About us, and how it all began.

Banner for AG Miniatures featuring logo with a blue dragon and workshop details, with a fiery mountain background and gold decorative borders.

What began as a one off masterclass grew into this…

With Support, donations and a partnership, started our sister workshop started and grew into this…

Logo for AG Design Lab featuring a red dragon inside a circular emblem with gears, a 3D printer, and printing icons. Text reads "AG Design Lab," "3D Modelling & Printing," and "Inspiring Creativity." Background has mechanical gear sketches and technical drawings.

Currently work in progress…..

  • As with most hobbyists, I first got into miniature painting decades ago — probably more decades than I would like to admit.

    Okay, it was the 1990s, around the time of the second edition of Warhammer 40,000… but who’s counting?

    Like many hobbies, as life moved on the paints were eventually packed away and something I had once loved gradually became a memory.

    That was until, many years later, my eldest son and I were walking down the high street when he spotted a shop sign that was very familiar to me:

    Warhammer.

    In the window were rows of incredibly painted miniatures. They immediately captured his attention and, more importantly, his imagination.

    So we wandered into the shop, and he was amazed by the selection of box sets available. Now, for something to hold my son’s attention for longer than 30 seconds really says something!

    The member of staff was incredibly friendly and introduced us to a new partworks magazine. I bought him a copy and, before we knew it, he had not only built his very first miniature — he had painted it too.

    Would you believe it, miniature painting had found its way back into my life.

  • What had once been something I did by myself became a way for my son and me to bond over a shared creative interest.

    And, at a time when the world suddenly became very uncertain, that became more important than either of us could probably have realised.

    It was lockdown.

    Miniature painting gave us something away from screens, away from the chaos and uncertainty outside, and gave us a reason to make proper time for one another.

    We would sit together, build models and try painting techniques we had discovered in magazines or watched other hobbyists demonstrate on YouTube.

    But those sessions became about far more than miniatures.

    We talked.

    We talked about the hobby, of course, but also about his worries and fears, his hopes and dreams, and whatever else happened to be going through his mind.

    And along the way, we both learned something else.

    Making mistakes was simply part of the process.

    A colour didn’t work. A technique went wrong. Something needed repainting.

    So you worked out what happened, tried to fix it and hopefully improved the next time.

    There wasn’t really a right way or a wrong way.

    There was simply:

    finding your way.

  • When lockdown eventually ended, we returned to the hobby shop and were introduced to Armies on Parade, an in-store painting and display competition.

    That opened another chapter for us.

    I was determined that, competition or not, we would keep making that time for one another.

    But now we also had something to work towards.

    I was reluctant to enter myself at first, but my son kept encouraging me.

    Then my daughter became interested in the hobby too.

    Suddenly there were three of us.

    We had a date in the calendar, three armies to work on and three display boards to create.

    We swapped ideas, talked about our displays, compared painting techniques and helped one another as everything gradually came together.

    That time holds a very special place in my heart.

    Eventually, competition day arrived.

    We turned up with our armies and display boards ready to go and, looking back, I think I was probably more nervous than either of the kids.

    As a parent, of course, you reassure them.

    Whatever happens, happens. You’ve done your best. Enjoy it.

    Then the results were announced.

    My daughter won first place in the Young Blood category.

    My son came second.

    I was such a proud father.

    Seeing the smiles on their faces and knowing how proud they were of what they had created meant more to me than any result of my own.

    Then, somewhat unexpectedly, my own display won first place for Age of Sigmar and went on to become the overall winner for the Cambridge store.

    But even then, the thing that stayed with me most wasn’t the trophy or the placing.

    It was how my children reacted.

    All those hours together — sharing ideas, helping one another, painting, making mistakes, improving and eventually standing there together with something we were proud of — reinforced something I had already begun to understand.

    This hobby was about far more than painting miniatures.

    It could create confidence.

    It could create conversations.

    It could create memories.

    And, perhaps most importantly, it could bring people together.

    My kids were so proud of what they had achieved that they both wanted to take not just the certificates they had been awarded, but also the models and display boards they had spent so much time working on, into school to show their classmates.

    They wanted to share what they had made, what they had achieved and, quite simply, something they were genuinely proud of.