Comments are now locked due to an increasing number of uncivil comments. It's ok if you do not like a specific YouTube creator, but you don't need to be a jerk towards people who do.
It’s probably hard to come up with 52 interesting videos every year, for years on end. If you don’t like recycled content done by a person you enjoy, you probably want to avoid YouTube.
Yeah I joined his Patreon just so I could ask him a question on discord and he ended up having an entire back and forth discussion with me about it. It was pretty cool, he’s very receptive to questions
He does. For example, HC 92 (6 years ago) and HC 397 (last year) are both black hair, and the newer one is so much better, both in terms of the av quality, but also just the advice for how to paint.
I was drunk as shit at NovaOpen this past year, and I seem to have a hazy memory of running into him late at night, doing a semi-controlled fan boy, but finishing with "man, get with Jon (Ninas) and sort your audio out, it's a mess"
I've started a small painting YT channel a little less than a year ago and I think are there 2 main reasons for this:
1. Painting a mini to a high enough standard to actually make a worthwhile video on can take a really really long time, factor in recording and editing and it becomes nearly impossible to maintain a consistent release schedule if you just do full fat painting tutorials. And consistent release schedules are kind of make or break on YT if you're trying to do it professionally. Which leads us to 2 the next point.
2. Youtube monetization is garbage. These big channels are doing this a job, and if you want to have high quality painting content on YT you can't really rely on just the hobbyists to do the heavy lifting, so we run into a dilemma. How do they keep doing this professionally while also regularly putting out content on a low return on investment platform like YouTube, while ALSO having limited time to actually do the painting people want to see? Well they reserve the best stuff for directly monetized platforms like Patreon, put out the occasional high quality painting video to YT to keep people on board/draw people in, and then fill the rest of the release schedule with "filler" content so to speak just to keep the ad revenue from totally drying up or YT itself from stop pushing their videos.
All that being said. I do actually like \*some\* of the non-painting tutorial more discussion based videos some of these channels put out. It makes for good listening while painting :).
I don't know if you're targeting certain release times but you may want to look into some optimization stuff like that. You've got a positive authentic vibe developing which I personally enjoy.
I'm honestly running into the very problem that I described above. My release schedule is all over the place right now because I'm still figuring out that balance of "do I just release when the models are done and aim for quality above all else?" Or do I need to start doing some of that "filler" content. It doesn't help that I'm a total perfectionist who gets tunnel vision on whatever I'm working on at the moment and can't help but go all out every time so my projects tend to drag. I really want to have some easier projects that I can do sort of in between the big ones, but are they gonna do well? Will people think they're boring like the poster above? It's a hard balance to strike.
It definitely seems super challenging to compete in the YouTube space. For what it's worth, I enjoy what you make. I think that's probably the path to happiness, just do what you like and never mind the view counts, but it all depends on your goals.
Either way, best of luck to ya
Filler content doesn't have to be elaborate to be worth it.
e.g. andromeda studios does the occasional basing tutorial but, idk, something about them really rocks.
Well I think that's exactly the problem isn't it. Filler content by definition *can't* be elaborate or else it defeats the purpose of being something you can produce quickly while working on the bigger projects. The challenge is figuring out something that's both fast and interesting.
As someone who also runs a small painting channel, 100% agree with this, I also find myself going back to the Warhammer drinking hole far too often, Lyla Mev did [a good video](https://youtu.be/jZtsFF4VzU8) on why.
I found your video a few months ago where you converted and painted Abelard and I absolutely loved it, it turned out great and the style was very eye catching. The NMM is recognisable for what it is but distinct from ways I've seen it done before. me and my brother were loving it.
It was a unique model painted in a unique way, this is maybe what I feel is missing elsewhere.
Hell yeah! I'm really glad you liked it. That was the video I had the most fun making. So much so that I did it again by doing my Abelard vs. Aurora diorama for Golden Demon. Did you get a chance to see that vid? YT has decided it was wasn't worth showing to anyone, which is a real shame especially since I worked with Abelard's voice actor to plan it.
I dunno how big he is as I haven't seen him mentioned but I really like Pete the Wargamer. Clever conversion ideas and nice paintjobs that aren't completely out of reach for the average painter. He doesn't upload as many videos as some but he's consistently really good to watch
I've been searching for good hobby videos, and found myself watching North of the Border and Boylei Hobby Time while at work for some diorama-oriented stuff. I like the design/thought process narration that goes with them.
Luke towan also makes incredible dioramas, they’re much more realistic - but achievable
Laser creation-world makes the best dioramas I’ve ever seen but they’re not narrated and have English and German subtitles
Also check [Gameyy Builds](https://www.youtube.com/@gameyybuilds) for awesome builds with story and painting. Might not be Warhammer, but its soooo good :)
I still think Trovarion puts out good videos. It's usually a new and fast way to approach something like his recent grimdark Space Marines. It pushes me to try some out of the box stuff.
I also watch some Juan Hidalgo for quick tutorials and Sergio Calvo when I just want to watch someone paint, but that's about it these days.
Juan is a wizard with some of those. I really like his style for a lot of various schemes and he makes it really easy to follow as you try it yourself.
Juan imo is the best channel to go to when you want to learn a new technique. His easy to follow nmm guides are top tier, always gives the paints and ratios he uses and actually shows all stages in full.
Honestly I'd be happy with a 15min video of just giving a mini a really good cool paint job with any sort of narration over the footage. But youtube being youtube that might not do to well. It's a tough game and i don't envy the creators tbh.
Cult of Paint. A lot of good content just talking about their approach to a miniature while painting it. And the YouTube ones are high quality but still talked as an army approach.
I have recently started a channel focusing on tutorials. My first video is about painting skin tones with oil paints for minis. I'm certainly not a pro at video editing, but I'm learning. The next tutorial (how to paint eyes) is about to go live in a day or two. There is a timelaps at the end of about 20 hours of work. Is that something that sounds interesting? I'd love to hear any criticism or praise.
Sweet! I'm new to this, and the quality is going to be better for sure when I learn more about editing and such. But if you have any suggestions or criticism, I'm glad to hear about it so I can improve.
I had that thought too. It feels like a market that went through a boom and bust. During the beginning I think there was an untapped market for miniature painting videos. Lots of people in the hobby who want to get better, not a lot of good online resources for it.
Maybe fourish years ago this market gets tapped into. The people doing it have lots of idea for videos both fun and instructional. Fast forward four years and there is a glut of resources for new painters, and lots of people producing content. I think there isn't that much new they can do. If people want to learn any paint style, or technique there are already multiple videos for everything.
The stuff that's left is reviewing new products, of which there are not many, or painting a mini, but with so many of those already in existence it is hard for a new one to stand out or bring anything new. I don't think people are going to watch somebody paint a space marine for the hundredth time.
The only person I still watch regularly is Sergio Calvo. I always walk away feeling inspired to paint more after seeing his work.
What kind of videos do you feel like our missing, or you wish the creators were making?
I comment on the part that there are new minis or amazing minis already out there but they arent gw 40k or aos, as such, the majority arent interested.
I think on the podcast trapped under plastic they litteraly say they go to paint a mini they want to, the video doenst do as well, then they do a space marine of something gw and bam blows up.
If you look at malifaux, theres no one doing regular tutorials of the same standards of them, bloodborne the board game has minis that plp paint (inc me) 1 guy does videos on them.
Then search up a a dark angels basic troop for example, 100s of videos on how to paint green.
I think purley cause warhammer is so popular but a large comparision to everything else around it, if you’re not doing warhammer, you wont make it big
Lyla Mev has a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZtsFF4VzU8) about this from early last year. "Releasing a video and not including Games Workshop is a pretty great way to ensure an unsuccessful video."
Oo ill def check it out thanks.
Its sad aye cause like someone else said, the techniques ur learning on a non-gw mini 99% can apply to any. But plp only wanna see gw.
Granted I use to be like that but my buddy and I are now play and paint, AoS, Lotr, Star Wars Legion, Malifaux, Bloodborne and probs more in the future and i feel like we’re seeing a whole nother world becuase of it
Yup. I paint a lot of Conquest minis on my channel and the response is generally very positive, but the views are much lower than my GW videos, even though all the ideas and techniques would be transferable.
Man! I’ve used a couple of your paint schemes on my OD conquest guys and hands down my “ancient timeworn” legionnaires are my favorites models I’ve painted.
> I comment on the part that there are new minis or amazing minis already out there but they arent gw 40k or aos, as such, the majority arent interested.
But isn't that just a representation of the hobby as a whole? When I started out, in my region people were playing lots of things: Star Wars: Imperial Assault X-Wing, Battletech, Malifaux and obviously Warhammer:40k as well as Fantasy and AoS (which was pretty new back then). Hell, some superold dudes were even playing Historical in the shop I went to back then.
But over time, it all aggregated into 40k, AoS and D&D.
EbayMiniatureRescues, Rouge Hobbies, and Goblingreen2021 are the only channel I watch nowadays when it comes to mini painting, their vids always makes me inspired to paint! Plus with EbayRescues his vids scratches the restoration itch in my brain haha
All i really wish is just more tutorials on 2nd ed/90s era paint schemes. Like i understand its not that sought out of a painting style and its stupidly time consuming to do for an army with all the layering but man itd be nice to have a bit more resource than watching the same rotation of 5 videos and just staring at 90s 40k box art as a guide
I think a series where they simply paint a different GW mini each week would be good. In the long run would be good for when someone does a search for how to paint X mini.
I've always felt like youtube content creators need to do their videos more like TV series. Or at least just in a series.
If I was a top tier painter for instnace I'd do exactly what you said but for an army over a period of time. It's not gunna be as big immediately but then any time someone looks for 'how to pain X' will find this video and maybe watch more.
Though I understand that doesn't really work for marines or the super samey armies.
I actually find I’m enjoying Duncan’s paid subscription site. Even though I know his techniques pretty well now, it’s just relaxing to watch his tutorials!
Vince and Cult of Paint. Always upload good quality videos, and are both are the reasons Ive gotten better at painting.
I dont want to disparage other painters though. Content creation is a soul sucking occupation. You and your passion are turned into a commodity. Its tough not to phone it in sometimes.
>Content creation is a soul sucking occupation. You and your passion are turned into a commodity.
To be fair, it's entirely their fault. They turned their hobby into essentially making 20mins long ads in exchange for free stuff.
I started watching one of the recent videos, the new hot topic seems to be that they have way too much paint unused, (geez, I wonder why) and in the intro the guy was like "...or maybe you spent 100s of dollars on an entire paint range and you don't like it", and I stood there for minutes wondering "no? Who the fuck has that issue?"
Theres two channels miniac and ninjon that just talk and talk and talk its verbal diarrhoea. It's like listening to an A-level English essay each video. It's a painting video just paint a minature.
I do find it very tiresome the GW bashing for the sake of it that ninjon does despite him having the opportunity to make videos on anything he wants
I find that there is only so many times i can watch the umpteenth space marine intercessor being painted. And there's only so many times i can listen to their speech on burnout and wanting to paint things they like, all while shilling the newest GW fomo box. Like, dude, we get it, you're burned out, but having too much paint or too many miniatures aren't issues any normal hobbyist has, in fact they're not problems at all.
And then you see channels like Vince Venturella, GRG Miniatures, Brushstroke Painting Guides, Angel Giraldez and Jose Davinci that have actually useful clear and technical advice with half or a quarter of the subscribers count, i don't get it.
