Q&A With Gary Devereaux Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of our Q&A session with Purgatory's Gary Devereaux! If you missed Part 1, you can find it here.






Is there a colour that you seem to favour and like to add to your models when you can?

Scab red is the god of paints. I love this colour and I like to add it because I enjoy painting red (unlike green). Red is a dominating colour and it can evoke strong emotions, however it can also be used to portray royalty, danger, death, love and fire. I like scab read because it makes the tone darker, more gritty and real and it’s a real favourite of mine.

Can you pass on a tip or technique that you think a new painter would find helpful, or that you would have found useful when you were first starting out?

To a painter first starting out, slipping or misplacing the brush due to nervous hands or concentration can be very demoralising. Yes, ok colour theory, wet blending, brush licking, water pallets and thinning your paint are also valid techniques, you can’t really have the benefit of any of these without a steady hand. I found that my seat position was really important, I suit quite low at my desk, which isn’t always great for the back, but it allows me to rest my wrists on the table edge. Locking my arms and wrists like this allows me to improve the accuracy in which I paint, especially small details and I would recommend that any new painter or struggling painters starts by looking at this first.

What does your workspace look like?



Do you use a wet palette or ceramic tile/plastic welled palette?

I used a ‘range’ plastic well. I am quite picky, I don’t like the rigid brittle palette because they are harder to clean and reuse so I go for a softer, more pliable palette. I have used a wet palette before on occasion but back in the day I used a tile, so there is an evolution of painting habits right here.

What paints do you use?

I used a mix of GW, P3, Vallejo and Scale. GW and Vallejo make up the bulk and I use these paints as ‘sets’ to achieve a specific colour. (like deep sea blue, intermediate blue, light blue grey and dark sea grey for nmm) 

When thinning paint, do you have a particular method or recipe that you follow?

Ha! I am a brush licker, through and through. However, I would say the single most leap in my painting quality (aside from switching to a grey primer) has been to apply the glazing technique to smooth transitions and blending. I do use matt or glaze mediums as well as flow improver at times, but that is when I am thinking about what I am doing, which goes back to the planning comment I made earlier. 

It really depends on what I am doing. If it is a large area, I will glaze and work it up and down into recesses using the mid tone to smooth transitions etc. If I am working on detail, I will paint it straight out and then get frustrated and try again lol. No, smaller details I usually leave and do in one go as I find it easier to get ‘your eye in’ that way.

Is there a particular scale or genre of miniature you prefer to work on over others?

I’m not very brave. I have painted 28mm and 33mm models now but I do own some larger pieces which I bought this year and last. Purgatory is taking up a lot of my time, but I am planning on painting two 54mm scale models next, as well as a bust to give these a go, and try new techniques.

I have a healthy passion for space marines. Now that sounds silly, but I am a fan of the lore (or fluff) and the Horus Heresy in particular I have a fondness for. Because you read about these characters you can be enthused to paint the models, almost inspired to bring that character to ‘live’, however more so lately I am liking models where I can apply realism to them so I have a newly found leaning.

How long do you generally spend painting a miniature from start to completion?

Too long. I am a notoriously slow painter, because I don’t prep probably and I am way too fussy. Rather than accepting something could be better, I fidget with it for hours, often with only a marginal improvement. Sometimes I need to leave something alone and move on and apply what I have learned on the next model to get more done.

Do you have a preference for resin, metal or plastic?

Resin. It holds the model better and in a lot of cases the detail is crisper and clearer, though some plastics, most notably GW or Mallifaux have really come on of late and the quality is exceptional in some cases. Metal is ok, but a pig because it scuffs and chips.

How do you know that you have “finished” a miniature? Are you ever tempted to go back and tweak things?

I seldom go back. It’s done when I finish I guess. I do this thing where I finish a section and I leave it to do whatever chore I need to do or to go to bed. I wake up in the morning and I go in with fresh eyes and look at the area of model or the model I have painted. If I am satisfied it is the best I can currently do, I mentally ‘sign it off’, if not I fuss, grumble and then put a block on myself to do nothing else until that part is done. Haha. So sad.



As one of the minds behind Purgatory, how does it feel to have an idea for a character and then be able to hold a miniature of that character?

It’s a bit mental. To think that you can have a brain fart and end up producing some really nice models is humbling. I have a passion for my project but I have a healthy passion for other people enjoying something that either we have created and/or brought to life. Our models are quite quirky and very different, which we hear a lot but in places it is developing a following and seeing people talk about them, painting them or even using them as alternative models for other games imbues me with a serious sense of pride and achievement. 

We have an approach with ideas, where we pick something and spin it. We completely flip it upside down and sideways to get a different angle or take on the concept or original idea. This itself means we are creating original ideas but something that people can still draw from or relate to.

You’ve mentioned in blog posts and newsletters about a couple of delays you’ve had with certain pieces. What’s the most frustrating thing about running a miniatures company so far?

The delays are a personal thing. I worked in supply chain and logistics for some huge companies and being on time and meeting a promise is something of a core belief or state of mind. I hate to let people down and I want people to be confident that this company is doing everything it can to offer value for money in terms of quality, quantity and supporting information.

The biggest frustration though is probably not knowing what our future holds. The industry or market ebbs and flows each day and week and in truth all we want to do is know that we will have the backing when the time comes to be able to realise what has now become a dream for me personally and bring this game to life, running tournaments, painting competitions and give the community something fun to talk about and meet new people. 

Some of my best friends are from the hobby, I met Scott Hockley as a result of buying from a range he once had and now count him among one of my best friends. If I can produce something that allows people to do the same then I will feel immense pride at maintaining the firm traditions of this great community.

Have you noticed a difference at all between painting one of your Purgatory miniatures as opposed to painting a model from another company?

Yes. You become conscious of what people will think. I am an average painter and as a company we took the decision that I would paint the range, so that we could reinvest the money that would otherwise be spent on painters, to bring more models, better art, boxes and rules out for people to enjoy. 

But because of that, all of a sudden your model or paint job becomes the ‘face’ of your range, which then adds pressure. It’s quite a tough thing, but something I am getting my head round. I am painting Bobby B at the moment and the quality of the model, especially the cloak and the cast itself lends itself to me wheeling the precious last drops of scab red to do the model and the range the justice, I feel it deserves. 

Finally, can you tell us what it feels like to have released miniatures and to see people enjoying painting them, and seeing how different people’s takes on the characters are as they finish them?

It’s humbling. Alex Barkley was the first person to paint and complete a Purgatory model not from the team itself. It was great, in fact I have told him as much and I recall leaning back on my chair and just smiling. I even called the wife, like an excited village idiot. But it was great and since then I have seen a number of different versions and sometimes you get that feeling of, “he can see exactly what I was thinking” or “she has it spot on but I’d not considered that take”. It’s great and if we can continue to do that, no matter how well our kickstarter goes, I have already really experienced a great deal of achievement and success.

Here are some of the Purgatory pieces that Gary has painted up.








We'd like to thank Gary for taking some time out for us to pick his brains.

Post a Comment