In the Beginning
Everyone starts somewhere, and no one starts as a master.
Probably a lot of good painters will never show you their first models.
It's a shame really, because beginners get the impression that there is no development, they don't get to see the struggles and learning, just the up to date, present brilliance of current output.
So here's my models, from the first 28mm Ral Partha figure I painted in around 1979 /80 through to better things in 1989.
10 years, it's a long apprenticeship, but there was no internet, very little information, and even magazines tended towards either military subjects or tabletop wargaming. So a lot of this process was self taught, trial and error plus discussion with a couple of school friends - Ian Ashworth and Ian Saxton.
The main picture is a Ral Partha Orc, painted in Humbrol Enamels and is one of three that I attacked with a brush.
The other three pictures are ( from lef t to right :-
A Ral Partha High Elf Archer, again painted in Enamels. 1981
A Ral Partha Thief, someone mentioned oil paints, so I bought some and gave it a go. 1982
A Citadel Paladin Adventurer, the oils working a bit better for me, as I'd discovered priming, undercoating and also Milliput for bases. 1983
The years are approximate, but I started to realise that improvement could be measured if I saved, what I considered was my best painted model, each year.
Visible progression
Well, it had to happen eventually.
Whilst it looks like a lot of progress has happened, the Chequered Knight was probably done in 1986. It was in the first Golden Demon competition and whilst it didn't win anything, it did get photographed and appeared in the 1988 golden Demon book showing pictures from the previous year's show.
I'd discovered acrylics by this time, along with Winsor and Newton Series 7 brushes and was painting for the Games Workshop Manchester store.
Fireman Sam was painted in 1987 or 1988, and again is pictured in the 1988 book. In fact anything in that book by A Hopwood or C Slater was done by me.
The Chaos Daemonette was done in 1988 I think , and at this point in time I had discovered the use of granulated sugar as a basing material. Acrylic paint used undiluted doesn't melt sugar ro much, but does fry knobbly so you can drybrush it and add inks for shading.....
The Eldar in the last shot was painted in 1989, a good year for me, but more of that one the next section.
Competitions....
Yes, competitions.
I've entered one or two, and admittedly am competitive by nature.
The two Orcs below won Best Command Group at Games Workshop's Games Day in 1986 along with a set of Dwarves that I'd painted that won Best Army the same day.
However the Goblin and Temple Dog conversion won a Silver Demon ( shown below ) at the 1989 Golden Demons, one I'm still rather pleased with today.
The banner is a hand painted representation of the cover of Chris Achillos's Medusa art book, and the shield the Goblin is holding has and even smaller reproduction of the same picture on it's outer face.
Moving on...
From competition, came the request to write articles. Neil Robinson was starting off a magazine called Military Modelcraft and approached me at the Hartlepool show to see if I was interested. I was, and so to the right is the main picture from my very first article, Kirin's 120mm American Doughboy, Trench Raider 1996 October's issue
Moving to Military Modelling a couple of years later, Vago the Gladiator from White Models was my first article for Ken Jones.
I had a long and very happy association with Ken. I learned a lot and gained a lot of confidence through him. A very clever chap, approachable and good hearted, he was fun to be around.
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