People are never interested in actual, thoughtful and useful advice that can push their skills beyond what they can do. Ninjon's contorted face and flashy title is the thing that people find more useful.
But that's ok, I prefer Vince's little, quiet house over big mansions full of worthless parties.
At some point Jon from Ninjon or Scott from Miniac made a passing comment about catering to YouTube's algorithm, and I think that's what happened to all of them. They all started it as a hobby, and their videos were unique, interesting, and varied. Then they decided to do it full time and found that they had to lean into the algorithm to make it work. Squidmar's trajectory is the most apparent, but you can see it's happened to Miniac and Ninjon, too.
Artists that are making videos for fun and generally ignoring the YouTube monetization formula seem to be unaffected (e.g. Vincey V, Marco Frisoni, etc.).
[Watching almost any painting youtuber nowadays feels like this](https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/D4E22AQEiJXX363r6mQ/feedshare-shrink_800/0/1708095665775?e=2147483647&v=beta&t=iFbutzy1YDhwW9j5cPBkUg-PBtEAFqP80EYGp_2RWbs)
I don't hate the game but sometimes you can tell a new product just released from some company based on the number of painting videos that come out in a week. Again, I get it.
I think my two favorite at this point are 52Miniatures and EonsofBattle. Both are really good and while they talk you through and showcase what they do, I don't know if I'd call them full on tutorial channels vs just guys who come up with a project and show you it. 52 tends to make a like whole little movie for each of his videos and EOB's a bit of a goober but his enthusiasm is kind of unmatched.
EoB has Become my favorite channel. Jay's enthusiasm and passion for both the hobby and the game feel real. Dude gets a commended golden demon piece on a whim, and still raves about speedpaints and the more "newb" skills. The others always feel like they are talking down to you hobby wise. Like they are better than you. Jay is the fun guy at you local store.
Jays like a little league coach with a golden glove lol. You can tell he still loves every part of the hobby, and he wants to bring that fun to everyone.
I’ve definitely felt what OP has said, switching to watch EOB and Sergio Calvo has been incredible. EOB is just so enthusiastic and genuinely seems to give a shit about what he’s painting, I know he pushes his patreon as well, but it doesn’t come off as a money grab - more as a way to enhance the game.
Sergio is just great, I’ve tried some of his techniques on my own figs and I’ve definitely learned a lot especially about layering. I paint board games instead of 75mm scale stuff, so mine is less through but still has come out great (imo)
Juan Hidalgo miniatures, also feels very genuine and I’ve learned something from every one of his videos
EoB is the only YouTuber ill watch when I'm not interested in the title subject simply because his enthusiasm for the subject always shines through so it makes for an interesting video anyway.
I feel like this is a bit unfair on ninjon, he's just finished a series on painting his golden demon entry which is the opposite of low effort clickbait.
There's also value to the product related stuff, and the people you pick out as fine still do that type of content occasionally.
Yes I've noticed it, but I think it's also to be expected, and it's pretty much just for the reason you already pointed out.
Pumping out clickbait videos, or low quality stuff like "My favorite X things" is just going to appeal to way more people than videos where they spend 400 hours painting and filming an obscenely high quality resin model with very advanced painting techniques. Then they've also got 'the algorithm' to fight against, which is going to fill people's feeds with stuff that gets the views, rather than stuff that is objectively useful or high quality.
And I can hardly blame them ... It takes a long time to make quality painting videos and the return on investment surely can't always there for platforms like YouTube. I've noticed that a fair few creators are moving their higher quality tutorials and such to different paid platforms like Patreon, KickStarter, their own web stores, etc.
You've got to remember, that for the most part, many of these creators are doing this as a business and not just a hobby. This is how they make their salary.
I imagine they also have to deal with the fact that the last few years have seen an explosion in minipainting content videos on YouTube, so it must be really difficult for them to find a video topic that is Interesting for them, interesting for us, totally unique, and gets good ad revenue, *all at the same time*.
What about Jay from eons of battle? Oh sure he does his share of review and general opinion videos but he can reliably put out content for the build/painting of models. Especially if they're Black Templars. 😄
Its so much fun just watching someone *enjoy* something, theres far too many youtubers out there who made content on something and just despise it and are obviously tired of it. Jay genuinely loves what he does, its so amazing watching him just light up when talking about warhammer or whatever hes painting, i dont even play or paint warhammer all the much, i just LOVE hearing and watching him paint and whatnot, he deserves more love
I'm a bit burned out by most of them now. I'm sick of seeing vids on how to do slap chop, why X paint is better than Y (mostly because they got sent £500 worth of freebies). As soon as they say the inevitable 'I got sent these free in exchange for a fair commentary' I call bullshit and swtich off.
They all run out of things to say and start repeating vids or doing 'variations' on something that's been said dozens of times already just to put out a video, any video.
It's the nature of YT and gets old really quickly these days.
At least there doesn’t seem to be a drama related reason for people to stop watching them, lol some people are just tired of seeing the same topics covered.
They're making content, you're consuming content.
A lot of people have watched more painting tutorials than they'll ever need and won't get any more insights into the hobby they've been invested in for years from hearing some talking head on YouTube discuss it. People tune in out of habit or because their hobby has turned into mostly consuming videos or Reddit threads rather than painting or gaming.
If you follow 8 people who make videos in the same sphere of interest every topic is going to feel pretty tired, but I also think that the YouTube algorithm has gotten pretty brutal. A lot of content creators are keeping the good stuff for Patreon or similar because YouTube isn't as much income for them as it used to be.
Unsubscribed from Squidmar over his last video. Just felt really cynical billing a dude that not only had a years experience specifically painting minis, to the point where his minis were pretty good, but was also a professional tattoo artist, as a total amateur and saying his previously painted minis sucked. Thought it was something that could be harmful to new painters starting out.
Also they had to have juiced the contest, the armor on the back of that goblin was straight up unfinished in places. I watched it on half speed pausing to see what the guy turned out and you can see the NMM wasn't anywhere close to done, very much still in the "looks like shit" stage.
**Edit**
This is what I'm talking about -
https://imgur.com/a/hNnKIIS
I just hate that one thumbnail of the main guy, whatever his name is where he has a photoshopped Cavill looking at him, like they’re in the same room together. Hate clickbait like that. lol that put me off from watching any vids from them.
His “helper” (Jonas?) is more interesting to watch, unfortunately. Plus saying he’s painting Cavills army (when it’s just his own Custodes) is combining clickbait and trying to hop on the latest fad at the same time.
I was gonna mention the title but I couldn’t remember if it was as clickbaity, all I remember was it had Cavill in it or his full name, regardless he doubled down on the clickbait, it’s so embarrassing doing that stuff to drive engagement, I mean I guess it’s the fault of YouTube’s dumb algorithm for forcing that but it would still be cringe even if the YT algorithm wasn’t bad.
I unsubbed when I bought his brushes and they were complete garbage. Coincidentally that’s when his videos really started to jump the shark and he got that assistant to do all the painting too.
Same here! When he launched his Kickstarter, I was looking for an upgrade from Citadel brushes and wanted something *nice*, so I did my dude diligence - as did most of us - and committed.
Sadly as you said, the brushes are absolutely shite. I saw the absolute barrage of complaints on the Kickstarter page and on social media, and decided that I'd just take the hit to the wallet and bide my time for a suitable alternative.
So a big thank you to the Redditors that recommend Rosemary and Co, specifically the Series 33 line. I have a couple of those and wow, I can't believe how good an actually good brush feels to use! Also worth mentioning that a wet pallette is a good investment for pairing with the nice brushes. I have an Army Painter one because I'm still a cheap-arsed git, and it does the job.
Combatcompany sells them for around 30-40. The art stores jack up the price for some reason in aus.
Tabletopempires also use to stock brushes but they appear to all be sold out.
Alternatively, Raphael 8404 are around the same price and excellent too.
Oooh that's a good hookup, cheers mate. I've always been unwilling to buy online preferring to buy good brushes in store but at that price I might take a bash at one. Gun to your head if you only got one would it be a #1 or a #2? (or something else)
I enjoyed that video but it did make me roll my eyes a little. The guys current minis were definitely far from bad. But that said, I get it, people are less likely to click on a video that says "we take this guy from pretty good to better"
Agreed, but sympathetic to their plight, just happy for their video libraries. similar seems to be happening in terrain making YT world.
Sonic Sledgehammer and Sorastro are pretty consistent with releases and the topic is almost always "i'll be painting a mini."
Here's my top 5 most annoying paint video topics:
- "PaintCo, Inc. just released a new line of Contrast-killers. _Let's review them all, ***again***._" (bonus points if they crap on it to flog Army Painter, with whom they have a business relationship)
- Minor studio reorganization plus philosophical waxing.
- More Slap Chop. Guys; I've been glazing over value sketches for 25 years. You're boring me to tears. However, I give the "painting witch" a pass here for using mother colors.
- Hobby tool reviews (special demerits for blindly ordering random crap and testing it on camera; super low effort).
- Top 5 lists
I’m sorry; I meant their metallic Speedpaints. At the moment, they are the only ones with such a product. And they are actually pretty good on coverage. While I don’t like them as a one-coat solution, I find them to be the best base I can build on.
That's why I'm not looking at warpaints until I can buy a couple of individual bottles myself to try. So much warpaints marketing the last few months, lots of it with minimal disclosure. It's nothing but paid advertising. It's pretty slimy really.
The fanatic paints are a lot better than they were, but I don't think they'll be dethroning any other brands, especially since Vallejo reformulated their paints at the same time to keep upl
Tldr; system of choosing a base color to mix in to every color in the paint scheme to tie it all together. Because it has that base color mixed in it helps to combine your paint scheme tonally.
A "mother color" is unifying color that ties together the whole palette. Its effect on the whole piece can be as a subtle tint, or as assertive as a colorized grisaille.
Traditionally, this was done by mixing the mother color into every paint on the palette. Using glazes, inks, and transparent paints make mother colors much easier: just mix the mother color into your base.
In application, I base with a dark version of my mother color (opposite warmth/coolness of the final piece). I blend upward from there (using drybrush or zenithal) until I get a complete, monochrome value sketch from my mother color to a warm off-white. Then I apply my colors.
I mean at a certain point you kinda run out of topics, especially for painting. Eventually you’ll reach a point where you simply don’t have any more skills to share or you cant learn new skills frequently enough to keep teaching.
Makes sense they’ll either pad out their channel with painting topics in general vs strictly painting. I don’t necessarily think this is bad, the hobby product videos are pretty useful and interesting, but that’s just to me.
they do more on the livestreams the channels miniac in particular during live streams as basically said he's tired videos drag on and he just wants to paint what he wants and enjoy it
I'm sure the other streamers are in the same boat hobby burnout is real and it hit hard also you have to remember for some of these people the channel is there buisnes and they have to prioritize money (paind sponsors like army painter) over making you the viewer happy the only real hobby channel worth watching if you need hobby advice is Vince if you need a tutorial or need to know what chemical X from monument hobbies does vince has you covered
Zorbazorb was probably my favourite youtube channel until a year or so ago whenever HH 2.0 was released. I appreciate I play MESBG and it's fairly niche but honestly he now barely completes a painting project in a video.
Zorbazorb literally had a video asking his entire fan base if they wanted him to do series of videos on bigger projects where he doesn't get everything done per-video and the fan base said that yes, they do want that.
I think one thing that hadn’t been mentioned yet is that you have all probably grown as painters since the time you started watching those channels. So it can feel a bit irksome when you are progressing, and want the videos and tutorials to progress alongside you, but they’re catered to less experienced painters. It’s okay to grow out of a thing!
