Author Archives: Kev Walsh

About Kev Walsh

Kev Walsh lives in Liverpool England. He has played in numerous hardcore and punk bands over the last 10 years including Seconds Out, The Last Chance and Down And Outs. Kev focusses most of his efforts on painting rather than playing, and is currently trying to push himself to learn some new tricks.

Painting Buddha needs YOU

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It would be easy to assume that the world of miniature was an insular one. I have to admit that the main attraction to painting for me, is that I can sit alone listening to music, without the distraction of other human beings. However you’d only be hearing half of the story if you thought it ended there. The miniature painting community is fairly vibrant, with events, workshops, meetups and general gatherings taking place on a regular basis. But it’s not just the coming together of people that makes the community worthy of your time. In addition to this, painters love to share their work, their techniques and advice, and for the most part they do it for the love. For much the same reasons that we make music, start record labels, write fanzines and travel 300 miles to watch bands play for 20 minutes.

I consider Painting Buddha to be one of the linchpins of this community and I have wrote about their endeavours more than once. In their short two year existence they have brought together painters from across the world with their easy to follow and exceptionally high quality videos. They’re here for that painter who has decided that he/she wants to take that next step and start upping their game, showing what those next steps are, how best to take them, and the results you can achieve. Michael Bartels is frequently, and tirelessly communicating with followers of the blog & Facebook page, finding out where Painting Buddha can and should go next and it is this attitude and outlook that has made them almost a household name in their short existence.

PB2Michael has been able to sustain the project these last two years using a combination of his own cash, crowdfunding, and the store. Maybe this outlook was a little utopian? Who knows, but all things move toward their end. Actually that sounds a little dramatic, this is in no way an end, and you will to my knowledge still be able to get your fix of Ben Komets for free. But they have set up a Patreon page, allowing anyone with a spare few quid per month to help prop up this fantastic enterprise. In return for your support you will receive perks based on the amount you pledge. But even at the $3.00 level you’ll see the benefits, so get it done!

My advice is simple. If you’re interested in miniature painting as a hobby, get on to these guys. It really is everything you need to take the next steps towards a more colourful future. And if you gain something from what you see? Then please support them so that future painters can benefit in the same way.

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Social Wargaming Part 1: Social Justice Wargamer

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Phil Millar has been a good friend of mine for a few years now. He is an active trade unionist, keen gamer, and lover of awful 90’s Cali-punk. The admins of Corehammer recently discussed how unhappy we were at the state of aspects of the wargaming community. Corehammer itself is a response to this. A haven for those of us who don’t like to scream ‘WAAAGHH’ across a table,  for the player who doesn’t want to attend a gaming club full of neckbeards making rape jokes. But just existing isn’t enough. It’s not enough to encounter those attitudes and just be glad that we’re not like them. I spoke about it with Phil and he agreed to knock up a few articles on wargaming with some basic level of a social conscience. And I’m really glad he did. – Kev

Tabletop wargaming is a social hobby, at its most basic level, you need to interact with at least one other human being. Any social activity depends on its members to be responsible for making sure its society includes those it wants to include. You get this self-policing in every subculture and fan group, but it feels to me (maybe because its my main hobby these days) that the general and overarching world of wargaming is lagging behind when it comes to making a safe and welcoming place for everyone interested in fucking about with plastic models.

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The Shattered Crown – A new game from the makers of Across The Dead Earth

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Across The Dead Earth was a really exciting little project that brought the post-apocalyptic aesthetic to a UK setting. Offering gamers from our small island a chance to experience the now familiar setting in a context that’s known to them. There is a certain exhilaration to playing a game based on a locale that is familiar to you. I recall playing Cthulhu game set in 80’s Liverpool and just hearing the names of streets I knew did wonders for my suspension of disbelief and immersion.

The game itself seems cool enough. A nice fast paced skirmish game that you can dip in and out of without the massive cash and time investment of many modern war games. This is a big selling point and it is something that seems to be continuing with Rich Chappell’s newest project The Shattered Crown.

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Prodos Games – Warzone Miniatures review.

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I don’t know much about Prodos’ Warzone IP. My only knowledge of the company came from their Aliens Vs Predator Kickstarter, so a couple of years back now. I was impressed that (what I assumed was) a small company managed to grab itself rights to such a solid project. It was a ballsy move, one that made me think that these guys were ones to watch. I didn’t back, but a few of my mates did, and that’s how they came to be on my radar. I went to Salute 2014 and spent a fair bit of time at their stand, admiring some of the initial sculpts for AVP. They really had gone all out on this project, the miniatures looked awesome and the small amount of gameplay stuff out there was very cool indeed. Continue reading →

WarGames – A new wargaming store that does what all stores SHOULD.

