Thanks for the shout-out. I have painted 13 miniatures since I started about 2 years ago. I paint on average about 5 hours a week. One of the things I am going to practise is painting faster! But first, I needed to get a hang of the basics. I am working on an article explaining how I approached learning to paint miniatures and will post on my Facebook/Instagram account sometime in March. Keep up the great work Emil.
Thank you for this video. I been dealing with depression this month. April both my parents took their lives, and I nearly did it myself. This video boosted my self esteem to keep painting during my low moments. Again, thank you.
If it's any consolation, the only way to go from rock bottom, is up. Life is definitely worth living if you want to make it so. Hope things are going better for you 1 year on.
One of my personal tactics is: "Do not practice project-hopping. Stick to a project until you say either of frustration or satisification: it is done!" For me this taught me two important lessons. Firstly, learn to finish a project and by that I mean calling it done. This does not necessarily mean to be satisified. I learn from my projects I am not satisified easily as much as from those I fought through. But sometimes it just does not work out, and being able to say.... okay, that's it. At this point I will not be able to achieve a better result does not mean I may not try at a later point. But right now I will not burn any more energy on this and build up frustration. And secondly, I am about to know my personal pace .... I know what I can expect of attention time and frustation level and therefore I become better in managing my resources, time, energy and effort and balance these investements with the gain... fun, satisfication and improvement.
I live in a farming area so getting a sheep was quite easy, I brought one into my spare bedroom, set up all my paints, brushes and wet palette on its back, I looked proudly at my sheep desk and ......promptly it trotted out the door and back outside leaving my hobby supplies all over the floor along with a few presents left from its bum 😥
I find it very hard to sit down and paint by myself. Its the same issue I have with going to the gym. If I don't share the experience with someone, or have someone that I can bounce off of when getting discouraged/bored, its a lot harder to accomplish the task. It may even be a good idea to just have a voice chat with someone/in a group while painting to help. I know I'm going to be trying this at some point this weekend, even if they aren't painting.
This might help some people that would like to have an easy carry container for paints and tools: 1. Buy a hip-roof tackle box with 6-7 trays that flips open. - I can easily store my paints, texture paints, mediums, brushes, tweezers, tools, brush cleaner, glue, putty, even my small Everlasting Palette. 2. Buy Staedtler (or any brand) collapsible water cup. 3. Transfer large bottles of mediums into dropper bottles. The brand of tackle box I bought is Flambeau Tackle Box ($20) from Walmart (US peeps). I can only assume that the rest of the world will have something similar to this one.
Painting better miniatures is one of the tips that has helped me grow as a painter. I started painting around this time last year and have learned a lot from you and other youtubers. It was really hard getting the results I wanted when I was painting cheap minis that had terrible sculpts. I still learned a lot, but I am enjoying the hobby more now with better sculpts.
What you said about keeping your work space nice is so true!... I have a bad habit of leaving paint dropper bottles just sitting around my work space, as well as a ton of mini's I haven't started, and don't plan on starting anytime soon. It's gotten difficult to sit at my paint desk lately due to the clutter getting me down. I just need to get in there and clean it up. lol. But my craft room has become somewhat a storage room lately so I really need to go in and do a deep scrub clean of the entire room and get the clutter down to an organized work space.
Motivation is key, removing obstacles is great. I think keeping things you painted to see your own progress is great too. Another thing that I try to do as much as possible - if you have the opportunity - try to sorround your workspace with things that inspire you. That can be posters, or box art or just print outs or photos. Try to immerse yourself that way.
One big one is not trying to get better. It's sometimes a challenge to get someone to keep working on a figure, instead of just giving up because they don't think they are getting better. They see you doing something and think they can and can't, and they get frustrated. So on my end, I physically help them, in other words, I'll show them a technique on their figure, just to show them it can be done. So yeah... repetition is important, no one can get better over night, patience is important too. Everything else was spot on.
What is helping me a lot is: Finish the project even if it is not perfect!!! When you are completing a project, you have this feeling of relief. You finished something and now you can move on. In the past, I was trying to paint and add so many details and my standard were so high that I wasn't able to finish any figures. Now, I'm just finishing everything. It is not perfect, there are flaws, but at least I can move on. And in the end, the more you paint, the better you are becoming!!!
Top video. Having a dedicated hobby space is the big one for me. If you've got an adult life you probably don't have as much time as when you first got into the hobby so need to make the most of the time you've got. 10 mins here and there can really get you quite far.
These are truths that apply to all hobbies. I think the biggest is keeping your workspace clear and having what you need at hand. But here is where you can get yourself into problems. Having a dedicated workspace means you have space to leave things out and at hand (even if you don't need them right now). Good habits are important: put things away when you have finished a session is probably the best way to keep your workspace ready for the next job.
Really can't agree more: having a dedicated space, fully stocked and accessible, is the most critical thing to get you motivated to further your skills, your hobby and your enjoyment. I've been at this for years between minis, model kits, terrain, display boards and actual canvas painting and have not always had the privilege of a set space, but found that having the space more than the time helped me the most. Now I get to be paid for my hobby, my passion, and I don't have to feel selfish for taking over a room in our house. ;D
Hey friends, all things talked about in this video are things that made my hobby life much easier. I'm not trying to force anything on anyone! If you enjoy your hobby in another way I'm happy you do! I know that everything is not applicable for everyone. Have a great evening all! :) www.kickstarter.com/projects/1449412950/stormsunder-heirs-of-ruin
@@taviooo3995 get less stuff and buy better. Skip buying minis for a few months and save up for better brushes. if that's not possible - work with what you have. These things make life easier for you, but a cheap brush can still paint good stuff :)
Painting technique question. Have you or any other mini painter tried to mix the NMM and TMM techniques? What I mean by this is using the highlighting and shading of NMM on TMM to enhance the TMM.
Hey Emil, I love all you had to say other than the point about tools. I only have to agree with you. I think the issue becomes similar to that of acquiring too many miniatures when you start purchasing tools thinking that that will help you in your hobbying. Sometimes just getting some crappy brushes and cheap paints is exactly what you need to just sit down and not to worry too much about your gear. If you find that your gear is what is limiting you and you feel like you’ve plateaued I would say it is 100% time to upgrade. I think it’s also important to have self-awareness about why you’re buying new gear.
There's some nifty ideas for small space options on reddit. For example a bytable with wheels and drawers. I personally set aside 1 drawer for all paints and have built a wooden box with a light inside and a vent, so I can also use it to airbrush. That box basically helps me contain stuff lying around and also let's me leave everything in there without it laying around anywhere else or needing time to put away. I just have to change a few items to get it from painting to assembling or airbrushing.
👑👑 I'm in the midst of releasing my dream miniature brush as well as some wonderfully sculpted miniature busts. It's something I'm really proud of and been working on for the better part of the last year. Late pledges are up and You can check it out here: www.squidmar.com/latepledge 👑👑
Your point about selling your minis, is spot on. I bought a ton of Zombicide stuff when I first started painting. A lot of it still sits unopened in a bin, but I have started selling some of it on ebay which has helped a lot. I also have a target of being able to setup or teardown my painting area within 10 minutes max. This has really helped me to focus my energy into painting instead of having to budget painting vs setup. As always, thank you for the video!
Started painting after a 15 year gap and have found your video's incredibly helpful. There is nothing worse than wrong information and there is so much of that out there, but not here. Keep up the good work.
Agree with these 100% Having a designated work space is a huge bonus especially if your free time is very limited. Being able to jump straight back into a project is very useful
Long time sculptor short time painter. Some of the tools I use for setting up painting is my wife's old makeup tackle box. Its perfect to carry everything from one room to another and holds paints and brushes! I also have a set up right next to me for when i sculpt. Also if you want to display your paints a spice rack helps a ton as well for a quick fix.
I was going to comment on the same thing. Well, that’d be one way to get more room...think of all the closet space you could reclaim for more minis and hobby supplies...hmm...
Its so true about having painting space.. I have to set mine up each time i paint and it definitely stops me from painting sometimes. I got an old citadel hobby box and the lid flips over as a painting table, huge help, basically a mobile painting station. Something like that might help people that dont have much space.
