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February's TRIAL OF SHAME! Win an Artis Opus Brush Set! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-02-03 10:11:34
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

It's time to help, once again, reduce the piles of shame! My loft is heaving with kits and products that I'll never realistically get around to using, so every month I'm going to run a competition to thin the Pile of Shame. It could be rulebooks, it could be models, it could be paints and accessories! Together we shall defeat the piles!

This month, one person will receive a brand new, Artis Opus Series S Brush Set - the 4-brush version with brush soap in a little wooden case!

If you'd like a chance to win, comment here with your best story of brush or painting-based shame! Most shameful/entertaining, as judged by the CONVOCATION OF SHAME on our regular TOFG video, wins! To be eligible, you just need to be a active patron (any tier) when I close the thread at the end of the month. I'll contact you once closed for a postal address.

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Comments

apothyon2000

When I first started the hobby, I didn't know that you needed to use soap to maintain brushes so I was cycling through GW brushes every few weeks from overuse of unthined paints that covered the entire brush, and convincing myself that brushes were the most expensive part of the hobby if you had to replace them this often.

James Larner

Oooh nice prize! I just ruined a couple or brushes by using them for texture paints 😬 not too expensive ones so it was a calculated sacrifice

Stephen Harper

During the heatwaves in 2023 to keep my brush wet / to clean it I would just use the sweat on my face and body so just gently watering down averland sunset on my left armpit here, word bearers read on my forehead there etc

Lozotehu

It is a shame that I'll never have the proper skills to fully utilise hobby tools like these.

Normalin

Painted a series of gorgeous models from Warlord and, entirely without thinking, used my detail brush to wipe away the excess poly glue. So, I now have a warpainter detail chisel for shaping ><

David Hamblin

I Goblin Greened the bases of my Necromunda models back in the day ... P.S. I have seen at a FLGS tourney which had a "three colour minimum" rule someone had undercoated their minis and then literally put a dot of red, a dot of yellow, and a dot of blue on each to comply...

Makariel

Some time ago I bought a really nice sable brush for painting, but I'm too afraid of ruining it. So I keep doing most of my painting with cheap synthetic brushes I ordered in bulk from an online retailer a few years ago...

Jack O'Donovan

thought I'd print off a handful of Grey Knight characters because I liked their whole vibe and aesthetic. That quickly became a combat patrol, which became 1000 points and is now closer to 2500. All unpainted apart from a rattlecan primer.

Jake Merkel

So I’ve only been painting for like a year and at the very beginning I didn’t understand why I kept getting hooks on all my first brushes. So I had the thought that I could re-point them if I very carefully trimmed the bristles with normal sized scissors. Naturally it was never at a real point so I kept trimming. I have been left with more than 1 brush that’s about 2 mm long that is only useful for chipping every once in a while. Not my brightest moment lol

Will2B

I often paint with my paint water and coffee or tea in mugs next to each other... this has predictable results when cleaning brushes

Alexander Probst

I sometimes tend to dip straight from the bottle. More than once have I ruined a brush by accidentally dipping to deep, and getting colour into the metal part, and being unable to rescue them...

Ben Broomfield

When I first started dating my girlfriend she saw “PAINT LIZARDS” on my to do whiteboard. Occasionally she’d ask what this was: I’m a photographer who also likes origami, she thought it was some canvas painting of a scene featuring lizards. It was on there for ages, I never got round to it. Few months later when we were getting serious, she came round to find me painting my Lizardman Blood Bowl team (Nottingham Rainforest) finally in the process of being painted up. I won’t forget the look on her face 😅

Tony Shannon

Using enamel paints Id been gifted when starting out as a skint youngster, not knowing I’d need thinners… needless to say quite a few early models and brushes were ruined before I bought my first starter acrylic paint set…

Mark Frankland

I bought myself a lovely detail brush, so I could finally paint eyes properly. One day, it just disappeared from my office. Fast forward to several weeks later and I am enjoying the sunshine, in my garden and I am suddenly experiencing a kind of kaleidoscope of pain! Turns out my dog had decided to bury the nice detail brush: BLUNT SIDE POKING OUT OF THE GROUND and I discovered it with the sole of my foot. I discovered several new swear words in the course of hopping around my garden.

CaptainStone

My very first attempt at painting miniatures was with the eighth edition's starter box primaris intercessors. I didn't prime them they weren't cleaned very well they were covered in mold limesa and sprue gates. The paint was patchy too think in some places and to thin in others, they look terrible but every space marine list I make I'm sure to take them.

Richard Bat Brewster

Painting my RTB1 boxset with enamel paints. All black, then adding an awkward red S for the chapter symbol and red splodge for the eye lense. Changing the name of the chapter every other week. I was 12. Meanwhile a 12 year old friend of mine somehow managed to paint something worthy of pro-painting?! Oh, the teasing I suffered.

