Brush Wielders Union

My guest this month was professional painter, Yeji Kim! You may know Yeji from her classes at conventions including Adepticon, Warfaire Weekend, and many others, or her work as a studio painter for Ninja Division. Yeji and I chatted about her career as a painter, and her focus on painting chibi style miniatures in particular. She shared some fantastic tips for painting eyes (and not just on chibis...

This month I was joined by John Swinkels,  convention manager for Privateer Press . John and I talked about all things Privateer' at Adepticon , coming up in just a few short days. John shared his thoughts on the Formula P3 Grandmaster painting competition, convention exclusives, and all the events for WARMACHINE, HORDES, Warcaster and Riot Quest that you can take part in at Adepticon, and of cour...

My guest this month is the one and only Victoria Lamb, founder and owner of Victoria Miniatures ! If you've had any kind of big kit-bashing project or love for a nostalgic and out-of-print Imperial Guard armies, you're almost certainly familiar with Victoria Miniature's expansive line of arms, guns, heads, and alternate body parts. Victoria was kind enough to speak to me about what all went into g...

My guest this month was professional painter and longtime hobbyist, Jeff Hall! Jeff has had a storied career in miniatures, having worked in events Games Workshop and currently as operations manager of Games and Stuff .  These days he specializes in creating immersive tables for use in Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop RPGs! Jeff shared some practical advice on dressing your own tables, bu...

It was my great honor this month to speak with the one and only Andy Chambers! Since the early 90s, Andy's been designing some of the most beloved and genre-defying miniatures games, and he was kind enough to spend an hour talking about those experiences. Andy reminisced about his first projects at Games Workshop, what it was like developing Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition (and 3rd...and 4th...), as...

My guest on this month's podcast is my old friend, and former co-worker, Ron Kruzie. Ron is the longtime Studio Director at Privateer Press, but these days I know him better as the person who runs the best looking miniatures event games I've ever played!  I've played in a couple of Ron's games, and they're always incredible games that I find myself thinking about years later. Ron was kind enough t...

The one and only Duncan "Two Thin Coats" Rhodes was kind enough to speak with me once more! When last we spoke in the winter of 2020 Duncan had just left his long-time position at Games Workshop to found his then-upcoming endeavor, the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy. Since then, the world has changed in many ways, but Duncan is still painting up a storm and has even launched his own line of miniat...

My guest this month is my old friend, former co-worker, and former podcast co-host, William Hungerford. You may know him from his time at Privateer Press where he was Press Gang Quartermaster and then a leading game dev for many years on WARMACHINE, HORDES, Riot Quest, Monsterpocalypse, and other games! We spoke about his time at Privateer, his philosophy of game development, and about what he's u...

This month I spoke with my old friend and fellow Union member, Ross Thompson! Over the course of his career Ross has become one of the pillars of the miniatures wargaming hobby and community. We talked about his time at companies like Privateer Press, CMoN, and the Op Games, before talking about community building, running conventions (like he did with KingdomCon) and generally swapped old wa...

My guest this month was the one and only Meredith Placko, half of the team behind Turbo Dork! I first interviewed Greg De Stefano, the founder of Turbo Dork in one of the first BWU podcasts , back in August of 2019. Two years later, Turbo Dork has grown in every way possible, and Meredith had lots to say about that journey. We talked about the winding path that brought her from news media to minia...

This month I spoke with my old friend and fellow BWU Member, Andrew Bailey. You might know Andrew from his days as Mod_Faultie on the Privateer Press forums but these days he's best known for his incredible kitbashing creations , focused on the Kroot of Warhammer 40,000 and one of the pillars of the #siegeofpech and #krootvasion communities on Instagram. We chatted about kitbashing, world building...

  This month I was excited to speak with professional miniatures painter, Elizabeth Beckley! You may know her work as part of the Miniature Monthly team or as a sometime studio painter for Kingdom Death (link NSFW) and formerly, Cool Mini or Not . Elizabeth is one of the featured painters in "The Art of..." the new series of art books now on Kickstarter from fellow Union Member, Dave Taylor....

For this month's podcast I spoke with my friend and fellow Union Member, Dan Vander Kooy, operator of Iron Buffalo , a game store with a coffee problem! While we didn't talk too much about minis this month, we did get into the nitty gritty of what it's like to run a game shop. These pillars of our community are notoriously fickle creatures and Dan was kind enough to share his thoughts on their car...

