My guest this month is Chris Kohler, owner of Slow Death Games and creator of the miniatures skirmish game, Wild in the Streets ! Chris and I talked about his history as a gamer, as a punk, and how those two interests combined to create Wild in the Streets. We also discussed the game Star Breach for which Slow Death is the publisher and some hints about upcoming projects. Listen now, posers! Chris was also kind enough to offer a discount for Brush Wielders Union members, keep an eye on your emai...
Jun 22, 2023•52 min•Ep. 51
We're very proud to release episode 50 of the Brush Wielders Union podcast! It's hard to believe, but we've been doing our monthly interview podcast for over four years now, but for episode fifty I've shaken up the format. This month features our first ever "roundtable" format in which I invited four of my favorite hobby professionals to take part in an open discussion on some broad questions about miniatures painting and hobbying. The guests are: Shoshie Bauer, professional painter and owner/op...
May 26, 2023•1 hr 49 min•Season 1Ep. 50
If you've been anywhere near the indie minis gaming scene this spring you've probably heard about Demon Ship , the micro minis game by Malev. Well, Malev was kind enough to talk with me this month and we got into the nitty gritty of developing Demon Ship, painting for Metal King Studios, and some philosophical chat about the future of minis gaming beyond the traditional player-vs-player world. As an aside, Demon Ship is one of the most exciting and innovating games I've seen in a long time, and ...
May 01, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 49
This month I was lucky enough to pick the brain of Graham Davey, owner of Grey For Now Games , co-creator of one of my favorite skirmish games, Test of Honour , and a former editor at Games Workshop. Graham was kind enough to share his time and tell me about his journey as a hobbyist and professional, from his first encounters with wargames, to his time working on White Dwarf magazine, and his current days as the publisher of Test of Honour and his most recent game, 0200 Hours . I haven't played...
Mar 21, 2023•46 min•Ep. 48
My guest this month was the owner and founder of Huge Miniatures , one of my favorite basing material manufacturers. Huge Minis makes an awesome and ever-growing range of texture paints, flocks, tufts, paints, and more. BWU members already get a discount through their webstore but I was excited to finally speak with Brinton about the history of his company and what the future might hold. We talked about what goes into actually manufacturing materials like flock and foliage, how they choose paint...
Feb 20, 2023•51 min
For the first podcast of 2023 I was joined by Kit Peteranecz, founder of Game Envy Creations (and new Union Member). Kit shared the story of his journey from painting a D&D character to having multiple hugely successful Kickstarters for a whole line of hobby products! We talked about paint holders, paint brushes, manufacturing, and he even shared some exclusive news about their next Kickstarter coming next month for a hugely expanded line of paint brushes! Follow Game Envy Creations on Faceb...
Jan 16, 2023•45 min
My guest this month was the one and only Hank Edley, a member of Adepticon's board of directors! It is without exaggeration or hyperbole when I say that Adepticon is the best miniatures gaming convention in the entire world, bar none, and I was thrilled to get to pick Hank's brain about what goes into the show. Hank and I chatted about the show's history, the incredible community of hobbyists that make it so great, why Adepticon's fully painted policy has been such a success, and what it was lik...
Dec 12, 2022•51 min•Season 1Ep. 45
This month I was joined by Mark Henry, owner and founder of Goblin's Hut , the exclusive North American distributor of the Dirty Down liquid effects paints! Dirty Down's set of rust, moss, and verdigris effects paints have been taking the hobby by storm this year and I was excited to talk with Mark about how they work and what the future holds for this line of unique effects. Mark shared all about the paints origins as special effects paints for TV and movies including Game of Thrones and many o...
Nov 07, 2022•42 min•Ep. 44
This month I was joined by Byron Ord, founder of Artis Opus , a company making some of the best miniatures painting brushes on the market! They've just launched a Kicsktarter for a new kind of product: hand-crafted, wall-mounted, self-lighted miniatures display cases ! They funded in just 5 minutes as of our interview and are skyrocketing past 10x their goal! Byron took the time to speak with me about what makes these displays unique, the years of R&D that went into their creation, and also ...
Oct 21, 2022•47 min•Ep. 43
My guest this month was Jon Cleaves, CEO of DGS Games , and Lead Designer of the exciting fantasy skirmish game, Freeblades ! Jon was kind enough to tell me all about the history of Freeblades, it's related RPG, Brightsword , and their upcoming mass combat game, all three of which share core mechanics and can be played separately or woven together to tell the most epic stories in the world of Faelon. Jon's enthusiasm was contagious, and we talked a little about not just the games but what DGS Ga...
