shaving style conical 0-16mm reamer to enlarge or clean up pre drilled holes to perfect circles without needing the exact size drill bit. Drill bits can dig into the plastic and tear out the surrounding material. Love these tools for conversions. Also thanks Atom for the popit idea from your previous video - got one and it's already had heavy use.

The fidget popper from the last video was an inspiration!

As another old person, I use pill bottles and blue tack to mount mini's on to paint. I put bb's in the bottle to give it weight, adding some hot glue to hold the bb's steady. I find the added weight makes it easier for me to hold the bottles steady. I like to paint in batches of 5, and us a paint rack made for Citadel pains to hold the smaller pill bottles. I have several racks made for 9 paint pots, 3 pots on three levels. I put two pill bottles on the top row, one in the middle row, and two on the bottom row. I then prime and base coat, zenithal them while the bottles are in the paint rack. Thanks for sharing, Friday's are great.

I got this tip from another KZfaqr, cannot remember which. Instead of an expensive textured dry brush pallet, I picked up a 10” square ‘not Lego’ brick base panel at DollarTree (now $1.25). After washing it with warm soapy water and letting it dry, it’s good to use. It is awesome and changed my dry brush results immediately. Bonus tip, they have a brush organizer in the hobby section, some assembly required, holds roughly two dozen brushes.

Something I use for model building is the plastic containers that some lunch meats come in, after using up the contents I wash out the container real well and let it dry, then I store and organize the various parts (and some entire kits if they are small enough) into them, having a label printer and tape handy helps with marking the containers. If I need something smaller to store the optional/extra parts (since the kit doesn't have that many) the plastic boxes commonly used for office supplies also work and tend to be very cheap.

I once was a a closet painter! And it was in the basement! For 3 years I did it, and it was nice to be able to close the bifold doors until the next paint session. But this summer I moved it into the room where the closet was. (Old man eyes needed more light). All of these ideas are amazing. Thanks for the creativity you add to the hobby work. Vids are always amazing!

As another old i want to share some of my hacks about these tools with you. Use a vertical mouse for your computer. It takes a couple of days to get used to it, but I can assure you it changed my life. I've used the closet organizer the same way you do, and I also use a hanging shoe organizer. Same system but with big pockets, useful for storing terrain making tools and other stuff. Finally, I also use the biggest clamps of my collection as miniature holders in batch painting, attaching them to the clamps with blu tack. So I can let them dry grabbed in the shelves in front of me, away from paint splatter and saving a lot of space in the table. Great video as always, cheers!

You could use a cheap doorway pull-up bar for an easy, removable place to hang your hobby rack

Tongue depressors. Obviously they can be used as stir sticks. But, I cut the ends off at an angle then sand that down to a "sharp" edge. It works great as a sculpting tool or a scraper that is firm enough to actually scrape but not so hard that it damages the surface you're scraping. Add some (blue) poster tack to the tongue depressors and you have a convenient want of holding only minis.

Sounds obvious but If you own a headlamp/bikelight or some other torch you use for outdoorsy stuff keep it nearby when Hobbying. When i'm looking for stuff i've dropped (which is ~85% of my hobby time) i find it great to place my headlamp on the floor and kinda shine it along the floor so anything gets picked out by casting shadows. Also great to look in those tiny crevices under stuff which seem to have the attraction of a supermassive blackhole, though often you need some form of long stick to get it, not sure where to buy one of those.

On those hanging organizers, I use dish pans. I have a project in each dish pan with the supplies that go with it. Works slick, grab and go.

You can never have too many clamps! I store my "immediate use" ones clipped to the shields on my airbrush spray booth. The extras are in a storage box under the desk. My quirky non-hobby tool is eyelash extension micro applicator brushes. They are often sold in packs of 10 at local hobby stores for silly money. I get mine in the hundreds for cheap off Amazon. Hope you are enjoying the show 👍😁

Arriving at the wrong side of 55, I discovered that foot cramp is a new treat I never knew was a thing. I'm yet to discover anything better than canned goods!

The closet hanger is a great suggestion1 But for those with the means and the space.... a roll-top desk is a great alternative to the closet hangers. Having pets, and the need to conceal, store the painting gear after done a session, a roll-top desk is a devine work area.

I have been using, for a good 15 years now, the quart containers that you get soup in from Chinese takeout. I use them for water pots, paint stripping, and part storage.

I’ve recently started using the textured wrap that’s usually for wrapping sprains and whatnot, the kind that you have to stretch to get it to stick to itself. But instead of injuries, I’ve been wrapping it around paintbrushes to give the more customized grips than say if you bought pencil grips.

