Review: Couple of Hobby Supplies

Lately I have been having marathon painting and modeling sessions to try and clear the painting queue for my Americans. Although I don't really enjoy painting, to keep things fresh I have been trying new methods that will hopefully save me time, deliver good results, and keep me motivated through the end of the project. I have already described how the airbrush has aided me (here and here, for example) and subsequently rekindled my desire for painting German tanks. But the airbrush still cannot really help me with 15mm infantry. Mostly my painting method for infantry boils down to the method described in this article (hint: it's a lot of dry-brushing). But two hobby supplies have recently helped make both my tanks and infantry stand out just a little more. These are: 1. The line of "tufts" by Army Painter; and 2. Vallejo's new pigments.

First, the tufts. These have been, without hyperbole, one of the best values for my dollar that I have ever bought for this hobby. For a mere $5 I was able to place two tufts of cool-looking flowers on each of the 50-ish small, medium, and large bases that I had to complete, with enough left over for at least another 20 bases.

Review: Desert Hazards Box

One of my current long-term projects is in conjunction with the Early War DAK that I am building.  My local FLGS, Brother's Grim Games and Hobbies, generally doesn't have a lot of desert-themed terrain.  The war in Africa has always interested me, and so lately I have been working towards acquiring enough terrain for a North Africa table.  I would like to one day have enough terrain to build a variety of settings, but for now I'm just trying to collect as much as I can.

A couple of months ago I saw the Desert Hazards Box by Battlefront on the FoW shelf at Grim. For $30, I knew I had to have it. When I cracked it open I wasn't disappointed. Let's get to the pics (I used a StuG and medium base for scale):