Painting Your Way Why I’m Here
Why I Started Painting Your Way
Grima Wormtongue on Horse - My First Conversion
I’ve been painting miniatures for a while now, sharing finished projects on Instagram, but this is the first time I’ve decided to properly document the process behind the hobby.
Not just the finished pieces, the highlights, the polished shots, but the full process. The ideas that work, the ones that don’t, and everything in between.
Because like most hobbyists, I’ve built up a backlog.
Not just of unpainted models, but of ideas. Techniques I want to try. Styles I want to explore. Projects that start simple and slowly grow into something much bigger than expected. Some get finished. A lot don’t even get started. Others get pushed aside when something new grabs my attention.
Painting Your Way is my attempt to work through not only my physical backlog but my creative backlog.
Learning Through Process
The Start of my Pi-Rats Blood Bowl Team
The goal is straightforward: paint more, finish more, and improve along the way. Not by rushing through projects, but by being more deliberate and taking the time to think about what I’m doing and whether it is working or not.
Up until now, most of my painting has been fairly isolated. I’d experiment, figure things out as I went, and move on to the next thing. Sometimes that worked. Sometimes it didn’t. But either way, once a model was done, that was it. No real record of what I learned or how I got there, sometimes the project was accompanied by a post to Instagram. Then the next time would come around and I would have forgotten what I learnt and would have to experiment and learn all over again.
That’s what I want to change.
Writing things down forces a different kind of thinking. You can’t just say “that worked” or “that didn’t”—you have to break it apart. What choices did you make? What actually produced the result? What would I do differently next time?
Over time, that builds something more useful than just a collection of finished models. It builds a collection of processes and ideas into a personal tutorial.
The Social Side of the Hobby
Although I do get to play a game every now and again, alternating between Blood Bowl, Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game and Malifaux, at the same time, the painting side of the hobby can be a pretty solitary experience.
A lot of it is done at a desk, on your own, working things out quietly. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it can also feel a bit disconnected, especially when most of the interaction comes after the fact, once something is finished and shared or ready for a game.
Part of the reason for starting this blog is to change that.
By writing things out and sharing the process, I’m hoping to make it feel a bit more social. Something that invites conversation rather than just a presentation.
Experimentation Over Perfection
At the same time, this isn’t about presenting perfect work.
There’s already plenty of that out there. This is more about the reality of it, the trial and error, the missteps, the successes, the points where things get experimental and need to be reworked: the parts that usually get skipped over, the parts where we learn.
That’s also why I’m not locking myself into a single style.
Some projects will lean more traditional with clean highlights, controlled contrast, letting the sculpt do most of the work. Others will push into more experimental territory. Object source lighting, stronger colour choices, texture work, things that don’t always go to plan, but are worth exploring.
Miniatures and Gunpla
Alongside miniatures, I also build Gunpla.
This brings a slightly different mindset into the mix. Where painting often leans into interpretation and experimentation, Gunpla has a stronger focus on precision, clean builds, panel lining, subtle detailing, and letting the design speak for itself. It’s a useful contrast, and one that feeds back into how I approach painting as well. Depending on the build, I will also paint some of my Gunpla, it gives a nice break from the tiny miniatures, allowing me to play more with light and blending on the larger figures.
What Painting Your Way Means
The idea behind Painting Your Way is exactly that: finding an approach that works for you. We are all in this hobby together and here to enjoy what little time we have with it.
Not chasing a single “correct” style but understanding the tools and techniques well enough to make intentional choices. Knowing when to push something further, and when to hold it back. When to experiment, and when to keep things simple.
Most of what I paint sits somewhere between tabletop and display. I like models that have presence on the table, something that stands out immediately, but still holds up when you take a closer look. That balance is something I’m still working towards, and probably always will be.
Lessons From the Chaos Dwarfs
A recent example of that was my Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl team, which I will go into more detail in my first real post.
That project leaned heavily into object source lighting across the entire team. It created a strong, cohesive look, but it also pushed things to a point where restraint would have helped as well as a more thought-out plan. It’s a good example of the kind of thing I want to explore here, what worked, what didn’t, and what I’d change next time.
Going forward, I’m planning to shift back toward a more traditional approach for a bit. Cleaner, more controlled, with techniques like OSL used more sparingly. Not as a replacement, but as a contrast, something to build a broader skillset.
One Project at a Time
That’s really what this blog is about.
Working through the backlog. Finishing projects. Trying new approaches. Paying attention to the process and learning from it, not just the result.
There’s no strict schedule and no fixed roadmap. Posts will go up as I work on projects or when there’s something worth breaking down. Some will be detailed write-ups, others more like quick reflections; this will also include my works in progress and my completed projects.
Either way, the goal stays the same: keep improving, one project at a time.
If that sounds like something you’re interested in, feel free to follow along.
And remember always Paint Your Way.
