Tabletop gaming and printing guides
Miniature painting, campaign gifts, and practical help preparing your artwork.
Start with your image
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From your file to your favorite thing. A few small checks make a big difference to your finished print. -
Where will your artwork live? Choose the object around the way you want to enjoy the image. -
How to photograph miniatures for a print A clear reference photo gives both direct prints and scenes a better starting point. -
Still your character? Take a closer look. What to inspect before you approve a miniature scene. -
Miniature photo backdrops: choose a scene for your painted figure Miniature photo backdrops should help you see the figure and understand its story. Decide what deserves attention before choosing a scene. -
How to photograph artwork so it can be printed How to photograph artwork comes down to three problems: getting it square, getting it evenly lit, and getting the color true. Solve those with a window and a phone and the copy will print properly. Miss any one and no amount of editing rescues it. - Light box photography: what it fixes, and what it flattens Light box photography solves one problem very well: a small object on a clean background with no harsh shadows, and creates another that few people warn you about, which is that perfectly even light makes a three-dimensional object look flat.
- iPhone macro photography, for things the size of a thumb iPhone macro photography goes wrong in one predictable way: people move the phone closer and closer until the subject fills the frame, and somewhere on that journey the picture stops being sharp. The fix is counter-intuitive: back off.
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Turn photo into painting: your miniature, in a painted-style scene. Turn photo into painting-style art, starting with the miniature you spent hours on. It sits on a shelf, or in a foam-lined box, out of sight. Photograph it and we place it in a scene worth looking at: a woodland path, a tavern, a battlefield at sunset, or a stone courtyard. The studio is told to leave your paintwork alone.
Drawing lessons
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How to draw a dragon, one step at a time How to draw a dragon, in twelve steps that each add one thing. Every step below has its own drawing, and every drawing is the one before it plus whatever that step adds, so you can always see exactly what changed. -
How to draw a skull that looks like bone How to draw a skull, in twelve steps built on one idea: the braincase is a ball and the face hangs off the front of it. Get that and the rest is placement. Every step below has its own drawing. -
How to draw an elf, from the head ball up How to draw an elf, head and shoulders, in twelve steps. Each one has its own drawing showing exactly what it adds. The ear angle in step three is the single thing that decides whether the finished face reads as elven or as a costume. -
How to draw a castle that looks defensible How to draw a castle, in twelve steps, each with its own drawing. The order matters more here than in any other subject in this series: get the silhouette and the battlement spacing right early and the detail looks after itself. -
How to draw a robot, joint by joint How to draw a robot, in twelve steps with a drawing for each. The whole subject comes down to one idea: a robot is a set of separate parts with visible gaps between them, and the gaps are what make it mechanical. -
How to draw a sword, starting with one line How to draw a sword, in twelve steps with a drawing for each. Almost everything about this subject is symmetry, so the center line in step two isn't a formality: it's the thing that stops the blade bending.
Gifts, gaming and creative spaces
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Gifts for artists, made from something they made Thoughtful choices for artists, miniature painters, and the people who cheer them on. -
Tabletop gaming gifts for roleplayers and gamers The best tabletop gaming gifts are made from their own game: a painted figure, a character they drew or the campaign map, printed on a mug, a poster or a canvas. Pick the image first, then the object that suits where they play. -
Gifts for miniature painters: tools, light and their own work The best gifts for miniature painters are prints of their own best model: a photo of the figure they are proudest of, printed on canvas, as a framed print or on a mug. That may not be the largest or the most recent piece, so find the one they would choose themselves. -
Personalized gifts for him, when he buys his own things The best personalized gifts for him are made from something he made: his drawing, his painted model or a photo from his hobby, printed on a poster, a mug or a canvas. Personalized gifts for him are hard for one specific reason: the man who is difficult to buy for is usually the man who buys what he wants the moment he wants it. Anything you can choose, he could have chosen. What he cannot buy is something made out of his own work. - Secret Santa ideas that survive January Good Secret Santa ideas fit the budget and show you noticed something about the person: a mug or a small print made from a photo of their hobby does both. Secret Santa ideas usually fail on the same two constraints: a fixed budget, and a colleague you know socially but not well. Almost everything bought under those conditions is funny for an afternoon and in a drawer by February.
