New Tricks

I don’t know whether it’s a cool thing to be able to say or not; I spent yesterday afternoon teaching my mother how to paint a Warhammer mini.

It was a great afternoon actually.

She poked through the bits box and asked if she could paint one. Sure, I thought, always keen to share the hobby with someone new, and if she does well then meybe she won't be so suspicious of those funny little men and monsters with guns and swords and stuff.

I don’t have many miniatures left; I sold my whole collection to help fund a year spent traveling, so the selection was slim.

This concerned me a little – pretty much all I could find was a Sisters of Sigmar Mordheim Warband (too fiddly), some Necromunda Ratskins (sci-fi didn't appeal), and some bits and bobs from from hobby store bargain bins. She didn’t seem enthusiastic about any of them, and was about to settle for some thing with one arm when I happened across this fella;

That horrible, blurry picture is of an ogre bull. Probably the perfect miniature for a first time painter. A large, easy to handle miniature with relatively little detail, and consisting of nice big areas to be painted in the same colour. This also meant that he would be quite satisfying to paint, as he would take form quickly. If you've ever painted a tank or a war machine you'll know what I mean. He already had a head, one with an eye patch - even better, I thought; she wouldn’t have to agonise over wonky eyes. There were plenty of arms to choose from; she chose to equip him with a sword and club.

She left gluing the arms on until everything was painted and began with block painting the exposed skin with Dwarf Flesh and the trousers Hawk Turquoise. On seeing the paint on the model she had misgivings about the turquoise. He looked a bit Disney. However, applying a dark wash to the trouser took the edge off the colour, and she quickly figured out how a wash can create shading, using thinned down ‘Bestiality Brown’ to run between the cracks of the arms, back and moobs.

Dwarven Brass drybrushed onto the gutplate and sword, highlighted with Chainmail Silver, and Jon the ogre was ready for a flocked base and varnish.

I think she did really well for a first go. Now she’s looking at my Chaos Warriors, and asking me how many shades of mauve and purple I’ve got…