Some of you may already be familiar with Brandon Palmer, aka GMM Studios. He has crafted some of the largest, most ambitious, and most impressive displays, armies, and army displays around. A commission painter by trade, painting minis is his passion and you can really see it in his work. Not only does he put out some of the most insanely large armies around, but they're all painted to a truly impressive standard as well!
Luckily for us, he recently ran the Paint and Take event at Gen Con, painting up a new Arkham Horror mini from Loot Studios using only Warpaints Fanatic. While he could have just brought the paints, minis, and a single pre-painted demo model, Brandon went far beyond that, presenting a hobby experience complete with his unique and impressive flair. We asked him a bit about running that event and he was kind enough to take the time to share his experience with us.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your hobby journey?
Brandon: My hobby story has fluidly encompassed my entire life with some specific events of influence. As a child, I played with anything I could get my hands on to make anything I could plausibly imagine it being. A chair was the Ghostbusters fire station, army men were in the Christmas presents, snow was Hoth, and so on. At 14 I wandered into a game store on a family trip and found a Warhammer starter set. I had seen miniatures, my aunt was a traditional artist and she collected some pewter figures in a case that I still have in my game room, however, the concept of adding rules and structure to what I was doing with toys my whole life was mind-blowing. I was instantly hooked and being a broke youngster, I spent all my time one summer painting that set over and over - it was an instant addiction. When in college for graphic design I was painting batches of figures and posting them online, which snowballed quickly into doing commission work. It was very clear to me early on this was my calling. Graphic design and art theory were still very critical, and my studies did not fall by the wayside, but as soon as I graduated it was on and I never looked back. That was 20 years ago and I’ve been happily making a living doing commissions to this day.
You recently hosted the Paint and Take at Gen Con in association with Loot Studios, can you tell us a bit about that?
Brandon: The Paint and Take was themed around Arkham Horror and Loot Studios' new release of their awesome Ghoul Priest file for that setting. Seven sessions of 18 painters over four days of Gen Con 2024, in the Arkham Horror area of the convention - which, by the way, even the hotel and hall were wonderfully themed for the event. Loot Studios did a great job organizing, all I needed to do was make the paint choices for the event.
As an extra, I made a little thematic display for the event which showed all the steps a newer painter could take with the Fanatics range to get the "official" Ghoul Priest colour scheme straight out of the bottle without mixing. This was actually quite easy to do with the Flexible Triads! I set them up in numbered steps 1-5 with thematic colour swatches and names below so folks could check out, take pictures to bring back to their seats, and generally be a helpful guide. That ended up being more useful than I expected, and those that wanted the traditional scheme seemed to enjoy using it.
All the paints and supplies used during the event were provided by The Army Painter. How did you enjoy using the new Warpaints Fanatic range and how did the participants like them?
Brandon: They were, and certainly a very generous pile of paint and palettes as anyone there would attest to. The Fanatics paints were great. In fact, as a funny story, as I had finished building and priming the step-by-step display I grabbed one of the donated Mega Paint Sets both out of convenience to my creative mania, and to also check them out in full. I ended up ripping it open and painting that entire display with just that Mega Set in one sitting. The range included, plus the consistency of the colors were all very impressive. That is a really well put together set of colors as something to pick up and do anything with.
What were your favourite colours and/or supplies and did anything surprise you or the participants that you weren’t expecting from the paints?
Brandon: Interestingly on that topic, for me the MVP was the True Blood in the Mega set. It’s an Effects paint, but as I played with the colour, it ended up being used more as a medium than what one would assume a paint to represent blood would, which it does very well too. It isn't plainly obvious in a lot of areas, but there is True Blood in all of that display. It’s used almost as a glaze medium for all the on-the-fly colors, shading, and stepping down in the shadows. The nature of its mixture makes it a great paint for that, and I can see it being useful as a medium in any army project that can use that sort of light flavour in its shading. It was also used quite a bit at the event. Many people had fun using it as a straight gore effect, and others as a medium to enrich their red tones.
For supplies, the real winner was the huge pile of wet palettes so generously donated. The event is a lot more tear down and set up between rounds than one would think. Those come with so many replacement sheets that could simply be swapped out when washing dry plastic palettes would have been a lot of work between sessions. Plus, many new painters got to use them when they otherwise might not even know if they would like one.
Can you speak a bit about the actual teaching process of leading a new painter through the process of primed to done?
Brandon: There are some unique challenges to guiding a new painter at something like this (and there were many "I have never painted a model before" folks!). First, there is technically a time allotment, so speed and drying time are very important factors. Also, steps that are easily understood and conveyed, that are also quick to put down even by a shaky, tired, Gen Con day 4 hand, make life easier for everyone and an enjoyable result for the attendant much more possible. For the display, I set the steps up so everything was working down from a solid bright basecoat, with more shading and glazing. All using straight-from-the-bottle colors. Technical, more tedious highlighting did not show up in the steps until number five, and I made sure number four was a very complete and satisfactory model, so no one felt disappointed if five was too technical or they ran out of time. There is a lot to do at Gen Con!
In starting each session, I made sure everyone understood the importance of drying time in a two-hour event, and how the steps were structured. The first was simple - a bright Warpaints Fanatic Blood Chalice base for the red, Diviner Light for the cowl, and Onyx Skin for literally everything else. I stressed two thinner coats will dry much faster and cleaner than one thick, even if the first doesn't look great.
This gave a solid bright base to continue in simple ways - for example, the next red was Dragon Red, very slightly thinned and over that solid Blood Chalice. The colours are very close, but that Dragon Red over the solid Blood Chalice is a much more interesting and dynamic red than simply flat Dragon Red. Easy to understand and good results for a newer painter. The rest of the model went similarly. Over that Onyx Skin base on everything else, the flesh and horns diverged one way, and the staff and skull slightly off another way.
That said, there were also just as many people who did the official scheme without ever looking and did their own thing. Quite a few did alternate colors which was fun to see. My internal, personal silly hope, was to see one pink model over the weekend, and I did, and it was quite good! It is also always interesting how these groups of 18 people come together as an individual session and how different each one can be. Some sessions were all out of their seats, asking questions, taking photos, all doing the "official" scheme. Two hours later the next group is all very unique paint schemes, experienced painters, all very hushed and quiet and focused. It’s fun to see the variety and I enjoyed them all. As long as people come and have a good time and leave with a smile and pride in their results, then I consider my job well done and I am satisfied, too.
Where can people follow your work?
Brandon: The best ways to follow my work and updates are either my main website of gmmstudios.com, or plug GMMStudios into whatever social platform you prefer.
Thanks very much to The Army Painter and the specific folks especially behind the scenes who did so much great and generous work to make this an awesome event! It is all very much thanks to you.
