Tag: hobby

A Mindful Approach to Comparison in Warhammer
Here at Badgeroid my mission is to apply Mindfulness to the Warhammer painting hobby. Using Warhammer as a tool to support mental health and provide stress relief, as well as finding a way to hobby mindfully.

Warhammer is a creative and immersive hobby. You play games, paint miniatures, and read books. There are also animations now! The creative freedom that it allows is one of the most compelling aspects for me.

However, despite this, I had a crisis of confidence on my Warhammer journey as of late.

After some soul searching, I realised that I’ve been comparing myself to others. To the point where sometimes it affects my mood, my motivation to paint and ultimately my mental health.

This has highlighted the importance of balancing supporting and learning from the wider community with managing my expectations and celebrating my achievements.

The Pitfalls of Comparison in Warhammer

So, obviously I love the eye candy of the awesome miniatures painted by some incredibly talented people. It inspires me to try new techniques or paint in different ways. But other times I get the opposite feeling. It’s a feeling of not being good enough. Maybe even envious of other painters.

The reasons are many:
- They are better painters than me.
- They paint faster than me.
- They are more consistent at the hobby than me.
- Better conversions and kitbashes.
- They build cool terrain.
- They seem to have more time to dedicate to the hobby than me.
And all this is especially true when I open Instagram. The innate human nature of wanting to compare ourselves against others created the perfect storm when combined with social media.

The Negative Effects of Constant Comparison

It is near impossible not to compare myself to what I can see online. Even though I know I shouldn’t. It sometimes gets under my skin so much that it saps away my enjoyment of Warhammer and the hobby, and can build anxiety and stress.

This is often due to unrealistic expectations that social media can create. For instance, watching a video about “HoW tO pAiNt An ArMy in 24h!1!!” makes me want to do the same thing even though I know I won’t be able to. It’s real life down here, and real life is not a YouTube video.

To give you a concrete example: I was almost quit the hobby and didn’t paint a single miniature for 3 months because a post on Instagram didn’t get many likes. I was jealous of others that had big followings and felt like if I had no likes, there’s no point!

Mindfulness as a Solution

Mindfulness is where you focus on staying in the present, whilst accepting and acknowledging your feelings, thoughts and emotions.

I have been practicing mindfulness for over 2 years now to manage these (and other!) feelings; enabling myself to enjoy the hobby again, not for Likes, but for my liking and benefit.

On this journey, I found the following techniques most useful to combat the pressures of social media and comparison:
- Enjoy the process. Not the outcome.
- Celebrate your progress and the small wins.
- Practice mindfulness while painting.
- Limit Social Media!
Enjoy the process

Try to focus on the present moment. Savour the enjoyment you get from simply painting Warhammer, rather than focusing on the outcome. This brings back the intrinsic satisfaction of the act of painting Warhammer miniatures. And in turn, when the enjoyment returns to the process, not the outcome, it helps to remove the need for external validation.

Celebrate Your Progress

By focusing on the present, you can celebrate your progress rather than comparing with others. I celebrate when I finish one unit for my army, or a grunt – or even when a new technique (kind of) works! I love the feeling of completing a step and a miniature, and these small wins give me motivation to carry on.

Pro tip: If you have space, find somewhere to display your minis. It’s been a great way to celebrate my work. Each new finished miniature goes in the cabinet to be admired.

Practice Mindfulness

Sometimes I also paint miniatures in complete silence. No music, no podcasts, no nothing. It really helps to immerse myself into the process. I can focus on every single brush stroke. Listen to the clinking sound of my brush against the water pot. Smell the water of my wet palette.

I also try to practice breathwork, taking deep breaths before a painting session. It slows down my heart beat and improves my sense of relaxation before starting. This helps slow down my brain and immerses me into painting quicker.

Limit Social Media

I also limit social media. This is a big one for me. I have spent hours checking others’ posts and videos wishing I was painting instead. And then I would just keep scrolling. The doom-scroll spiral is real. Keep your social media usage in check and take breaks when necessary. I’ve been out of Instagram for at least 6 months now and it’s been liberating. You may not want to go cold turkey – but even leaving the phone outside the room can help avoid both negative and positive distractions.

Bonus: Boost your motivation

And if I need a boost to hobby motivation, I set myself a very small goal. Set the smallest goal possible for yourself and celebrate the small wins! Paint just one thing. Clean your desk. And if you want to see how I hack my hobby motivation check out my Paint the Boot method.