I personally get most of my minis from boardgames I enjoy playing. Wether it be a big mini games like the sponsor of this video Stormsunder, Dawn of Madness, or Black Rose Wars, or smaller amount of mini games like Shadows over Camelot, Gate Fall, or Titan Race, I have a reason to make my board games shine. It feels great to not only have fun in this hobby but gives it a purpose. I have a sense of pride when I pull these games out for friends to show off. Besides I am adding a bit of myself to the games that I will be able to pass on to the next generations of the family. It keeps me on track with what I should finish and there is an end goal in sight. One game at a time.
I have a 'borrowed' McD's tray on a shelf with my current project and most materials on it. A small box of paints (to be fair the box is now too small and needs to be upgraded), works well enough for me at the moment.
i owned 2 Space marine armies, and an ork army. Every time i sat down to paint, i just knew that i had 300 or more models left to paint, so the motivation or inspiration just went away in no time. Summer 2019 i got back into playing 40k, and decided to atleast get my Space Wolves army table top ready, base colors, and shades, not much of highlighting. Batch painting 30 Blood claws/Grey hunters (yep no primaris, bought new SW plastic kits back in 2010 or so). I had no inpiration really when i started, but when started to see the results, i got motivated, and by december i bought even more models to bolster my SW army (more wulfen, dreads, characters, flyers). When every thing was table top ready, i got back to bringing them up further with highlights and details, so that they now look better than i could ever have imagined i would be able to paint. The leason i learned was to just focus on one thing at a time, and then to move on the another color, or shade etc.
Been practicing painting minis for 2 months and i always like to keep 2 extra minis and paint handles so i have something to look forward too or if a friend wants to try mini painting
The not having a space you can dedicate to the hobby is a real killer for me personally. Already my airbrush clogged because I was banished from our kitchen table when guests called so the paint had time to dry in the cup. Great advice keep up the great quality content!
Very good advices, specially the ones about paint spaces Another good suggestion is about having "positive reward": i painted a lot since last summer because (thanks to contrasts) i finished up some old projects that where sitting in my shelves, and the fact i actually finished several miniatures in relatively quick time gave me more strenght to keep going. For someone else could be learning how to NMM, paint a bigger scale minis, selling a commissioned ones, etc. but the important is to just achieve some personal goals (even small ones) because they will give positive reward, and that will fuel your passion
If you can‘t have a permanent hobby space I recommend the paint case from frontier wargaming. I‘m able to set up everything within 2, 3 minutes. Also a Wet palette from redgrass gaming or army painter helps to have your hobby space quick ready. With this setup everything is stored in one place which makes it also easier to paint regularly.
#6 - that's so true. I've been painting board game miniatures for a bit and when you get crappy / muddled detail minis, it's so much harder to paint and so much less enjoyable. I will say though, Mythic Battles Pantheon has some of the best miniatures I've ever seen and those are really making me actually try hard - while still being very enjoyable.
Good Day Sir. One thing I believe you overlooked was a good phone app! I use two apps that really help me organize my models, paints, and paint selection. I use a colour wheel app called Paint Picker. It can filter on the brand(s) of paints you use to help you pick the best complementary, split complementary, triadic, tetradic, and Analogous colours. But the real lifesaver is the app Model Colors. It not only organizes your models, your pics of your models, all your paints in your stash, keeps your color schemes for each model, etc...it also has a shopping list feature so you don't buy the same paint/model twice. It also has a "Similar" feature that can look at your stash of paints and if you're out of one color, tell you what you have on hand that is the closest match! Plus it's so easy to use! Put the two Apps together and your hobby just got a lot easier to organize and cost-efficient. I highly recommend them both. If you only want one app on your phone, get Model Color! I guaranty you'll all thank me for this later.
I treat my backlog of unpainted minis a bit different, I don't worry too much about the number of them, but for a particular reason. I like to paint characters more than armies, but have armies which makes the bulk of my backlog. I generally use units of them to practice techniques, so a whole bunch of cultists were used to practice airbrush pre-shading, includes using differences in colour. They will probably get finished at some point, as I find new paints or techniques to try. These practice pieces don't stress me, as I know from the 100ish unpainted models I have, there are 19 cultists, 26 genestealers, and 13 tactical marines, and 6 bikes, so 2/3s are not really a concern. A lot of the other things make sense - having a dedicated space (even though it is small) makes such a difference to me, keeping it tidy, having stuff to hand, all great tips that don't get mentioned enough.
Hi Emil, I definitely agree with you : in our hobby, less is better, for many things. Painting less minis (but better sculpted ones), buying less miniatures, buying less brush (for better quality ones)... all advices I give to my followers too! I would add : watching less TH-cam videos to keep time for painting... but well, you would probably disagree 🤣
I have setup my hobby area in my spare room a couple of weeks ago and i do have to say it makes a difference. Still having a hard time getting of the couch sometimes but now i can just walk in to the room pick up the brush and start painting for a few hours, better tools do make a lot of difference and the wet pallet is so great better then my bathroom tile i used to use in the past. I recently picked up the hobby again after being away from it for 17 years and one of the reasons i stopped was, cos i had no designated area to paint, and i'm a lazy sob so setting it up every time got to be a hassle. Plus i didn't have the money back then to buy the right tools. The reason i started again is cos of the quality of the miniatures that's out nowadays as opposed to 15 years ago, and channels like this one that thought me so much in a short amount of time, thanks. Btw i use a cheapo Chinese airbrush that i hacked a little bit to make it better, and it works great, in time i will buy a better one but for now it suits me, i haven't done a whole lot with it yet but for undercoating and zenithal highlighting it does the job well enough. Currently i'm painting my 4th edition bloodbowl team, the last thing i bought 16 years ago and never painted, or played for that matter. I'm painting them or at least a couple to get into the groove and better my skills a bit. Don't really like painting the metal models, and am glad to see GW has done away with all together, plus the models they have now are so much better than what they had back then. I never really painted with highlights or shade, i just slapped some paint a wash on and called it done. But now i want to paint better and paint better models. So thanks again for the videos they really help a lot.
Your video is fantastic....for anyone who's hobby is painting. My hobby is gaming and I watch these videos to be a bit better at painting the minis I use for my hobby, gaming. Over the years, my painting has become much better, but again, I paint to play my games. I don't play games to paint if that makes sense. I feel like painting is your primary hobby with gaming being a side result of what you end up with after you've indulged in painting. Nothing wrong with that, but this is something I think a lot of TH-cam paint channel guys forget. Keep making great videos!
Thank you! Thank you! "Paint bravely": I didn't realise this but it is so true!!! I am working on it! :) And "Paint less": also such helpful words for me because my hobby is the painting side more than collecting or gaming. It's so important for me that I don't get too caught up in collecting, because it ends up actually depressing me because I haven't painted them all!
Agree with almost everything you said here. Especially the hobby space and house keeping. For me however, I learned so much and improved my painting skill set by painting more miniatures, but I commission paint so I had to learn to get better while pumping out quantity.
It is amazing what a little organization does. One of the things I use is Plano boxes for my paints. I have one that just holds the ones for the model I am working on. That way I can leave my basement dungeon hobby space and be semi sociable if i choose lol. I never thought i would enjoy this hobby as much as i do.
