In the online community, Joe from the Broken Paintbrush has written a book dedicated to our hobby, and improving our skills. Thought I would throw a shout out to him, and his book. I am reading it now, and especially if you are new to the hobby, or like me, need to always brush up on their skills, this is a good book to look at. Price wise.... its just under $5, so is a good resource book that you can take with you.
Ever gotten your Xacto knife glued to your fingers, glued your eye lids shut? (true stories from friends of mine), This book is for you.
How to Improve Your Hobby Building Skills
https://brokenpaintbrush.com/books/improve-hobby-building-skills/
Want to learn how to build plastic miniatures? Or learn some advanced techniques to improve your kitbashing, conversion, and get started in sculpting? Then the first full-length book in the Beginner to Happy Series: How to Improve Your Hobby Building Skills is for you.
How to Improve Your Hobby Building Skills Book
I have built hundred of minis over the years and put together some tutorials on this site. After being asked by many readers for more in-depth help, I have been working on a series of books. Each will go much deeper than any post could and organized so that it assist you on your path from Beginner to Happy.
What’s in the Book
In this 104 page book, I broke it down into three main parts:
The most basic skills, including helping the absolute beginner build your first miniature, a list of tools, safety, and glue
A deeper dive into how to build your miniature, including prepping each piece, simple conversion, and re-posing, filling gaps, and building a base
Advanced techniques, including composition theory, converting, bit bashing, and basic sculpting
Table of Contents
- Part One: The Basics
- Your First Miniature
- Safety
- The Basic Tools
- Choosing the Right Glue
- Part Two: Building
- Preparing the Miniature
- Attaching the Pieces
- Making it Your Own
- Filling Gaps and Covering Mistakes
- Building the Base
- Planning
- Part Three: Modify and Create
- Composition
- Adjusting the Pose
- Converting
- Sculpting
- Building in Damage