Amber Kalau

i bought a couple pretty cheap brushes a few years ago, and i used them, from time to time, for different techniques, especially streaking grime. also a few years ago my partner and i got together and they said they smoked weed sometimes. a few months into our relationship i was painting and couldn’t find one of said cheap brushes. so after i couldn’t find them anywhere i asked my partner if they’d seen it and they said „omg, i didn’t know you used that one so i used it to clean out my bong“💀 (we ofc still love each other and are going on 4 years together now hihi<3)

Charlotte With a D

Once was trying to board a flight with a little wooden artists case of paints and brushes only to discover that they wouldn't let me through security because apparently oil paints are so violently flammable or explosive or something, so I had to sprint back to check-in and back to security in a sweaty mess to avoid missing my flight

Andrew N

I had just about finished painting what would have been one of my first competition pieces - a dwarf warrior in a blue cloak. I had set him side to work on some other hobby projects, when I bumped into my desk and tipped over a jar of gold paint….right on to the dwarf. He’s a brass statue in my fantasy terrain now.

Thomas Perry

My shameful secret ? Despite playing two WH40K armies and one Warhammer Fantasy I have NEVER painted a figure in my life. If by some miracle I win the set will go for a friend who does such arcane matters as assemble ( no, I don't do that either) and paint his figures

Gill Edgar

My most shamefull comes from work (I work as a decorator): I was working at this big place, climbing up and down the trappladder, paining high up. And then... I stepped one big step to far - right into the big container of paint. Splush. Good thing it was just a concrete floor and not the final flooring.

Tom

Not sure if shameful or just cheap, but I bought a pack of 100 super cheap brushes to use for things like texture paste or glue… and I still try to wash them and re-use them when I specifically bought them to be disposable.

Kreed

It is very difficult to get Winsor & Newton brushes where I live. Something to do with distribution rights. I really wanted a set of W&N brushes, so when we were planning our family vacation I consciously let the fact that these are made in the UK guide my decision to want to go there. When we arrived in London every art store was out of stock. Luckily the UK is still amazing and I still got to go to Warhammer World.

Odee Grotsniffer

I grew up using my mom's old make up brushes as paint brushes. I'd cut them to size and cut out caked on make up.

Angry bee sound

I had my first Windsor brush recently. Loved it. Dabbed it on some paper towel. That had a tiny bit of un dry super glue on it. Got it on tbe bristles and now have a $20 dollar brush to move paint from my pots to a wet palette.

CLARKIE

I currently do all my hobbying with cheap brushes that I buy in packs of 10 for 99p. I mentioned this once for a Q&A with Byron and you can see him recoil in horror at the thought 🤣

Ragsnbones

I didn't know I was supposed to clean the brush in water frequently while painting so all my nice brushed got messed up :P

Dalga Faik

So many to choose from, like ruining my first starter brush by leaving it in the pot of water overnight so it had a permanent 90 degree bend to it , or the time I painted half a Fell Beast (old WHFB gribbly) Bilious Green to annoy my store manager because he told me I was a shit painter.

simon harper

for certain tasks I quite like the gw brushes that are included in the hatchette partworks. does that count as shameful?

Jesus Jijon

Tbh I don’t have any stories about brushes I been trying to get into the hobby of painting just now but I love the lore I have heard 42 audio books of Warhammer 40k I just love the series and wanted say thank you ur one of the only few people I trust with Lore anyhow I know it wasn’t about the contest but it’s all for the EMPEROR !!!!

Mulbelgium

Really nice set of brushes there. It would probably be wasted on me because to my shame I'm an old fashioned brush-licker. To such an extent that I'm familiar with the flavours of different paints. Agrax Earthshade is somewhat nutty, whilst the old foundation paints were really rather unpleasant. No. I'm not going to stop. Even with a really expensive set of brushes. I wonder what brush soap tastes of.

Biggs Hancock

The Tale of the Neglected Airbrush A few years back, my wife gifted me an airbrush set for my birthday; compressor, primers, thinners & cleaning fluid; all the bells & whistles. But it sat untouched for about two and a half years. Recently I finally did get around to using it. However, after watching a ton of tutorials online and stripping, cleaning, assembling & repeating, I had to finally accept the budget €25 airbrush, that I’d thought would be a good place to start, was a disaster. Surprise, surprise—it didn’t work at all. Now, with Adepticon around the corner, one of the biggest wargaming tournaments in the world, I’m left with an unpainted army of Solar Auxilia tanks. My solution? Sponge painting! It’s not ideal, but it’s giving a fast and dirty feel to my army. I’ve booking myself onto one of the many ‘intro-to-airbrushing’ classes in Milwaukee next month and resigned myself to purchasing a descendant brand-name airbrush on my return.

Tim

After a considerable time away from painting 🖌️. I started again with a DKOK kill team. Ordered a few brushes but forgot a dry brush for the bases. Not to worry I thought, I'll borrow my wife's makeup brush. She will never know 😐 Let's just say it cost me a set of makeup brushes.

Weepaddynopants

I bought some paint brushes with my work bank account by accident. My accountant signed it off as a legit expense and I haven't stopped. Just keep buying them as work expenses. I am a plumber.

Nathaniel Westwood

My brush care is so bad I managed to run a tiny profit from a white van in the town centre from the back of which I sell my fish tailed abused utensils of pigment application masquerading as kipper.