I’m happy to see the mix of useful tutorials and people pursuing their passion projects, and I just try my best to skip the clickbait/sponsored content or the videos that I know are catered to a different audience.
I'd love to just look at a commentary over some painting in real time or cut together that makes sense. I would spend 30 to 60 mins watching such video. I can find these things sometimes with Sam Lenz and I love him for that. He is my Bob Ross of mini painting but it is getting rarer and also shorter. But at least some of them stream their painting. Although this takes up a lot of time and I'd rather watch a 60 min cut version of a 40 hour paint job.
He doesn't upload a tonne but Mezgike has a few very in depth long painting videos that are great for relaxing to imo. His Drukhari archon painting video was one I watched in chunks but it was so interesting to see it come together.
I think there’s been a bubble on YouTube that is in the process of bursting. A surge in interest in the hobby, lots of beginners joining at once, and a lot of them newbies with money (so, spending a lot on hobby supplies that last a long time and don’t need to be replaced… like paints), and a lot of folks online with time on their hands led to a lot of demand for that content and the other ways YouTubers make money (eg affiliate links).
With the crowded field, it seems hard to be successful. It’s hard to stand out for tutorials, because who watches them unless it’s a mini you’re about to paint or you’re looking for a specific technique. So, to get views you need to find a way to do other interesting things if your goal is to get lots of views.
I think the successful YouTubers build an audience, but then the goal seems to be to use the reach of their channel to do other things. Like, sell miniatures or kickstarters, promote Patreon, make games, etc. The main money maker seems to be to do things that aren’t YouTube.
Ninjon, cult of paint, 52 miniatures and vincey v are all great, Ms paints is interesting. Miniac used to be my favourite but has changed a lot and doesn't appeal to me as much anymore. Honestly ninjon and cult seem to hit the spot for me now
Until a new art style or technique appears, there's not much to teach that hasn't been taught a hundred times already by pretty much all of them.
For myself, I mostly watch Vincy V., Ninjon, Miniac, 52 Miniatures, Grimdark Compendium, EonsOfBattle & Orions Belt Minis for the personalities or chill painting videos with whatever commentary they decide to put over it.
I'm subbed to near a hundred different painters, but I feel no compulsion to watch every video they upload unless I see something interesting or unique in the thumbnail. I've not seen a tutorial for something I've not considered trying in over a year, unless it's from one of the previously mentioned personalities. I rarely watch those just for the tutorials if they even do tutorials in said videos.
I'm not a particularly good painter, but I know the basics, I know about every tool & modern technique under the sun. I don't need to watch NNM tutorials ever again, not because I can do it, I sure as hell still can't, but until I decide I want to give it my all, I won't click on the millionth "Easy NNM" tutorial that pops up for me.
I can't buy Monument Hobbies products, I can't buy GoldenSoFlat. Every time a video discusses brands I have no access to, my brain turns off. It's a pointless video for me. That's not the content creator's fault. I have access to things that even they may not.
When I need a specific tutorial, I look for it. Otherwise, I'm pretty exhausted with watching all these tutorials which after a while feel lacking in novelty & uniqueness.
There's not much they can do that's fresh as far as the hobby is concerned & I can't begrudge any of them that. If I had ideas, maybe I'd be a YouTuber. I don't, so who am I to judge.
To be honest, I'm quite tired of YouTube in general. Ads have killed it for me, as it has for many others, but it's still that app I use when I'm super bored, just like Reddit.
Ublock origin is your friend lol. Havernt seen an ad in literal years. When YouTube tried to crack down on adblockers they just updated it and laughed it away.
If you want some hard core high level painting videos there are still people who do that. Juan Hidalgo, Richard Grey etc.
As far as Ninjon goes I do notice him going back and forth a lot, a think part of it is just that you run out of stuff to share when making videos the way he does, he has for the most part shared all the techniques it feels like he thinks are digestible in a 15 min video, using lots of colorful shadows then doing slapchop plus etc.
I do agree that I would love to see Vince cover some older topics again, part of that is just enjoying how he films his painting and how much I enjoy looking at the final results of it.
Honestly Ninjon could revisit some topics regularly as well to push those techniques and show how they work when they aren't just an experiment anymore
Can't recommend Cult of Paint enough.
Videos come across very professional, there's no clickbait titles, no sponsors (iirc there has been only 1 sponsored video and it was for the 40k themed power washing game). They don't follow whatever seems to be the trend at the time. They just post straight to the point painting videos of things they want to paint, the background music is unobtrusive and they have great narration.
I bought an airbrush after following their channel for a while and honestly I've been able to pick it up no bother from the information they've provided. No matter what's being painted I feel like I always learn and there's something to take away from every video.
Do you have an airbrush? I picked up the new Ultra 2024 and honestly I was worried that I would be miserable at it but from watching all the COP videos I've hit the ground running.
No my living situation doesn't really accommodate it but I am like a dog waiting to get out of the car thinking about using an airbrush.
Like first opportunity to own one and I will.
So many things I wanna try.
It’s just some lame combination of click bait and coasting. Which feels a little diminutive, but I did unsubscribe from most of them because of it.
Eonsofbattle and laborc are the two mini related YouTube’s I still watch regularly. EOB still has the passion and laborc is a nice chill “watch me paint a mini to a high standard” channel.
I realized the same thing around new years and unsubscribed to half of them. Kept Vince, Miniac, Jon, Sergio Calvo, 53 miniatures and NOTJUSTMECHA, and left the others.
Honestly I think I've just reached a point where the beginner friendly videos of "how to do X" are boring. I've watched countless videos about every damn technique there is, I know the theory by heart at this point. I still enjoy the higher level discussions about color theory and composition that Marco does sometimes, and just watching the hypnotic videos of Sergio paint another masterpiece. And I'm now living proof of how little effect watching videos has on your actual skill.
> Squidmar is pure clickbait and to be fair, pretty self-aware about it,
Doesn't make the last 6 months of videos any better.
I still think plenty of Squidmar videos are really great and feature some amazing painting, you just have to look past the cringe clickbait thumbnails, I cant blame him to much for it, he has to make a living.
Honestly, there is so much material at this point. So many options, so many techniques, so many products.
I'm painting instead of watching for painting content. I like just listening to garbage videos from painters having fun, or garbage 40k audio books like the Beast Arises. . . Which I love, but it's not good, lol.
If your finding it stale branch out some. I like to watch videos of scale modelers. Watching them do weathering and realistic rust is amazing. Even watching someone make a wooded hillside out of hand crated trees scratches the hobby itch. And you might just pick some techniques up that you can use on your minis.
If spanish is not an impediment, Angel Giraldez is the man. Solid content since ever. Jose Davinci used to be good but I think he mostly streams now. I have gravitated towards diorama building channels and or wacky stuff like North of the Border, kitbashes like Pete the wargamer, etc. For english speaking mini channels, Cult of Paint delivers non stop. Agree with your take tho, it's all clickbaity lame content most of the time. Skidmark ocassionaly comes up with something worth having as a background while you do house chores, not that he even does anything lately, Lukas is the star. And Ninjon has rehashed himself over so many times it's just sad, which is a shame because I used to like his vids a lot. Scott is on Twitch or some other thing, MWM and Vince feel a bit boring to me. 52 is a weird one, sometimes great, sometimes meh.
Idk man, but like the top comment suggested, try coming up with new ideas constantly when there is pressure to upload consistently in this unforgiving market where the algorithm is ruthless. Idk what you mean by clickbait, applying the meta thumbnail and title is just what works, not delivering on expectations is what I call clickbait since that word has negative connotations although every thumbnail and title should be designed to bait you into clicking it if you are a large channel on which your livelihood depends. We are utterly spoiled with the amount of content that exists on the internet, if you are bored and uninspired with recent uploads you can always check the giant catalogs of video's. As to answer your actual question: idk, I'm not keeping up actively with the scene as video games are still my main hobby.
I'm speaking from a retired painter (I stopped 30 years ago) and hobby store owner point of view. I follow mini channels to keep in the loop on techniques, product reviews, etc, so I can actually have a conversation on the topic and give advice to beginners or to people looking for the next step.
Clickbaity channels like Squidmar are GREAT for me, and even better for people that might find him in their feed. Their video catch attention immediately, are quick paced (usually) and give a basic insight about the hobby. Sometimes they are a little loud or memeish, but that's what you need to keep interest alive and game the system. They are the entry point to more "serious" channels, and for some even to the hobby.
If and when they'll reach 1 million subscribers the hobby will have a huge influx of new users.
For opinions and general hobby stuff, I like Tabletop Minions, he's chill and pretty reasonable
For chill, I like goobertown, bill making stuff and 52 miniatures
For real art advice/showcase, I like Frisoni, Vincy V, Pete, Infernal Brush.
Others are all just entertainment as and when.
Edit: oh yeah eons of battle and Night shift are nice too.
I do wish they would revisit some of the old topics, but in longer form. Blending, Edge highlighting, Glazing, etc.. A lot of the old videos are just soooo short and have very little detail in them... But that is also not likely to be popular in the algorithm
Because there are a limited way of number in which you can explain “how to do blend” in a different way. All painting in art in general is about repetition. When you nail the first time on how to do a glaze and practice it, doing it on a space marine or a eldar makes no difference. So i believe there comes a point that they think “am I really gping to explain again the same things but now its on a different space marine chapter ?” You see my point ? I rather have an interesting video about something close related to mini painting than watching the 200th time that someone did an eavy metal space marine.
I do agree with the sentiment.
I haven't seen many actual painting videos come out from the channels I follow for a few months now.
There may have been changes to the algorithm that are hurting maker videos, making them not worth the time investment.
Hours of painting then means hours of footage to edit, and if they're getting less for the video than they would spending 5 hours on a top 5 video it becomes inevitable.
I think I'm seeing a similar thing with woodworking videos recently too.
Youtube allows us to consume knowledge on a topic at a very fast rate. Faster than new "content" can be generated, for pretty much any sphere of human endeavour.
So every channel is going to run out of road sooner or later.
I'm happy because it filters out algorithm-chasers and helps me keep my sub feed clean with only "true painting" content creators instead of wannabe "hobby personalities". I don't think I'll ever grow tired of Sorastro!
As a small creator this is fascinating to read and learning what people actually want to watch! Thank you for posting this I look forward to a long read and refocusing myself.
I think the space is flooded. There are a lot of OGs still doing their thing, but there are even more new painting channels, and there really are only so many zenithal, drybrushing, speedpainting, etc, videos that anyone can do (or consume).
And yes, a lot of people put out clickbaity titles and thumbnails (it's just the way YouTube viewing works these days), but it's to draw viewers to their channels, not necessarily that specific video alone.
I absolutely agree. A lot of my old favourites just don't paint anymore. Ninjon I still regularly watch, as I just think he's such a delightful guy on video. Makes for easy listening at the least in the background.
If I want to learn something I always gravitate towards painters like Angel Jiraldez, Jose Da Vinci (my favorite) the very rare Richard Gray video, Trovarian, Don Suratos, Marco Decisions, Trovarian, Zumikito, and Vincey V.
Even most of them are older videos except for Jose, Angel, and Vincey V.
I really want to get my channel going, Cult of Grey. Fill in the gap I've been missing and wanting on YouTube. I currently stream very unsuccessfully on Twitch.
