The Uff-Puff..... A Review

Well I never thought I would have that as a title of a blog post but that's the curve ball of this wacky hobby and well it's a wacky product so why not?

The uff-puff is the nickname the Baccus family have given to the new basing aid or to use it's Sunday name The Baccus Static Grass Applicator, priced at £1.75 for the UK. This little fella (7cm long) is a plastic bellows like device that you 3/4 or so fill with static grass and literally pump out the static grass onto the glue you have added to your bases and it simply blows the grass out of the applicator and hay presto the flock is standing upright.

Here is a close up of the Saka horse I posted about yesterday. I have always had reasonable results by sprinkling them onto the base though the weight of the flock tends to force it flat and the glue tended to end up covering a wider area on the base. Neither were deal breakers as it was far better than the flock method I used before.

Here is a closer view of other figures I based up at the same time and as you can see it really works well. If you want the full carpet effect you can do that as well, it looks like a neatly mowed lawn with almost uniformly straight grass which will really appeal to many. Personally I like the bare patches though it's not so authentic.

Works perfectly well with 28's as well as the smaller scales. I have yet to do field tests with troops on the table but I have handled the bases in less than ideal ways and it's stood up to that test.

The process is not fast though, it will slow down my basing as you need to keep filling it up and don't forget to shake every about 20-30 puffs for best results. I have to admit that I can see the slow down as a bit of a turn off but to those people who are put off is that compared to the time taken to paint up the figures the very short period of applying the static grass by either method is a drop in the ocean but the difference between the two methods is well worth the extra time. OK using the old adage of the two foot rule you can't see a difference (actually you can, just) I say that when someone stoops to look at my figures I don't like to cringe. It's a great new addition to my basing arsenal and it would be a good buy at more than double the price, just don't tell Peter.

HMG Matt Varnish

I have mentioned before how highly I regard Vallejo Matt Varnish. But on the recent trip to Triples I only managed to score one can as Lee made off with the other two tins. But late in the day we stumbled on a trader selling a strange looking can and given one can was not enough......

Actually one of his selling points was that Leon from Adler used his spray. So I bought a can and was quick to test it that evening. I was happy enough to buy a second can on the Sunday and so I suppose I really ought to tell you about it.

HMG are a British paints supplier and the name is not a gadget name for our small hobby. They are a large company from what I can make out and a small division of the company makes hobby related products but mostly for the model planes and such. The only supplier I have found so far is Figures In Comfort Ltd. You know the guys who make the figure carry cases for the rich players amongst us ;-)

At the show the cans were priced at £8.50 but on line they are £8 at the moment, maybe you can bag a bargain or two. Aerosol cans are no longer allowed to be shipped abroad and now have to be sent by carrier (though the last one I ordered came by Royal Mail). So unless you track down a supply in your own country this review is just for mainland Britain.

The spray arc is reasonably tight and well directed, so it goes where you point. Army Painter spray always seems to spray to one side or the other, never straight ahead. It also is a really fine spray so it settles well across the figures. This has a lot I think to do with this.

The little yellow box sticks out the front of the nozzle and the hole is pin hole sized. This allows for the nice even mist like spray. Not that it comes without problems if not used properly. Due to the small hole it can be prone to clogging if you spray for long lengths or don't invert and run a short spray to clear the nozzle. In fact when the chap selling me my second can realised I had already bought a can he opened a draw and gave me the extra nozzle in case I had a problem. He also said that it did clog you can often clear it with white spirit but I am guessing if the worst comes to the worst you order a fresh can from them and ask for a replacement nozzle. I certainly will if I ever have to break into my spare.

The varnish dries 100% flat matt. None of this slight shine to it, the colours of the painting really show through the finish. I would say the figures look better post spraying than before, how often can you say that?

Drying time is a bit of a downer though. The can says 5-15 minutes between coats which may well be correct but the figures remained sticky for over a hour when I sprayed them up and the ones sprayed about an hour ago are still tacky (I am going on touching the base not the figures). So if you in a hurry, not the best can to reach for, but the rest of the time it seems the perfect spray for me.

Figures In Comfort are at Partizan next weekend so if your going to the show it may well be worth picking up a can or two. If you do, do me a favour, tell the guy you read a review on a blog and that's why your buying the can. No need to mention my blog, I just want suppliers to realise just how useful blogs can be to their business. At the moment blogs remain a fairly untapped resource for hobby suppliers and I'd like them to utilise us more.

Rosemary & Co Brush Review

I have been using the Rosemary and Co. brushes for about a month now.  started off with the series 401 Sable Blend hoping for the best of both worlds. The extra quality and wear of Sable with the lower price points of, well anything else. Price point wise these are on the surface a great brush. They hold paint well and keep a point and when they do seem to splay just a quick dip in the water pot and a suck and twist of the brush and the hairs are back in place. Sounds a match made in heaven.

Kolinsky Sable top three. Bottom three are Sable Blend.