Mindfulness to combat Warhammer comparison – Conclusion

The Miniature painting hobby, be it Warhammer or otherwise, is a personal journey that does not require comparison. Everyone is doing their own thing. It is important to keep that in mind when, inevitably, you find yourself comparing your skill to others. The hobby is not a race, and it is at its best without the pressure of comparison.

My mission at Badgeroid is to merge the joy of Warhammer with Mindfulness to relieve stress and improve mental health. In my experience mindfulness has been a game changer. I’ve learned how to deal with the stress of comparing myself to others and get back to enjoying painting.

I’m still learning as mindfulness is a journey that lasts a lifetime. But it is certainly better than few years ago. So if there is something you take away from this article, it should be this:
- Enjoy the process.
- Celebrate the small wins.
Trying to apply these two principles, and you’ll have a great time. Thanks for reading.
March 30, 2025
ULTIMATE Beginner’s Guide to Airbrushing
Airbrushing can be daunting. It’s fiddly, you need the gear and you need to practice. But it can save time, effort and give great effect.

Benefits of using an Airbrush

The airbrush is a great tool for any miniature painter. It can really improve your mini painting game and get your army painted in no time!

With an airbrush you can:
- Prime your miniatures.
- Fine-tune your zenithal highlights
- Apply base coats quickly and smoothly?
- Make colour transitions a breeze
- Establish lights and shadows quickly
- Create effects like Object Source Lighting (OSL)
I started airbrushing so I could prime any time, irrespective of the weather. Winters in the UK are not exactly known for their sunshine, so it helps not to have to wait until spring before I can prime some miniatures.

What you need

When I started out, I thought I’d need 2 things only: an airbrush and a compressor.

However, there’s more to it so here is the complete list of everything I use:
- A Dual Action Gravity Airbrush (obviously!). At this point, any non-branded airbrush will do. You will upgrade to a mid-range one once you have a bit more practice. Just remember it has to be Dual Action and Gravity fed. This describes how the trigger operates. More on that later. The paint is fed through from the cup down to the needle by gravity.
- A compressor. The AS 186 model is the standard for mini painting. Any non-branded compressor of that model should be fine. You can get one with or without the air tank. I personally chose one with an air tank so that the motor isn’t always on when I spray. Make sure it includes, or you buy, the pipe to connect it to the airbrush!
- Airbrush cleaner to use at the end of each session.
- Spray pot to spray away any excess paint when finishing up/swapping colours out.
- Inexpensive brushes to mix paint, clean etc.
- Airbrush flow improver and airbrush thinner
- A squeeze bottle, similar to the ones you get for ketchup, or a tattoo artist bottle. Fill with water which you can squeeze into the cup to dilute paint and clean.
- A mask with filters. This one is important in my opinion! It’s true that acrylic paint is non toxic but better not breathe it in. Especially if you start experimenting with things like Enamels – you definitely don’t want that in your lungs!
- Gloves. I use Nitrile gloves, useful when working with things like Enamel paints, Isopropyl alcohol.
- Airbrushing station. Not essential and I personally do not have one because I do not have the space. But if I had, I would! Instead, I keep the windows open.
What if I want a better airbrush?

Badger Patriot 105 for the win! I had mine for many years and it’s an absolute workhorse. It’s inexpensive compared to other brands and a beast. With a 0.5mm nozzle you can blast that primer no problem!

The size of the nozzle makes it not ideal for detailed work, but you would use a fancier airbrush for such things. On the other hand, the bigger needle makes it harder to bend. Perfect for beginners!

What paint should I use?

The short answer is any! As long as the consistency is right, any paint goes.

To start, I recommend using normal paint so you can learn how to thin it (keep reading for tips below!).

Otherwise, you can use:
- Contrast paints
- Speed paints
- Air colour paint
- Inks
- Enamel paints
These are all great options which each have different uses/purposes so do experiment!

I noticed that Speed Paints dry on the tip of my airbrush very quickly so be mindful of that!

You can even use Varnishes and Enamel paints (pictured above). Vallejo Metal Color Airbrush Colours are great too!

So how do I use an airbrush?

There are 3 things to keep in mind. The compressor’s air pressure, how far you pull the trigger of the brush, and how thin your paints are.