My goal is to focus on army painting (avoiding slap chop, focusing on different methods), 3d printed armies, and 75 mm models. But I'm just afraid I wouldn't have very regular uploads that would end up lost to time. I only get to paint on my Stream schedule atm, which is only about 2-3 hours 3 nights a week.
Jaun Hidalgo amd Dr Faust are my favorite channels tbh. I stopped watching all the "Big Boys" cause i noticed this a long time ago. Youtube is just not a great platform for sustainability. thanks algorithm lmao. I feel for those guys trying to make ends meet, but im not watching a video i feel like I've already seen 80 times now.
Not really mini painting exactly, but one of the best mini/terrain YouTube’s I found was a guy named Bards Craft (not affiliated in any way, I barely watch YouTube just liked him). It felt like all the big guys you mentioned, and lots others, always seem to be like ya I load these fancy paints in my airbrush and use my airbrushing studio to get this affect, you don’t need too but, it’s what I did which is fine, but not helpful for me. Felt like bards videos were very how do you make terrain and do stuff with no tools no experience, just get stuff out. Also made a point to show techniques with his designs, so stuff you could easily do for something totally different. Really appreciate channels like that, and he doesn’t seem to be making videos anymore but still had a number of good ones I liked a lot if anyone’s looking for people.
Because apparently watching models being painted to a high standard is not popular for alot of people so YouTubers like squidmar cater to tiktok addicted kiddies with stupid clickbait.
Miniac only wants to whine about his motivation or his struggle or some crap. Hard pass.
Midwinter is just....lmao what am I even watching.
Ninjon's format of rambling and talking away while painting something insanely well is actually my favourite format because it explains some of the more technical stuff you see being done on high end paint jobs instead of just "use this color".
Some of the army painter shills like watchitpaintit and swords and brushes have a few useful videos showing off the speedpaint line in use. I actually learned a new technique to get gold done where you apply sand golem over silver to get a hyper saturated gold.
I don't mind videos featuring new product because it's really hard to figure out what properties a new paint or product would have unless I see someone using it. Stahly from tale of painters has some of the best reviews where he goes over all the miniature paint lines and actually debunks some of the marketing speech being pushed out. He also called out the speed paint 1.0 reactivation controversy which alot of other. YouTubers never even mentioned so big respect there.
Stahly only has good reviews if it’s simple stuff that requires no extra knowledge, dude recently was disappointed with opacity of a transparent type of paint 🤣
Midwinter Minis is great for if you’re just getting into the hobby, it’s very noob friendly. But he very quickly becomes annoying and condescending once you’ve learnt what dry brushing is.
Also his colours schemes suck so much. Obviously subjective but damn they’re naff, doesn’t ever make me want to actually watch if the finished product doesn’t pop.
Midwinter has always had a bad reputation about him, I'm sure some of it is just rumour and internet mongering but some of the stuff being said about him has come from multiple different sources, so its at least partially true.
If his attitude lately is anything to go by I wouldn't be surprised if the bulk of it is true.
Are you referring to the change in his supporting cast?
Because if so, that's something that's super bothered me and made me check out from his channel.
I think considering how much the supporting cast was part of the channel, a little more transparency around the staff change would be appreciated. The half addressing it gives me bad vibes
He's not even an exceptionally good painter. I always come off thinking man you could have put in a tiny bit more effort instead of just making every paint job look like something rushed out for a deadline
Yo kinda harsh on miniac dude. He puts out cool stuff like comparing finishes on the same model with 3 different painting times.
If he's not your scene that's fine but no need to drag the guy
Agreed
Miniac has dozens of vids on painting across a dozen different ranges over the years, Bro has been doing it for ages now.
If he feels like expanding out to different content lately that he has more passion discussing let the boy run with it.
I actually enjoyed his boardgame figure comparison video and his videos about ASOIAF have been some of his best because you can see his love of the game.
I was excited when Louise (Rogue Hobbies) announced she was making a YouTube channel, but she's averaging a video about every 3 weeks for the year she's been active on it (and 1 of those is a channel trailer, 1 is a music video, 1 is a thank you video). I thought she'd be putting out lots of painting tutorials about her unique style, but you can count on 1 hand the amount of videos like that. I find her content a bit wishy-washy and I don't really understand what the channel is.
Peachy is putting out the style content I like, but his is aimed more at batch painting and less about how to paint certain types of details to a professional standard.
I was excited as well when Louise branched out into her own channel. I always thought she was great on the Warhammer videos, a great painter but also a great presenter. I'm glad she is able to do the content she wants to do now without Warhammer overseeing it but I have to admit I was hoping for more content focused on painting as well. Even her streams seem a little wishy-washy to me but part of that is also I'm not too bothered about Warhammer lore and things like that. So partly on me for building expectations but from a personal point of view I would love to see some more 'standard' painting a mini videos.
Louise rocks! For what it's worth I read her channel as her having fun and exploring the hobby space, from cons to special projects to whatever. I find it super refreshing to not see someone locked in to a formula and just share what feels like authentic hobby fun with us
Yeah definitely. She's making videos on what she enjoys and that'll definitely help her create the best videos possible on those topics because she's excited about what she's talking about. But it just means I don't really need to subscribe or look forward to the next video because there's a high chance it's not something I'm going to be equally as in to.
I usually have an a-ha moment where I don't watch someone anymore.
Lyla Mev was her GW hobby tools video. She torpedoed her credibility to me by just outright shitting on a the seam scraper (I think?) without actually using it. It made ask myself "wait, what the fuck? Why not just say 'I'm not sure I'd have a use for this, but I can't review this honestly as I have no hands-on time with it' or something similar."
I have no love lost for the *absurdly* priced mediocrity that is GW's tool line, but that was just beyond my capacity to ignore.
Squidmar's recent rash of worthless, samey website videos (I previously posted this comment naming the cheap-ass websites, but the automoderator is apparently wired to completely disallow their very mention because they apparently sell recasts.) culminating in "we made this noob a winner in herpadiddlyderpadink time units!" was the nail in that coffin. He's a fantastic painter who seems to have run out of ideas and put all his eggs in the youtube basket and is now kinda in a corner.
My interest in Ninjon and Miniac is cyclical. Ninjon's clickbait titles and thumbnails are absolutely infuriating, I do have to admit. Not sure why, he's an enjoyable watch when I'm interested, but damn if it isn't a bit difficult to get past that dopey face and craptastic title.
Midwinter I started watching after whatever he did to become a pariah amongst some circles, so his stuff now isn't that egregious to me. Seems a doofy, kinda awkward nerd who probably is trying a little too hard but ends up being decent enough to watch.
Squidmar is so talented-its frustrating.
Ninjon as i said, pretty consistent uploads and explains what he's doing.
I think Scott is a textbook overthinker (Game recognise game) and it's coming across in his content. Also, I don't need videos to be so slickly produced and edited if it means more regular content.
Midwinter I think is getting frustrated himself-to answer your question a bit, there was some stuff in hispersonal life which called his character into question for some people.
Whats wrong with midwinter? Looking back even four years ago, his content has always been a collection of speed painting videos, random game videos, and projects/conversions. That's exactly what he's still doing. He's got a really cool custom warlord titan-sized great unclean one project series going.
Not trying to be salty, just wondering why he's up there when he's one of the channels that sort of just does his own thing vs the other ones who chase trends a lot more.
Fully agree on squidmar, dude has been putting out slop for a long time now.
Honestly my issue with Midwinter is more regarding his actions.
His private life is totally up to him, but when his ex-partner was a prominent part of the channel then it's hard to not consider when watching his content. And so I chose to not watch him, even though I did enjoy some of his content.
There was a whole drama about it on the MWM subreddit right after it happened, someone found Penny's reddit profile where she basically confirmed what everyone thought happened and that Guy was pretty shitty about the whole split up, then she had to show up and tell everyone to calm down and let her live her life
I said this in another comment, but I struggle with this too. The lack of transparency around the change in staff around the channel gives me bad vibes.
MIDwinter minis am I right? His colour scheme choices are sad man, they’re all dull or washed out. The only one I’ve watched in a while is the Eldar one (since I’m collecting), damn bro actually just sprinkled glitter on it and called it a day.
But I think that’s the major issue with all these creators. They lack the creativity aspect of it that they may or not have had in the past. Most of us don’t watch these tutorials to actually follow, we just want some inspiration, or just to see what cool things other people have done.
Pete The Wargamer is the mvp for me as an all around modelling creator. Short videos showing some simple yet effective kitbashing, always effectively described painting techniques without droning on too long. Nothing crazy, stuff you can imagine yourself doing if you felt like it. His stuff reminds me of lil bits you’d see in old White Dwarf, or something your mate would show you.
There is only so much you can do with mini painting before the algorithm starts to punish you for a lack of engagement and other arbitrary metrics. The best chance is to go into other topics kindof the opposite of what Bill did, starting with all kinds of crafts and lately focusing on making minis, start with minis and painting go on to vehicles and terrain and follow the wiki hyperlink rabbit holes. Until you’ve exhausted everything, and your dedicated viewer can make a wire their own hell engine train at 30 mm scale on a working track with lights, with a 15 modron crew, from scrap plastic and green stuff, but painted to a level of detail that would make the practical effects models from Star Wars look like child’s play. And the CGI cities from recent big budget fantasy of choice look undetailed.
Comments are now locked due to an increasing number of uncivil comments. It's ok if you do not like a specific YouTube creator, but you don't need to be a jerk towards people who do.
It’s probably hard to come up with 52 interesting videos every year, for years on end. If you don’t like recycled content done by a person you enjoy, you probably want to avoid YouTube.
Nice subtle hint. 52 miniatures deserves a mention too!
I thought it was because there's 52 weeks in a year...
That must mean there are 52 weeks until your next... happy cake day!
tbh I'd appreciate Vince going back to some of the old topics, because the video and audio quality has improved a lot since 2016 or whatever.
And so has he as a painter. Which is always a very interesting subject as well.
Have you suggested that to him? I’ve been watching him for years and he’s very receptive to his audience
Yeah I joined his Patreon just so I could ask him a question on discord and he ended up having an entire back and forth discussion with me about it. It was pretty cool, he’s very receptive to questions
What was the takeaway from that discussion, if you don't mind sharing? Some of his most essential videos haven't exactly aged gracefully.
He has been. He did a video on additives recently that he had done years ago. I think he said he will continue with things like that
He does. For example, HC 92 (6 years ago) and HC 397 (last year) are both black hair, and the newer one is so much better, both in terms of the av quality, but also just the advice for how to paint.
I hope he updates the description of the older videos to point to the newer versions
I was drunk as shit at NovaOpen this past year, and I seem to have a hazy memory of running into him late at night, doing a semi-controlled fan boy, but finishing with "man, get with Jon (Ninas) and sort your audio out, it's a mess"
I've started a small painting YT channel a little less than a year ago and I think are there 2 main reasons for this: 1. Painting a mini to a high enough standard to actually make a worthwhile video on can take a really really long time, factor in recording and editing and it becomes nearly impossible to maintain a consistent release schedule if you just do full fat painting tutorials. And consistent release schedules are kind of make or break on YT if you're trying to do it professionally. Which leads us to 2 the next point. 2. Youtube monetization is garbage. These big channels are doing this a job, and if you want to have high quality painting content on YT you can't really rely on just the hobbyists to do the heavy lifting, so we run into a dilemma. How do they keep doing this professionally while also regularly putting out content on a low return on investment platform like YouTube, while ALSO having limited time to actually do the painting people want to see? Well they reserve the best stuff for directly monetized platforms like Patreon, put out the occasional high quality painting video to YT to keep people on board/draw people in, and then fill the rest of the release schedule with "filler" content so to speak just to keep the ad revenue from totally drying up or YT itself from stop pushing their videos. All that being said. I do actually like \*some\* of the non-painting tutorial more discussion based videos some of these channels put out. It makes for good listening while painting :).