Getting old means usually more empty pill bottles. I have found myself using empty pill bottles and some blue tack as makeshift model holders used while painting models.

Tooth picks for painting eyes, and then a small bit of paint on the edge of an Xacto-knife to paint the slit of a creature with vertical or horizontal pupils. A toothbrush holder is great for holding brushes as well.

My wife tends to buy more and more items through Amazon. I've taken to mining the packing materials for terrain. Some pieces of Styrofoam come preset looking like castles or fortresses with a need for only minor modifications.

I use £1 plastic shot glasses as miniature holders. Turn them upside down and you are done! Great for painting individual models as well as batch painting!

I use one of those soft-shell Plano tackleboxes to carry my tools, miniatures, and accessories. They usually come with free plastic cases inside to sort your baits and things, and they’re just big enough to fit some 1/72 scale-to-28mm miniatures in, as well as whatever other bits and bobs ya need. I manage to cram a bunch of generic minis I may need at a moments notice, extra dice, tokens, *and* some spare crafting supplies all in a single box-and the tacklebox itself carries about 3-4 of the boxes, with extra zipper storage on all the sides. I got mine on-sale at Walmart for $3!

Honestly, if theres ever a tea in the clearance ar my grocery store I'll grab it. Nothing's makes better forest floor terrain than actual plants! Just seal kt with mod podge.

As an old hobbyist who lives with severe chronic pain (I have spinal stenosis from collapsed lumbar discs), I try to adapt my condition to the tabletop hobby. My hands shake and my eyes aren’t so great so I use a digital microscope to aid me in applying liquid latex, which I use to mask areas of the mini off I don’t want to paint over . If I make a mistake with the latex it’s easy to remove so I can start again. Where I can I use an airbrush because it’s a lot more forgiving. I also use a wrist brace to steady my hand and protect my wrist. I will normally rest it on one of those bean heat packs when I’m painting. The type you pop in the microwave. There are a lot of everyday items you can adapt to the hobby. Whenever I can I do that to save money because as soon as you add the word hobby to something it automatically triples in price.

Great videos. It's always nice to think out of the box and find stuff to use outside the hobby stores. You know what would be cool? A video (or series thereof) of all the cool stuff a gamer or modeler can find in the art supply stores!

Thanks for sharing more tools of the trade that help you out that we wouldn’t normally associate with the hobby.

I find your videos particularly relaxing. I think it's because you have that fellow nerd energy. Like, hey lets chill and chat about nerd stuff, because it's actually really cool that we put time and energy into something we enjoy so much.

Honestly, first thing I thought of when I saw the first item was rolling out green stuff or polymer clay to have consistent thickness and not having to knead it so much. A bit like polymer clay jewelry folk use pasta makers.

I don't paint in a closet. I paint in an armoire i bought for $100 at a garage sale. I installed a slide-out shelf for my work surface and some cheap led strips inside. Screwed some shelves across the back for my wip and it IS great to just shut the doors and know the cats aren't going to jump up and destroy my work. I use bed bath and beyond "spice racks" for display of pinted armies.

I use a hang-on-a-door shoe organizer to hold my rattle cans.

Was great to meet you at GAMA, sir. You’re a fantastic ambassador for our hobby!

The closet organizer suggestion was worth it's weight in gold.

If you want to alleviate some of your hand strain, try adding a silicone grip on your brush to increase the circumference.

When I order a pizza at my lgs, I always use the top of the pizza box for my oil paint XD scrap cardboard works perfect. Plus you can recycle the a water bottle by cutting it in half and using it the bottom half to hold water, IPA, and any liquids needed 👍no need for expensive hobby tools if you just have them laying around already :)

In the last video I learned that those transparent shelves were for nail paint and that helped me a lot to buy good and cheap ones. I've had three for years and used them to organize and display whatever collectibles could fit inside. In this case, the infernal handheld device has been an instant purchase. It has nothing to do with the hobby, but after hours of working, my hands are a mess. These videos are very interesting!

After seeing the hanging shelves, i can already see myself using them for all my boxes of untouched miniatures, spare bits, and useful garbage waiting to be used. That and the ono device seem like a great idea. Thank you.

The ono fidget toy is probably something a doctor would encourage. That being said, there's a whole range of injury specific rehab doohickeys for hand pain, the vast majority of which are in the 10-15 bucks range, like stress balls or kneading dough with different resistances. The thing your doctor would prefer, most likely, is that you use a rubber grip extender on your brush so you can hold it comfortably (I thiiiink they start at about 5 bucks) and set up your keyboard so you can play ergonomically (absolutely free according to them, who assume you think your time has no value. Actual price: 15 to 45 minutes, depending on the level of McGyvering necessary)

Working in a hospital we have a lot of waste. A lot. I have a pile of unused scalpel, blades, hemostats, needle whatsits....all of it comes in handy.