Nice vid! Great wisdom and great reminders for getting better at the hobby. Also, I'm so glad that Stormsunder sponsored your video as I wouldn't have known about it had they not. That was right up my alley and I became a backer at the highest level! Two years can't come fast enough. :)
Great vid Sir. A few things that helped me with painting were: 1. Buy on a budget; I had little to no money to really be spending on 40k when I first started, but I would pick up what I could at a given time; Buy a minimum allowable size of a squad and add that to your army, buy a single character model at a time and finish it slowly if the budget is tight. Special or centerpiece miniatures are hings you can spend a lot of time on, and not feel like you are burdened by a budget which limits what you can paint. Working on a single squad or character model also has the bonus of your techniques evolving as you paint, you work on the same area of each miniature production line style and as you have done the same thing for 5th-10th time, you will see how you improve with each cycle of focus areas, this also allows you to adjust what you have painted earlier in the process as you know exactly what you want to tweak. 2. Buy tools/supplies before you buy miniatures; playing unpainted stuff feels icky, so having the model, but not having the colors you need to paint it can be very frustrating, so it's easier to slowly expand your paint collection before you start on painting something that requires a new color palette. Buying stuff in this manner also keeps you *excited* about adding that new unit/figure to your collection, as opposed to seeing it as a burden because it is still just primer colored. 3. Don't buy boxed sets. If you buy a boxed set you have tons of stuff you need to paint all at once. This can easily lead to the stress Squid mentioned in the video, when you have hurdles to jump, it's nicer to keep them as low as possible; so unless you get a large discount on the boxed set, or you *need* a special release sculpt, just keep it to buying a kill team or something that you can later use in your army. 4. If your sculpts look icky, see what you can do to fix the problems. When I started all of the Warhammer figures were metal, they all had infuriating mold lines, larger sections never lined up quite right, there were voids, so ever after you put the thing together it always looked sloppy. Make sure you clean off the flashing, take your time and make sure it's not just clean, but the details are preserved while you are cleaning an area. Knives, sandpaper (I liked the wet dry sand paper that went up to 2,000 grit), files and green stuff and pins will all help you shine up even poorly cast figures and make them more enjoyable to paint (especially if you dry brush). 5. Make sure you can *use* what you buy. This applies to the figures, as well as the supplies; old GW paints had latex in them, I've developed a latex allergy, so recently as I have started watching the videos on this channel I wanted to start painting again. I was concerned about the paint composition and contacted GW to ask about the paint composition of their new paints, the fantastic rep I got did not know exactly nor did with office, so he contacted the people who *make* the individual paints to get the info. The response I received was "while the acrylics used in our (Citadel) paints are latex free, they are manufactured in facilities that also make products with latex in their composition. So hearing that the new paint lines were something I could in theory use was such an enjoyable thing to hear, I actually got off the phone with them a few hours ago with this info, so your video was shockingly well timed. :D I digress, the video was fantastic, great job sir and keep up the good work! As the person I spoke to said "while people don't need plastic toy soldiers, the people that play games with plastic soldiers *need* those toy soldiers", I thought that was very well put and you are helping us fulfill that need sir!
About painting more miniatures, you're absolutely right. When it comes to armies I use, I'm generally quite good at methodically going through it all till it's done, but I also recognise that creativity has a spontaneous component that you ignore at your own peril. What I do is I set myself a reward system where I write down my spontaneous urges and then only allow myself to engage with it if I finish *insert generic troop choice here* first. That way, I can spend more involved time on the centrepieces and signature units of an army. Also I must be superhuman, or at least insane, because every army I've owned, with two recent exceptions, have been fully painted and not sloppily either. My past Warhammer fantasy armies were: 7000+pts Orcs and Goblins, 3000+pts Tomb Kings, 2500pts Ogre Kingdoms, 2500pts Bretonnians, 4000+pts Daemons (actually two separate armies of Khorne and Tzeentch Daemons). And that's just the most notable ones. At the moment I have three large Mierce Miniatures armies, some necromunda and 40k on the go as well... and stuff painted to sell. I think I have a problem....
I just received my first sable brushes while I wait for your kickstarter to deliver. Amazing i have to say. While it took a little while to get used to it I have seen a .arked improvement on .y minis
Your tip with painting better miniatures is completely true. When I started painting last year I started with the minis from masmorra. They are chibi style, not the most detailed Miniatures (still nice, and my son loves to play that game so they needed a paint job no matter what 😂), and quite small. You couldn’t learn so much from that process, except maybe handling your tools to reach weird spaces, under a cape and such stuff. After that I started painting rising sun, rising sun has some really nice, detailed and big miniatures. On the first one I painted of them I learned wet blending (big, round belly), OSL (magic flame in his left Hand), and battle damage on weapons (huge trident in his right hand). Does any of this look perfect?? Well, surely not, it was the first attempt trying these techniques after all, but this mini alone helped me to improve much more than the hole stuff of masmorras base game 😁
Great topic. I especially agree with #1 (dedicated work space) and #7 (better tools). I used to set up a table in the living room and paint for a day or two in front of the T.V. Knowing I had to set up and take down each time was a major deterrent from painting. If I painted once or twice a month I would be lucky. It was just easier to sit down and play video games so that's what I did instead. I also found the T.V. too distracting. Now I have a dedicated table in the basement and I paint for a couple hours three to five times per week. I listen to audiobooks and enjoy my time much more. I also try to use the best tools I can. I have set of W&N Series 7 brushes and I love them. I use cheaper Army Painter brushes for metallic paints and synthetic brushes for oil paints and washes. I also have a Badger Patriot 105 airbrush and a compressor.
Tip: I thought when you recommended selling the minis you meant sell the ones we've painted. I've found that it is also really motivating to make some money from your efforts and re-invest in better equipment, minis, paints, pay some bills (lame), or even better buy the significant other something nice for putting up with your hobby. Sell local at the nearest game shop if they allow it (they are usually very flexible if you are purchasing from them and know them fairly well) or hit up tabletop gaming groups or conventions.
Great video Emil as always! I couldn't agree more with these points---nothing bums me out more than wanting to paint, then looking at my messy desk and going "nah, maybe later!" ---as a painter I agree a good mini can make it easier to accomplish better painting. It also adds challenge to have more details to pick out and there's something about having more details to work on, that I find just helps me hone my skills further. One comment I can make is---picking up a 3D printer has helped a lot too because they are relatively cheap, and I can print highly detailed resin models---practice on them at about 30-50 cents ---I can practice all sorts of techniques and not worry about "ruining" a high detailed model...I can freely experiment and try new things and if I mess up, I can just re-print more!
Great advices. As for las one, I would add that working with tools which you like (even if you enjoy just fact that is expencive, but not the way they work) motivates you as well.
I really appreciate this video. I am early into gunpla and airbrushing so I thought it would be wise to learn from people in as well as outside of the gunpla realm. I took notes and put em on my fridge door like Martin Luther with the 95 theses, lol. All of these will apply for my wife's traditional canvas painting too. Thank you @Squidmar Miniatures
100% agree with the airbrush and as soon as I can afford it, I will upgrade. Right now I am always hesitant to start it up, though at least it got better since I know how to clean it faster and make it 'mostly' do what I want it to. The rest is probably an issue with the quality.
I usually clean a little bit after every time I paint. And After each completed project, like for example; I recenlty finalized painting my Untamed Beasts - then I do a big cleanup and put everything back where it's supposed to be, sort the colors in color gradients and whatnot - so I have a completly clean slate for the next project :)
Thanks for your insights, they made me reflect and my observations are: - I know and understand the psychology behind having a clean and organized space and a small and manageable backlog...it is much easier for the brain to focus and enjoy the hobby that way. The people that say they don't mind the disorder because they know where what is just don't realize the amount of mental energy needed to keep all that in memory. I was doing that and then changed and can testify that now everything is much simpler. - I have a hobby space most of the year and I agree on everything you said about it (clean, all within hand reach, etc.). But in the summer it gets too hot there that paints dry in their pots so I have to move it somewhere. And I put most stuff that I need in cardboard boxes so I can unpack and repack them quickly (as some of your viewers in the video) - I am guilty of buying more than I paint, but at least I paint only small warbands for Underworlds, Warcry and Kill Team and I finish each in a month or two. So no big unfinished army for me...just unfinished terrain that bothers me :( - I don't sell my minis, I use them for demonstrations at conventions and gaming events that we organize or participate. That way more people can try games with my painted minis and start their own collection if they like it, instead of selling/giving away my minis to a single person. - I have an old collection of Confrontation miniatures, and I paint them rarely, but when I paint them I do that to improve a technique or to learn something new. I consider them better than GW miniatures and paint them to look amazing. I'll probably never again play Confrontation, but I just like those minis...and don't want to sell them even if some of them wait 10 years to get painted. Emil, have you ever painted Confrontation miniatures?
hey Emil, I've seen hints of models that you haven't shown yet! Come on let me see that rockgut troggoth in all its glory! And the beast grave wolf riders too!
HOLY WHAT?! Posted 10 month ago and this guy called me out on my watching the Witcher on Netflix instead of painting like I should have been over the last two days due to laziness...... I hereby declare Squidmar to be a prophet and a phsycic
After getting back into painting after 25 years, I bought 3 decent Rosemary & Co. brushes, best £15 I ever spent, my 1st mini was better than anything I painted 25 years ago, still using the same 25 year old paint. My GW 'Go Faster Red' was bought in 1988 and its still great, now in a sensible dropper bottle I may add. Come on GW you make great paint, put it in a decent container.
