Old Studio
New Studio Collapsed
New Studio (In process)
Whelp, a significant portion of the grant funding has now been deployed, and I’ve been tracking every purchase carefully in a Google Sheet. At this stage, the majority of the studio infrastructure is complete. Core equipment has been purchased, built, scavenged, installed, and set up, and I’ve also placed orders for most of the paint that will support the next phase of work. What this marks is a shift from preparation into execution.
From a budget perspective, the spending so far reflects front-loaded investments (I hope). Education, airbrush infrastructure, lighting, ergonomics, and documentation tools make up the foundation of a studio that can support long, focused sessions and repeatable results. These are not consumables but durable systems that reduce friction, improve consistency, and allow me to spend more time painting and less time fighting my setup.
I also made the decision to acquire a few difficult-to-find models early, while availability was guaranteed, and I’m intentionally holding off on the rest. There’s no rush to accumulate everything at once. The goal is to work deliberately, not to overwhelm the pipeline before the studio workflow is fully dialed in.
Before paint ever touches a model, I’m also making a small but meaningful workflow change. I’ll be transferring my most frequently used Citadel paints into dropper bottles and fully abandoning open-mouth pots. This supports more accurate thinning, repeatable mixes, and better long-term paint longevity. It’s a quiet optimization, but one that aligns with competition-level habits from what I understand.
Finally, I’ve been revisiting fundamentals around paint preparation, particularly spray paint thinning and mixing, drawing directly from lessons by Marco Frisoni. I feel confident in how I will approach priming and base coating next week, when painting actually begins.
Right now, this phase is about building trust in the process (And putting stickers on stuff). The studio is coming online, the systems are in place, and the work ahead feels structured rather than rushed. I feel the ol'battery charging and can't wait to create things!
