No progress on my Cap model; just wanted to mention my trip to Michaels today. When ordering online, Amazon is the place to go, but if I need something right now, there are only two places in town that really provides for modellers: Hobbytown USA, and Michaels. When it comes to basic supplies (and maybe a few odd items here and there) Michaels is our go-to craft store. Problem is, building models can rapidly become an expensive hobby. Not just buying the models themselves, which can range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars, but the supplies.

This trip was courtesy of my family; Monique’s sister Anne and her family gifted me with some Michael’s giftcards for a recent birthday. Her Mom also had some giftcards for me. Between the two, I went on a wild shopping spree. Well, semi-wild. As I said, supplies cost a fortune. But this time I got to enjoy the shopping, and didnt’ have to spend a penny!

A few months ago, I had a coupon for Michaels, and cleaned them out on the acrylic paints aisle. Now we have more paints than I know what to do with… the only trouble is figuring out which drawer I put that one particular color in. Even with the huge stock of paints, sometimes Monique or I want a color we didn’t think to get. Today, it was mahogany. Wanted it for a dark wood-grain color. The closest available was Nutmeg… and Barn Red. With some judicious blending, I think they’ll work.

I grabbed a couple bottles of Testor’s Model Cement. It’s supposed to work well with Bondo to create a smoother seam. After my first attempt to use Bondo, that makes sense. The joins tend to have rough spots here and there that only showed up after painting the base coat on. I’m looking forward to trying the cement mixture to see how well it works.

Got some flat spray varnish, because we’re always running out. To begin with, the spray came out only when the model was finished. One last coat of protection. Since then, I’ve learned to spray right after any major stage is finished. It protects that work, and gives me some ability to gently remove later mistakes. Not like an unlimited free pass, but it helps.

Grabbed some Acrylics Palette Paper. It was kind of a mistake, but one of those good ones, that actually turn out well. Years ago, I bought a small circular palette tray, and it came with a clear plastic cover to keep the paint fresh. Now, they don’t seem to come with covers (unless you get the more expensive ones). After seeing these at Michaels off and on for a while, I thought they were supposed to be used as covers for my palette tray. After getting them home and looking online, they turn out to be used with a specific palette tray that’s meant to work with the paper. The nice part, the trays they work with are reasonably priced, and the review we found raved about how long the paint stayed fresh using these papers. So, next time Monique or I order something from Amazon, we’ll get a couple of the palette trays too.

Pipe cleaners, because they’re handy for lots of things. Especially cleaning out airbrush barrels. I’d eventually like to try the wire-bristle ones Amazon sells on a ring. But for now, these are cheap, and throw-away as necessary. Got them in white so we could really see how dirty they get. Since the airbrush is still new to me, I’m not sure if I have to use a fresh pipe cleaner each time, or if they have some re-usability.

The Mix and Save paint storage bottles are useful. Both of us use them already, they’re inexpensive, and it’s always nice to have spares. If I mix too much of a color, I can save it against later need. Or I can deliberately mix up a large batch of, say, flesh tones in varying tints and shades.

Our collection of fine-grain sandpaper has been wearing thin. With both of us building models, the old stock I had is pretty much worn out by now. No special need, or new modeling tricks here. Just a necessity for smoothing out those rough seems where the putty didn’t smooth on as well as it could have. If these kits are like the ones I already had, then they’ll stand a lot of use before wearing out. Three packs seemed like a reasonable amount to last a while.

The glue tip caps were a mistake that may work out, or may not. Monique has been asking me to find some replacement tips for the putty tubes. While shopping today, I thought she wanted glue-cap replacements, and bought these. They may still come in handy.

I’ve been saving the best for last: Ground Cover! I have another Captain America model for after the one I’m currently working on (titled Let Freedom Ring). There’s a very nice site someone else wrote, detailing how he built his. It’s a fabulous guide, and I intend to use a lot of his techniques. One thing he mentions is the use of model railroad supplies to make the base look more realistic. So as I was leaving Michaels, and just looking around for inspiration, these bags of three ground cover textures just kind of jumped out. They’re perfect for that future model project. It was purely serendipitous, and a wonderful way to wrap up the shopping trip.

If you’ve got a nearby Michaels or other hobby stores, you can probably find any of this stuff pretty easily. I’ve included a few links to Amazon, for those of you without local access, or maybe who just prefer to shop online. I hope my little collection of supplies inspires someone. And… Mom, Sis, thanks for the free shopping trip… I enjoyed it!!