Baratheon Army Showcase

Give us a little introduction to yourself and your hobby history:

Hey I am Dan, the host of the Paint All The Minis Podcast. I enjoy lots of genres and scales, and participating in every aspect of the hobby.

So what exactly are we looking at here?

Between February and June 2025, I set about these lads with reckless abandon. It is about half of the current Baratheon faction for the A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures game. Lots of yellow, lots of shiny armour! I didn’t get too deep into the standard/quality of these guys; finishing the project to a decent tabletop quality within a short space of time was the key.

What drew you to this particular project?

I am a huge fan of the A Song of Ice and Fire game. I had previously painted up a full faction of Lannisters for the same game, but I wasn’t a huge fan of how they played. As with the source material, Lannisters aren’t particularly nice and in order to play them best you have to be a bit of a knob’ed and shut down all your opponents cool stuff and I wasn’t a big fan of that and ended up apologising all the time for stuff I needed to do so I wouldn’t lose badly! So I was on the hunt for a new project, and the yellows, the knights, the hammers, the general aesthetic drew me to House Baratheon.

Which miniatures range(s) did you use to create this force/collection & why?

I used solely official models from Cool Mini or Not/Darksword Miniatures. I did this because it is a pretty standardised game, the minis come preassembled and have movement trays etc. The models come with 3 or 4 separate poses, and I didn’t feel the need to convert or tamper with any of the models but may do so in the future.

Did you paint all the minis for gaming? And if so, are there particular rules sets you will be using to play with them?

Yes, I painted them solely for gaming. I have already used them and will continue to do so for the ASOIAF rule set which I continue to enjoy and hope the game goes from strength to strength. I have also dabbled with using the minis for other rule sets and continue to be on the prowl for other opportunities to use them in other games. I have used some of them in Frostgrave & Lion Rampant. They are great models that are so versatile.

Do you have some favourite units or models in this force?

I really like the Kingsmen. I like them because they are pretty cool with their double handed swords, armour, and tabards, but they are really effective in the game, so I enjoy putting them on the field. I also really like the Wardens, their hammers, poses, armour, and especially their scarred shields gave an opportunity to get some decent effects pretty easily and effectively.

How was the experience of working on this project? How long did it take you from opening the boxes to being ready for the battlefield?

What you are seeing is only just over half of the models I actually painted. A local chap wanted the same army, so I offered to paint it if he bought it, so he sent two or three of the same units and I painted them all up, kept one unit for myself and sent the rest to him. So with that being said, my experience of working with them was up and down!!! Painting 36 individual models of the same unit was a bit of a slog at times, but I had a few things that helped me stay focused and munch through. As mentioned before, it took about 4 months to paint up all the models, and this was mostly split between 1 to 2 hour sessions during regular working weeks and then some bigger 4 hour sessions on a weekend. A guesstimate of how long each unit took…..hmmm….maybe 10 hours each?

What challenges came up while working to complete the project?

Time, energy, painting for someone else, 36 freaking duders of the same unit….these were just some of the usual ups and downs of our projects I guess. I can only speak for myself, but finding the time to paint in any given week can be hard. With family, work, other hobbies, and other things that come up it can be hard to form solid hobby habits. I had the advantage of a new hobby desk for this project. I had one desk but I got a computer so my hobby space was shared, this meant I couldnt keep my hobby projects out all the time as it was a dual use space. But I was able to take the big desk and replace it with 2 smaller desks on either side of my space so that I had my computer then a 180 degree spin got me to my hobby desk. Being able to keep my projects out on my desk helped me to keep on task. Energy also, I get quite tired during a normal week, work mentally tires me out and often I am not exuding energy at around 8pm and so I had to work hard to sit at the desk two or three times mid week and just get some colours on. Some boots, some straps, shield faces, it didnt matter, I just tried to do something, get some little win.

Could you share your tips for staying focused and motivated on these large painting projects?

Yeah sure. Audiobooks were a big help during this project, I listened to The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, narrated by Andy Serkis. These books were amazing and some of the time the hours flew by as he told the story and actually unlocked some new aspects of the books that I hadn’t picked up on my previous read-throughs. Forming a hobby habit was also key, I mentioned above, just sitting at the paint desk two or three times during the working week and then at least once on a weekend helped to keep the progress ticking over. It was tough at times, sometimes I just wasn’t feeling it at all, but doing some of the donkey work like boots, straps, basic colour blocking when I wasn’t feeling it, leaving more important parts to when I was feeling more motivation was something that helped also.

Did you employ any particular painting techniques to help speed up the process of painting all the models?

Not really I don’t think, its just ye’olde basecoat, wash, re-cover with basecoat, and then a wee highlight. The mother flippin’ batch process was pretty slick here. 36 models, doing the same….freakin…..part of all 36 guys in one go! Hahaha, yeah that is a technique that got me over the line. That was a key factor in the speed I think, just chewing through the same bit, same part, same unit.

Did you use any podcasts, films, or music to accompany your painting sessions?

In addition to what I have mentioned before I listened to a lot of music. Listening to an audiobook is something I can do for a while, but I needed to freshen and change stuff up after an hour or so to make sure I stayed focused on the story and the paint project. I listened to a lot of live albums of music I liked. The live albums offer a different style/tone/experience than recorded albums and I was finding that I wasn’t passively listening to the music, I was actively listening and passively painting. So, the live albums, weird as it seems, took me to the gig and I enjoyed trying to pick out all the aspects of the performance. I listened to Gerry Cinnamon live at Hampden Park, Noel Gallagher’s show The Dreams We Have as Children, amongst others.

Was there any particular modelling or painting techniques you tried for the first time on this project?

Nah, not really and that was mainly down to the size of the project and also because I was using a new set of paints. I used Two Thin Coats paints and I have to say, they have been fantastic and I really enjoy using them.

Any other tips for those reading at hime thinking of tackling a large project like this?

Find your own way with it. Listen to others, learn from others, and be open minded but ultimately it’s you doing the painting so find your own method. For myself, it helped to not get too consumed with any form of idea on quality or comparing the minis with anyone else’s. I just painted, when I thought they were done, they were done, even though there were bits I missed, bits that aren’t great, for the time I spent, the effort I gave, for the tabletop games I want to use these guys for, they are fine. All the very best with your own hobby projects, make sure you share them with us!