A chat with Duncan Rhodes
A chat with Duncan Rhodes
Painter, Presenter and Co-Owner of the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy
Did you know that Duncan Rhodes absolutely loves Final Fantasy VII and wishes there was a Star Wars: Shatterpoint style game for it? He also enjoys Clippers English Breakfast Tea along with shortbread biscuits.
But wait! There’s more.
Duncan has generously responded to a list of questions I recently presented to him and his team. Enjoy!
What you need to know about Two Thin Coats and more!
Q: Are there any important announcements you would like to share?
A: We’re currently in the process of hiring a new assistant video editor which is going to free up time for some really exciting projects.
Q: Do you have any news to share that is directly relevant to the Australian market?
A: The Two Thin Coats range of hobby paints is reaching more Australian stores all the time so they are getting easier and easier to get hold of in local gaming shops. I hope people give them a try – we worked really hard on making them as good as possible.
Q: For those who don't know: What is the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy?
A: The Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy is the go-to membership website for anyone who wants to get better at painting miniatures. We specialise in teaching skills and techniques in a clear and concise way that is totally committed to getting results and building confidence.
We do this with a beginners course for anyone new to the hobby, videos focused on particular techniques looking at them in detail (and exploring what can go wrong, why this might happen, and how to deal with it if it does), and lots of ‘case study’ style videos where we look at a single model and paint it from start to finish, illustrating every step along the way. The video archive is huge – over 360 videos at the moment – and each completed model is accompanied by a gallery showing the finished model in detail for reference whilst you’re painting.
Q: It's pleasing to see the 'Two Thin Coats' range on shelves in local hobby stores here in Australia. Setting up international distribution of your product must have been an epic task? How many countries currently sell your products?
A: The Two Thin Coats range of paints are manufactured and distributed by Trans Atlantis Games (TAG) with whom we have a licensing agreement. We are heavily involved in the development of the paints (choosing the colours, formulas, even the names!) and nothing goes into production without our approval.
TAG are fantastic at developing these products with us, wanting the paint to be our ideal set of hobby acrylics, and are well placed to take them to the customer due to being helmed by many industry veterans. They are currently available in stores in 27 countries with more being added all the time.
Q: What has the support been like from the tabletop hobby community over the years?
A: For me personally, unreal.
We enjoy immense support across the world for what we do, and we are incredibly grateful for it. It’s always been tough for me to get my head around it all to be honest, because when I first started doing this at Games Workshop for Warhammer TV both Roger (my business partner and co-owner of the Academy) had no idea how things would be received by the community and I just hoped that I wouldn’t become a focal point for any ire towards the company!
Instead people really liked what we were doing to the point that we were able to leave GW and do it independently, and now here we are. I think it’s because people understand that we want to make the hobby easier to enjoy and help unlock skills for anyone who wants to learn. We’re committed to this and are going to keep on doing it!
Q: What prompted the decision to start your own paint line? What was missing from the market that inspired you to strike out on your own?
A: We got approached one day by Bob Watts, the owner of Trans Atlantis Games, looking to licence us to make a new range of hobby paints as the first product line for his new company. We agreed thinking that this would be a great opportunity to make as high a quality line of paints as possible, tackling all sorts of gripes and oddities about acrylic paints that make some colours surprisingly tough to use, so that the range could fit well with our modus operandi of teaching skills and making painting easier and more accessible. TAG were very excited about this approach and so everything fit together perfectly.
Q: Was it a challenging process to find a suitable partner/manufacturer?
A: Not really – it was they who approached us! It was certainly a surprise when it happened.
Q: Did anything surprise you in the process of starting your own paint line?
A: Oh yes. An acrylic paint is actually a very complicated cocktail of chemicals and many of them are in the mix purely to counter negative side effects of other chemicals (such as foaming) – and these chemicals themselves can also have negative side effects (such as a bad smell!), thus requiring more chemicals to be mixed in! None of these can be toxic or harmful and all of this can then affect how the paint actually looks when it’s put on something. This is before even adding any colour which can also have side effects on the formula!
The result was that after mixing all the required colours, which were then transferred on to our unique base for the paint, we spent time at the factory fine tuning each and every colour until it behaved exactly how we wanted it to. It was a long process, but also was absolutely worth it.
Q: Are there any future plans you can share about the painting academy?
A: There are going to be some very exciting changes and additions to the Academy website in the near future – we have a lot of plans which we can implement as soon as we have our new editor. At the moment we are beginning our own event painting competition with its first appearance being at the London Grand Tournament this year – we’ve had an awesome trophy made for it, and we’re going to be doing more stuff like this!
Q: Are there any plans to expand the hobby supply range? Texture paints for miniature bases?
A: You shall have to wait and see!
Q: There has been a proliferation of miniature painting tutorials popping up on YouTube. How do you strive to stand out?
A: YouTube is a brutal arena for any subject thanks to the ever changing algorithm and miniature painting is becoming very busy on the platform. The temptation is to chase high view counts by doing strange things, but this is not sustainable for a business and so we have long resolved to just keep doing what we do best – make miniature painting tutorials that clearly and concisely show what to do, why to do it at that time in that way, and what you need to look out for. Our reputation is built upon this.
This might not result in the highest view counts but it does create a loyal following because it gives our supporters genuine results that make them happy. This is a much more stable foundation than view count chasing and it allows our business to thrive.
Q: Can we expect to see thematic releases of miniatures like Sir Coates and Gyzmo the loyal dog in the near future?
A: Oh watch this space! We have some exciting plans on this.
Q: What are the perks of becoming a member of the academy?
A: For £3.99 a month you gain complete access to the Academy website. We do not put things behind tiered barriers! This contains over 360 full tutorial videos with more being added every week. They cover a huge variety of subjects, from Warhammer 40k to blending techniques to historical Napoleonic soldiers and everything in between. Each model features in high-definition photos in the reference gallery showing the completed model from different angles so as to help you pick out various details as you follow along.
In addition we have a forum focused on allowing you to interact with like-minded hobbyists who are also developing their skills, a monthly painting challenge with unique prizes, a monthly giveaway (featuring big boxes like copies of Leviathan and Skaventide), and have much more on the way!
Q: Are the courses on offer suitable for beginners and more experienced painters?
A: Yes, we cater to a wide variety of skill levels. We have a detailed beginners course separate from the regular tutorial videos that show everything someone new needs to know to get off to a great start (complete with certificate once you complete it!), and amongst the other tutorials on the site we have videos that go up to more advanced levels with centrepiece character pieces and techniques such as non-metallic metal painting.
Q: On 28-29 September you are running a painting competition, 'The Sir Coates Painting Masters' in London. What can you tell us about this exciting event?
A: This is the first of our painting competition events that we want to build as a prestigious award. The competition is looking for painting skills of course but we also want to see creativity and imagination on display! We have spared no expense by providing multiple categories for a very broad selection of miniatures, each with awesome trophies for the top three places. There is also a grand prize trophy for the overall winner which looks really, really cool. We’re very excited for it and can’t wait to get it underway!