Hey. I’m an OG dnd and Warhammer guy. Quick background… I did lawn maintenance for years and bartended .. For years. Now I’m cursed with arthritis in my thumbs and wrists. Painting is good because I don’t have to apply pressure. Stop holding the brush like your older brother is trying to take it away. All these new techniques has saved me. Slapchop and speed paint is so great that I can still get my boyz on the board. For me it’s hard to paint the way I’d like to, but paint in less intense modes.

Oh, yeah! Those little dollar store clamps are so helpful.

I don't know why the hanging organizers thing never hit me. I do my hobby stuff in a an unfinished basement as well. Concrete walls make setting up shelves a chore involving heavier tools than I'd like to deal with, and cheap Ikea bookshelves take up more space than I'd like and can't be placed where work tables would go... Plus you gotta make sure you've got drainage mats under them in case of water ingress, they're a tipping hazard, especially if your floor slopes because of drainage, etc. I'm about to get a bunch of these lol

If you're in an environment where its a/c controlled I find a fingerless glove on the hands resting on the desk can soften the contact and prevent a lot of pain. I don't use the mouse without wearing em. This way instead of having a cushion your your mouse pad that might be inconvenient but then you always got the bugger softening up surfaces you rest your mitts on.

I have arthritis in my hands, and I just spent the better part of the day hand drafting wood-working plans. My hands and my back hate me, right now, and I'm for sure getting one of those Ono things. Probably a good roller for working out the knots in my back, too.

Not little but super important for me - I recently found an excellent table that I can use while stuck in bed or on the couch (functional neurological disorder life). It’s the first now that goes low enough to not further damage my wrists, and it’s worth is adjustable and so can go over my double bed. I figure the best one for people will depend on your country but if you google for adjustable over bed table and look for one that goes nice and low and also pretty wide..

Instead of clamps I use rubberised clothes pegs. Found most clamps had too much force. Glass droppers from the food prep aisle for transfering paint. Plastic shot glasses for mixing airbrush paint.

Something I only recently discovered exists is "Superglue Activator", available from a variety of manufacturers. Apply glue to one part, spray the other lightly with the activator and it grabs instantly. Alternatively you can glue the joint as usual, adjust until you're happy with it and then give it a quick spray to lock it in. Lastly, if you have a gap that needs filling but can't be bothered with modelling putty, you can use baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) and superglue to quickly fill a gap which can then be sanded/filed down as normal if needed.

To go with your hanging storage thingie, there are about a million different sizes of plastic storage tubs. You could probably find one that fits almost perfectly. That would let you cram more stuff in each one.

*shuffles feet* Um... SO yeah.. I quite literally putt my painting station in a closet, normal not walk-in, when I was in a smaller place than now. Hung ga light from the closet rod. Frankly it was kinda awesome.

the clips that they sell for resealing bags of potato chips, etc, can also work in a pinch.

As someone who basically collects hobbies, thank you for telling me to organize my clamps better. Also those closet organizers for use in a basement sounds like just the best thing.

I haven't tried this yet - just returning to modelling after retirement - but I have been thinking that velcro straps would be the answer to holding awkward shapes together while the glue dries. If necessary with a tissue layer underneath to prevent them being accidentally glued to the model.

I use plastic bins from the dollar tree to store so many things, large bins about the size of a sheet of letter paper in both 2 inch and four inches tall work great for miniatures collections. Also the small hardware organizer is amazing For assembling multi part hard plastic kits.

If you paint a lot of terrain or want to have a consistent zenithal highlight the best tool is a lazy susan.

Some advice for hand soreness while playing PC games. Try changing from WASD to...and hear me out...RightClickADF, swapping S for whatever you used to use right click for. Your left hand will be in a a MUCH more natural position, and holding right click to move forward is far easier than holding W, at least for me a fellow old who has big hands.

I’ve been painting minis since 1978. I’m getting old but still kitbashing, painting, and gaming. Thanks for the informative video. Keep up the good work ya zogger. I’ve got an organizer that holds paints and hangs in a closet. It’s purposely made for paints. Got it in AC Moore like 25 years ago.

I use a silicon pad for electrical soldering all the time! it gives a non-slip surface to work on and small parts dont roll of as easy!

lol. I actually paint in a closet. Took the doors off the closet in my room and set a desk back in there. Great space to hobby.

