Who is Old Man Paints?
Old Man Paints is a quick name I came up with one day in 2019, when I noticed that I was much older than most of the other people in the Nottingham Games Workshop. I guess I am middle-aged, a man and I paint but OLD MAN PAINTS Sounds better than middle-aged man paints.
My name is Phil, I paint figures or as they now seem to be called, (minis). I am originally from the Derbyshire Peak District and my first exposure to “lead figures” was through playing D&D with some local friends.
We spent a lot more time arguing about the rules than actually playing as I remember. Anyway, this is where I was introduced to figures and was instantly hooked. I think I had a halfling trumpeter and a Boromir figure.
After that, we would travel to Games workshop in Sheffield to buy paints and figures, or minis as they are called nowadays.
Sheffield Games Workshop
The first ones were painted with Enamels, and, no I don’t have them anymore. My local Games Workshop was, ‘The Moor’ in Sheffield. A chap who worked there “Kenny Crow” was extremely encouraging of my work and let me put some of my figures in the Cabinet. In the 1980s, Games workshop shops were a bit less corporate and more about the customer.
You could take your painted miniatures into the shop and if they were good enough they would be displayed in their octagonal cabinets. At one point I had about 30 figures in there.
Kenny kept pushing me to improve and when I was churning out crap figures, he told me, reminding me that only the good stuff could get in the cabinet. It’s thanks to Kenny that I pushed on and entered the Golden Demon ‘single figure’ category in the 1989 Golden Demon Heats, Single figure Category. I won, I was 15.
Golden Demon Awards 1989
The Golden Demon final in 1989 was at Games Day, held at the Assembly Rooms Derby. It was packed and as a figure painter and not a gamer, I was pretty bored that day.
However, the day picked up when I bumped into John Blanche, he signed an apple for me…I didn’t have any paper.
He also got my miniature photographed for the ‘Fantasy Miniatures’ Book. That day, I made a last-minute decision to take a different figure, than the one that had won the heat. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Anyway, the figure I take did get photographed and was added to the book.
I also have to say that regrettably, someone else’s figure was also attributed to my name. I’m very sorry about that to whoever painted it. It wasn’t anything to do with me, an editorial error. For the record, mine was the Imperial Scout. The Eldar scout wasn’t mine.
I’ll show you the figures here now, just to illustrate.
A New Dawn in Figure Painting
1989 was the height of my figure painting success (so far). I never entered the GD again, and a few years later I’d discovered other distractions. By the time I was 21, I’d stopped painting miniatures altogether.
Many years passed and the figures lived in boxes and tins, and some were lost and broken beyond repair.
Then, one day in 2018, I came across some photos of figures I’d taken years ago. I dug the figures out and started looking at them. Next, I found a group on Facebook called the “Oldhammer Community” and never looked back.
Since then, I’ve renovated my office, bought some small display cabinets, filled them with the old and now, many new figures. My everyday workspace now doubles as a hobby space.
To see my painted miniatures, look on my Instagram and if there’s a story to tell, I’ll write it here on my blog.
I hope you enjoyed reading my little tale? There’s lots more to say, but hey, we have all the time in the world.
Please feel free to ask questions.
Old Man Paints - Oldhammer Wargaming Figures 