Boom instant posters! Save more money for models and make your own Warhammer posters form those starter box inserts with this neat hobby hack!
Ok, so you finally have your hobby space, beats lab, game room, etc. set up just the way you like it. But your roommate, spouse, significant other, or hobby cat still doesn’t like it. What do you do? Let’s use some Next Level Framing hacks to class up our hobby corners on the cheap.
Here’s a hobby/game aides upgrade tutorial from EllTee
Save More Money For Models: Instant Warhammer Poster Hack!
GW boxes often use art prints on thick card stock as a separator between the rulebooks and sprues in their larger boxes. This one came from Shadowspear. It’s just slightly smaller than this 11”x17” frame from Hobby Lobby, which retails at $21, but you can definitely find easy deals out there.
Americanflat 2 Pack – 11×17 Picture Frames – Made for Legal Sized Paper
Amazon even has a deal on a frame two-pack with flat borders that looks pretty stylish.
This picture of a Stormcast was a “freebie” with three others for spending a certain amount at GW stores over a year-span. I don’t remember exactly what I bought but I’m sure it’s still in my pile of grey shame. This frame was $10 at Target.
The frame from Target is less fancy and uses acrylic, while the one from Hobby Lobby uses glass. The most important thing for both is that the frames are solid black.
If the pictures are a hair too big then you can trim the edges down to fit using either a big paper cutter or scissors and a steady hand. My challenge for these prints was the opposite… The prints were too small and you could see the brown cardboard from the backing material.
Now the “proper” way (i.e. Expensive) to mount pictures is to use matting to make a perfectly sized box inside the frame all around the picture. But we need to save our money for grey plastic, so we’re going to take the “good enough for hobby work” solution.
Easy Framing 101: Priming the Backing Black
Using black spray paint, spray the cardboard backing that comes with the frame black. You only need to do the edges because the rest of the cardboard is going to be covered by the picture. It was pretty windy outside so I put rocks in the middle of the cardboard to keep it from blowing away. While you wait for it to dry, attach any mounting hardware necessary to the frames themselves.
After the paint dries, place the frames face down and center the prints. Since the picture will be “loose” inside the frame after mounting, I used masking tape to hold the print nice and centered. Celestant-Prime’s print went all the way to the edge so I taped it directly to the frame in a few places. The Shadowspear print was pretty snug already so I just put a loop of tape on the back center so it would stick to the cardboard backing once it was in place.
Mounting complete. The Shadowspear print looks like it fits perfectly now. Celestant-Prime looks a bit off with the white border, but still solid.
The final product on the wall and ready to go!
This has been a relatively easy trick you can pull off with all of your favorite artworks that GW hands out from time to time.
Do you have an all-time favorite piece of art that’s come inside a Box Set? Have you framed all the artwork you’ve gotten from GW over the years?
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