From 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. 

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.

Having 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.