Siege Studios Essentials Masterclass

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending the Essentials Masterclass run by Siege Studios at Wayland Games in Hockley, Essex.

I'd always wanted to attend a painting workshop like this to meet with like-minded people and learn how to push my painting to the next level.

The course took place at the impressive Wayland Games centre, a large warehouse filled with gaming tables (and a very well stocked shop, which is either a good or bad thing depending on your budget!). We were sat upstairs in a large studio space which provided a good base of operations.

Over the course of the weekend we were introduced to a variety of techniques that I would agree are essential for producing great looking miniatures. We started off with the basics, creating a simple zenithal highlight using an airbrush, which even though it took all of 2 minutes, produced a really impressive effect.

Next we moved on to wet blending on a Space Marine shoulder pad, I found this quite difficult initially as it was something I'd never really attempted before to this level, but the instruction of James, Rich and Ben really helped, they walked around the room advising on next steps and giving advice wherever required, but ultimately letting us settle into our own methods. I was pretty happy with the results overall, and it's something I'll be practicing much more in the coming months.

Other topics we covered included weathering, decal application, the use of a wet palette (I'm a convert for sure, revolutionary!), faces, gems and my favourite, power swords!

The power sword section was probably my favourite section, and was taught in a very clear way, it's something I've always wanted to try myself but didn't really know how to begin, using the techniques we were taught, I was able to produce a result I was very happy with, it's another technique that will only improve the more I practice it, so I'll definitely be working it into my weekly technique learning slot of my hobby time (an excellent idea suggested by the guys too).

There was also plenty of time during the course for free painting, an excellent time to add some of the new techniques learned to your own models, or ask the advice of the instructors on any other projects you were working on, nothing was off limits.

The finished set of all my practice pieces from the weekend

A detailed view of the hairspray technique weathering lesson, tough to get the hang of initially but I was happy with how it turned out, potential for some amazing results with this as well in the future!

Probably the piece I'm most proud of, my weathered back panel from a Rhino, I will be applying these weathering techniques on all my future tanks as I really love the look!

The instructors James, Rich and Ben were all really great guys, more than happy to help and go over anything we didn't pick up the first time around, they're all very keen painters and their enthusiasm is infectious. It was great chatting about painting and the hobby in between the taught segments of the course, although my my list of paints to buy has grown considerably from these chats!

Overall the weekend was a fantastic experience, the chance to work with such excellent teachers was worth the price alone, and I came away with my head completely full of new ideas and techniques, it really invigorated me to push my painting further and have a go at entering competitions in the near future. I'd highly recommend attending one of their courses if you can, definitely worth a trip!