Warhammer 40K, How to run a club: Brush care



This is something that a lot of neophytes get wrong, and you will be tearing your hair out over the termly brush budget. I was fortunate in that I got a good number of brushes donated from Games Workshop itself, but at £4-10 a pop, you're going to want to make sure your students can maintain equipment properly.

First thing is this: Educate yourself. Watch the below video.



 If you're not subscribed to Warhammer TV yet, fix that.

There's not a lot more to add to this advice apart from the following:


  • Have a set place for brushes.
  • Make sure students show you they've cleaned their brush.
  • Monitor students painting to avoid them dunking into paint pots.
  • Have a LOT of paper towels ready to hand.
  • Consider enlisting a student to become Master Artificer.


The Master Artificer is a role in the club where a student takes responsibility for maintenance of the equipment. This should be voluntary, but it's very important you pick a popular student for this role. They will often be put in situations where they need to confront other members about the state of the brushes, and that's a lot easier for them to do if they have good relationships already.

Be wary of the busy-body student that wants to do this. It only ends in hurt feelings as calls to parents.

The paper towels advice is to keep brushes dry. In a classroom space is at a premium, and odds are you're having to store club supplies in cupboards and out of sight. These places are great for drying out brushes, and I have seen some larger brushes go mouldy over time.

I'm somewhat fortunate in being a Science teacher, and because of that I have access to all sorts of DIY junk and bits and pieces in my classroom for last minute repairs to Van de Graaf generators. Blue paper towels come as standard for the inevitable acid spill, but if you're not so well furnished, it's definitely something to consider.

Oh, and one more thing... keep your own stuff separate from the club equipment. Nothing worse than seeing that Year 7 boy dunk your Artificer detail brush into the Stormhost silver, and then drop the whole mess into your Coelia Greenshade.

He said he wanted silvery green-ish blue...

 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!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Primaris Space Marine Paint Planner

Image
The good chaps over at Games Workshop marketing have just released a bit of fluff on the Ultima Founding, the latest crop of Space Marine chapters. These are all based around the Primaris Space Marines, so expect your current Marines to fade away. Again, not a bad thing, as it's just a shift to True Scale Space Marines that still lets you play with your old stuff whilst you transition. To help you buy their new models, Games Workshop have also given you a nifty line drawing of a Primaris Space Marine, so you can plan your new Chapter. Now I'm certain they didn't intend to add all those little gaps in the lines making it hard for you to use simple drawing editors to plan your marines on computer, nor did they realise how difficult it would be to do so on .pdf format. So I fixed it for them. Here's the same thing with the gaps filled in, and in easy to edit .jpeg format. Don't worry Gee Dubs... Tabletop Teacher's got your back! UPDATE: The .jpeg was
Read more

The Complete Blood Angels Beginner Guide: Troops

Image
Love them or hate them, you're not building an effective army without them. Your rank and file are the soul and centre of your army, and as such, these will be the only one's I will discuss in detail in the Beginner Guide... otherwise we'll be here until The End Times. At the end of the discussion, I will give you my opinion as to which Troop unit to try first. It should also be said, that if you don't like a faction's Troop options, you probably shouldn't collect that faction. You will have more of these units than anything else in a balanced force, so you will need to be happy seeing them all the time. Image from Warhammer Community I've bought the codex, and have done some hefty reading. The Blood Angels have three options available to them for Troops; Tactical Squads, Intercessor Squads and Scout squads. Many have preferences for each one, but there is no dud unit to be had here. They may not be as exciting as other factions, but each is very
Read more

Painting Guide: Blood Angels, perfecting the colour scheme

Image
Looking for some tips on getting the best out of your Sons of Sanguinius? Want some simple ways of making your Blood Angels look good without having to get an art diploma first? Well let's get started then, and show you how to paint this Blood Angels Intercessor Space Marine. Blood Angels were one of my first armies in 40K, and a favourite of many a neophyte and veteran alike. Their red colour scheme, along with Dark Angels Green and Ultramarines Blue, is one of the standard newbie palettes that can look good with only a little bit of skill. Like the others in that little triumvirate, it still has ways you can tweak it to be really great looking on table top. What I've done here is nothing more than the standard Games Workshop recommended paint scheme, with some tweaks and tips to get to that 'eavy metal stage. I often see people copying what comes out of the Citadel Paint App or Duncan's videos, and never quite getting these results (usually darker withou
Read more