Sep 26, 2022•51 min
This month I was lucky enough to once again speak with my friend, Sean Sutter, founder of Metal King Studio , creator of Relicblade , Sludge , and regular contributor to Blaster Magazine ! Sean and I had last spoken on the podcast a few years back but he's been up to a ton since then. We talked about the trials and travails of being a creator in the post-2020 world, what led him to create such a different and darker game in Sludge than his previous work in Relicblade, starting his own podcast , ...
Aug 29, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Union member and inaugural podcast guest, Dave Taylor returns this month! Dave's been up to a ton of awesome stuff since BWU podcast episode 1 and we talked about a lot of it. Dave shared what's been going on with the books he's published like Terrain Essentials and the upcoming volumes of his ongoing The Art of' series as well as building custom Fallout and Skyrim tables for Modiphius' Gen Con booth next week. And most excitingly, we talked about his new livestream endeavour, Build Paint Play !...
Jul 29, 2022•56 min•Ep. 40
This month I was joined by game developer, Chris Masucci, creator of Crystallum: 15mm Epic Battles in the Far Future, currently on Kickstarter . Chris was kind enough to get into the nitty gritty of what makes this game of combined arms combat compelling in terms of its, game play, miniature sculpts, and background material. Crystallum is Chris' first professionally published game and I'm really excited to get my hands on it. As usual, this episode was exclusive to Brush Wielders Union members f...
Jun 16, 2022•40 min•Ep. 39
My guest this month was Seyni N'diaye, an incredibly talented painter from Lyon, France. Seyni's unique style earned him a volume in the latest set of The Art of... series of miniatures artbooks from Dave Taylor Miniatures, now on Kickstarter ! Seyni shared his thoughts on how he developed his beautiful, impressionist-inspired style, his preferences in brushes, his inspirations, and what he hopes to accomplish on his journey as a world class painter. Follow Seyni on Instagram and check out the K...
May 13, 2022•47 min•Ep. 38
My guest this month was professional painter, Yeji Kim! You may know Yeji from her classes at conventions including Adepticon, Warfaire Weekend, and many others, or her work as a studio painter for Ninja Division. Yeji and I chatted about her career as a painter, and her focus on painting chibi style miniatures in particular. She shared some fantastic tips for painting eyes (and not just on chibis) among other thoughts on taking healthy breaks from your hobby. Follow Yeji and Snickernack on Face...
Apr 21, 2022•46 min•Ep. 37
This month I was joined by John Swinkels, convention manager for Privateer Press . John and I talked about all things Privateer' at Adepticon , coming up in just a few short days. John shared his thoughts on the Formula P3 Grandmaster painting competition, convention exclusives, and all the events for WARMACHINE, HORDES, Warcaster and Riot Quest that you can take part in at Adepticon, and of course, open play. I was also able to convince John to give up a few teasers on the upcoming Orgoth facti...
Mar 21, 2022•35 min•Ep. 36
My guest this month is the one and only Victoria Lamb, founder and owner of Victoria Miniatures ! If you've had any kind of big kit-bashing project or love for a nostalgic and out-of-print Imperial Guard armies, you're almost certainly familiar with Victoria Miniature's expansive line of arms, guns, heads, and alternate body parts. Victoria was kind enough to speak to me about what all went into growing her small operation into the international hobby resource it's become. We talked about the ch...
Feb 18, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 35
My guest this month was professional painter and longtime hobbyist, Jeff Hall! Jeff has had a storied career in miniatures, having worked in events Games Workshop and currently as operations manager of Games and Stuff . These days he specializes in creating immersive tables for use in Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop RPGs! Jeff shared some practical advice on dressing your own tables, building a versatile collection of dungeon terrain, and teased his upcoming book, The Tremendous Tome o...
Jan 24, 2022•46 min•Ep. 34
It was my great honor this month to speak with the one and only Andy Chambers! Since the early 90s, Andy's been designing some of the most beloved and genre-defying miniatures games, and he was kind enough to spend an hour talking about those experiences. Andy reminisced about his first projects at Games Workshop, what it was like developing Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition (and 3rd...and 4th...), as well as what went into the early days of Titan Legions, Necromunda, and his "magnificent octopus/mag...
Dec 23, 2021•1 hr 2 min
My guest on this month's podcast is my old friend, and former co-worker, Ron Kruzie. Ron is the longtime Studio Director at Privateer Press, but these days I know him better as the person who runs the best looking miniatures event games I've ever played! I've played in a couple of Ron's games, and they're always incredible games that I find myself thinking about years later. Ron was kind enough to talk to me about what goes into creating beautiful and immersive wargaming tables without sacrifici...