Great video, I used not to paint for 3 reason, first I kept wanting to paint everything at my best, which was exhausting, when painting armies. Second, the amount to paint, and third, not having everything ready. In the end purpose gave me a focus, after YEARS postponing. Purpose for me is, all of the minis which are expandable (playing skavens, with 300 clanrats and 100 stormvermins) I decided to lower the paint, since they are en masse and killed fast, and focus on huge figures and general which are focus point of the army. Also, the brushes, thanks to you, i choose and bought some, kolinski from Raphael (the factory is close from my city ahah) + wet palet. I airbrush a lot now.. Everything made shortcuts, and now, between your channel and Miniacs, I finally have fun playing painted armies that I actually enjoy. AND I finally consider I can start painting minis just for display! I also bought a lamp you recommend through your amazon link. I never painted 30 minis in 6 weeks before, and now I'm super glad of the result
I find for no. 2, for me as a wargamer it applies. It's not paint less volume of minis as such, just don't have a load of different models from a variety of periods/rulesets on the desk at the same time. Only at the weekend I shelved my WWII Germans that were on the table along with my Voltigeurs so I can concentrate on just the Napoleonics and get that much closer to having a painted army.
Amazing as always. Really enjoyable to watch. I have one issue thought with my painting : My eyes seem to tire very quickly. After about one hour of staring in little details and painting I must "reset" my eyes by changing focus for a couple of minutes ( looking something that is far away, and then looking something near, and then repeat ). If you have neck/ back problems I would recommend that you stand up and do stretches for a couple of seconds, every hour or so.
Got tired of painting, when I played Warhammer. Army painting is just not for me I think. But right now I am trying to pain "my" DnD party. really haveing fun trying/failing to paint my friends character ideas. Haveing fun while "failing" is kinda new to me :D
First I wanna say I love your content and this videos are always motivate me. It reminds me where i started and where i am now. The first two things that changed my painting game was a wet palette and a painting handle.
This video is amazing, i found painting miniatures while looking for a hobby to ease my mind. These tips are amazing for keeping the hobby fun and enjoyable and stress free! Thank you for this video. I thought i was organized but this video has me getting my space into even better shape!
I am happy that I found out some of your adviced by my self. I selled allready my Sword & Sorcery Game with all the Miniatures I never would finish painting. Also I work hard on my equipment and the space in our livingroom, all time ready to yust paint, even I have only half an hour time to paint some details. I will share your Video to my friends because that are really importend steps to know about our hobby.
Man i totally spilled my drink when you said "Iam your mom" :D i totally can relate to these tipps i have cats and no room where they dont go so i always have to store my hobby stuff which totally held me back which is really frustrating. But iam trying to get better and i think your video is a huge help especially for newer people. Thanks :)
Funny timing on this for me. I just got a corner desk to add to my space that puts everything in reach for me. Its the first time my computer desk hasn't had to do double duty- I'm sure my keyboard will be happy about not being used as a pallette.
The thing with the brush is so true. That said I would not appreciate my good, no amazing, brush if I had not used cheap ones before. Same with colours. I started painting with a cheap ten colour set from the hobbie store.
@@MrSJPowell Actually this would probably be my number 8 haha. I recently spent ten days painting sunrise to a little ways past sunset in one of those cramped metal folding chairs. Now I'm looking into getting something that doesn't make me dread painting because of what it's going to do to my back
Got into the hobby a year ago Always kept my unbuilt models out if sight and my unpainted models in a different room Works very well One thing I'd have to say is don't but a bunch of generic infantry I still have a unit of orks and tau drones I haven't got around to because I'm more interested in larger, more detailed models
I have a video suggestion. It would be to a series of guided challenges, to encourage mini painters to improve, maybe a beginners challenge like finish 8 minatures that have been shaded and highlighted, and you could have intermediate and high skill level challenges. What do you think?
I agree with a lot of the points made in this video, I do however find for myself as I am not trying to paint comp standard and I want to get my army complete I like doing a lil bit a day on a model or a unit until its done over a few days as I have other things I wish to do to.
Hey! Couldn't you make a video of all of your previous projects? You have won best painted army and stuff right? Would love to see the stuff that you have in those shelves!
I found that by starting to paint death guard I could work on two things I found difficult, which was white and weathering.(plus the models have a lot of detail so it's good practice for being precise)
With regard to the first point and third, i don't have the space to dedicate a room in my house for hobbying so the dinning room table is the only real option. The solution to making accessibility and set up easier is to build a cart with a bunch of drawers for all my hobby products and my airbrush set up. When i am done i can wheel the cart in a closet out of the way and it should be a breeze to whip it out when i need it. Thats the plan anyway, the cart is actually this weekend's project
The selling minis is so true, I have a very small collection all considered. I did however have a few sealed boxes and some 40k I’m never touching. Even when people got me awesome minis or exclusives I felt under pressure to get them done I now have some reinforcements for an army and more £££ in my PayPal!
4:00 unfortunately, I play a swarm army, Skaven. But I love all my sons and they all get the 110% treatment and I spend more time on each one than any rat-thing deserves. BUT I also use the battlelines as test subjects for different techniques and personal whims..
Can't stand a messy work space. After every project I clean up and put everything back. I don't do it at the end of every painting session so that I can make sure I have all the same paints used throughout the project. Also agree with the better tools. When I made the jump to using a Kolinsky Sable brush there was a marked improvement and the brush overall lasted much longer than most of the others I painted with previously. I just now replaced it after a full year of painting on a regular basis as it was starting to lose the ability to hold a tip, still have it and it's still usable for basing and the sort but can't do detail work with it. Well worth every penny for it!
Hahaha, hearing you talk about your wife making you pack up every time guests come by, hit so close to home ;D that’s EXACTLY where I’m at, at the moment.Word for word ^^ cheers and thanks for the great tips and motivation!
Thanks for the shout-out. I have painted 13 miniatures since I started about 2 years ago. I paint on average about 5 hours a week. One of the things I am going to practise is painting faster! But first, I needed to get a hang of the basics. I am working on an article explaining how I approached learning to paint miniatures and will post on my Facebook/Instagram account sometime in March. Keep up the great work Emil.
Man your work is amazing, really well done
Deffo fella just started following you. Awesome fella, AWESOME!
I follow you on Instagram - you definitely have the hang of the basics and more!!
Mr Paul Stockley, i would love to follow your FB page but it doesn't have a FOLLOW button.
@@PerfectionHunter Not sure how to add it on youtube. My FB is facebook.com/paul.stockley.54 and Instagram instagram.com/pstockley.miniatures/
"Paint less miniatures"
Miniac: *Angry sweating*
Fewer
Shortly after "and here's the sponsor, a 100+ miniature boardgame!"
@@namewastaken360 but, but... Less IS more!
You know the saying... "One mans 'less' is another mans 'more'....just ask their wives" ;)
I can actually hear his raging fry scream in my head right now.
#8: Don't be discouraged if you can't follow the suggestions of others. Get any brush and any mini in your hand and just have fun.
Absolutely this too 😍
"Just have fun" should be written on any package of anything that has to do with hobby me thinks...
I often use just a toothpick to paint.
Oooo real old skool shit. Tooth pick😜
@@andrewnoble8743 I paint 6mm & 10mm figures.
"paint less minis*
*Miniac would like to know your location*
Thank you for this video. I been dealing with depression this month. April both my parents took their lives, and I nearly did it myself. This video boosted my self esteem to keep painting during my low moments. Again, thank you.
Hope you're doing well. That's horrible...
If it's any consolation, the only way to go from rock bottom, is up. Life is definitely worth living if you want to make it so. Hope things are going better for you 1 year on.
