Painting class at Barwell Bodyworks (17/02/18)

I’ve long had an interest in painting classes but up until now I’d never attended one, either as a student or teacher. Then a few weeks ago I was contacted by Paul Thompson, who runs a brilliant motivational Facebook group for painters in the Leicester area (the Leicester all scars survivor series), and asked if I’d be interested in giving a class at Barwell Bodyworks.

At first I was a little reticent as I know that there are several fantastic painters in the UK that have a great deal of teaching experience and didn’t think I’d be best placed to help the group, but Paul was quite persistent and I eventually agreed to give it a go!

I had a good think about what I could realistically cover in a single day and we settled on a demo of my approach to painting shiny armour, plus an extra session on some of the details if time allowed. Each of the seven attendees was given a short list of recommended paints for the day, and asked to show up with those, a basecoated space marine and all the other standard bits of painting paraphernalia that a hobbyist needs!

Barwell Bodyworks was very easy to find and is a great venue for teaching a painting class. The owner, Steve, runs regular airbrushing classes and sells everything that you could possibly need to paint with an airbrush. A seemingly endless supply of tea, coffee and biscuits was laid on for us, which was much appreciated! Steve was also able to help me out after I idiotically neglected to bring the desk clamp for my painting lamp to the class!

I split the day into four mini sessions, with each consisting of me giving a demo of a technique and then the attendees having a go for themselves while I wandered around and offered help where it was needed. The first three sessions saw us working on the shiny power armour, and then we had a quick vote on what to cover for the final session, with power sword blades being the clear winner!

From my point of view it was a fantastic experience, and I really enjoyed the day. More importantly, everyone that attended was very complimentary and said that they found the class really useful!

I definitely hope to teach more classes in the future now that I’ve got a taste for it, so watch this space!

Unfortunately I didn’t get good photos of the work that the attendees achieved on the day, but here’s a WIP from Jake Bale using the techniques covered in the class. Very impressive!

High Elf Dragon Maiden (again)

Fans of this blog may remember my first 30 mm sculpt, the Dragon Maiden. I’m pleased to say that RN Estudio are now selling resin copies of this miniature here. (In case anyone is wondering, I’m not making any money from this myself.)

Of course, it was only fitting that I give her a snazzy new paint job to celebrate this development! I’ve gone for non metallic metal again just because it looks better in photographs and I knew a good picture would be needed for the store.

Unfortunately there’s no painting tutorial for this piece but it uses the same recipes as the fantasy football high elf I painted recently, so that guide is highly recommended for anyone wishing to emulate my version!

Before producing the miniature, Rafael asked me to create an alternative right hand, which I was very happy to do. I also took the opportunity to fix her eyes, which were far too bulbous on the original. Her face is still not the right shape and I have had to disguise this with my paint work. I’ve corrected this deficiency on my more recent sculpts though!