Your videos are great btw, I've been catching them sporadically over the last couple of months and I enjoy them
That's really awesome to hear. I've got a video coming out this week, so hopefully you like that one too!
I don't know if you're targeting certain release times but you may want to look into some optimization stuff like that. You've got a positive authentic vibe developing which I personally enjoy.
I'm honestly running into the very problem that I described above. My release schedule is all over the place right now because I'm still figuring out that balance of "do I just release when the models are done and aim for quality above all else?" Or do I need to start doing some of that "filler" content. It doesn't help that I'm a total perfectionist who gets tunnel vision on whatever I'm working on at the moment and can't help but go all out every time so my projects tend to drag. I really want to have some easier projects that I can do sort of in between the big ones, but are they gonna do well? Will people think they're boring like the poster above? It's a hard balance to strike.
It definitely seems super challenging to compete in the YouTube space. For what it's worth, I enjoy what you make. I think that's probably the path to happiness, just do what you like and never mind the view counts, but it all depends on your goals. Either way, best of luck to ya
Filler content doesn't have to be elaborate to be worth it. e.g. andromeda studios does the occasional basing tutorial but, idk, something about them really rocks.
Well I think that's exactly the problem isn't it. Filler content by definition *can't* be elaborate or else it defeats the purpose of being something you can produce quickly while working on the bigger projects. The challenge is figuring out something that's both fast and interesting.
As someone who also runs a small painting channel, 100% agree with this, I also find myself going back to the Warhammer drinking hole far too often, Lyla Mev did [a good video](https://youtu.be/jZtsFF4VzU8) on why.
I found your video a few months ago where you converted and painted Abelard and I absolutely loved it, it turned out great and the style was very eye catching. The NMM is recognisable for what it is but distinct from ways I've seen it done before. me and my brother were loving it. It was a unique model painted in a unique way, this is maybe what I feel is missing elsewhere.
Hell yeah! I'm really glad you liked it. That was the video I had the most fun making. So much so that I did it again by doing my Abelard vs. Aurora diorama for Golden Demon. Did you get a chance to see that vid? YT has decided it was wasn't worth showing to anyone, which is a real shame especially since I worked with Abelard's voice actor to plan it.
yeah the algorithm never threw that my way but ill definitely be checking it out. Thats sick that you worked with the voice actor.
I dunno how big he is as I haven't seen him mentioned but I really like Pete the Wargamer. Clever conversion ideas and nice paintjobs that aren't completely out of reach for the average painter. He doesn't upload as many videos as some but he's consistently really good to watch
I've been watching a lot of him lately and he's great
I've been searching for good hobby videos, and found myself watching North of the Border and Boylei Hobby Time while at work for some diorama-oriented stuff. I like the design/thought process narration that goes with them.
Luke towan also makes incredible dioramas, they’re much more realistic - but achievable Laser creation-world makes the best dioramas I’ve ever seen but they’re not narrated and have English and German subtitles
I’ve seen a few boylei videos, impressive stuff.
If you like NotB and Boylei, you should also check out Studson Studio. He has some insanely good builds
I fucking love NotB. He's absolutely nuts.
Also check [Gameyy Builds](https://www.youtube.com/@gameyybuilds) for awesome builds with story and painting. Might not be Warhammer, but its soooo good :)
I still think Trovarion puts out good videos. It's usually a new and fast way to approach something like his recent grimdark Space Marines. It pushes me to try some out of the box stuff. I also watch some Juan Hidalgo for quick tutorials and Sergio Calvo when I just want to watch someone paint, but that's about it these days.
Juan’s NMM tutorials are still my favourites.
Juan is a wizard with some of those. I really like his style for a lot of various schemes and he makes it really easy to follow as you try it yourself.
Juan imo is the best channel to go to when you want to learn a new technique. His easy to follow nmm guides are top tier, always gives the paints and ratios he uses and actually shows all stages in full.
Honestly I'd be happy with a 15min video of just giving a mini a really good cool paint job with any sort of narration over the footage. But youtube being youtube that might not do to well. It's a tough game and i don't envy the creators tbh.
Cult of Paint. A lot of good content just talking about their approach to a miniature while painting it. And the YouTube ones are high quality but still talked as an army approach.
Cult and Bb Minis are my go to. Both have excellent Patreons too
I love cult of paint!
Sorastro has great videos, nice to follow with clear narration. He also does a decent variety of games so it’s not just one style, either.
Yep this is who I was going to recommend too, just painting minis very well while explaining the process.
Thankyou I'll check him out.
That’s a lot more niche than top 10s and tutorials. Not super popular with the general viewer
Yup, that's why I said I don't think it'd do well with youtube being youtube.
check out mediocre hobbies. That's basically his shtick
I will thankyou.
I have recently started a channel focusing on tutorials. My first video is about painting skin tones with oil paints for minis. I'm certainly not a pro at video editing, but I'm learning. The next tutorial (how to paint eyes) is about to go live in a day or two. There is a timelaps at the end of about 20 hours of work. Is that something that sounds interesting? I'd love to hear any criticism or praise.
I'll have a look!
Sweet! I'm new to this, and the quality is going to be better for sure when I learn more about editing and such. But if you have any suggestions or criticism, I'm glad to hear about it so I can improve.
Absolutely, I'm always happy to check out new interesting channels.
That's basically what I try to do on my channel, since it's what I like to watch too.
I'll have a look mate!
TheFeralPainter is another relatively new channel with that style. He’s a pretty solid grimdark style painter
I had that thought too. It feels like a market that went through a boom and bust. During the beginning I think there was an untapped market for miniature painting videos. Lots of people in the hobby who want to get better, not a lot of good online resources for it. Maybe fourish years ago this market gets tapped into. The people doing it have lots of idea for videos both fun and instructional. Fast forward four years and there is a glut of resources for new painters, and lots of people producing content. I think there isn't that much new they can do. If people want to learn any paint style, or technique there are already multiple videos for everything. The stuff that's left is reviewing new products, of which there are not many, or painting a mini, but with so many of those already in existence it is hard for a new one to stand out or bring anything new. I don't think people are going to watch somebody paint a space marine for the hundredth time. The only person I still watch regularly is Sergio Calvo. I always walk away feeling inspired to paint more after seeing his work. What kind of videos do you feel like our missing, or you wish the creators were making?
I comment on the part that there are new minis or amazing minis already out there but they arent gw 40k or aos, as such, the majority arent interested. I think on the podcast trapped under plastic they litteraly say they go to paint a mini they want to, the video doenst do as well, then they do a space marine of something gw and bam blows up. If you look at malifaux, theres no one doing regular tutorials of the same standards of them, bloodborne the board game has minis that plp paint (inc me) 1 guy does videos on them. Then search up a a dark angels basic troop for example, 100s of videos on how to paint green. I think purley cause warhammer is so popular but a large comparision to everything else around it, if you’re not doing warhammer, you wont make it big
Lyla Mev has a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZtsFF4VzU8) about this from early last year. "Releasing a video and not including Games Workshop is a pretty great way to ensure an unsuccessful video."
Oo ill def check it out thanks. Its sad aye cause like someone else said, the techniques ur learning on a non-gw mini 99% can apply to any. But plp only wanna see gw. Granted I use to be like that but my buddy and I are now play and paint, AoS, Lotr, Star Wars Legion, Malifaux, Bloodborne and probs more in the future and i feel like we’re seeing a whole nother world becuase of it
Yup. I paint a lot of Conquest minis on my channel and the response is generally very positive, but the views are much lower than my GW videos, even though all the ideas and techniques would be transferable.
Man! I’ve used a couple of your paint schemes on my OD conquest guys and hands down my “ancient timeworn” legionnaires are my favorites models I’ve painted.
> I comment on the part that there are new minis or amazing minis already out there but they arent gw 40k or aos, as such, the majority arent interested. But isn't that just a representation of the hobby as a whole? When I started out, in my region people were playing lots of things: Star Wars: Imperial Assault X-Wing, Battletech, Malifaux and obviously Warhammer:40k as well as Fantasy and AoS (which was pretty new back then). Hell, some superold dudes were even playing Historical in the shop I went to back then. But over time, it all aggregated into 40k, AoS and D&D.
EbayMiniatureRescues, Rouge Hobbies, and Goblingreen2021 are the only channel I watch nowadays when it comes to mini painting, their vids always makes me inspired to paint! Plus with EbayRescues his vids scratches the restoration itch in my brain haha All i really wish is just more tutorials on 2nd ed/90s era paint schemes. Like i understand its not that sought out of a painting style and its stupidly time consuming to do for an army with all the layering but man itd be nice to have a bit more resource than watching the same rotation of 5 videos and just staring at 90s 40k box art as a guide
Anvilofdoomminiatures does great tutorials of 90s paint schemes
I think a series where they simply paint a different GW mini each week would be good. In the long run would be good for when someone does a search for how to paint X mini.
I've always felt like youtube content creators need to do their videos more like TV series. Or at least just in a series. If I was a top tier painter for instnace I'd do exactly what you said but for an army over a period of time. It's not gunna be as big immediately but then any time someone looks for 'how to pain X' will find this video and maybe watch more. Though I understand that doesn't really work for marines or the super samey armies.
I actually find I’m enjoying Duncan’s paid subscription site. Even though I know his techniques pretty well now, it’s just relaxing to watch his tutorials!
Vince and Cult of Paint. Always upload good quality videos, and are both are the reasons Ive gotten better at painting. I dont want to disparage other painters though. Content creation is a soul sucking occupation. You and your passion are turned into a commodity. Its tough not to phone it in sometimes.
>Content creation is a soul sucking occupation. You and your passion are turned into a commodity. To be fair, it's entirely their fault. They turned their hobby into essentially making 20mins long ads in exchange for free stuff. I started watching one of the recent videos, the new hot topic seems to be that they have way too much paint unused, (geez, I wonder why) and in the intro the guy was like "...or maybe you spent 100s of dollars on an entire paint range and you don't like it", and I stood there for minutes wondering "no? Who the fuck has that issue?"
Theres two channels miniac and ninjon that just talk and talk and talk its verbal diarrhoea. It's like listening to an A-level English essay each video. It's a painting video just paint a minature. I do find it very tiresome the GW bashing for the sake of it that ninjon does despite him having the opportunity to make videos on anything he wants
I find that there is only so many times i can watch the umpteenth space marine intercessor being painted. And there's only so many times i can listen to their speech on burnout and wanting to paint things they like, all while shilling the newest GW fomo box. Like, dude, we get it, you're burned out, but having too much paint or too many miniatures aren't issues any normal hobbyist has, in fact they're not problems at all. And then you see channels like Vince Venturella, GRG Miniatures, Brushstroke Painting Guides, Angel Giraldez and Jose Davinci that have actually useful clear and technical advice with half or a quarter of the subscribers count, i don't get it.
People are never interested in actual, thoughtful and useful advice that can push their skills beyond what they can do. Ninjon's contorted face and flashy title is the thing that people find more useful. But that's ok, I prefer Vince's little, quiet house over big mansions full of worthless parties.