How awful that you had to go through that. It's been two years now and I hope you've learned to live with it and are doing better by now. ❤❤❤
One of my personal tactics is: "Do not practice project-hopping. Stick to a project until you say either of frustration or satisification: it is done!" For me this taught me two important lessons. Firstly, learn to finish a project and by that I mean calling it done. This does not necessarily mean to be satisified. I learn from my projects I am not satisified easily as much as from those I fought through. But sometimes it just does not work out, and being able to say.... okay, that's it. At this point I will not be able to achieve a better result does not mean I may not try at a later point. But right now I will not burn any more energy on this and build up frustration. And secondly, I am about to know my personal pace .... I know what I can expect of attention time and frustation level and therefore I become better in managing my resources, time, energy and effort and balance these investements with the gain... fun, satisfication and improvement.
I feel personally attacked.
I live in a farming area so getting a sheep was quite easy, I brought one into my spare bedroom, set up all my paints, brushes and wet palette on its back, I looked proudly at my sheep desk and ......promptly it trotted out the door and back outside leaving my hobby supplies all over the floor along with a few presents left from its bum 😥
Tip : Paint with a friend ! It’s even better if you’re not painting the same army. You don’t need to chat the whole time, just be together.
I find it very hard to sit down and paint by myself. Its the same issue I have with going to the gym. If I don't share the experience with someone, or have someone that I can bounce off of when getting discouraged/bored, its a lot harder to accomplish the task. It may even be a good idea to just have a voice chat with someone/in a group while painting to help. I know I'm going to be trying this at some point this weekend, even if they aren't painting.
Yeah true, at the Moment I'm always videocalling with my buddy cause we can't meet
This might help some people that would like to have an easy carry container for paints and tools:
1. Buy a hip-roof tackle box with 6-7 trays that flips open.
- I can easily store my paints, texture paints, mediums, brushes, tweezers, tools, brush cleaner, glue, putty, even my small Everlasting Palette.
2. Buy Staedtler (or any brand) collapsible water cup.
3. Transfer large bottles of mediums into dropper bottles.
The brand of tackle box I bought is Flambeau Tackle Box ($20) from Walmart (US peeps).
I can only assume that the rest of the world will have something similar to this one.
Painting better miniatures is one of the tips that has helped me grow as a painter. I started painting around this time last year and have learned a lot from you and other youtubers. It was really hard getting the results I wanted when I was painting cheap minis that had terrible sculpts. I still learned a lot, but I am enjoying the hobby more now with better sculpts.
What you said about keeping your work space nice is so true!... I have a bad habit of leaving paint dropper bottles just sitting around my work space, as well as a ton of mini's I haven't started, and don't plan on starting anytime soon. It's gotten difficult to sit at my paint desk lately due to the clutter getting me down. I just need to get in there and clean it up. lol. But my craft room has become somewhat a storage room lately so I really need to go in and do a deep scrub clean of the entire room and get the clutter down to an organized work space.
We need more videos like this Emil. You are a gift to the world my friend
Motivation is key, removing obstacles is great. I think keeping things you painted to see your own progress is great too. Another thing that I try to do as much as possible - if you have the opportunity - try to sorround your workspace with things that inspire you. That can be posters, or box art or just print outs or photos. Try to immerse yourself that way.
One big one is not trying to get better. It's sometimes a challenge to get someone to keep working on a figure, instead of just giving up because they don't think they are getting better. They see you doing something and think they can and can't, and they get frustrated. So on my end, I physically help them, in other words, I'll show them a technique on their figure, just to show them it can be done. So yeah... repetition is important, no one can get better over night, patience is important too. Everything else was spot on.
What is helping me a lot is: Finish the project even if it is not perfect!!! When you are completing a project, you have this feeling of relief. You finished something and now you can move on. In the past, I was trying to paint and add so many details and my standard were so high that I wasn't able to finish any figures. Now, I'm just finishing everything. It is not perfect, there are flaws, but at least I can move on. And in the end, the more you paint, the better you are becoming!!!
Top video. Having a dedicated hobby space is the big one for me. If you've got an adult life you probably don't have as much time as when you first got into the hobby so need to make the most of the time you've got. 10 mins here and there can really get you quite far.
These are truths that apply to all hobbies. I think the biggest is keeping your workspace clear and having what you need at hand. But here is where you can get yourself into problems. Having a dedicated workspace means you have space to leave things out and at hand (even if you don't need them right now). Good habits are important: put things away when you have finished a session is probably the best way to keep your workspace ready for the next job.
Really can't agree more: having a dedicated space, fully stocked and accessible, is the most critical thing to get you motivated to further your skills, your hobby and your enjoyment. I've been at this for years between minis, model kits, terrain, display boards and actual canvas painting and have not always had the privilege of a set space, but found that having the space more than the time helped me the most. Now I get to be paid for my hobby, my passion, and I don't have to feel selfish for taking over a room in our house. ;D
Hey friends, all things talked about in this video are things that made my hobby life much easier. I'm not trying to force anything on anyone! If you enjoy your hobby in another way I'm happy you do! I know that everything is not applicable for everyone. Have a great evening all! :)
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1449412950/stormsunder-heirs-of-ruin
I wanna see that Maw Krusha from the thumbnail.....do it....please? 🤘
@@YGOrochi I have it on my Instagram
Hey Squidmar Miniatures I get the better tools thing but I just don’t have enough money to get better tools so what do I do
@@taviooo3995 get less stuff and buy better. Skip buying minis for a few months and save up for better brushes. if that's not possible - work with what you have. These things make life easier for you, but a cheap brush can still paint good stuff :)
Painting technique question.
Have you or any other mini painter tried to mix the NMM and TMM techniques?
What I mean by this is using the highlighting and shading of NMM on TMM to enhance the TMM.
Hey Emil, I love all you had to say other than the point about tools. I only have to agree with you. I think the issue becomes similar to that of acquiring too many miniatures when you start purchasing tools thinking that that will help you in your hobbying. Sometimes just getting some crappy brushes and cheap paints is exactly what you need to just sit down and not to worry too much about your gear. If you find that your gear is what is limiting you and you feel like you’ve plateaued I would say it is 100% time to upgrade. I think it’s also important to have self-awareness about why you’re buying new gear.
There's some nifty ideas for small space options on reddit. For example a bytable with wheels and drawers. I personally set aside 1 drawer for all paints and have built a wooden box with a light inside and a vent, so I can also use it to airbrush. That box basically helps me contain stuff lying around and also let's me leave everything in there without it laying around anywhere else or needing time to put away. I just have to change a few items to get it from painting to assembling or airbrushing.
Lots of very good advice. I’ve learnt not to paint to another’s standard but to enjoy what I do in my little man cave 😘
👑👑 I'm in the midst of releasing my dream miniature brush as well as some wonderfully sculpted miniature busts. It's something I'm really proud of and been working on for the better part of the last year. Late pledges are up and You can check it out here: www.squidmar.com/latepledge 👑👑
Your point about selling your minis, is spot on. I bought a ton of Zombicide stuff when I first started painting. A lot of it still sits unopened in a bin, but I have started selling some of it on ebay which has helped a lot. I also have a target of being able to setup or teardown my painting area within 10 minutes max. This has really helped me to focus my energy into painting instead of having to budget painting vs setup. As always, thank you for the video!
Started painting after a 15 year gap and have found your video's incredibly helpful. There is nothing worse than wrong information and there is so much of that out there, but not here.
Keep up the good work.
Agree with these 100% Having a designated work space is a huge bonus especially if your free time is very limited. Being able to jump straight back into a project is very useful
Long time sculptor short time painter. Some of the tools I use for setting up painting is my wife's old makeup tackle box. Its perfect to carry everything from one room to another and holds paints and brushes! I also have a set up right next to me for when i sculpt. Also if you want to display your paints a spice rack helps a ton as well for a quick fix.
Gillar dig jättemycket. Tittar på dig nästan varje dag. Jag lär mig mycket. Fortsätt med det du gör.
1:26 I hope you meant your wife's "dismay!"
No, definitely demise... She doesn't say much anymore.
I was going to comment on the same thing. Well, that’d be one way to get more room...think of all the closet space you could reclaim for more minis and hobby supplies...hmm...
Wives don't do anything half way..
