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Painting miniatures while traveling has been something that I have been experimenting with since the lockdown began and I started the Hobby Streak. I am now nearing day 590 of the Hobby Streak, but I also have had a trip planned to go to Scotland–first time ever–in the works for two and a half years. But how could I go for 11 days and just let the Hobby Streak die?

Add to this the fact that the Leagues of Votann box arrived at my doorstep two days before I was set to leave–and I couldn’t just abandon that.

Painting Miniatures While Traveling: Assembling the Supplies

I have done miniature painting while traveling before. Over the last couple of years I have taken road trips with the family or with sick kids and I have found the time to paint in the hotel rooms. There was one four-day excursion I went on the same day I received the Cursed City boxed set (the first time it was released and before it had baggage attached). I brough along about eight colors, one brush, and a plastic palette.

But this trip was going to be different, because I wanted to paint SQUATS and I want to paint them in Scotland. Scots Squats, as it were. I figure we were going to be jetlagged, waking up at weird times of day, and I’d have several hours either at night or in the morning to paint.

So I assembled my miniature painting travel kit. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s everything I need. First, I decided on a color scheme for my Squats and then gathered all of the paints that would be necessary for the job. Then I splurged and ordered the Army Painter Mega Brush Set, because I love Army Painter brushes and I wanted to have really top-quality brushes to work with. I added my wet palette to the Tupperware (I’d provide a link to these great Tupperwares, because I bought like 24 of them, but they’re no longer available.) Finally, I took two clothes. Some people like to use paper towels when they paint, but I like cloth. Two cheap washrags from the supermarket were all I needed.

That’s the paint kit. I knew that because of American TSA rules you have to show all liquids in a clear container, so I put this in my carry on , wrapped in clear tape to make sure it never spilled its contents. The cloths did their job of acting like cushions amd keeping everythimg from jiggling around. And, the blessing of the brand new brushes is that they all still had their plastic tip covers.

As for the models, I knew I couldn’t carry spray primer on the flight so I rushed to assemble the models I wanted to bring before the trip, and then packed them in a second Tupperware container, wrapped in bubble wrap.

To my delight, both packages survived the trip intact.

Miniature Painting While Traveling: Actually Painting the Miniatures

I wake up early, so it isn’t easy to find time to paint when traveling with other people, but if you’re not a morning person, maybe you’re a night person. Maybe you skip a midday nap while your fellow travelers are taking a break.

Personally, I find painting miniatures to be so relaxing that I view extra time to paint miniatures as a bonus part of the trip, not something I feel obligated to do. Honestly, if you’re not getting joy out of painting miniatures and feel it an extra burden on your trip–leave them home! Enjoy your holiday. There’s never a need to paint if you don’t want to.

But if you do want to, here’s a couple things I’ve learned:

Lighting

Hotels and even Airbnbs don’t ever have good enough lighting. And I haven’t found a great solution for this and so my advice here is to just do the best you can with what you’ve got, but maybe save the tournament minis for home. Here in Scotland, I’ve positioned myself next to a large set of windows which let in light (usually overcast) and there is a small lamp in the center of the table. It’s been good enough for what I need, but it is difficult, especially early in the morning when there’s no light coming in from outside. If anyone has a tip for a good light to bring on a vacation, I’d love to hear it.

Paint Water

I really thought that I would miss my Citadel Water Pot, but I was fine without it. In fact, due to the small size of the flat and my desire to make sure I wasn’t leaving paint rings on the owner’s glasses, I changed my paint water here more often than I changed it at home. It was never a problem.

Space

Space can be easy to come by–this flat has a full dining room table and it’s only for me and my wife–or it can be very hard to come by–the average hotel room is pretty miserable for painting. Fortunately, I’ve found over the years that you can keep your Tupperware of paint on the floor next to you (or propped up on a bag) and then just pull out the individual pot you need. Better yet, if you have space for a wet palette, then put all your paint out on the palette at the beginning and don’t worry about having paint pots on your desk.

Painting Handle

I swear by a painting handle, and I’ve never seen much point in using anything besides the Citadel painting handles–they’re easy, they’re cheap, you don’t have to screw around with poster putty. Unfortunately, on this trip I got here and realized I had left my painting handle at home. Fortunately, this being the UK, I was able to find a Warhammer store within walking distance and head down to pick it up, plus two colors I wanted and a copy of White Dwarf. (And, because the exchange rate between the US and the UK is so bad right now, it was a lot cheaper to buy it here than buy it in America.)

Basing Supplies

This is one thing that I made the decision not to bring. I have a pot of Astrogranite, but I didn’t want to bring my standard basing materials with me. So they’ll be getting grass tufts when I get home. (Rant: Why does a Warhammer store not sell grass tufts? I know that Army Painter and Gamer’s Grass are sort of the big kids on the block, but if Games Workshop would just get off their high horse of proprietary products they could actually sell everything a gamer needs. Revolutionary, I know.)

Painting Miniatures while Traveling: The Results

Well, I brought all 20 Hearthkyn, plus the two special characters, and to date (nearing the end of the trip) I’ve painted nine of them. But that’s not bad! A little more than one a day is respectable for painting miniatures while traveling.

Overall, I think that the endeavor was a big success. It kept me painting, which kept up the hobby streak so I’m nearing 600 days. It gave me something to do in the quiet hours of the morning before everyone else woke up. And it was an experience in and of itself: Scots Squats. They’re not competiton-ready but they’re a step above battle standard, and that’s good enough for me.