A couple of weeks ago, a few of us from the shop, went to Aero Hobbies in Lewisville, Texas. It is a store that we were meaning to visit for a while, but never had time. However, since we had Tim from NEWay Designs visiting us from 3 hours away for Texicon, we figured that we had to make the trip. Tim is very into RC cars, drones, and planes and there aren't many stores by him that sell supplies and accessories for them. Aero Hobbies, had a variety of different products, including Games Workshop's Warhammer products.
While it was great to see that they had this miniature hobby product, the only thing is, it was not *that type* of hobby store. Therefore, the items sat, for a very... long... period of time. I mean long as in they had product from at least 2 40K editions ago, and the paint was still "retail priced" at $3.75 instead of the current $4.25. Now of course, this is not to say that this is the fault of the store owner or Games Workshop. There was no way the store owner could have known at the time that the product was not going to move. Otherwise I am pretty sure that he would not have spent the few thousand dollars required for an opening order. It is completely understandable that a hobby store would purchase different types of hobby products to see what sells, what doesnt, or even just to try something new and bring in new business. I am sure the owner figured it was a good idea because there are stores like Hobbytown USA who have that same kind of variety. Also there is the point that Games Workshop is a business, and their business is selling hobby product to stores and people.
This is also definitely not the first time that I have seen this. In December, Brandon and I went to Asel Art Supply in Dallas, and they had a Games Workshop retail display as well. While I did find it surprising to find Warhammer models in an art supply store, I can see how they would end up there. Models that you can paint + painting is art = models you can paint, being sold in an art store. Yup, makes sense.
Now what makes me sad about these situations, is seeing all those models and paints just sitting without a home, collecting dust on the shelves.
When I was at Asel, I took photos of the display and posted it on Facebook so that my local friends can see it and hopefully help them move the items. At Aero, I told them about selling and trade groups aside from eBay to sell off their items. Then I noticed that they still had paints and the GW Shades . I absolutely love the GW shades and between all the Warhammer armies that we own in the house, the commissions that we get in, and the other techniques that I use the shades for, we go through a lot of it pretty quickly. It was the same way with the GW washes for years before. I looked at how many GW shades Aero Hobbies had and then I had a thought. So I asked the store owner if it would be okay for me to purchase them at what his cost was. He was kind enough to allow me to purchase them at his cost, and I managed to get 24 GW shades for $48! I was so excited!
Then of course came the next step of transferring them to dropper bottles like I usually do with my GW and P3 paints. ICYMI, there is a video on the YouTube channel that I did about the process and how I do it:
Since there were 4 or more of each shade color in the lot, I was going to have to find larger bottles. So I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased a six pack of mixing and squeeze bottles . The bottles were each two ounces and the regular size bottle of GW shades is .4 ounces, I figured that just about all of the bottles of shades should fit including the dropper bottles I already had.
I poured the shades into the bottles, then I used one or two droppers full of my dilution mix (1/2 Liquitex Flow-Aid, 1/2 distilled water) to put into the mostly empty bottle. I shook the mix well to get out as much of the excess shade as I could, and poured the rest in the bottle. I gently removed a label from each of the shades to stick on the bottles as well, and this was the result:
I managed to fit all, but one Nuln Oil. I will take that as a victory, especially since I still managed to save a lot of room.
So you see kids, the moral of the story is, that you never know what you will find at your local specialty hobby and art stores. Also, if you see that the items are not doing the store owners any favors except for collecting dust, if you ask politely and give a fair offer, you might be able to manage to get a good deal. It can be a win-win situation. You will get an item that you want, and you can help them make room for items that they can actually sell at their location.
Until next time,
Stay crispy in milk and
Keep on painting,
--Lyn