Its so true about having painting space.. I have to set mine up each time i paint and it definitely stops me from painting sometimes. I got an old citadel hobby box and the lid flips over as a painting table, huge help, basically a mobile painting station. Something like that might help people that dont have much space.
thank you for this video. I agree with you %100 on being selective on which mini you paint, it goes so much better when you're inspired
I personally get most of my minis from boardgames I enjoy playing. Wether it be a big mini games like the sponsor of this video Stormsunder, Dawn of Madness, or Black Rose Wars, or smaller amount of mini games like Shadows over Camelot, Gate Fall, or Titan Race, I have a reason to make my board games shine. It feels great to not only have fun in this hobby but gives it a purpose. I have a sense of pride when I pull these games out for friends to show off. Besides I am adding a bit of myself to the games that I will be able to pass on to the next generations of the family.
It keeps me on track with what I should finish and there is an end goal in sight. One game at a time.
I have a 'borrowed' McD's tray on a shelf with my current project and most materials on it. A small box of paints (to be fair the box is now too small and needs to be upgraded), works well enough for me at the moment.
i owned 2 Space marine armies, and an ork army. Every time i sat down to paint, i just knew that i had 300 or more models left to paint, so the motivation or inspiration just went away in no time. Summer 2019 i got back into playing 40k, and decided to atleast get my Space Wolves army table top ready, base colors, and shades, not much of highlighting. Batch painting 30 Blood claws/Grey hunters (yep no primaris, bought new SW plastic kits back in 2010 or so). I had no inpiration really when i started, but when started to see the results, i got motivated, and by december i bought even more models to bolster my SW army (more wulfen, dreads, characters, flyers). When every thing was table top ready, i got back to bringing them up further with highlights and details, so that they now look better than i could ever have imagined i would be able to paint. The leason i learned was to just focus on one thing at a time, and then to move on the another color, or shade etc.
Been practicing painting minis for 2 months and i always like to keep 2 extra minis and paint handles so i have something to look forward too or if a friend wants to try mini painting
The not having a space you can dedicate to the hobby is a real killer for me personally. Already my airbrush clogged because I was banished from our kitchen table when guests called so the paint had time to dry in the cup. Great advice keep up the great quality content!
Very good advices, specially the ones about paint spaces
Another good suggestion is about having "positive reward": i painted a lot since last summer because (thanks to contrasts) i finished up some old projects that where sitting in my shelves, and the fact i actually finished several miniatures in relatively quick time gave me more strenght to keep going.
For someone else could be learning how to NMM, paint a bigger scale minis, selling a commissioned ones, etc. but the important is to just achieve some personal goals (even small ones) because they will give positive reward, and that will fuel your passion
If you can‘t have a permanent hobby space I recommend the paint case from frontier wargaming. I‘m able to set up everything within 2, 3 minutes. Also a Wet palette from redgrass gaming or army painter helps to have your hobby space quick ready. With this setup everything is stored in one place which makes it also easier to paint regularly.
#6 - that's so true. I've been painting board game miniatures for a bit and when you get crappy / muddled detail minis, it's so much harder to paint and so much less enjoyable.
I will say though, Mythic Battles Pantheon has some of the best miniatures I've ever seen and those are really making me actually try hard - while still being very enjoyable.
Good Day Sir. One thing I believe you overlooked was a good phone app! I use two apps that really help me organize my models, paints, and paint selection. I use a colour wheel app called Paint Picker. It can filter on the brand(s) of paints you use to help you pick the best complementary, split complementary, triadic, tetradic, and Analogous colours. But the real lifesaver is the app Model Colors. It not only organizes your models, your pics of your models, all your paints in your stash, keeps your color schemes for each model, etc...it also has a shopping list feature so you don't buy the same paint/model twice. It also has a "Similar" feature that can look at your stash of paints and if you're out of one color, tell you what you have on hand that is the closest match! Plus it's so easy to use! Put the two Apps together and your hobby just got a lot easier to organize and cost-efficient. I highly recommend them both. If you only want one app on your phone, get Model Color! I guaranty you'll all thank me for this later.
Great recommendations! Tjx😍
Squidmar Miniatures Yours were excellent as well, Sir! Thank you 😊
I treat my backlog of unpainted minis a bit different, I don't worry too much about the number of them, but for a particular reason. I like to paint characters more than armies, but have armies which makes the bulk of my backlog. I generally use units of them to practice techniques, so a whole bunch of cultists were used to practice airbrush pre-shading, includes using differences in colour. They will probably get finished at some point, as I find new paints or techniques to try. These practice pieces don't stress me, as I know from the 100ish unpainted models I have, there are 19 cultists, 26 genestealers, and 13 tactical marines, and 6 bikes, so 2/3s are not really a concern.
A lot of the other things make sense - having a dedicated space (even though it is small) makes such a difference to me, keeping it tidy, having stuff to hand, all great tips that don't get mentioned enough.
I've just switched completely from cheeper paints to Vallejo few days ago, and oh boy, it is such a joy to have the paints work for you.
Hi Emil,
I definitely agree with you : in our hobby, less is better, for many things. Painting less minis (but better sculpted ones), buying less miniatures, buying less brush (for better quality ones)... all advices I give to my followers too! I would add : watching less TH-cam videos to keep time for painting... but well, you would probably disagree 🤣
I have setup my hobby area in my spare room a couple of weeks ago and i do have to say it makes a difference. Still having a hard time getting of the couch sometimes but now i can just walk in to the room pick up the brush and start painting for a few hours, better tools do make a lot of difference and the wet pallet is so great better then my bathroom tile i used to use in the past.
I recently picked up the hobby again after being away from it for 17 years and one of the reasons i stopped was, cos i had no designated area to paint, and i'm a lazy sob so setting it up every time got to be a hassle. Plus i didn't have the money back then to buy the right tools. The reason i started again is cos of the quality of the miniatures that's out nowadays as opposed to 15 years ago, and channels like this one that thought me so much in a short amount of time, thanks. Btw i use a cheapo Chinese airbrush that i hacked a little bit to make it better, and it works great, in time i will buy a better one but for now it suits me, i haven't done a whole lot with it yet but for undercoating and zenithal highlighting it does the job well enough.
Currently i'm painting my 4th edition bloodbowl team, the last thing i bought 16 years ago and never painted, or played for that matter. I'm painting them or at least a couple to get into the groove and better my skills a bit. Don't really like painting the metal models, and am glad to see GW has done away with all together, plus the models they have now are so much better than what they had back then. I never really painted with highlights or shade, i just slapped some paint a wash on and called it done. But now i want to paint better and paint better models. So thanks again for the videos they really help a lot.
Your video is fantastic....for anyone who's hobby is painting. My hobby is gaming and I watch these videos to be a bit better at painting the minis I use for my hobby, gaming. Over the years, my painting has become much better, but again, I paint to play my games. I don't play games to paint if that makes sense. I feel like painting is your primary hobby with gaming being a side result of what you end up with after you've indulged in painting. Nothing wrong with that, but this is something I think a lot of TH-cam paint channel guys forget. Keep making great videos!
Thank you! Thank you!
"Paint bravely": I didn't realise this but it is so true!!! I am working on it! :)
And "Paint less": also such helpful words for me because my hobby is the painting side more than collecting or gaming. It's so important for me that I don't get too caught up in collecting, because it ends up actually depressing me because I haven't painted them all!
Agree with almost everything you said here. Especially the hobby space and house keeping. For me however, I learned so much and improved my painting skill set by painting more miniatures, but I commission paint so I had to learn to get better while pumping out quantity.
Dunno how I ended up on your channel but its been awesome for getting me back into painting so far. Thanks for all the insights man
Epic man, glad you're here :D
You, Goobertown, and Miniac helped me find my love for painting again after two years away. Would really like your critique on a piece I've done.
I always love the editing and style of these videos. It looks really proffessional and engaging^^ You deserve more subs :)
It is amazing what a little organization does. One of the things I use is Plano boxes for my paints. I have one that just holds the ones for the model I am working on. That way I can leave my basement dungeon hobby space and be semi sociable if i choose lol.
I never thought i would enjoy this hobby as much as i do.
Nice vid! Great wisdom and great reminders for getting better at the hobby. Also, I'm so glad that Stormsunder sponsored your video as I wouldn't have known about it had they not. That was right up my alley and I became a backer at the highest level! Two years can't come fast enough. :)
Great vid Sir. A few things that helped me with painting were:
1. Buy on a budget; I had little to no money to really be spending on 40k when I first started, but I would pick up what I could at a given time; Buy a minimum allowable size of a squad and add that to your army, buy a single character model at a time and finish it slowly if the budget is tight. Special or centerpiece miniatures are hings you can spend a lot of time on, and not feel like you are burdened by a budget which limits what you can paint. Working on a single squad or character model also has the bonus of your techniques evolving as you paint, you work on the same area of each miniature production line style and as you have done the same thing for 5th-10th time, you will see how you improve with each cycle of focus areas, this also allows you to adjust what you have painted earlier in the process as you know exactly what you want to tweak.