Compressor’s air pressure

Generally, keep the pressure between 20 and 30 PSI. The thicker the paint, the higher the PSI. The correct pressure depends on how much control you need and how close to the miniature you want to spray.

If you are using primer, crank it to 30 and blast the mini from further away to cover it quickly.

If you need to be precise and/or only apply the paint on very small parts, then lower the pressure and bring the airbrush closer to the mini. It’ll give you more control.

Airbrush trigger

The airbrush that you’ll buy will be dual action. Firstly you can press the trigger to let air out, and release to stop spraying. However, when you only press the trigger, no paint will come out. That’s because there is a needle inside that doesn’t let the paint mix with the air.

To release the needle (and therefore paint), the trigger needs to be pulled backwards while it’s pressed. The more you pull the trigger, the more paint comes out.

Tip: Don’t pull the trigger all the way back otherwise you’ll have too much paint and will obscure the details of your miniatures.

The sequence of motion is:
1. Push trigger – air comes out
2. Pull the trigger – paint out
3. Push the trigger forward again – stop the paint
4. Release the trigger – stop air
The trick is to understand how much to pull, and that will require practice!

Airbrush “at rest”.

Push the trigger of the airbrush.

Then pull! Remember to be light handed with this so you won’t overspray.

One more thing to keep in mind is to spray in short bursts. This way paint has time to dry and you can build layers of colours. One long burst will inundate the miniature. We don’t want that!

Aim!

It turns out that it is quite hard to aim with the airbrush! At the beginning I was spraying all the wrong parts. It was hard to make the paint land on the correct spot!

I don’t have a magic bullet for this one I’m afraid. My only advice is to start with something that doesn’t require much precision, and build up from there.

For instance, I started by priming a whole set of boardgame minis. Nothing fancy, just blast the whole thing. Then I started doing big model base coats, like my Colossal Squig. Then I tried undershading and then I did smaller and smaller details gradually.

How to thin your paint

Thinning paints is always a tricky one.

For primer, I do not thin it at all. I simply up the PSI on the compressor.

First of all, I thin my paints straight into the cup. Normal paint needs thinning, otherwise it won’t go anywhere. Personally I try to go for milk consistency. So a touch thicker than water. I can’t give you a ratio as that changes between colours and brands. Just practice and you’ll nail it in no time.

Quick Cleaning

This one is a bit of a faff but it’s necessary…

Switching between colours is the main obstacle when using the airbrush, so I’ll illustrate how I do it. It is also the main cleaning you’ll do. Once you can do that quickly you’ll be able to use your airbrush no problem.
1. Pour leftover paint away. Spray any excess in the spray pot.
2. Fill airbrush cup with water.
3. Back flush the airbrush. To do this, hold a thumb or a piece of paper at the front to block any paint coming out. Then trigger the airflow and pull. The air won’t have anywhere to escape so it will “back flush” into the cup and bubbles will show.
4. Pour away the dirty water.
5. Repeat three times.
6. Use paper to wipe away excess in the cup.
If you are at the end of the session, repeat the process once with airbrush cleaner.

Maintenance

Sometimes the airbrush will clog. If no paint is coming out, then you probably have a blockage.

If that happens you’ll need to clean the tip. Generally, a regular maintenance routine will save you from any issues during a painting session!

I have created a little diagram so you can follow the instructions below.

Clean the nozzle

Cleaning the nozzle is fairly straightforward. Unscrew the air cap and the nozzle should come out. I then dunk it in a cup with airbrush cleaner for a few hours to a day. Then I use a nozzle needle to clean up inside the nozzle and scrape any gunk that might have built up.

Clean the needle

For the needle you have to unscrew the needle chucking nut from the back. Then pull the needle carefully.

You want to be very careful with this one! If the needle bends it’ll be unusable so you’ll have to buy a new one.

Once the needle is out, dab some paper with airbrush cleaner and remove any build-up of paint. Slowly insert the needle back and push all the way. Screw the nut back in place and you’re done!

Clean the body

Sometimes it’s worth cleaning up the whole airbrush. All that you have to do is to take it apart fully and leave it overnight in a jar with airbrush cleaner.

Then use a needle tool and needle brushes to clean up the inside. Scrape away any build up of paint and then reassemble. Done!