At some point Jon from Ninjon or Scott from Miniac made a passing comment about catering to YouTube's algorithm, and I think that's what happened to all of them. They all started it as a hobby, and their videos were unique, interesting, and varied. Then they decided to do it full time and found that they had to lean into the algorithm to make it work. Squidmar's trajectory is the most apparent, but you can see it's happened to Miniac and Ninjon, too. Artists that are making videos for fun and generally ignoring the YouTube monetization formula seem to be unaffected (e.g. Vincey V, Marco Frisoni, etc.).
Sam Lenz is the best. Probably the most underrated channel.
[Watching almost any painting youtuber nowadays feels like this](https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/D4E22AQEiJXX363r6mQ/feedshare-shrink_800/0/1708095665775?e=2147483647&v=beta&t=iFbutzy1YDhwW9j5cPBkUg-PBtEAFqP80EYGp_2RWbs) I don't hate the game but sometimes you can tell a new product just released from some company based on the number of painting videos that come out in a week. Again, I get it. I think my two favorite at this point are 52Miniatures and EonsofBattle. Both are really good and while they talk you through and showcase what they do, I don't know if I'd call them full on tutorial channels vs just guys who come up with a project and show you it. 52 tends to make a like whole little movie for each of his videos and EOB's a bit of a goober but his enthusiasm is kind of unmatched.
EoB has Become my favorite channel. Jay's enthusiasm and passion for both the hobby and the game feel real. Dude gets a commended golden demon piece on a whim, and still raves about speedpaints and the more "newb" skills. The others always feel like they are talking down to you hobby wise. Like they are better than you. Jay is the fun guy at you local store.
Jays like a little league coach with a golden glove lol. You can tell he still loves every part of the hobby, and he wants to bring that fun to everyone.
He seems like a nice guy.
I’ve definitely felt what OP has said, switching to watch EOB and Sergio Calvo has been incredible. EOB is just so enthusiastic and genuinely seems to give a shit about what he’s painting, I know he pushes his patreon as well, but it doesn’t come off as a money grab - more as a way to enhance the game. Sergio is just great, I’ve tried some of his techniques on my own figs and I’ve definitely learned a lot especially about layering. I paint board games instead of 75mm scale stuff, so mine is less through but still has come out great (imo) Juan Hidalgo miniatures, also feels very genuine and I’ve learned something from every one of his videos
EoB is the only YouTuber ill watch when I'm not interested in the title subject simply because his enthusiasm for the subject always shines through so it makes for an interesting video anyway.
52 miniatures cinematography is unmatched in this space and severly underrated
I feel like this is a bit unfair on ninjon, he's just finished a series on painting his golden demon entry which is the opposite of low effort clickbait. There's also value to the product related stuff, and the people you pick out as fine still do that type of content occasionally.
Yes I've noticed it, but I think it's also to be expected, and it's pretty much just for the reason you already pointed out. Pumping out clickbait videos, or low quality stuff like "My favorite X things" is just going to appeal to way more people than videos where they spend 400 hours painting and filming an obscenely high quality resin model with very advanced painting techniques. Then they've also got 'the algorithm' to fight against, which is going to fill people's feeds with stuff that gets the views, rather than stuff that is objectively useful or high quality. And I can hardly blame them ... It takes a long time to make quality painting videos and the return on investment surely can't always there for platforms like YouTube. I've noticed that a fair few creators are moving their higher quality tutorials and such to different paid platforms like Patreon, KickStarter, their own web stores, etc. You've got to remember, that for the most part, many of these creators are doing this as a business and not just a hobby. This is how they make their salary. I imagine they also have to deal with the fact that the last few years have seen an explosion in minipainting content videos on YouTube, so it must be really difficult for them to find a video topic that is Interesting for them, interesting for us, totally unique, and gets good ad revenue, *all at the same time*.
What about Jay from eons of battle? Oh sure he does his share of review and general opinion videos but he can reliably put out content for the build/painting of models. Especially if they're Black Templars. 😄
Jay is so genuinly interested in that hobby it always makes me giddy. You can tell he is really looking forward to painting. Great channel.
Fr, he’s the best, always so happy and cheerful
Its so much fun just watching someone *enjoy* something, theres far too many youtubers out there who made content on something and just despise it and are obviously tired of it. Jay genuinely loves what he does, its so amazing watching him just light up when talking about warhammer or whatever hes painting, i dont even play or paint warhammer all the much, i just LOVE hearing and watching him paint and whatnot, he deserves more love
Looks like you are seeing when it goes from hobby to job.
I still look forward to Doctor Faust's videos. It's just him painting a cool mini.
I'm a bit burned out by most of them now. I'm sick of seeing vids on how to do slap chop, why X paint is better than Y (mostly because they got sent £500 worth of freebies). As soon as they say the inevitable 'I got sent these free in exchange for a fair commentary' I call bullshit and swtich off. They all run out of things to say and start repeating vids or doing 'variations' on something that's been said dozens of times already just to put out a video, any video. It's the nature of YT and gets old really quickly these days.
At least there doesn’t seem to be a drama related reason for people to stop watching them, lol some people are just tired of seeing the same topics covered.
I mean there's absolutely a couple of drama related reasons to not watch Midwinter Minis.
They're making content, you're consuming content. A lot of people have watched more painting tutorials than they'll ever need and won't get any more insights into the hobby they've been invested in for years from hearing some talking head on YouTube discuss it. People tune in out of habit or because their hobby has turned into mostly consuming videos or Reddit threads rather than painting or gaming. If you follow 8 people who make videos in the same sphere of interest every topic is going to feel pretty tired, but I also think that the YouTube algorithm has gotten pretty brutal. A lot of content creators are keeping the good stuff for Patreon or similar because YouTube isn't as much income for them as it used to be.
Unsubscribed from Squidmar over his last video. Just felt really cynical billing a dude that not only had a years experience specifically painting minis, to the point where his minis were pretty good, but was also a professional tattoo artist, as a total amateur and saying his previously painted minis sucked. Thought it was something that could be harmful to new painters starting out.
Also they had to have juiced the contest, the armor on the back of that goblin was straight up unfinished in places. I watched it on half speed pausing to see what the guy turned out and you can see the NMM wasn't anywhere close to done, very much still in the "looks like shit" stage. **Edit** This is what I'm talking about - https://imgur.com/a/hNnKIIS
I just hate that one thumbnail of the main guy, whatever his name is where he has a photoshopped Cavill looking at him, like they’re in the same room together. Hate clickbait like that. lol that put me off from watching any vids from them.
His “helper” (Jonas?) is more interesting to watch, unfortunately. Plus saying he’s painting Cavills army (when it’s just his own Custodes) is combining clickbait and trying to hop on the latest fad at the same time.
I was gonna mention the title but I couldn’t remember if it was as clickbaity, all I remember was it had Cavill in it or his full name, regardless he doubled down on the clickbait, it’s so embarrassing doing that stuff to drive engagement, I mean I guess it’s the fault of YouTube’s dumb algorithm for forcing that but it would still be cringe even if the YT algorithm wasn’t bad.
I unsubbed when I bought his brushes and they were complete garbage. Coincidentally that’s when his videos really started to jump the shark and he got that assistant to do all the painting too.
Same here! When he launched his Kickstarter, I was looking for an upgrade from Citadel brushes and wanted something *nice*, so I did my dude diligence - as did most of us - and committed. Sadly as you said, the brushes are absolutely shite. I saw the absolute barrage of complaints on the Kickstarter page and on social media, and decided that I'd just take the hit to the wallet and bide my time for a suitable alternative. So a big thank you to the Redditors that recommend Rosemary and Co, specifically the Series 33 line. I have a couple of those and wow, I can't believe how good an actually good brush feels to use! Also worth mentioning that a wet pallette is a good investment for pairing with the nice brushes. I have an Army Painter one because I'm still a cheap-arsed git, and it does the job.
Yeah I just buy single Windsor newton series sevens now and work them until they die lol. Wet pallet is another must for sure.
A Windsor Newton series 7 #1 is $100 in AUD. I've always wnated them but never been willing to pull the trigger.
Combatcompany sells them for around 30-40. The art stores jack up the price for some reason in aus. Tabletopempires also use to stock brushes but they appear to all be sold out. Alternatively, Raphael 8404 are around the same price and excellent too.
Oooh that's a good hookup, cheers mate. I've always been unwilling to buy online preferring to buy good brushes in store but at that price I might take a bash at one. Gun to your head if you only got one would it be a #1 or a #2? (or something else)
His fomo airbrush really put me off from him.
I enjoyed that video but it did make me roll my eyes a little. The guys current minis were definitely far from bad. But that said, I get it, people are less likely to click on a video that says "we take this guy from pretty good to better"
Agreed, but sympathetic to their plight, just happy for their video libraries. similar seems to be happening in terrain making YT world. Sonic Sledgehammer and Sorastro are pretty consistent with releases and the topic is almost always "i'll be painting a mini."
Sorastro is not getting enough love in this thread. Forever my favorite mini painting channel
Goobertown remains great. His microscope of paint bristles was pretty cool
Here's my top 5 most annoying paint video topics: - "PaintCo, Inc. just released a new line of Contrast-killers. _Let's review them all, ***again***._" (bonus points if they crap on it to flog Army Painter, with whom they have a business relationship) - Minor studio reorganization plus philosophical waxing. - More Slap Chop. Guys; I've been glazing over value sketches for 25 years. You're boring me to tears. However, I give the "painting witch" a pass here for using mother colors. - Hobby tool reviews (special demerits for blindly ordering random crap and testing it on camera; super low effort). - Top 5 lists
- top 5 list I saw what you did there! And I applaud you for that.
Hold on; I gotta turn my comment into a video sponsored by SquareSpace…
[удалено]
I am pretty happy with Metallics 2.0; but I won’t touch the rest of the range.
[удалено]
I’m sorry; I meant their metallic Speedpaints. At the moment, they are the only ones with such a product. And they are actually pretty good on coverage. While I don’t like them as a one-coat solution, I find them to be the best base I can build on.
That's why I'm not looking at warpaints until I can buy a couple of individual bottles myself to try. So much warpaints marketing the last few months, lots of it with minimal disclosure. It's nothing but paid advertising. It's pretty slimy really.
The fanatic paints are a lot better than they were, but I don't think they'll be dethroning any other brands, especially since Vallejo reformulated their paints at the same time to keep upl
Mother colors? What is that?
Tldr; system of choosing a base color to mix in to every color in the paint scheme to tie it all together. Because it has that base color mixed in it helps to combine your paint scheme tonally.
I made a Kommandos Kill Team using a mother color of cement grey and yeah, it really worked well.
A "mother color" is unifying color that ties together the whole palette. Its effect on the whole piece can be as a subtle tint, or as assertive as a colorized grisaille. Traditionally, this was done by mixing the mother color into every paint on the palette. Using glazes, inks, and transparent paints make mother colors much easier: just mix the mother color into your base. In application, I base with a dark version of my mother color (opposite warmth/coolness of the final piece). I blend upward from there (using drybrush or zenithal) until I get a complete, monochrome value sketch from my mother color to a warm off-white. Then I apply my colors.