This month I finally spoke with my old time friend and fellow Union Member, Gregoire Boisbelaud, co-owner of Dust USA ! Gregoire chatted with me about his long history in the miniatures industry going all the way back to his time at Rackham and to the present as one of the main people behind Dust 1947. We talked about the French miniatures scene, what it was like inside the legendary Rackham, and...

I've been looking forward to speaking with The Terrain Tutor for a long time, and what better excuse than with the release of his first book, Terrain Essentials: A Book About Making Wargaming Terrain! It's a truly comprehensive resource that covers the fundamentals of terrain making from planning, to materials, to execution, all accompanied by beautiful and helpful photography. Terrain Essentials...

For the first podcast of 2021 I spoke to "Mocha", competitive painter and professional instructor! "Mocha" of Mocha Minis is an overly-caffeinated, multi-award winning miniature painter, instructor, video game enthusiast and karaoke queen. After being introduced to tabletop gaming in 2010, she fell in love with painting miniature figures and currently teaches at national conventions, friendly loca...

For this month's podcast I interviewed the creator behind the upcoming Wyrd Science Magazine , John Power Jr. This project came to my attention after being shared by Gav Thorpe, and I immediately saw it as the kind of thing I love; a deep dive into the deepest corners of the RPG and miniatures gaming hobbies. John has lined up a stunning array of interviews for the first issue, including Simon Stå...

This month I was lucky enough to speak with the one and only Shoshie Bauer, professional painter and owner of Shoshie's Magnificent Minis Painting . Shoshie shared her thoughts on painting for a living, the trials and travails of competitive painting (and offers a few thoughts on an alternative path for high end painters), dealing with project burnout, her some recommendations for brushes and pain...

My October guest was the one and only Mike Tuñez, creator of Blood & Plunder, and owner of Firelock Games . ! Mike and I chatted about all the amazing new stuff coming in their latest Kickstarter as well as his lifelong love of pirates, art references for painting your pirates, their other naval game, Oak & Iron, and he even dropped a few hints about the possibly fantastical future of the...

This month I was joined by one of the luminaries of the Warhammer and Horus Heresy communities, the one and only Thomas "Garro" Rhodes. Garro has been a foundation of the Horus Heresy community since its inception and such is his renown at sharing interesting Forgeworld news from Warhammer World and Weekender events that he's at times been mistaken for a Games Workshop staffer! Where Garro usually...

I was lucky enough to finally interview the elusive Annie Norman, owner and founder of Bad Squiddo Games , home of believable female miniatures! Annie joined me to share the story of her journey as a painter, hobbyist, and founder of her own ever-expanding line of miniatures. We talked about what gets her excited about miniatures, the ups and downs of starting your own miniatures company, why some...

This month, we delve into the tuberish mysteries of the hashtag taking (at least a small corner of) the miniatures world by storm: #turnip28! I spoke with the man behind this project, professional artist, Max Fitzgerald . Max kindly explains just what this pseudo-Napoleonic, post-apocalyptic, root-vegetable obsessed world is all about. We talk kit-bashing, painting, community, game design, and get...

My guest this month was Josh Mallett , a world famous hobbyist and aficionado of Horus Heresy era Alpha Legion! Josh is hugely talented hobbyist but he came to my attention from his statement this month about an incident that occurred to him Warhammerfest . Josh was kind enough to speak with me not only about his journey as a painter (and shared some great thoughts on the hobby) but also about his...

Our guest this month is professional scale modeler and prop restoration specialist, Jason Eaton ! Jason has worked on numerous collectible replicas and has restored on-screen prop models from Star Wars, Star Trek and other media for private collectors. His work has been featured numerous places, including on starwars.com . Jason shared his perspectives from a 20+ year career as a modeler. We talke...

This month the podcast was lucky enough to be joined by the one and only Chris "Gdaybloke" Miller, the man behind the long running Lost Hemisphere blog and painting community. I've known Chris for a very long time now and his work at LH has made him a real pillar of the painting and minis gaming communities. Chris shared his thoughts on what he likes to paint, how to help your quarantine partners...