Ultimate airbrush guide – Conclusions

This is all the knowledge I have about airbrushing. We’ve looked at many things:
- All the benefits of airbrushing.
- What tools you need.
- How to use an airbrush.
- What paints you need and how to thin them.
- Cleaning and maintenance.
Have I missed anything? If there is something I should add to this guide let me know in the comments! Would love to hear new tips and tricks!
March 16, 2025
Finish your backlog with the Warhammer Mindful Spending Challenge 2025
Is it just me, or does everyone else have lots of Warhammer lying around the house that never gets painted? Join the Warhammer Mindful Spending Challenge and you’ll smash through your pile of shame.

Warhammer can be an expensive hobby. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. It is easy to get swept in the hype release cycle that Games Workshop likes to force on us hobbyists. It is also very easy to go out and buy a box of miniatures. Unfortunately, it takes way more time and effort to get that box fully painted and ready to play. And so the grey pile keeps growing in your cupboard, collecting dust and occupying space. So this year I have decided to create the Warhammer mindful spending challenge 2025.

Hot on the heels of last year’s NO Warhammer challenge, I decided to repeat the challenge and formalise it a little better. The ultimate goal behind this challenge was to help me to reduce (somewhat!) my backlog of miniatures.

Why a Warhammer mindful spending challenge?

The next warband on the bench for my Warhammer Underworlds Collection

The main reasons why I’m doing this mindful spending challenge are:
- Combat FOMO
- I already have a lot of Warhammer
- I love to look at my collection of painted miniatures
- Save money
- Declutter space and clear my backlog
This is why I’m going to stick to it this year as well.

Combating FOMO is definitely up there. Game Workshop releases a lot of stuff often. It’s impossible to keep up with even a single game system. Combine that with all their hype cycles and FOMO boxes. You can see that it can be stressful at times. You end up with purchases that you don’t actually need. This challenge will remind me not to fall for them!

I have so many Warhammer miniatures already that I don’t really need to buy more either. They occupy a lot of space too! So this challenge will help me clear my space, having more models painted and saving money. It’s a win win win for me!

The rules for this mindful spending challenge allow to buy some miniatures. However, it doesn’t allow me to buy all of them all the time. Exercising willpower to not buy things all the time can be tiring. Allowing some purchases during the year helps recharge your batteries. And it’s fun!

The Rules

The essence of the challenge can be summarized as not buying new miniatures until all the current ones are painted. However, it does have a more flexible spin to it.

Subdivide your collection into “mini collections” first. This is the bed rock of the challenge. Once you have done so, the rules are these:
1. You have to paint all your miniatures in a mini collection before buying new miniatures for that given collection.
2. You can sell miniatures to reduce the size of a mini collection.
3. Gifts are allowed. Birthdays, Christmas and such occasions should allow joy in our lives as we battle our pile of grey. Gifts do not to follow any of the rules in this list (except this one!).
4. You cannot start any new games systems.
5. You can start a new game system if you finish one mini collection. Painted all your Necromunda? Go head, you can start Blood Bowl now.
Let’s see what I mean by dividing your Warhammer collection into “mini collections”.

Subdivide Your Collection

My fully painter Lord of the Rings miniatures collection 😉

A “mini collection” is a subset of your existing collection. You’ll divide your collection in many mini sets. When completing one, you are allowed to go ahead and buy something new. The criteria for subdividing things is up to you. As long as discrete boundaries are well defined, you’re good to go.

As a few examples, your collection can be divided by:
- Game systems
- Factions
- Army list
- Model types
The game systems method works well for skirmish games, as it’s easier to have all your warbands painted. For example, you need to have all your Warcry painted before buying more. In my case, all my Underworlds warbands need painting before I’m allowed to get more.

For big scale games like Warhammer 40k I prefer the faction/army list method. It gives more wiggle room for your spending! For instance, after painting 2000 points worth of Space Marines, you can go out and buy something new.

The Model types version can be used if you have an eclectic collection. Many all vehicles? or all monsters. If you are for a challenge, maybe a subset is all the chaff units!

Warhammer mindful spending challenge 2025 let’s go!

I hope this challenge inspired you to paint lots of Warhammer this year while keeping your wallet safe.

I did this same challenge myself last year, albeit it was less structured. Head over to my Warhammer Challenge end of year recap post to read how it went. It’s a good example because it shows how it can help you paint more of your Warhammer collection.

I’d love to know if you will be taking part. Or if you have any feedback, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments. Good luck to you all!
January 19, 2025