2. Buy tools/supplies before you buy miniatures; playing unpainted stuff feels icky, so having the model, but not having the colors you need to paint it can be very frustrating, so it's easier to slowly expand your paint collection before you start on painting something that requires a new color palette. Buying stuff in this manner also keeps you *excited* about adding that new unit/figure to your collection, as opposed to seeing it as a burden because it is still just primer colored.
3. Don't buy boxed sets. If you buy a boxed set you have tons of stuff you need to paint all at once. This can easily lead to the stress Squid mentioned in the video, when you have hurdles to jump, it's nicer to keep them as low as possible; so unless you get a large discount on the boxed set, or you *need* a special release sculpt, just keep it to buying a kill team or something that you can later use in your army.
4. If your sculpts look icky, see what you can do to fix the problems. When I started all of the Warhammer figures were metal, they all had infuriating mold lines, larger sections never lined up quite right, there were voids, so ever after you put the thing together it always looked sloppy. Make sure you clean off the flashing, take your time and make sure it's not just clean, but the details are preserved while you are cleaning an area. Knives, sandpaper (I liked the wet dry sand paper that went up to 2,000 grit), files and green stuff and pins will all help you shine up even poorly cast figures and make them more enjoyable to paint (especially if you dry brush).
5. Make sure you can *use* what you buy. This applies to the figures, as well as the supplies; old GW paints had latex in them, I've developed a latex allergy, so recently as I have started watching the videos on this channel I wanted to start painting again. I was concerned about the paint composition and contacted GW to ask about the paint composition of their new paints, the fantastic rep I got did not know exactly nor did with office, so he contacted the people who *make* the individual paints to get the info. The response I received was "while the acrylics used in our (Citadel) paints are latex free, they are manufactured in facilities that also make products with latex in their composition. So hearing that the new paint lines were something I could in theory use was such an enjoyable thing to hear, I actually got off the phone with them a few hours ago with this info, so your video was shockingly well timed. :D
I digress, the video was fantastic, great job sir and keep up the good work! As the person I spoke to said "while people don't need plastic toy soldiers, the people that play games with plastic soldiers *need* those toy soldiers", I thought that was very well put and you are helping us fulfill that need sir!
my first "paintingstation" was a small window sill . i had a thee saucer to mix collours, a few Revell collours , a glass of terpentine and 3 brushes.
About painting more miniatures, you're absolutely right. When it comes to armies I use, I'm generally quite good at methodically going through it all till it's done, but I also recognise that creativity has a spontaneous component that you ignore at your own peril.
What I do is I set myself a reward system where I write down my spontaneous urges and then only allow myself to engage with it if I finish *insert generic troop choice here* first.
That way, I can spend more involved time on the centrepieces and signature units of an army. Also I must be superhuman, or at least insane, because every army I've owned, with two recent exceptions, have been fully painted and not sloppily either.
My past Warhammer fantasy armies were: 7000+pts Orcs and Goblins, 3000+pts Tomb Kings, 2500pts Ogre Kingdoms, 2500pts Bretonnians, 4000+pts Daemons (actually two separate armies of Khorne and Tzeentch Daemons). And that's just the most notable ones. At the moment I have three large Mierce Miniatures armies, some necromunda and 40k on the go as well... and stuff painted to sell.
I think I have a problem....
I just received my first sable brushes while I wait for your kickstarter to deliver. Amazing i have to say. While it took a little while to get used to it I have seen a .arked improvement on .y minis
3:05 *MINIAC rage intansifies*
Your tip with painting better miniatures is completely true. When I started painting last year I started with the minis from masmorra. They are chibi style, not the most detailed Miniatures (still nice, and my son loves to play that game so they needed a paint job no matter what 😂), and quite small.
You couldn’t learn so much from that process, except maybe handling your tools to reach weird spaces, under a cape and such stuff.
After that I started painting rising sun, rising sun has some really nice, detailed and big miniatures.
On the first one I painted of them I learned wet blending (big, round belly), OSL (magic flame in his left Hand), and battle damage on weapons (huge trident in his right hand). Does any of this look perfect?? Well, surely not, it was the first attempt trying these techniques after all, but this mini alone helped me to improve much more than the hole stuff of masmorras base game 😁
One of the most important advice videos for hobby painters. Thank you.
What a pleasant surprise to see a second video this week! Lay down that good advice!
Great topic.
I especially agree with #1 (dedicated work space) and #7 (better tools).
I used to set up a table in the living room and paint for a day or two in front of the T.V. Knowing I had to set up and take down each time was a major deterrent from painting. If I painted once or twice a month I would be lucky. It was just easier to sit down and play video games so that's what I did instead. I also found the T.V. too distracting. Now I have a dedicated table in the basement and I paint for a couple hours three to five times per week. I listen to audiobooks and enjoy my time much more.
I also try to use the best tools I can. I have set of W&N Series 7 brushes and I love them. I use cheaper Army Painter brushes for metallic paints and synthetic brushes for oil paints and washes. I also have a Badger Patriot 105 airbrush and a compressor.
Tip: I thought when you recommended selling the minis you meant sell the ones we've painted. I've found that it is also really motivating to make some money from your efforts and re-invest in better equipment, minis, paints, pay some bills (lame), or even better buy the significant other something nice for putting up with your hobby. Sell local at the nearest game shop if they allow it (they are usually very flexible if you are purchasing from them and know them fairly well) or hit up tabletop gaming groups or conventions.
Great video Emil as always! I couldn't agree more with these points---nothing bums me out more than wanting to paint, then looking at my messy desk and going "nah, maybe later!" ---as a painter I agree a good mini can make it easier to accomplish better painting. It also adds challenge to have more details to pick out and there's something about having more details to work on, that I find just helps me hone my skills further. One comment I can make is---picking up a 3D printer has helped a lot too because they are relatively cheap, and I can print highly detailed resin models---practice on them at about 30-50 cents ---I can practice all sorts of techniques and not worry about "ruining" a high detailed model...I can freely experiment and try new things and if I mess up, I can just re-print more!
Great advices. As for las one, I would add that working with tools which you like (even if you enjoy just fact that is expencive, but not the way they work) motivates you as well.
Absolutely, i hope that came out in the video, any good brush like kolinsky or a home made wet palette :D one don't have to buy the most expensive.
I really appreciate this video. I am early into gunpla and airbrushing so I thought it would be wise to learn from people in as well as outside of the gunpla realm. I took notes and put em on my fridge door like Martin Luther with the 95 theses, lol. All of these will apply for my wife's traditional canvas painting too. Thank you @Squidmar Miniatures
100% agree with the airbrush and as soon as I can afford it, I will upgrade. Right now I am always hesitant to start it up, though at least it got better since I know how to clean it faster and make it 'mostly' do what I want it to. The rest is probably an issue with the quality.
I usually clean a little bit after every time I paint. And After each completed project, like for example; I recenlty finalized painting my Untamed Beasts - then I do a big cleanup and put everything back where it's supposed to be, sort the colors in color gradients and whatnot - so I have a completly clean slate for the next project :)
Thanks for your insights, they made me reflect and my observations are:
- I know and understand the psychology behind having a clean and organized space and a small and manageable backlog...it is much easier for the brain to focus and enjoy the hobby that way. The people that say they don't mind the disorder because they know where what is just don't realize the amount of mental energy needed to keep all that in memory. I was doing that and then changed and can testify that now everything is much simpler.
- I have a hobby space most of the year and I agree on everything you said about it (clean, all within hand reach, etc.). But in the summer it gets too hot there that paints dry in their pots so I have to move it somewhere. And I put most stuff that I need in cardboard boxes so I can unpack and repack them quickly (as some of your viewers in the video)
- I am guilty of buying more than I paint, but at least I paint only small warbands for Underworlds, Warcry and Kill Team and I finish each in a month or two. So no big unfinished army for me...just unfinished terrain that bothers me :(
- I don't sell my minis, I use them for demonstrations at conventions and gaming events that we organize or participate. That way more people can try games with my painted minis and start their own collection if they like it, instead of selling/giving away my minis to a single person.
