This thread discusses the Content article: Modeling supplies from unlikely places.

Those are good tips. I have a few of my own.

a) Sometimes, I use natural product to create trees. I have an old-dead bonsai tree I use as a regular tree on the gaming table. Similarly, when you break off small branches of certain trees ( I found plum trees to be the best for this), they do look like gnarled old trees. Just glue them on to a base and voila, you have your magical forres ready. If you wish for a bit of greenery on them, simply add some moss (surprisingly, can also be found outside, if you know where to look for it). If it is needle trees you fancy, do not go looking for them to the hobby store, but instead, pick up couple of cones in a forrest. They do look like pines trees and do not break when you transport them.
Another source of decent "tree stuff" are grapes. Just eat off the fruit and what you get is the grape structure. Let it dry over a heater. They are well branched and quite strong to last.

b) styrofoam. Styrofoam is a useful material for making terrain. I especially like to use the hardened one - we call it extruded styrofoam, some people call the insulation foam... what ever. If you walk by some bg constructions, you will see that they have big boards of this stuff they use to insulate the houses. How about asking them, if they have some spare stuff - perhaps cut offs?

c) I store lots of stuff in a box at home - these are all used stuff from the household. Be they broken locks, used tubes of pringles chips, washing powder boxes, broken down electronics stuff... you name it, I probably have it. It is a great source of material when you need it.

d) sand can be also obtained from construction sites.

e) small pieces of electrical wiring can be also obtained at construction sites.

f) instead of sand, I like to use soil on my bases. It is finer than sand and it is already brown, so you do not have to worry about painting brown in the first place.

g) arts stores sell acrylic paints for artists. While these paints are not that good for using on your miniatures, they are simply greeeeeat for your terrain. And they are way bigger and way cheaper than the paints we use for our models.

h) if you want to make big boulders of rocks on you bases, it is better to get chips of tree bark. Suprisinly, it often looks more rocky, than actual rocks.

i) toy stores are a great source of stuff. Just go there and look at the cheapest toys you can find. Be they plastic animals made-in-china, or small trees. Or just some building blocks, sometimes small knights or monsters. You can even buy there whole plastic castles. And they cost only a penny or so.

j) carpenters, furniture makers etc. are great source for texture materials and small pieces of wood.

k) look at various natural suff - such as birch tree seeds, flowers, moss etc. They are great for making scenic bases.

And there is one more way for the less financially fortunate. This time, it is about how to get money for your hobby.

Recently, I bought a pouch. I throw whatever coin of a larger value then a certain, pre-defined amount, that ends in my vallet at the end of each day. It works like a piggy bank, really, but I find I can save amazing amounts of money that way.

For example: I save only 10, 20 and 50 Czech Crowns coins. In one month I saved well over 400 Crowns, which makes for about 20 USD, or half of plastic KOR boxed set. Not bad, huh?

I found, that by doing this, I tend to spend much less money on the small pleasures of every day life, than I normally would. I do not buy nuts or drinks, small interesting things that attract my attention... basically, any of the small things we all buy every day simply because we can.

It does not mean, that I do not have any coins on me. There are still plenty of smaller coins to get me through. But by saving an average of 10 Crowns (50 cents) every day, I do not burden my budget and at the same time save enough for the hobby.

After all, it takes me months to complete each regiment, so I have always enough money to buy more (or I would have, if I did not have other, more expensive hobbies).

Post edited by: Montforte, at: 2007/11/01 09:10

An excellent idea and a good way to make sure you have a steady way to expand and build your army in controlled growths.

I don't tend to squirrel away spare coin, as I don't often use cash anymore, rather I set aside $20 every month for gaming, and don't go a penny over.

I had forgotten about the fantastic possibilities with wire, though when I am using wire I tend to be building something strange for my IG Armored Company and since I am in a major Bret modeling spree atm it completely skipped my mind. (Wire is the best-damned antenna material out thereā?¦to say nothing of putting dots of super glue all over a length of wire and then dipping it into a box of finely chopped up plastic sprue slag and making yards of 'barbedā? wire).

Seize the Day!!

All Hallow's Eve hath passed and all those artsy fartsy* craft stores want to unload their halloween decorations so now's the time to visit and shop on terrifying structures and decorations like haunted castles, haunted houses, graveyards, houses of government, etc.

You can repeat this function after Thanksgiving and Christmas, I alwaysshop for those quaint snow topped stone or brick walls. A dabble of green piant on the snow, some white glue trickled from the top to the ground then spinkle with static grass or green powder and you have moss and ivy abundant.

*Artsy-Fartsy; Middle English from the 12th century when cheap restaurants sold dried flowers and twigs for home decor along with clay pots, small iconic sculptures and a Lithuanian Henway** or two. The bad food, although cheap, produced terminal flatulence

**Lithuanian Henway: What's a Lithuanian Henway? About two-three pounds when fully dressed.

d'Ascoyne