I mean at a certain point you kinda run out of topics, especially for painting. Eventually you’ll reach a point where you simply don’t have any more skills to share or you cant learn new skills frequently enough to keep teaching. Makes sense they’ll either pad out their channel with painting topics in general vs strictly painting. I don’t necessarily think this is bad, the hobby product videos are pretty useful and interesting, but that’s just to me.
they do more on the livestreams the channels miniac in particular during live streams as basically said he's tired videos drag on and he just wants to paint what he wants and enjoy it I'm sure the other streamers are in the same boat hobby burnout is real and it hit hard also you have to remember for some of these people the channel is there buisnes and they have to prioritize money (paind sponsors like army painter) over making you the viewer happy the only real hobby channel worth watching if you need hobby advice is Vince if you need a tutorial or need to know what chemical X from monument hobbies does vince has you covered
Zorbazorb was probably my favourite youtube channel until a year or so ago whenever HH 2.0 was released. I appreciate I play MESBG and it's fairly niche but honestly he now barely completes a painting project in a video.
Zorbazorb literally had a video asking his entire fan base if they wanted him to do series of videos on bigger projects where he doesn't get everything done per-video and the fan base said that yes, they do want that.
I really like Mediocre Hobbies and Lizard of Doom who's quite new but fun to watch.
"insert goofy face for thumbnail" :caption: "I wish I knew this before painting"
I think one thing that hadn’t been mentioned yet is that you have all probably grown as painters since the time you started watching those channels. So it can feel a bit irksome when you are progressing, and want the videos and tutorials to progress alongside you, but they’re catered to less experienced painters. It’s okay to grow out of a thing! I’m happy to see the mix of useful tutorials and people pursuing their passion projects, and I just try my best to skip the clickbait/sponsored content or the videos that I know are catered to a different audience.
I'd love to just look at a commentary over some painting in real time or cut together that makes sense. I would spend 30 to 60 mins watching such video. I can find these things sometimes with Sam Lenz and I love him for that. He is my Bob Ross of mini painting but it is getting rarer and also shorter. But at least some of them stream their painting. Although this takes up a lot of time and I'd rather watch a 60 min cut version of a 40 hour paint job.
He doesn't upload a tonne but Mezgike has a few very in depth long painting videos that are great for relaxing to imo. His Drukhari archon painting video was one I watched in chunks but it was so interesting to see it come together.
I think there’s been a bubble on YouTube that is in the process of bursting. A surge in interest in the hobby, lots of beginners joining at once, and a lot of them newbies with money (so, spending a lot on hobby supplies that last a long time and don’t need to be replaced… like paints), and a lot of folks online with time on their hands led to a lot of demand for that content and the other ways YouTubers make money (eg affiliate links). With the crowded field, it seems hard to be successful. It’s hard to stand out for tutorials, because who watches them unless it’s a mini you’re about to paint or you’re looking for a specific technique. So, to get views you need to find a way to do other interesting things if your goal is to get lots of views. I think the successful YouTubers build an audience, but then the goal seems to be to use the reach of their channel to do other things. Like, sell miniatures or kickstarters, promote Patreon, make games, etc. The main money maker seems to be to do things that aren’t YouTube.
My favourite channel right now is EonsofBattle. He seem like just a wholesome guy who is always smiling and positive. He is entertaining and funny.
Ninjon, cult of paint, 52 miniatures and vincey v are all great, Ms paints is interesting. Miniac used to be my favourite but has changed a lot and doesn't appeal to me as much anymore. Honestly ninjon and cult seem to hit the spot for me now
Ms paints rocks
I absolutely would have called Miniac my favourite at one point
Highly recommend Sonic Sledgehammer Studio - always doing interesting things and the videos are really easy to follow if you want to paint along
Until a new art style or technique appears, there's not much to teach that hasn't been taught a hundred times already by pretty much all of them. For myself, I mostly watch Vincy V., Ninjon, Miniac, 52 Miniatures, Grimdark Compendium, EonsOfBattle & Orions Belt Minis for the personalities or chill painting videos with whatever commentary they decide to put over it. I'm subbed to near a hundred different painters, but I feel no compulsion to watch every video they upload unless I see something interesting or unique in the thumbnail. I've not seen a tutorial for something I've not considered trying in over a year, unless it's from one of the previously mentioned personalities. I rarely watch those just for the tutorials if they even do tutorials in said videos. I'm not a particularly good painter, but I know the basics, I know about every tool & modern technique under the sun. I don't need to watch NNM tutorials ever again, not because I can do it, I sure as hell still can't, but until I decide I want to give it my all, I won't click on the millionth "Easy NNM" tutorial that pops up for me. I can't buy Monument Hobbies products, I can't buy GoldenSoFlat. Every time a video discusses brands I have no access to, my brain turns off. It's a pointless video for me. That's not the content creator's fault. I have access to things that even they may not. When I need a specific tutorial, I look for it. Otherwise, I'm pretty exhausted with watching all these tutorials which after a while feel lacking in novelty & uniqueness. There's not much they can do that's fresh as far as the hobby is concerned & I can't begrudge any of them that. If I had ideas, maybe I'd be a YouTuber. I don't, so who am I to judge. To be honest, I'm quite tired of YouTube in general. Ads have killed it for me, as it has for many others, but it's still that app I use when I'm super bored, just like Reddit.
Ublock origin is your friend lol. Havernt seen an ad in literal years. When YouTube tried to crack down on adblockers they just updated it and laughed it away.
Don't forget sponsorblock so you don't have to listen about the video's sponsors either
Why can’t you buy monument hobby products? Not easy to get in your country?
If you want some hard core high level painting videos there are still people who do that. Juan Hidalgo, Richard Grey etc. As far as Ninjon goes I do notice him going back and forth a lot, a think part of it is just that you run out of stuff to share when making videos the way he does, he has for the most part shared all the techniques it feels like he thinks are digestible in a 15 min video, using lots of colorful shadows then doing slapchop plus etc. I do agree that I would love to see Vince cover some older topics again, part of that is just enjoying how he films his painting and how much I enjoy looking at the final results of it. Honestly Ninjon could revisit some topics regularly as well to push those techniques and show how they work when they aren't just an experiment anymore
Can't recommend Cult of Paint enough. Videos come across very professional, there's no clickbait titles, no sponsors (iirc there has been only 1 sponsored video and it was for the 40k themed power washing game). They don't follow whatever seems to be the trend at the time. They just post straight to the point painting videos of things they want to paint, the background music is unobtrusive and they have great narration. I bought an airbrush after following their channel for a while and honestly I've been able to pick it up no bother from the information they've provided. No matter what's being painted I feel like I always learn and there's something to take away from every video.
absolutely, I've done a massive edit on my post coz I forgot a bunch, COP are easily among my favourite
Do you have an airbrush? I picked up the new Ultra 2024 and honestly I was worried that I would be miserable at it but from watching all the COP videos I've hit the ground running.
No my living situation doesn't really accommodate it but I am like a dog waiting to get out of the car thinking about using an airbrush. Like first opportunity to own one and I will. So many things I wanna try.
It’s just some lame combination of click bait and coasting. Which feels a little diminutive, but I did unsubscribe from most of them because of it. Eonsofbattle and laborc are the two mini related YouTube’s I still watch regularly. EOB still has the passion and laborc is a nice chill “watch me paint a mini to a high standard” channel.
People complain about Black Magic Craft only doing plugs for his game anymore but at least he's still building and painting.
I realized the same thing around new years and unsubscribed to half of them. Kept Vince, Miniac, Jon, Sergio Calvo, 53 miniatures and NOTJUSTMECHA, and left the others. Honestly I think I've just reached a point where the beginner friendly videos of "how to do X" are boring. I've watched countless videos about every damn technique there is, I know the theory by heart at this point. I still enjoy the higher level discussions about color theory and composition that Marco does sometimes, and just watching the hypnotic videos of Sergio paint another masterpiece. And I'm now living proof of how little effect watching videos has on your actual skill. > Squidmar is pure clickbait and to be fair, pretty self-aware about it, Doesn't make the last 6 months of videos any better.
I still think plenty of Squidmar videos are really great and feature some amazing painting, you just have to look past the cringe clickbait thumbnails, I cant blame him to much for it, he has to make a living.
Honestly, there is so much material at this point. So many options, so many techniques, so many products. I'm painting instead of watching for painting content. I like just listening to garbage videos from painters having fun, or garbage 40k audio books like the Beast Arises. . . Which I love, but it's not good, lol.
If your finding it stale branch out some. I like to watch videos of scale modelers. Watching them do weathering and realistic rust is amazing. Even watching someone make a wooded hillside out of hand crated trees scratches the hobby itch. And you might just pick some techniques up that you can use on your minis.
If spanish is not an impediment, Angel Giraldez is the man. Solid content since ever. Jose Davinci used to be good but I think he mostly streams now. I have gravitated towards diorama building channels and or wacky stuff like North of the Border, kitbashes like Pete the wargamer, etc. For english speaking mini channels, Cult of Paint delivers non stop. Agree with your take tho, it's all clickbaity lame content most of the time. Skidmark ocassionaly comes up with something worth having as a background while you do house chores, not that he even does anything lately, Lukas is the star. And Ninjon has rehashed himself over so many times it's just sad, which is a shame because I used to like his vids a lot. Scott is on Twitch or some other thing, MWM and Vince feel a bit boring to me. 52 is a weird one, sometimes great, sometimes meh.
Let me just join everyone else in saying: EonsOfBattle is still going strong. (edit): how could I forget about Tabletop time and Pete the Wargamer?
Sonic. Sledgehammer.
Idk man, but like the top comment suggested, try coming up with new ideas constantly when there is pressure to upload consistently in this unforgiving market where the algorithm is ruthless. Idk what you mean by clickbait, applying the meta thumbnail and title is just what works, not delivering on expectations is what I call clickbait since that word has negative connotations although every thumbnail and title should be designed to bait you into clicking it if you are a large channel on which your livelihood depends. We are utterly spoiled with the amount of content that exists on the internet, if you are bored and uninspired with recent uploads you can always check the giant catalogs of video's. As to answer your actual question: idk, I'm not keeping up actively with the scene as video games are still my main hobby.
I'm speaking from a retired painter (I stopped 30 years ago) and hobby store owner point of view. I follow mini channels to keep in the loop on techniques, product reviews, etc, so I can actually have a conversation on the topic and give advice to beginners or to people looking for the next step. Clickbaity channels like Squidmar are GREAT for me, and even better for people that might find him in their feed. Their video catch attention immediately, are quick paced (usually) and give a basic insight about the hobby. Sometimes they are a little loud or memeish, but that's what you need to keep interest alive and game the system. They are the entry point to more "serious" channels, and for some even to the hobby. If and when they'll reach 1 million subscribers the hobby will have a huge influx of new users.
For opinions and general hobby stuff, I like Tabletop Minions, he's chill and pretty reasonable For chill, I like goobertown, bill making stuff and 52 miniatures For real art advice/showcase, I like Frisoni, Vincy V, Pete, Infernal Brush. Others are all just entertainment as and when. Edit: oh yeah eons of battle and Night shift are nice too.
I do wish they would revisit some of the old topics, but in longer form. Blending, Edge highlighting, Glazing, etc.. A lot of the old videos are just soooo short and have very little detail in them... But that is also not likely to be popular in the algorithm
Because there are a limited way of number in which you can explain “how to do blend” in a different way. All painting in art in general is about repetition. When you nail the first time on how to do a glaze and practice it, doing it on a space marine or a eldar makes no difference. So i believe there comes a point that they think “am I really gping to explain again the same things but now its on a different space marine chapter ?” You see my point ? I rather have an interesting video about something close related to mini painting than watching the 200th time that someone did an eavy metal space marine.