Shep

Let's see probably multiple offences here. A nice set of broken toad that sit in the box hardly touched. Leaning heavily into slap chop now so mainly using cheaper/knock off dry brushes. Multiple packs of new synthetic brushes sat there waiting to be used with oils. Attended multiple courses with cult of paint and drop back into old habits about a month later. Nice h and s airbrush that I can't get on with so use multiple Amazon £25 specials. After multiple airbrush related courses airbrushing is still 90% primer work unless I already have a rattle can in the colour.

Iain Hale

It is this month that I will admit my two great shames. In 2022 I decided after a decade of warhammer to finally defeat my pile of shame, some 250 miniatures, and to finally really use the airbrush setup I had bought years prior. I have managed to paint well over 200 miniatures a year since then, but the pile of shame has not changed size at all. No matter how efficient my painting gets, the acquisition rate increases at an equivalent rate. In all this I have never thrown out a brush, there is just a mug with an endlessly growing stack of "drybrushes"

Jim Swales (menthel)

I can't stop licking my brushes. The problem is I am now doing plenty of oil washes and dot filtering. Pretty sure that's not good for me and certainly isn't as delicious as acrylic paints.

Phil Pritchard

I’ve been surviving on some old battered Citadels and cheap plastic brushes for years. Please release me from my painting shame!

Matt Croghan

My back story is. I was literally about to ask for something like this for my birthday in March. If I win these I can ask for miniatures instead.

Simon Woodward

When I was a kid and first into Warhammer it was the Middle Earth game (or Lord of the Rings Skirmish Game as it was then!). I played Gondor, but I was 1. appalling at painting, and 2. really slow at it. Eventually my friends got frustrated playing against my sea of grey and insisted that I had to paint before we were allowed to play again. So the night before I look a whole box's worth of guys (all 24 of them!) in their silver plate armour, and dunked them wholesale by the base into a pot of boltgun metal paint, undiluted. At a glance, the army looked painted. Of course this was horrific in the extreme, paint gumming up details, cracking, the epitome of 'one very thick coat'.

Jose Herraez

I have around 5k points worth of Space Wolves, and the army hasn’t even been in the same room with a paint brush.

Robert Ferguson

I was a relatively young teenager when I started doing a lot of painting I was also a little lazy and a little stupid. So when it was cold I decided that the best thing to do would be to do my painting in bed as it was after all warmer there. The completely predictable and inevitable happened when I put a pot of black paint down on a soft surface and it spilled onto the white bedsheet. My mum still has that bedsheet and every time I see it it reminds me of my shameful actions.

Da Skwire

When I first started painting I was dimly aware that you should undercoat models. I'd never undercoated any of the Airfix tanks I'd painted but I wanted to make a good job of my Paranoia miniatures so I painted them white. With a brush. In Enamel. After the face of the first one disappeared beneath a layer of splodge I decided that this might be not the right way to do it.

skugga

I sold my original Squat army when I got out of the hobby for the traditional break everyone seems to have. But kept a bunch of half under coated marines (not the now cool original sculpts)

Jack Digan

When my twin brother and I were kids, around nine or ten, we got into Warhammer 40k. A family friend of our dad's, also a hobbyist, wanted to encourage us in the (admittedly expensive) hobby. He'd often give us older models from his "pile of shame"—things like old Space Marine tanks. My brother and I started our first armies: Ultramarines for me, and Eldar for him. Being nine, our painting skills weren't exactly refined. Let's just say our models looked like they'd been painted with a stick and unthinned paint. This was especially noticeable on my brother's army, since his Eldar were entirely yellow. One day, our friend gifted my brother one of his old beautifully painted Eldar armies. It was clear he'd had it professionally commissioned, because the freehand detail was incredible. Not long after, we were at our local Games Workshop for their store anniversary. They were running a mini tournament and had a bunch of spot prizes for best-painted models. Mid-game, I spotted the competition and, despite the state of my own stick-painted army, I grabbed one of the Wave Serpents from my brother's gifted army and tried to pass it off as my own. The staff politely asked if I'd really painted it. My face burning red, I had to admit I hadn't. Just then, my abandoned opponent came looking for me, dragging me back to my own decidedly less impressive army.

Michael John

I paint my minis with brushes I purchased off Temu & Aliexpress.

Gareth

My favourite dry brush literally snapped in two…wrapped in sticky tape it lives again! No escaping for you old faithful! (My partner very kindly bought me a set of posh dedicated dry brushes but that poor brush still has a place in my heart)

Person who Talks

When I first got into warhammer I started with a box of custodian wardens and completely botched the primer. I still painted the crusty wardens to benchmark my first ever minis but not too long after I bought a second box of them. And had the same thing happen cause I didn't know you had to shake metallic primer for so long. My third box of wardens are actually some of my best minis I've ever painted but to this day a vexillus praetor that could likely be used as sandpaper sits in my closet with its banner broken by my cat. While the others proudly adorn my shelf with all of their detail-less and unthinned paint glory.