Paint Workshop at the Games Workshop

 

Last weekend was the "1 million miniatures" event at GW stores. It was an occasion for managers to kind of organize whatever they wanted as a celebration. If you've read other articles from this blog you might have read a few of my opinions about my local Warhammer store (and warhammer stores everywhere honestly). If not I'll keep the background short : chud customers, corpo vibe, and an environment designed to never have anyone escape the Warhammer black hole. So you would rightfully be surprised that on that Saturday of 1 Billion Miniatures, I was running a painting workshop at the event. 

The manager of that store (IE : the single employee), is an absolute champ and I have nothing but nice things to say about him. In april, as he was putting together his event, he asked me if I'd be down to run a painting table all day, helping people with their painting questions as they came in. He'd gotten a photographer to come and set up a photobooth already, and promised me I could do what I wanted. So I pitched him a simple format, he said yes, and that's how I ended up on board. I saw an opportunity to engage with actual newbies and Warhammer hostages, and maybe talk to them about painting beyond putting nuln oil on space marines. I don't actually get to do that very often. As a result this was as much an opportunity to test myself as it was to share some knowledge. The audience I've cobbled together on here, on youtube, and Instagram is mostly made up of people who know at least a little bit about painting, and have the drive to expand their outlook. At work I make educational content aimed at people in universities. This might sound a little bit like I'm trying to pidgeonhole (how do anglos even invent these words man) the public of these stores into a mean caricature of gormless savages I have to lead to enlightenment and you're correct that's exactly what I'm doing. 

All jokes aside, I knew going in that anyone showing up to engage with a painting workshop would be the type of hobbyists I could get along with. The trick was to get them to actually stop by my paint desk. I put together a couple of simple standees I hoped would catch the attention of people (graphic design is my passion).

 

 Even if you don't speak french you can probably tell what the core points were. Since I was essentially going to run a painting clinic for 8 hours straight, I wanted activities ready to pick up and drop off as customers came in. The Zorn palette was the perfect teaching tool for the occasion. The ties with John Blanche's iconic style and the relative novelty of using just 4 paints meant the logistics were easier on my end, and I could get people to try blending their paints. I'd brought a couple of necromunda kitbashes to serve as guinea pigs for this activity. I worked on this first guy for about 4 hours on and off while students rotated in and tried a variety of techniques on the second model you see underneath.

genuinely happy with this one, especially for being painted on a horrible stool while muzak blared in the background

 

 There was a ton of variety in the levels of experience and confidence at the event, so I did help show off some of the more minutes techniques on there but overall, people were great. Some were just looking for tips on shading, some wanted a crash course on underpainting or NMM, but the Zorn palette in an art school classic for a reason, it's a very versatile teaching tool. 

 

 I'd also prepped a communal test model, from last edition's free stormcast with the intention to have everyone who stopped by and was down paint part of it and finish the day with a done model. This wasn't as much of a hit as the Zorn activity but it did see some action as a demo for wet blending and a little bit of glazing. Nevermind mind, I'll finish this one myself at some point. Speaking of stuff that didn't get finished on the day off, I had brought a few other kitbashes to showcase and talk about converting and sculpting if anyone was curious. Here's a peek at a model that'll be making another appearance on here at some point :

 

he's blue for an amazing reason

 Throughout the day, as people came and went I noticed two things kept coming up. First was that people were being overly precious when applying basecoats. I kept seeing these painters reach for the smallest brush they could and put on a timid layer of paint on the test minis.There were definitely some weird looks when I showed how rough I am at this sketching stage. Then again, for most of my new friends, sketching was for drawing, or canvas painting, and it hadn't really occured to them that you could do it here too. The other major recurring thing was less about technique than about mindset. I found myself repeating the phrase "let's try" at least a dozen times. Overwhelmingly, people who came in with questions needed a push to try things. I think there are a few factors behind this which can't all be blamed on Games Workshop (see the rise of adult coloring books and other "turn off your brain" "cultural products"). If you can, I think you should give people a little push to try things they might find dauting. I'm not telling you to dump unsolicited advice on your LGS but you know how hobby stores are, people tend to talk about painting. So if you can do a sick base, awesome NMM, or some great textures, I think it's your duty of sorts, to nudge people into taking the same little risks that got you there.

The final thing I learned during my stint at the 1 Trillion Miniatures event was how awful it is to work at a Warhammer store. Seriously, go buy a carton of cigs for your local GW manager because they deserve it. The guy running the one here isn't the kind to dump "the script" on anyone who walks in but I fully understand those who do. While I had the cushy job of talking with curious, open hobbyists about painting, he had to handle the dead-eyed hordes, aged 8-60 shuffling in to buy some Imperial Guard and reenacting facebook comment sections' greatest hits and showing each other AI slop. These stores tend to be one man operations, with absolutely miserable pay and horrible work culture (the 1 Gajillion miniatures goal being a thinly veiled excuse to pit stores against each other in a numbers race), and backrooms from hell. Ours has a sink so small you can't dump a paint cup down in it, which means you need to do it in the toilet, and that makes the porcelain throne look like a SAW prop. So yeah, I genuinely feel for anyone who works there.

At the end of the day I was glad to take part in this and hopefully help the customers grow in their painting. It was more fun than I expected initially and I look forward to repeating the experience.

Talk to you soon.