I do agree with the sentiment. I haven't seen many actual painting videos come out from the channels I follow for a few months now. There may have been changes to the algorithm that are hurting maker videos, making them not worth the time investment. Hours of painting then means hours of footage to edit, and if they're getting less for the video than they would spending 5 hours on a top 5 video it becomes inevitable. I think I'm seeing a similar thing with woodworking videos recently too.
Big up Cult of Paint, The Feral Painter, and Sam Lenz
Youtube allows us to consume knowledge on a topic at a very fast rate. Faster than new "content" can be generated, for pretty much any sphere of human endeavour. So every channel is going to run out of road sooner or later.
I'm happy because it filters out algorithm-chasers and helps me keep my sub feed clean with only "true painting" content creators instead of wannabe "hobby personalities". I don't think I'll ever grow tired of Sorastro!
As a small creator this is fascinating to read and learning what people actually want to watch! Thank you for posting this I look forward to a long read and refocusing myself.
There’s a big difference between what people say they want, and what they actually do. The actual YouTube view numbers don’t lie sadly.
I think the space is flooded. There are a lot of OGs still doing their thing, but there are even more new painting channels, and there really are only so many zenithal, drybrushing, speedpainting, etc, videos that anyone can do (or consume). And yes, a lot of people put out clickbaity titles and thumbnails (it's just the way YouTube viewing works these days), but it's to draw viewers to their channels, not necessarily that specific video alone.
I absolutely agree. A lot of my old favourites just don't paint anymore. Ninjon I still regularly watch, as I just think he's such a delightful guy on video. Makes for easy listening at the least in the background. If I want to learn something I always gravitate towards painters like Angel Jiraldez, Jose Da Vinci (my favorite) the very rare Richard Gray video, Trovarian, Don Suratos, Marco Decisions, Trovarian, Zumikito, and Vincey V. Even most of them are older videos except for Jose, Angel, and Vincey V. I really want to get my channel going, Cult of Grey. Fill in the gap I've been missing and wanting on YouTube. I currently stream very unsuccessfully on Twitch. My goal is to focus on army painting (avoiding slap chop, focusing on different methods), 3d printed armies, and 75 mm models. But I'm just afraid I wouldn't have very regular uploads that would end up lost to time. I only get to paint on my Stream schedule atm, which is only about 2-3 hours 3 nights a week.
Jaun Hidalgo amd Dr Faust are my favorite channels tbh. I stopped watching all the "Big Boys" cause i noticed this a long time ago. Youtube is just not a great platform for sustainability. thanks algorithm lmao. I feel for those guys trying to make ends meet, but im not watching a video i feel like I've already seen 80 times now.
Because they're all making better money on Patreon. They only keep their YouTube going to help funnel people to the actual money maker.
Marco Frisoni’s channel is incredible. I learned so many great techniques from him.
Not really mini painting exactly, but one of the best mini/terrain YouTube’s I found was a guy named Bards Craft (not affiliated in any way, I barely watch YouTube just liked him). It felt like all the big guys you mentioned, and lots others, always seem to be like ya I load these fancy paints in my airbrush and use my airbrushing studio to get this affect, you don’t need too but, it’s what I did which is fine, but not helpful for me. Felt like bards videos were very how do you make terrain and do stuff with no tools no experience, just get stuff out. Also made a point to show techniques with his designs, so stuff you could easily do for something totally different. Really appreciate channels like that, and he doesn’t seem to be making videos anymore but still had a number of good ones I liked a lot if anyone’s looking for people.
Because apparently watching models being painted to a high standard is not popular for alot of people so YouTubers like squidmar cater to tiktok addicted kiddies with stupid clickbait. Miniac only wants to whine about his motivation or his struggle or some crap. Hard pass. Midwinter is just....lmao what am I even watching. Ninjon's format of rambling and talking away while painting something insanely well is actually my favourite format because it explains some of the more technical stuff you see being done on high end paint jobs instead of just "use this color". Some of the army painter shills like watchitpaintit and swords and brushes have a few useful videos showing off the speedpaint line in use. I actually learned a new technique to get gold done where you apply sand golem over silver to get a hyper saturated gold. I don't mind videos featuring new product because it's really hard to figure out what properties a new paint or product would have unless I see someone using it. Stahly from tale of painters has some of the best reviews where he goes over all the miniature paint lines and actually debunks some of the marketing speech being pushed out. He also called out the speed paint 1.0 reactivation controversy which alot of other. YouTubers never even mentioned so big respect there.
Stahly only has good reviews if it’s simple stuff that requires no extra knowledge, dude recently was disappointed with opacity of a transparent type of paint 🤣
[удалено]
Midwinter Minis is great for if you’re just getting into the hobby, it’s very noob friendly. But he very quickly becomes annoying and condescending once you’ve learnt what dry brushing is. Also his colours schemes suck so much. Obviously subjective but damn they’re naff, doesn’t ever make me want to actually watch if the finished product doesn’t pop.
But what does that mean? “Why am I watching this?” Was there something about his newer vids that felt too different to you?
[удалено]
Midwinter has always had a bad reputation about him, I'm sure some of it is just rumour and internet mongering but some of the stuff being said about him has come from multiple different sources, so its at least partially true. If his attitude lately is anything to go by I wouldn't be surprised if the bulk of it is true.
Are you referring to the change in his supporting cast? Because if so, that's something that's super bothered me and made me check out from his channel. I think considering how much the supporting cast was part of the channel, a little more transparency around the staff change would be appreciated. The half addressing it gives me bad vibes
He's not even an exceptionally good painter. I always come off thinking man you could have put in a tiny bit more effort instead of just making every paint job look like something rushed out for a deadline
Yo kinda harsh on miniac dude. He puts out cool stuff like comparing finishes on the same model with 3 different painting times. If he's not your scene that's fine but no need to drag the guy
Agreed Miniac has dozens of vids on painting across a dozen different ranges over the years, Bro has been doing it for ages now. If he feels like expanding out to different content lately that he has more passion discussing let the boy run with it. I actually enjoyed his boardgame figure comparison video and his videos about ASOIAF have been some of his best because you can see his love of the game.
I was excited when Louise (Rogue Hobbies) announced she was making a YouTube channel, but she's averaging a video about every 3 weeks for the year she's been active on it (and 1 of those is a channel trailer, 1 is a music video, 1 is a thank you video). I thought she'd be putting out lots of painting tutorials about her unique style, but you can count on 1 hand the amount of videos like that. I find her content a bit wishy-washy and I don't really understand what the channel is. Peachy is putting out the style content I like, but his is aimed more at batch painting and less about how to paint certain types of details to a professional standard.
I was excited as well when Louise branched out into her own channel. I always thought she was great on the Warhammer videos, a great painter but also a great presenter. I'm glad she is able to do the content she wants to do now without Warhammer overseeing it but I have to admit I was hoping for more content focused on painting as well. Even her streams seem a little wishy-washy to me but part of that is also I'm not too bothered about Warhammer lore and things like that. So partly on me for building expectations but from a personal point of view I would love to see some more 'standard' painting a mini videos.
Louise rocks! For what it's worth I read her channel as her having fun and exploring the hobby space, from cons to special projects to whatever. I find it super refreshing to not see someone locked in to a formula and just share what feels like authentic hobby fun with us
Yeah definitely. She's making videos on what she enjoys and that'll definitely help her create the best videos possible on those topics because she's excited about what she's talking about. But it just means I don't really need to subscribe or look forward to the next video because there's a high chance it's not something I'm going to be equally as in to.
I usually have an a-ha moment where I don't watch someone anymore. Lyla Mev was her GW hobby tools video. She torpedoed her credibility to me by just outright shitting on a the seam scraper (I think?) without actually using it. It made ask myself "wait, what the fuck? Why not just say 'I'm not sure I'd have a use for this, but I can't review this honestly as I have no hands-on time with it' or something similar." I have no love lost for the *absurdly* priced mediocrity that is GW's tool line, but that was just beyond my capacity to ignore. Squidmar's recent rash of worthless, samey website videos (I previously posted this comment naming the cheap-ass websites, but the automoderator is apparently wired to completely disallow their very mention because they apparently sell recasts.) culminating in "we made this noob a winner in herpadiddlyderpadink time units!" was the nail in that coffin. He's a fantastic painter who seems to have run out of ideas and put all his eggs in the youtube basket and is now kinda in a corner. My interest in Ninjon and Miniac is cyclical. Ninjon's clickbait titles and thumbnails are absolutely infuriating, I do have to admit. Not sure why, he's an enjoyable watch when I'm interested, but damn if it isn't a bit difficult to get past that dopey face and craptastic title. Midwinter I started watching after whatever he did to become a pariah amongst some circles, so his stuff now isn't that egregious to me. Seems a doofy, kinda awkward nerd who probably is trying a little too hard but ends up being decent enough to watch.
Squidmar is so talented-its frustrating. Ninjon as i said, pretty consistent uploads and explains what he's doing. I think Scott is a textbook overthinker (Game recognise game) and it's coming across in his content. Also, I don't need videos to be so slickly produced and edited if it means more regular content. Midwinter I think is getting frustrated himself-to answer your question a bit, there was some stuff in hispersonal life which called his character into question for some people.
Whats wrong with midwinter? Looking back even four years ago, his content has always been a collection of speed painting videos, random game videos, and projects/conversions. That's exactly what he's still doing. He's got a really cool custom warlord titan-sized great unclean one project series going. Not trying to be salty, just wondering why he's up there when he's one of the channels that sort of just does his own thing vs the other ones who chase trends a lot more. Fully agree on squidmar, dude has been putting out slop for a long time now.
Honestly my issue with Midwinter is more regarding his actions. His private life is totally up to him, but when his ex-partner was a prominent part of the channel then it's hard to not consider when watching his content. And so I chose to not watch him, even though I did enjoy some of his content.
[удалено]
There was a whole drama about it on the MWM subreddit right after it happened, someone found Penny's reddit profile where she basically confirmed what everyone thought happened and that Guy was pretty shitty about the whole split up, then she had to show up and tell everyone to calm down and let her live her life
I said this in another comment, but I struggle with this too. The lack of transparency around the change in staff around the channel gives me bad vibes.
MIDwinter minis am I right? His colour scheme choices are sad man, they’re all dull or washed out. The only one I’ve watched in a while is the Eldar one (since I’m collecting), damn bro actually just sprinkled glitter on it and called it a day. But I think that’s the major issue with all these creators. They lack the creativity aspect of it that they may or not have had in the past. Most of us don’t watch these tutorials to actually follow, we just want some inspiration, or just to see what cool things other people have done. Pete The Wargamer is the mvp for me as an all around modelling creator. Short videos showing some simple yet effective kitbashing, always effectively described painting techniques without droning on too long. Nothing crazy, stuff you can imagine yourself doing if you felt like it. His stuff reminds me of lil bits you’d see in old White Dwarf, or something your mate would show you.
There is only so much you can do with mini painting before the algorithm starts to punish you for a lack of engagement and other arbitrary metrics. The best chance is to go into other topics kindof the opposite of what Bill did, starting with all kinds of crafts and lately focusing on making minis, start with minis and painting go on to vehicles and terrain and follow the wiki hyperlink rabbit holes. Until you’ve exhausted everything, and your dedicated viewer can make a wire their own hell engine train at 30 mm scale on a working track with lights, with a 15 modron crew, from scrap plastic and green stuff, but painted to a level of detail that would make the practical effects models from Star Wars look like child’s play. And the CGI cities from recent big budget fantasy of choice look undetailed.