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Just when I was starting to feel crushed under the weight of disappointing Kickstarters… along comes Martin McNeil. The WarGames project is as ambitious as it is appealing. I’ve always wondered about the business practices of wargaming / hobby based stores. Loving Space Marines may well allow you to start a business that permeates passion for the hobby, but that is not enough to make an organisation a success. Continue reading →

Cult Of The Ax – Ax Faction.

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AxFactionThere are some genuinely wonderful things happening on these shores at the moment. Maybe that has always been the case, I dunno. But I do feel like its an exciting time to be a grown man with a disposable income and a passion for good quality miniatures. The rise of 3D printing and digital sculpting is paving the way for a new generation of tech-aware, imaginative creators who grew up in the Realm Of Chaos, and used that blueprint to come up with a whole host of worlds with multiple influences.

Ax-Faction is one such organisation. There are others too, that I will be covering in the coming weeks. Ax-Faction came to my attention toward the end of last year. I’d not heard of them, which upset me a little, because I thought my finger was on the pulse but apparently not. I liked the vibe of the company. It was brutal without being overly po-faced and serious, there was a light heartedness there, like a slasher film I guess. As if that wasn’t enough, the soundtrack to this website was none other than Liverpool sludge kings Conan. This was a company I wanted to keep an eye on.
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Weekend Painting Workshop – June 7th & 8th – Cardiff

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FlyerFrom time to time I bang on about these. If you’re looking to pick up some new skills, or hone some existing ones, there is absolutely no better way to do so than painting with other people. GrotFighter

Liverpool painter John Harrison has been running weekend workshops for coming up to 4 years now, and has brought over some of the most talented and well respected miniature painters in the world to deliver classes in Liverpool, Cardiff and Cambridge. I’ve not met a single student who has come away from one of these classes feeling like their money had not been well spent.

John has two classes that he runs himself a few times per year. The first is his beginners class. This lasts a weekend and comes highly recommended. But the class he is bringing to Cardiff next month will be focussing on vehicle weathering, which over the last few years has reached something of a zenith in miniature painting. The more tutorials people see, the narrower the gap gets between high end historical painters and tabletop focussed gamers. While many of these techniques are on display in books, and in YouTube tutorials, there is no substitute for sitting down with an experienced painter and watching them go through them in the flesh.

TheButcherHaving gone through the weathering workshop late on in 2014, I can confirm that it covers a lot of innovative and exciting techniques to make your vehicles look in a very poor state indeed. This includes, but is far from limited to the use of oil paints, weathering pigments and chipping fluids.

If you have the weekend free, and weathering is something you are looking to expand upon, I can suggest no better way to spend your dosh than this workshop. Very, very highly recommended. Places cost £95 for the weekend, and are strictly limited. It will take place at popular gaming venue and online store Firestorm Games, in Cardiff. Get in touch with John via the event page on Facebook for more details and to book your place.

Painting Buddha Legends – Kirill ‘Yellowone’ Kanaev

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In around 2011 I thought I would start getting serious about painting. I was amassing a fairly big collection since coming back to the hobby in 2005, and had played a few games but I hadn’t really met anyone who I enjoyed gaming with outside of my long time mates from over in Manchester. So I had hundreds of miniatures sat there doing nothing, and since I had always admired painters from my childhood, I thought I would start trying to push that aspect of the hobby instead. I came across Miniature Mentor, which is an excellent, but seemingly dwindling resource offering video tutorials from some of the worlds most wonderful painters. The site, especially its beginner videos is a perfect first step. For its flaws however, the best thing about Miniature Mentor is how it blew open the door and inspired a lot of tech-savvy painters to take that blueprint and improve it. Enter Painting Buddha.

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The Rise Of Fantasy – Juan J. Barrena.

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IMG_8156There has never been a better time to get in to miniature painting. I say this without hyperbole. Think back to when you were 13, scrolling though those massive walls of texts in White Dwarf, trying to figure out how Mike McVey got those blends so damn nice. Think about that when you see the following pages and you’ll see that I’m right.  Continue reading →

Online resources for painters

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PINTERESTand-INSTAGRAMA quick Google search for almost any painting technique, or ‘how to paint XX’ always tends to yield multiple results. There is a lot to be said for how much effort people put in to creating easy to follow tutorials advising painters how to achieve a certain results. And its not just painting guides. Reviews of products, unboxing videos, colour theory guides, conversion guides, people forming their own painting crews… A lot of people say that the halcyon days of community have long since passed and we’re a far cry from where we were in ’92. While I appreciate how unfair it is for me to say this when there was no CMON, Painting Buddha or Miniature Mentor back then, I am of the opinion that the internet has done nothing but good things for the aspiring painter.
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