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Man cave ideas for a room that shows what you do The best man cave ideas start with what he made: his painted models, his drawings or photos of his own projects, printed and hung where he sits. Most man cave ideas end at buying things that announce the room is a man cave: a neon sign, a framed film poster, a metal plaque about beer. A room built that way looks like every other one, because everything in it came from the same shops. -
Gifts for board game lovers, printed from game night The best gifts for board game lovers are not another game: a print of a game-night photo, or a mug for the table, shows you paid attention without guessing at their shelf. Gifts for board game lovers have an obvious answer and a bad one. The obvious answer is another game, and the reason it is bad is that they know the hobby far better than you do, own the ones they want, and have opinions about the rest. -
How to display painted miniatures How you display painted miniatures depends on what you want from them. A display case is the default answer, and only sometimes the right one. Cases protect and they also hide: glass reflects, depth swallows the back row, and an army that fills one is seen less than a single figure on a shelf. - Hobby room ideas, starting with the bench Hobby room ideas usually begin with furniture and end with a room that looks tidy and is miserable to work in. The order that works is the opposite: get the bench and the light over it right first, because everything else is decoration around a place you sit for hours.
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Painted Warhammer: what to do once the army is finished Painted Warhammer miniatures, like most painted miniatures, almost all end the same way: months of evenings, a finished force, and a foam tray in a cupboard. The painting gets celebrated for about a week, on a table, by the three people who were there. -
DnD room ideas, starting with the wall DnD room ideas for a painter start from the same point every time: the desk is covered in pots and brushes, the shelf is full of half-painted models, and the walls are bare. The hobby has taken over the space. The fix is making it look like you meant it. -
Christmas gifts for an artist, made from their own work Christmas gifts for artists start with their own work: a print of a finished piece, made from a file or a photo of it. - Gifts for painters: their own work, printed The best gifts for painters start with something they already painted. Brushes and paints are a guess unless you know the brand and size they use. A finished painting, or a figure they painted, can be printed from a photo of the original and hung on a wall. The same photo will also fit a mug.
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DnD gifts made from the character they play The best DnD gifts are a picture of the character they play, printed on a poster, a mug or a T-shirt. Their own art counts, and so do the mini they painted for it and the map the group keeps arguing over. Dice and rulebooks are easy to buy twice by accident. A picture of their character is not. - Warhammer gifts from their painted army The best Warhammer gifts are a photo of an army they painted, printed as a framed print, a canvas or a poster. It skips the guess at which kits they own, and the gift is their own hours of work, made to order.
- DnD Christmas gifts and other gifts for tabletop gamers The best DnD Christmas gifts are ones they can’t already own: their character, their painted figure or their campaign map, printed on a mug, a poster or a tote bag. The same goes for the Warhammer painter and the board gamer.
Printing and painting know-how
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Print your art on a mug: what actually survives the curve Print your art on a mug and you are not printing a picture, you are printing a band 200 mm wide and 96 mm tall that bends away from the reader on both sides. Almost every disappointing photo mug is a good image put on a shape that could not hold it. -
How to hang a picture, at the right height and on the right fixing How to hang a picture comes down to two decisions and one measurement. The decisions are how high and what fixing; the measurement is the one almost everybody gets wrong, because they measure to the hook, not to the middle of the picture. - Gallery wall ideas that use sizes you can actually buy Most gallery wall ideas fall apart at the ordering stage, because the arrangement in the photograph was built from frames somebody already owned. These layouts are planned around the sizes you can buy, which is a different and more useful problem.
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How to clean a canvas print, and what never to use on one How to clean a canvas print is mostly a question of what not to do. A print has no glass over it, so the printed surface is the surface you are touching, and most household cleaning instincts are wrong for it. -
Wet palette: what it does, and how to make one for nothing A wet palette is a shallow sealed tub with a damp layer under a sheet of parchment paper. Paint sitting on the parchment draws moisture up from below, so acrylics that would skin over in ten minutes on a tile stay workable for hours, and often for days. - Tabletop wargaming for beginners: Warhammer and what it costs Tabletop wargaming, Warhammer included, is three hobbies sold as one: collecting models, painting them and playing a game with them. Most beginners arrive wanting one of the three, and working out which one you are here for is the cheapest decision you will make.
