Warhammer 40k, How to run a club: Second Session

The second session of your club is where everyone starts to split apart. Some students will be good at painting, whereas some will not be. In teacher speak, this is where your skill at differentiation comes in.

Things you need this session:

• A constructed Marine/Eternal for each student
• Starter paint kit
• Brushes
• Palettes 
• Source of water
• Pots for water

In this session they will now paint Their Dude. As I spoke about in the last article, you want them to become familiar with the concept of Your Dudes. Encourage your students to personalise their Marine/Eternal from the last session. Get them choose their own colour for their model.

That said, don't go overboard. A red, green, blue and yellow will generally be all you need, and these are handily supplied by the starter paint kit. Odds are they don't know, or haven't read about, the various Space Marine chapters and Eternal chambers out there, and they'll just be looking for their favourite colour.

Whilst you want them to choose their own colour schemes to personalise their Marine/Eternal, you are going to find that a lot of them will want to follow the box art. Because of that, make sure you have some Retributor Armour gold and Macragge Blue. You're going to go through these quickly, and GW had the foresight to make the standard Eternal colour scheme simply the reverse of their other flagship army, the Ultramrines. Gold with blue detailas, as opposed to blue with gold details.

For now, just stick to base colours, with washes for the students that finish quickly. You'll want highlighting to be an instructed stage, so save that for the next session. Giving the models a wash is simple enough on it;s own, and you'll only need to give the choice of an all over wash or a pin shade. If you don't know what these are, have a look for Painting Tips on this blog later.

The things you'll need to instruct are as follows:

• Thin your paints.
• Don't mix the paints in the pot.
• Wash the brushes in between each paint.

That should be enough for one session, but if you have a few that zip along to the end, it'll be time for them to get some games done with their models.

However.

What you absolutely must be careful of is equipment care. Teach your students how to maintain the brushes, and make sure they clean up after themselves. It sounds silly, but even adults forget to do this. For a lot of people, this is not familiar territory, and the simple ideas of rinsing out a brush may not occur to them.

Next session will be looking at how to have some games with your miniatures, but be prepared for club members to go off on their own projects at this point. This is a good thing, as it means you're no longer holding their hands, and you get to paint your own models during hobby time.


Thanks for reading.

If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please visit and donate at my Patreon. Every Little helps!