Well possibly, but as you will see from the photos the brush has a very annoying habit of curling at the tip. A closer view is below. The brush itself is lighter than the series 33 Kolinsky Sable as I suspect they use a different wood in the handle. It really is a shame the brush can't stop from curling, yes for me it's too light but that aside it would be a good brush except for this one fault. I am sure for other than miniature figure painting it does the job well. However I bought three of the Kolinsky Sable (originally one)  to see how much better the posh brush was. Well I have painted with the Ser. 33 brushes far more than the Blended Ser. 401 and have been far more impressed. Not only does the brush hold the paint well allowing less trips to the paint but it needs less tweaks to keep the point well dressed but no sign of curling of the point. The 10/0 has a habit of the whole bristle head being pushed to an angle from use but returns to a central position with a quick suck and twist (I say Vicar).  See below for a close up.

The sizes from top to bottom 10/0, 3/0, 2/0, 3/0, 2/0 and 1. As you can see I have zoomed in really close and no sign of curl on the Ser. 33 but a fairly pronounced curl on the less used and cheaper Ser. 401. I guess you simply get what you pay for in this case. Of course these need a lot more use than they have had to this point to prove that they are indeed the best brush for the money spent. I obviously have not compared them to Winsor & Newton top brushes but would only be too happy to do so if they want to send me a few to try ;-)

 

It's a shame about the Ser. 33 as that would have been a fantastic result but really I am happy with the results that seem to be coming from Ser. 33. Give me another month or two of hard working of the brushes and if they are still standing up to the work then  will be a very happy bunny. The Creative Models triangular brush always kept it's point for me but the bristles wore down at a fairly quick pace so I tended to carry on using them way past becoming the 10/0 size of brush!

 

Price wise Series 33 starts at £3.40 for size10/0 and goes up to £325 for the size 22! Relax though the largest most of us would want is the size 1 at £3.70 Due to my findings I will be offering the Series 33 brushes in the give away and not the 401's originally stated.

Vallejo Matt Varnish V Army Painter Varnish

When I first came back to painting figures, what 9 months ago? I just nipped to Maelstrom Games and picked up a bunch of paints, a spray can of Primer and Varnish and a few brushes. The problem with Maelstrom is that they do not have prices displayed for ANYTHING. Sure they have a computer you can type in the barcode and get the price or you can ask but that's as far as it goes with them. So I was not aware of the prices of this stuff until I got hoe and checked the receipt. I was in for a shock, both the primer and the varnish notched up at £8.99 per can. It seems whilst paints seem to have stayed static in price the cost of varnish has gone up. Also note that Maelstrom tend to be 10% cheaper than most other shops (same discounts on line). So when I needed to replace them I decided to try out Army Painter which have a more attractive price.

I will start with Army Painter. The can size is the same for both AP and Vallejo (400ml) for varnish and primer which is possibly why both ran out at the same time.

The Primer has a good saving, only £6.75 opposed to the £8.99 and after all it's primer so who needs to be picky right? Well sort of. First up the coverage is grainy. The finished surface is slightly bumpy in looks. It paints fine but I feel not as smoothly as Vallejo. Nothing so bad that I would not use it and in truth if I had bought this first I would not have tried the more expensive Vallejo. It's hard to quantify but I feel that the Vallejo sprayed more figures, but that's a hunch.

The Varnish works fine, again compared with Vallejo it sprays thicker but I have had no issues with clouding or post spray disasters. Price wise it's £7.65 so just over a £1 saving. Again that nagging feeling it failed to cover as many figures but in fact out lasted the primer buy two units. Given the need to go over the figures less than with the Vallejo leaves me thinking I am right about the coverage being lower. This would mean the £1 saving is eaten into with a need to replace the sooner. Another issue but one of taste, the Matt finish is more Satin than true Matt which for some is a plus point but if you want flat matt this is probably not your spray.

Vallejo primer, well when I first used it I forgave the price. The spray was really smooth and coverage good. One issue and it's been proven out with the varnish and that's the spray direction. It's crap, it tends to spray off centre so the first squirt at the figures tends to miss, you reposition and off you go. Whilst this is annoying it's not major but given the price I would expect better. AP by comparison is a straight shooter. Nice white colour and sets up the figures for painting. Also it requires less passes to get the figure fully covered so this may well be where it gets the edge on figures primed.

The Varnish just like the primer has a really fine spray, again this means it is quick to get done and coverage is great. I do find though that it is less forgiving than AP and clouds really quickly. The good news is that every time this has happened it's cleared after 10-15 heart in mouth seconds. I guess the advantage is that it acts as a constant reminder not to push it. Also due to the fine spray it dries quickly allowing several coats if required.

Neither Army Painter or Vallejo are bad products, in fact both do a good job and if money is super tight then AP will serve you very well indeed. But taking in the coverage issue I would not buy AP Varnish over Vallejo, the coverage and results are just to good and I doubt you would save more than pence. However the primer is well worth considering if you need a lot or money is that tight. I think the cost to effect still favours Vallejo but it's not as clear cut. Recently my AP sprays gave out, which did I buy? Vallejo for both tasks but next time it may well have to be AP for the primer and in honesty I can live with that.

DON'T FORGET THE GIVE AWAY, click HERE and enter your choice for the item /s you want. Only 6 days to go.