We are big fans of miniature painting here at MGB and The Mini Geek has wanted to show his friends Games Workshop for sometime. For obvious reasons that’s not been possible until recently, so I decided to take him and 2 of his friends to Warhammer World, home of Games Workshop.
Situated off the A52 in Nottingham, Warhammer World is home to one of the largest mini figure producers in the world. It has a large store, including Forge World and you can book tables to (safely) play the table-top games. It also has a large exhibition displaying armies past and present, but we will probably go there another time, as there is an entry fee.
It was great to see the boys become excited and enthused for the hobby, I’m not a serious painter but have painted a few miniatures but the husband and our eldest are more knowledgeable than I could ever be in the lore of 40K.
The staff at Warhammer World were very welcoming and friendly and as the boys were new to the hobby, gave them some demo models to try out for themselves at home.
Once they had their models and purchased a couple of paints and brushes (we have plenty of paints ourselves back at MGB HQ), we made our way back home and built the tiny models. They were more than capable at snipping the models off the sprue and gluing and building each space marine and once they were primed they began to paint them in the various colours.
They used a variety of different paints, from the contrast colours to metallic, I reminded them to keep the brushes used for the metallic paints away from the contrast paints to prevent metallic bits contaminating the paint and they really enjoyed creating their own chapters and stories as they painted.
Overall they enjoyed it, they want to do another painting session again soon and even one of the Mini Geek’s friends had already decided on what paints and models to get next.
If you’re an avid fan of Games Workshop 40K or Age of Sigmar or mini figure painting then you may think we did things wrong, but I think it’s important to not force strict rules when trying something out for the first time, having fun and being safe (I primed the models outside to avoid spray getting everywhere for example) is more important and it seems that they enjoyed themselves enough to try it again.
Tips for anyone starting out:
- Visit your local GW or Miniature model store, the staff are very friendly and always excited to introduce more people to the hobby, a lot of places offer painting demos
- Don't feel pressured into buying anything right away, it's an expensive hobby, you can normally make do with a basic paintbrush set and small amount of paints.
- Shop around, there are lots of independent shops that sell a range of hobby minis including D&D, GW and Mantic
- There are lots of decent YouTube Videos available if you're interested in learning more; start with MidWinter Minis and go from there.
- You can get decent brushes to begin with and if you take care of them, they'll last you a while. You'll be painting miniatures so consider the smaller sized brushes
- It doesn't matter if you go wrong, don't feel pressured to be perfect, these things take time.
- Make sure an adult uses the aerosol cans for primer, and make sure it's done outside or in a well ventilated room.
- It sounds cliché but have fun! There is joy to be had from creating factions and paint schemes.
- There are lots of miniature hobbyist clubs out there, and it's a matter of a quick google to find your nearest one.