It’s Mini Monday, and this week I’m going to introduce you to my new favourite kitbashing and converting substance: guitar wire.
Metal guitar wire, as far as I understand, comes in six thicknesses: thin, thicker… well, you get the picture. What matters is that it has many great properties that make it perfect for miniature conversion and kitbashing work:
- It’s wire, so you can bend it and cut it like wire!
- It’s tightly wound and won’t uncoil like a spring might.
- It’s the perfect thickness for detail work and comes in a variety of thicknesses, so you can use whichever size works best for the job you’re doing.
- One string goes a very long way.
- Once bent, guitar wire maintains its shape fairly well.
- Musicians throw it away when they’re done with it. That’s right, it’s literally free if you know somebody who plays the guitar.
Ask Not What You Can Do For Guitar Wire…
Guitar wire gets used for pipes and cables mostly (first mini, above), but here are a few more ideas:
- Guts! Check out mini number 2, above!
- Arms! Mini number 3 had her arm rebuilt with thick guitar wire and modelling epoxy. The original arm was hopelessly too short, but the bendable wire made this an easy fix. I like the ribbed detailing it gives her arm where I left the wire exposed.
- Handles! He-Man (yes, he’s finally here!) has an all-new axe with a handle made from our wonder material. This detail alone brings the axe much closer to the toy axe I got with my action figure. Watch out, Beast Man!
- Coins! Because they’re so tightly wound, you could use guitar wire to make miniature-size stacks of coins.
- Armature Wire! Because it retains its shape after bending, I figure it’ll work well as armature wire — the wire used as a skeleton for modelling clay when making figures.
- Joints! Laid horizontally, you could fill gaps in knees or elbows to simulate more complex joints.
- Toast! I’ll bet guitar wire makes great toast. Ah, guitar wire…
That’s it. That’s all I have to say. Go get yourself some and give it a try if you’ve never played with it. I promise… this stuff rocks…
Hey there, I’m Rodney!
I’m a writer and editor of tabletop RPGs and a painter of Orks. Welcome to Rising Phoenix Games!
Dwarves Rule! By the Power of Greyskull! Jesus Saves! Turtle Power! Bionics On! Waaagh Ork! For the Golgari, for the Swarm! ThunderCats Ho! Skate the Apocalypse!