There's a few things I dislike in real life like waiting, stupid people, children, teenagers, old people, people in general, messed up coffee order, being stuck in traffic, full trains, religion and atheists, Summer, Winter and a whole bunch of other stuff but as a wargamer the thing that really grinds my gears is paying for the
Peripherals.
That's the hobby tools and in this review/rant/comparison we'll compare the prices (in New Zealand Dollars) of the more commonly used modelling tools. I'm also well aware that I could've poped down to the local $2 shop and got craft knives and super glue up the wazoo, but hey, I'm a professional (I'm also aware of the irony).
So here we go Games Workshop VS Gale Force 9
Super Glue
Basically it's the same stuff anywhere you go however being super glue and in a bottle is where the similarity ends the GF9 Glue has more in it 1oz or 28.4gm while the GW stuff 0.17oz or 5gm and the price GF9 $10.00 and GW $15.00
Hobby Knife
A basic hobby knife with a scalpel blade used for cutting things (duh) the GW knife offers and ergonomic rubber handle and is designed to be used in key modelling positions and comes with 12 spare blades by comparison the GF9 hobby knife has much less fanfare it's used for cleaning mould lines and cutting plastic however it only comes with 5 spare blades
price GF9 $15.00 and GW $30.00
Sprue/Plastic Cutters
These tools are great for chopping through plastic sprue to help hasen your trip to modelling town I'm generally a bit harsher on mine I used the GF9 cutter on the right here to cut heads of metal minis it's not what it was designed for but it works. Once again both similar products in nature although it seems GW have updated theirs to go down to a 1mm point of which the GF9 already has.
price GF9 $20.00 and GW $30.00
Hobby Drill
Mostly used to drill holes in weak points in miniatures for secure pinning or putting on a large base etc GF9 refers to theirs as a Model Pinning
System whereas GW still call theirs the Hobby Drill the GW version comes with 6 spare 1mm drill bits (I still have my GW drill from 1998) The GF9 drill has just the one bit a maple wood handle (I'm not sure if this was supposed to impress?) and 3 bits of brass rod to get you pinning although stolen paperclips work just fine.
price GF9 $20 (for an extra $10 you can get 2 different drill bits and 12 rods) and GW $30
Bone Saw
These bad boys wouldn't look out of place as part of a carpenters tool kit but these are mostly used for big conversion jobs like cutting up Landraiders and taking the limbs of giant monsters not essential but it's one of those things you need just encase also you can't buy the GW one online because "we're not able to sell chunky blades like this online because, without age verification, anyone can get their hands on it - younger children and goblins alike"
(I haven't taken mine out of the plastic yet)
price GF9 $20.00 and GW $45.00
Tape Measures
The most important tool for any wargamer and you'll go through about 20 in about 10 years of gaming although you can get them at any hardware store the gaming tape must have 2 things on it Centimeters and Inches as we all know proper wargames are played in inches and for some reason a strange few like to play in centimeters. Both of these tapes are 10ft long and have a lock to keep you ranged in the GF9 tape however says it has tensile strength for up to four (4) feet good for faux sword fighting.
price GF9 $10.00 and GW $9.00
So in summing up GF9 is the cheapest however there are other options your local hardware store probably has all these items for less than half of all this it's up to you how you want to spend your money.