- I have an old collection of Confrontation miniatures, and I paint them rarely, but when I paint them I do that to improve a technique or to learn something new. I consider them better than GW miniatures and paint them to look amazing. I'll probably never again play Confrontation, but I just like those minis...and don't want to sell them even if some of them wait 10 years to get painted.
Emil, have you ever painted Confrontation miniatures?
hey Emil, I've seen hints of models that you haven't shown yet! Come on let me see that rockgut troggoth in all its glory! And the beast grave wolf riders too!
HOLY WHAT?! Posted 10 month ago and this guy called me out on my watching the Witcher on Netflix instead of painting like I should have been over the last two days due to laziness...... I hereby declare Squidmar to be a prophet and a phsycic
After getting back into painting after 25 years, I bought 3 decent Rosemary & Co. brushes, best £15 I ever spent, my 1st mini was better than anything I painted 25 years ago, still using the same 25 year old paint. My GW 'Go Faster Red' was bought in 1988 and its still great, now in a sensible dropper bottle I may add. Come on GW you make great paint, put it in a decent container.
Great video, I used not to paint for 3 reason, first I kept wanting to paint everything at my best, which was exhausting, when painting armies. Second, the amount to paint, and third, not having everything ready.
In the end purpose gave me a focus, after YEARS postponing. Purpose for me is, all of the minis which are expandable (playing skavens, with 300 clanrats and 100 stormvermins) I decided to lower the paint, since they are en masse and killed fast, and focus on huge figures and general which are focus point of the army. Also, the brushes, thanks to you, i choose and bought some, kolinski from Raphael (the factory is close from my city ahah) + wet palet. I airbrush a lot now.. Everything made shortcuts, and now, between your channel and Miniacs, I finally have fun playing painted armies that I actually enjoy. AND I finally consider I can start painting minis just for display! I also bought a lamp you recommend through your amazon link. I never painted 30 minis in 6 weeks before, and now I'm super glad of the result
So awesome mate 😍
I find for no. 2, for me as a wargamer it applies. It's not paint less volume of minis as such, just don't have a load of different models from a variety of periods/rulesets on the desk at the same time. Only at the weekend I shelved my WWII Germans that were on the table along with my Voltigeurs so I can concentrate on just the Napoleonics and get that much closer to having a painted army.
Amazing as always. Really enjoyable to watch.
I have one issue thought with my painting : My eyes seem to tire very quickly. After about one hour of staring in little details and painting I must "reset" my eyes by changing focus for a couple of minutes ( looking something that is far away, and then looking something near, and then repeat ). If you have neck/ back problems I would recommend that you stand up and do stretches for a couple of seconds, every hour or so.
Got tired of painting, when I played Warhammer. Army painting is just not for me I think. But right now I am trying to pain "my" DnD party. really haveing fun trying/failing to paint my friends character ideas. Haveing fun while "failing" is kinda new to me :D
First I wanna say I love your content and this videos are always motivate me. It reminds me where i started and where i am now. The first two things that changed my painting game was a wet palette and a painting handle.
This video is amazing, i found painting miniatures while looking for a hobby to ease my mind. These tips are amazing for keeping the hobby fun and enjoyable and stress free! Thank you for this video. I thought i was organized but this video has me getting my space into even better shape!
I am happy that I found out some of your adviced by my self. I selled allready my Sword & Sorcery Game with all the Miniatures I never would finish painting. Also I work hard on my equipment and the space in our livingroom, all time ready to yust paint, even I have only half an hour time to paint some details. I will share your Video to my friends because that are really importend steps to know about our hobby.
Man i totally spilled my drink when you said "Iam your mom" :D
i totally can relate to these tipps i have cats and no room where they dont go so i always have to store my hobby stuff which totally held me back which is really frustrating.
But iam trying to get better and i think your video is a huge help especially for newer people.
Thanks :)
I got some WnN kolinsky and my painting just improved, I wasn't forcing the brush to do what I wanted, it just did it.
Funny timing on this for me. I just got a corner desk to add to my space that puts everything in reach for me. Its the first time my computer desk hasn't had to do double duty- I'm sure my keyboard will be happy about not being used as a pallette.
The thing with the brush is so true. That said I would not appreciate my good, no amazing, brush if I had not used cheap ones before. Same with colours. I started painting with a cheap ten colour set from the hobbie store.
It's... thursday?? :-)
Hi!
Yeah, i'm sorry for posting a second video this week :D
@@SquidmarMiniatures Oh no... More Emil. What ever will we do with such useful information? What next? Will you force me to sit in a comfy chair?
@@SquidmarMiniatures I'm back waiting for my friday vid.... :-)
@@MrSJPowell Actually this would probably be my number 8 haha. I recently spent ten days painting sunrise to a little ways past sunset in one of those cramped metal folding chairs. Now I'm looking into getting something that doesn't make me dread painting because of what it's going to do to my back
Got into the hobby a year ago
Always kept my unbuilt models out if sight and my unpainted models in a different room
Works very well
One thing I'd have to say is don't but a bunch of generic infantry
I still have a unit of orks and tau drones I haven't got around to because I'm more interested in larger, more detailed models
my favourite brushes are large citadel base brush, medium drybrush and a rockd etail set i found on amazon for a tenner awesome!!
I have a video suggestion. It would be to a series of guided challenges, to encourage mini painters to improve, maybe a beginners challenge like finish 8 minatures that have been shaded and highlighted, and you could have intermediate and high skill level challenges. What do you think?
i used to have a bit of thin mdf wood about 1 metre square...easy to pick up and move...now im luck enough to have a 5x10 metre studio
I agree with a lot of the points made in this video, I do however find for myself as I am not trying to paint comp standard and I want to get my army complete I like doing a lil bit a day on a model or a unit until its done over a few days as I have other things I wish to do to.
I thought it would be a clickbait but those were really good tips, thank you for your advice.
Whoa, that Metabaron mini is awesome!
Hey! Couldn't you make a video of all of your previous projects? You have won best painted army and stuff right? Would love to see the stuff that you have in those shelves!
I know all this stuff already...but damn did I need to hear it. Sometimes it’s easy to let things slip, such as letting the desk get messy.
I found that by starting to paint death guard I could work on two things I found difficult, which was white and weathering.(plus the models have a lot of detail so it's good practice for being precise)
With regard to the first point and third, i don't have the space to dedicate a room in my house for hobbying so the dinning room table is the only real option. The solution to making accessibility and set up easier is to build a cart with a bunch of drawers for all my hobby products and my airbrush set up. When i am done i can wheel the cart in a closet out of the way and it should be a breeze to whip it out when i need it.
Thats the plan anyway, the cart is actually this weekend's project
3:06
I can hear Miniac screaming in anger... and I live on the other side of the country.
The selling minis is so true, I have a very small collection all considered. I did however have a few sealed boxes and some 40k I’m never touching.
Even when people got me awesome minis or exclusives I felt under pressure to get them done
I now have some reinforcements for an army and more £££ in my PayPal!
4:00 unfortunately, I play a swarm army, Skaven. But I love all my sons and they all get the 110% treatment and I spend more time on each one than any rat-thing deserves. BUT I also use the battlelines as test subjects for different techniques and personal whims..
Can't stand a messy work space. After every project I clean up and put everything back. I don't do it at the end of every painting session so that I can make sure I have all the same paints used throughout the project.
Also agree with the better tools. When I made the jump to using a Kolinsky Sable brush there was a marked improvement and the brush overall lasted much longer than most of the others I painted with previously. I just now replaced it after a full year of painting on a regular basis as it was starting to lose the ability to hold a tip, still have it and it's still usable for basing and the sort but can't do detail work with it. Well worth every penny for it!
Hahaha, hearing you talk about your wife making you pack up every time guests come by, hit so close to home ;D that’s EXACTLY where I’m at, at the moment.Word for word ^^ cheers and thanks for the great tips and motivation!
hey, i saw all those dope minis!!!!! can we see all you minis you have painted especially that maw crusher and orks!!