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Hey guys, I’m back with the second and final part of my Q&A. After the jump I answer the questions posed to me by you guys on social media.

What can I do as a painter-blogger to get a guest spot on your site?

You need to speak to Stahly. I’m a long term contributor to the blog. Stahly originally contacted me after seeing some of my models on Warseer. I know Stahly reaches out to painters who contribute to Games Workshop’s Flickr page. If you don’t post there, send us pictures of your models on our Facebook page. We are looking for well-photographed models (preferably on a white background) painted to a high tabletop standard.

2004… the last time I painted Death Guard

Why don’t you do some Death Guard?

Yes! My Black Legion are screaming out for some Death Guard additions. The new minis are stunning. I have the Dark Imperium box set so there really isn’t any excuse. 



Video killed the pictorial star… tutorial link


Garfy – can you do a short video of you glazing on some a section of armour to get the highlights? I’m thinking a leg section of Deathwing armour or something… so we have a feel for what each stage of the glazing layering looks like and how long it’ll take to build up the desired transition….. hope that makes sense?

This is such a great idea. Sadly I don’t have time to do this at the moment. Maybe next time I’m painting a similar thing I might use it as an excuse my first Facebook live video. For now, read the answer to the next question…



Glaze on, glaze off.


I want to move my painting up a level. How do I start with blending and wet palettes?

I’ll let you into a little secret. I have never used a wet palette. I wouldn’t even know where to begin in explaining how to use a wet palette. I can help with blending though. Get some blades, swords, power weapons and the like out of your bitz box. superglue them to some wine bottle corks and follow this guide word for word. Do it again and again and again. Try to match the high-resolution pictures as best you can. You’ll soon get the feeling the for it and will be nailing smooth blends using glazing. 


How do you determine the colours you ultimately use for your palette before starting a mini or an army?

This is quite a nice tip actually. I grab my pot of Citadel paint and start arranging them. When I was deciding on my Stormcast colour scheme I took out my paint pots and lined up the yellows I wanted to use for base colours, highlighting and shading, then did the same for the grey. Once happy with those I placed different colours next to them to work out what my spot colour would be. I’m a graphic designer by trade so I understand colour theory (complimentary, split complementary, harmonious, analogous, triad, tetrad etc) so that really helps. I’m always led by style though which is bright and clean (Deathward are going to interesting!)

Big collections painted well will take years. The pay off is incredible though. 

Hi mate. Some thoughts & pointers on painting armies to a good standard would be appreciated. We often see fantastic single minis painted well on forums – but you paint armies and boxed games to high standard – how can the “average joe” pump out armies and sets of well-painted minis like you do as well as doing all the real life stuff, jobs, wives, kids etc.

Well being a married man with a child and a demanding full-time job I feel I can answer this with some confidence. You have two options here:

1. Cut corners; Use drybrushing and washes to churn out armies.

2. Time Management; There are 24 hours in a day. You can get by with 6 to 7 hours sleep. If you usually sleep for 8 hours that’s an hour or two of painting right there. Maybe you can paint in your lunch breaks at work? Maybe ditch a TV show that you’ve been binging on and paint instead? Quit social media. I guarantee that once you’ve taken care of your priorities (family and work) you can find the time. It all depends on how much you want it.   

I’m having issues with water getting into my airbrush, I have a water trap but still have issues with water spitting out.

I’ve had this. I replaced the hose and the water trap. Fine now. 

Is there a more boring batch paint than 40 monopose Gretchen?

I find it hard to keep motivated when doing larger numbers of similar figures (ie 4 squads of 20 High Elf Lothern Seaguard) given that, what methods do you use for batch painting (do you limit the number of models in progress at any one time, do you complete a single step on 15-30 models at once before moving on to next step, etc) and how do you maintain focus on larger projects such as these?

I couldn’t paint 40 Gretchen in one go. I think with these I painted them in batches of ten. The important thing to remember with a squad like this is to not worry about the fine details. You can easily skip a few blending layers here and there. Or wash the basecoat metals, reds and browns all at the same time with Agrax Earthshade. What I’m getting at is you shouldn’t worry about painting such huge units to a high standard. I think it’s wasted effort if I’m honest. 

Action Man not included.

Recently you made a post showing your extractor fan. I was wondering if you could do a tutorial on how you built yours. Thanks so much.

I bought my extractor fan. I wouldn’t have a clue on how to build it. You can read a review on the one I bought by clicking this link. 


40k large models on square bases, painted goblin green, those were the days.

How many years of painting did it take you to be so dang good at it?

I started painting in 1994 aged 13. Stopped when I hit 17. Came back to it aged 21 and I’m still painting now aged 35. I would say it’s only since contributing to Tale of Painters I’ve started to improve. So many great painters here inspiring me daily. Here’s a link to a blog post where I show some models I painted in the years between 1994 and 2012. It’s really interesting to see the progression in one place. 

What is your favourite type of Cheese?

Probably 7th Edition Eldar Jetbike armies.


Mix this Scottish favourite soft drink into your red paint for smooth results. 

Do you still mix Tizer in your red paint?

Back in April 2006, I posted on numerous popular hobby forums a guide to paint really smooth red. I told everyone I mixed Irn Bru (not tizer) into my Vallejo paint and it would smooth the paint and make it easier to blend with. Well, quite a few people believed it and one guy even did a series of experiments with other soft drinks including Coca Cola and Cream Soda. I came clean and told everyone it was a joke! I’ve always liked a good hobby joke… Citadel colouring book or Age of Sigmar Calculator.

Thanks to anyone who took the time to ask me a question. This has been fun. I hope to get back to some proper painting soon so stay tuned for that. 

MerkenMerken

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Garfy's Get a Grip - now available on ebay