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DnD character ideas that survive a campaign Most DnD character ideas are a costume and a voice, and both wear out by session three. The ones that last have three things instead: something the character wants, something they are bad at, and a reason to care about somebody else at the table. -
Giclee printing: what a giclee print is, and whether it matters Giclee printing is high-quality inkjet printing on archival paper: giclee prints are inkjet prints made with care, sold under a French word. No standards body sits behind the term and there is no specification it has to meet. -
How to make art prints of work you already have How to make art prints of your own work: photograph or scan the piece flat and evenly lit, check its pixels against the size you want (about 300 per inch for a sharp print), then pick a paper and have it printed. Each step is below. - Warhammer 40k factions: every army, in plain English There are 24 Warhammer 40k factions on the publisher’s list, all playable, in four groups: the Space Marines, the other armies of the Imperium, the forces of Chaos and the alien Xenos armies. Each one is below, with how to choose one you will enjoy painting.
- Miniature painting: from bare figure to finished model Miniature painting comes down to a handful of stages done in a sensible order: clean the figure, prime it, lay down thin base coats, add shade and light, then finish the base. This guide takes them in that order, answers the questions people ask about priming, drying and mistakes, and ends with what to do once the figure is done.
- Miniature painting supplies: what to buy first Miniature painting supplies for a first model come down to a short list. This guide covers what each item does, what can wait until later, and how to judge a starter kit on its contents.
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DnD character art: turn your own picture into a print DnD character art you can print has to be art you have the right to use. We do not draw characters. We print the picture you bring, and this guide shows how to get one that holds up at poster size. - What size poster for your wall? Tell us how wide the space is. We show which poster size fits best, then you can order it right here with your own photo or painting.
Size references and free tools
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A-series paper sizes, A1 to A5 A-series paper sizes in inches first: A4 is 8.27 × 11.69 inches, A3 is 11.69 × 16.54 and A2 is 16.54 × 23.39. Millimeters, centimeters and pixels follow. A0 is 841 × 1189 mm and every size after it halves the longer side, so all of this is arithmetic. -
A1 size in inches, cm and pixels A1 size in inches is 23.39 × 33.11, which is 594 × 841 mm and 59.4 × 84.1 cm. -
A2 size in inches, cm and pixels A2 size in inches is 16.54 × 23.39, which is 420 × 594 mm and 42 × 59.4 cm. -
A3 size in inches, cm and pixels A3 size in inches is 11.69 × 16.54, which is 297 × 420 mm and 29.7 × 42 cm. -
A4 size in inches, cm and pixels A4 size in inches is 8.27 × 11.69, which is 210 × 297 mm and 21 × 29.7 cm. -
A5 size in inches, cm and pixels A5 size in inches is 5.83 × 8.27, which is 148 × 210 mm and 14.8 × 21 cm. -
Miniature scale converter: 28mm, 32mm and 54mm Wargaming miniatures are quoted as 28mm, 32mm or 54mm: a height, not a ratio. Type a real size and a scale to get the model size, or read it backwards. Enter a figure height and the height of the person it represents to see the ratio that implies. The arithmetic is exact; the one assumption is yours to change. - D&D and fantasy name generator This free fantasy name generator builds names for D&D characters instead of reciting them. Pick the kinds you want and it will build you some. Every name is assembled from syllables, not drawn from a list, so it does not run out and it does not hand you somebody else’s character.
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Poster sizes: the standard sizes in inches and pixels Poster sizes in the US come in a handful of standard inch sizes. Here they all are, with the pixels each one needs. - Elf name generator This elf name generator builds elf names from syllables written for this page: high elven, wood elf, dark elf and Christmas elf, each with its own sound. Press the button for twelve at a time, untick the kinds you don’t want, or choose a first letter.
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Orc name generator This orc name generator puts orc names together the way a war-band would: a short, hard given name, then a clan, then an epithet earned the loud way. Press the button for twelve, or untick the parts you don’t need. -
Fantasy town name generator This town name generator builds fantasy town names from the same parts real English place names are made of: a word for what was there, then an ending for what people did with it. A ford, a farm, a fort, a harbor. Press the button for twelve, or narrow it to one kind of place. -
Tavern name generator This tavern name generator builds tavern names the way English pub signs have been named for centuries: an animal or an object, sometimes a pair of them, often with a color or a number in front. Press the button for twelve, then try the best one out loud in a landlord’s voice.
