Learning to paint minis – Warhammer 40K Gaunt’s Ghosts

Learning to paint minis was not really something on my radar a few years ago. Then again, the thought of NOT building aircraft was not on my radar, either.

But here we are…

Now if you’re thinking “is Jon switching to being a mini painter?”, let me answer that quickly.

No. 😊

First, my attention span for subjects is too short to focus on one thing like minis. And second, I’m nowhere near able to call myself a “mini painter”. Not by a long shot. At best, I’m a modeler who enjoys painting the occassional gaming miniature.

Learning to paint minis – so why do it?

I’ll admit that my initial motivation to paint minis was simply a case of thinking it looked fun. I watch many mini videos (see what I did there Mahoney? 😉). Two of my favorites are Sorastro’s Painting and the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy. Those two painters in particular make me want to paint miniatures every time I watch them. They make it seem fun, and present the process in a very approachable way.

But my real reason for adding more minis into the mix was something I realized only after starting.

It ain’t as easy as it looks.

And that’s a good thing. Because as I started painting a few miniatures, mostly out of curiosity about the process, I realized that it exposed a whole range of skills that I lacked. I think it’s not prideful to say I’m an experienced modeler. I’ve used a wide range of products and techniques over the years. And I feel fairly confident in my ability to apply them.

So what does that all mean?

The more minis I painted it dawned on me that there were gaps in skills. Gaps that I’d have never seen had I not tried to blend flesh tones, paint eyes, and give fabric texture to flat plastic.

Yet the more I painted them, the more I saw a very positive effect. While my minis would never win any awards, I saw that the skills learned there really began to help my other modeling projects. A great understanding of brush control, thinning, blending, highlight, and shade begin to show benefit in everything I did.

So my goal is not to be a miniature painter really. Rather, it’s to be a better, more capable modeler. And a way to get there is by painting minis.

And have fun along the way!

Don’t forget to take a look at all of my tabletop gaming content.