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DRW - Dave Reid-Watts

@drw_grimdark

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Found grimdark in Dec ’25
30 years trad. art xp
Painting light/ OSL
Obsessively pushing to more comps!!
Honest process, lessons & progress

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What a day!! Finalist pin at @ironskulluk and I hit 700 followers today!! Thanks everyone!!

Couldn't be happier to have reached the finalists in my first ever comp, learned a lot and have the bug now (not just this guy haha)!!! Time to dive into my Advanced Space Crusade diorama with renewed vigor!!

Great to get some @siegescenics and an @orangebrushes purple brush and meet the lovely @themonstermerchants - looking forward to downloading my model photo!! Also can't wait to dive into my @greasyminiatures bust!!

Really cool to meet folk in the scene too, look forward to catching you next year!!

Awesome day.

#ironskull #nornemmissary #competitionpainting #w40kpainting #tyranids by @drw_grimdark

Here's my finished Royal Herald for #bonezone comp under @daemonrich

It's been really fun creating this, but the miniature was hardcore!! Hard to see it through to the end because it's just insane detail all the way through!! I drew a line under it at a point and just submitted it!!

Pretty happy with it, the style more than anything - I had big ambitions but just couldn't find the time to take it as far as I wanted! At least I've submitted it!!

#royalHerald #ageofsigmar #warhammeroldworld by @drw_grimdark

My #tmanpaintchallenge entry!! @travellingmanuk are legends for running this comp and a special thanks to @doom_palette for getting me involved!!

I've never painted an Eldari and they are hard work - and the colour set made it crazy!! Not my best paint job, but so hard to get a real range of tones with the colours!!

Big thanks to my son for picking up a beetle (called Jeremy) for a miniature!! It looks great on this.

So I played on the rules a little - while I could only use the 4 colours to PAINT with, nature has lovely natural colours i made full use of on the base!! No rule to say "no unpainted surface", right? 🤔🤫😁

#ageofpainttober #warhammer40k #warhammercommunity #warhammerpaintcomp by @drw_grimdark

My Day of the Dead take on a Royal Herald is coming together for #bonezone from @daemonrich

... just gotta find his arm 🤔🤔🤔 by @drw_grimdark

I've been really enjoying painting Typhus over the past few days - great model!! Looking forward to getting him finished. Gong to do a bit more to tie together the psychic blue glow around him, his cloak of flies should help!! @spritepaints hope you like him!!

#typhus40k #typhus #deathguard #nurgle by @drw_grimdark

Had a great time with @tesseractminis today! Really good session down in Frome at the @deckanddagger, and lovely to meet fellow painters @spritepaints and @dastardlybeard !!

Great day, really good to get some dedicated painting time with a pro, learnt loads and had a good time - definitely got some new tricks to apply to my painting repertoire!

#bust #miniature #minipainting by @drw_grimdark

Right, so ahead of Convergence in Nov, to make the Norn a stronger piece, I'm reworking the base

Honestly, I know a lot of people build models and show them round comps unchanged in a summer tour - but I'm completely against that - what I want to do learn from a comp, rework the model and put it forward again to another improved.

Anyhow, painting should be fun, masking off the part of the bar that already looks awesome!!

Ps. New phone camera today!!

#tyranids #nornemmissary #w40k #custodes by @drw_grimdark

Thor is a beast!! Really enjoying just aiming for realism on this scale than on 52mm - still a good amount of work to do on him!!

He doesn't look like a thunder god, but I think I've really captured the whole Viking vibe. Such an incredible miniature too - look at the detail on the arm relief!! Spot on @elgrecominiatures @tier_s_collectibles

#bust #miniaturepainting #realismpainting #thorodinson by @drw_grimdark

#paintitgreen26 #paintitgreenchallenge #paintitgreen #worldmentalhealthday2026

So happy with how this came out, it's my brightest model to date!! Green as hell!!! Nothing says battlefield ready like fancy green threads!! 💚💚💚

All done as part of the paint it green challenge raising money for MIND, an amazing charity (my dude has MIND on his shoulder!!) - I specifically went as loud as I've ever done which is a real challenge when I naturally paint in dark hues! by @drw_grimdark

I got really excited when starting on this Custodes Dreadnought to do some freehand!!

Freehanded on the one and only Emperor himself!! Took about an hour for the initial sketch and another hour tonight to just tweak it & tidy up! Think he still needs his wreath though...

Looking forward to filling out the rest of the detail on the model and giving some depth and age to the gold 👍👍

#emperor40k #custodes40k #dreadnought40k by @drw_grimdark

Ooooo this is going to be super fun!! My #ageofpainttober has arrived!! And I got an Aldari!! Never painted one, and I got some crazy bright colours - this is totally cool haha

Get yours from @travellingmanuk for the October challenge!! by @drw_grimdark

The skin tones are really starting to come together nicely now, really enjoying painting this bust

#skinstudy #bust #miniaturepainting #airbrush by @drw_grimdark