Dec 23, 2021•51 min
The one and only Duncan "Two Thin Coats" Rhodes was kind enough to speak with me once more! When last we spoke in the winter of 2020 Duncan had just left his long-time position at Games Workshop to found his then-upcoming endeavor, the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy . Since then, the world has changed in many ways, but Duncan is still painting up a storm and has even launched his own line of miniatures paints on Kickstarter just last month . Duncan and I talked about what it's been like for him ...
Oct 25, 2021•51 min
My guest this month is my old friend, former co-worker, and former podcast co-host, William Hungerford. You may know him from his time at Privateer Press where he was Press Gang Quartermaster and then a leading game dev for many years on WARMACHINE, HORDES, Riot Quest, Monsterpocalypse, and other games! We spoke about his time at Privateer, his philosophy of game development, and about what he's up to now, working at Broken Anvil Miniatures on their upcoming game, Rivenstone! Follow Hungerford o...
Sep 30, 2021•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 30
This month I spoke with my old friend and fellow Union member, Ross Thompson! Over the course of his career Ross has become one of the pillars of the miniatures wargaming hobby and community. We talked about his time at companies like Privateer Press, CMoN, and the Op Games, before talking about community building, running conventions (like he did with KingdomCon) and generally swapped old war stories. As usual, this episode will be exclusive to brushwieldersunion.com members for a few days befo...
Aug 26, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 29
My guest this month was the one and only Meredith Placko, half of the team behind Turbo Dork! I first interviewed Greg De Stefano, the founder of Turbo Dork in one of the first BWU podcasts , back in August of 2019. Two years later, Turbo Dork has grown in every way possible, and Meredith had lots to say about that journey. We talked about the winding path that brought her from news media to miniatures hobby paints, the challenges the company has overcome, and she even dropped an exclusive tease...
Jul 27, 2021•50 min•Ep. 28
This month I spoke with my old friend and fellow BWU Member, Andrew Bailey. You might know Andrew from his days as Mod_Faultie on the Privateer Press forums but these days he's best known for his incredible kitbashing creations , focused on the Kroot of Warhammer 40,000 and one of the pillars of the #siegeofpech and #krootvasion communities on Instagram. We chatted about kitbashing, world building, and carving out a niche for yourself in an existing setting as he's done in 40k. Be sure to follow...
Jun 30, 2021•46 min•Season 1Ep. 27
This month I was excited to speak with professional miniatures painter, Elizabeth Beckley! You may know her work as part of the Miniature Monthly team or as a sometime studio painter for Kingdom Death (link NSFW) and formerly, Cool Mini or Not . Elizabeth is one of the featured painters in "The Art of..." the new series of art books now on Kickstarter from fellow Union Member, Dave Taylor. Elizabeth had lots to share about her journey as a hobbyist from an amateur gamer to a pro-painter for mult...
May 26, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 26
For this month's podcast I spoke with my friend and fellow Union Member, Dan Vander Kooy, operator of Iron Buffalo , a game store with a coffee problem! While we didn't talk too much about minis this month, we did get into the nitty gritty of what it's like to run a game shop. These pillars of our community are notoriously fickle creatures and Dan was kind enough to share his thoughts on their care and maintenance. We talked about the importance of game stores to the community and what we as com...
Apr 27, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 25
This month I finally spoke with my old time friend and fellow Union Member, Gregoire Boisbelaud, co-owner of Dust USA ! Gregoire chatted with me about his long history in the miniatures industry going all the way back to his time at Rackham and to the present as one of the main people behind Dust 1947. We talked about the French miniatures scene, what it was like inside the legendary Rackham, and the trials and travails of producing a miniatures wargaming in these turbulent times. If you're inte...
Mar 30, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 24
I've been looking forward to speaking with The Terrain Tutor for a long time, and what better excuse than with the release of his first book, Terrain Essentials: A Book About Making Wargaming Terrain ! It's a truly comprehensive resource that covers the fundamentals of terrain making from planning, to materials, to execution, all accompanied by beautiful and helpful photography. Terrain Essentials is a real achievement, and I believe it will be the definitive book on terrain building for many ye...
Mar 30, 2021•58 min•Season 1Ep. 23
For the first podcast of 2021 I spoke to "Mocha", competitive painter and professional instructor! "Mocha" of Mocha Minis is an overly-caffeinated, multi-award winning miniature painter, instructor, video game enthusiast and karaoke queen. After being introduced to tabletop gaming in 2010, she fell in love with painting miniature figures and currently teaches at national conventions, friendly local game stores, and online through her new Patreon! You can find her painting live on Twitch and shar...
Mar 30, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 22