Great ideas, i use a variety of clothes pegs like you do with the clamps. Other ideas, lolly sticks, tooth picks, cheap disposable nail files and makeup brushes make really good highlighting and they are cheap.

Use the plastic granny grating as basing material, it makes for great grating for scifi minis.

"Spolier Alert: I'm old" Okay, I LOL'ed. Being a geek _d'un certain age_, this video series reminds me a lot of the days before 3D printing when every castoff bit of kitchen or bathroom garbage could become a bunker, a power generator, or a ruined tor.

Paused at 4min to say I've seen so many of your vids and never realized just how much you talk with your hands. It makes me feel like home and I'm glad you pointed it out. My Italian grandma would approve. :)

I'll occasionally use a "helping hands" base. Its primarily a tool used for soldering small electronics, but if you wrap some painters tape around the teeth on the clips it works great for holding our tiny people/monsters.

I use a lot of corks! Had a friend who worked in a bar and got me 100s of corks from the wine bottles. Great to break down and use as small rocks etc for terrain. But also, drill a little hole, in it and one in your mini, then glue in some metal wire (something similar to what you would use for pinning) in to a foot or something that'll be on the base and then you have a perfect stand/holder and can prime the whole thing really easily and even paint them on there too.

ratcheting quick-release clamps let you control the pressure applied. pillbottles with dollar tree glass marbles/stones filling the bottom half for painting handles (I got enough problems to do several projects in a cycle). THey fit nicely in: nail polish racks. holds pots, droppers, and pillbottle handles. desk rack and wall mounts, but with enough paints, I'm questioning the efficacy. tackle box: bits and/or model transport (no more than 28mm, though) catscratch pad: easy drying rack for airbrush jobs/rattle can primed/lacquer jobs. This one's more for the Gunpla/vehicle side makeup brush cleaner sponge: a little water and makes an excellent drybrush moistener not lego texture pallet: 8" from dollar tree, but it's just for a base. add a few more bricks to it, then superglue some additional angles because variety helps. priming it is another good idea craft needle/button punch: for when the wood of a toothpick isn't string enough to scrape/pry open. at dollar tree, these are usually too dull to scribe panel lines or pilot drill holes, but for un-making dried paint in recesses, second to none for not damaging the plastic.

My wife clued me into the shoe hangers years ago, great place to store that pile of shame in boxes :D

Clamps for every kit1 Hobby crafting, First=Aid, and, of course, tool kit. Hooks, cord, and clamps let you hang a first-aid kit where you need to work with it. Off your trunk lid, tree, random pole, etc. The same for crafting. I saw an organizer vlog use tension bars vertically off a desk to the ceiling to create a panel wall. Same goes here as well. Such a rapid install (and maybe daily breakdown too) could provide convenient tool, paint, glue space in arms reach but off the table. Very much enjoyed this video. Thank you!

I use painters tape/similar paper-ish tape when clamps does not work.

I use the big shoe organizers for terrain. Easy to hang and keeps things tidy. A sheet over it keeps dust off it all. Clamps rock!

I made some soldering clamps from strips of titanium, I don't find them very useful for soldering, they are however, very useful for holding parts while gluing

In my hobby space I have three plastic kitchen cutting boards for my projects. They protect my table nicely and were inexpensive. I keep a small hoard of resealable plastic bags for parts and such. For squads, I use medicine measuring cups and poster putty as paint handles.

I make jewelry, and holding the material still causes major hand cramps, so I might check out the first item, thank you.

As an older guy myself, I appreciate the first tip.

The first one I find interesting as I get bad cramps in my hand sometimes.

Just got the Ono fidget toy/tool. Very smooth motion and, even with small hands like mine, easy to manipulate.

That hand fidget toy sounds amazing. My hands are killing me after a day of fiber splicing and driving across the city to do said fiber splicing. Thank you!! For the clamps, i do have one of those little stands with a magnifying glass and 3 arms with alligator clips. Works good for little minis. Im always worried that it will leave teeth marks, so i put some cloth between the teeth and the mini.

On the clamps, I like to use a helping hands tool folks use for soldering. This gives you a clamp plus you can position them however you want.

I'm in the middle of moving and my new hobby room is a walk in closet, lol!

Silicone Dog Mats. I use one flipped upside down for a smooth surface when airbrushing, so it's easier to peel the over spray off and protect my table.

I dont know how I have not subbed to you yet, but you sir are an easy listen with great information

The clamps idea is golden. Thank you!