My name is Rubén Torregrosa (aka “HeresyBrush”) and I currently live in Finland, where I am developing my research career. Besides science, another of my passions is History; and part of this passion turned out into this lovely hobby, painting historical miniatures.
I do not remember how old I was the first time I took a brush. But I do remember how my father wanted to paint some 20mm plastic soldiers when I was a kid, and my brothers and I didn’t let him do it unless we had our own set of tiny soldiers and paints. However, by then I did not really understand much about history and painting… therefore, imagine which kind of things I dared to do: pink Romans, red WWII German tanks, and so forth… BUT, I had a lot of fun! During my childhood a friend of mine introduced me the fantasy Warhammer universe, and during the following years I collected several armies to play this wargame. However, little by little my interest in fantasy and sci-fi miniatures decreased, meanwhile the interest in history increased proportionally. Compared with fantasy miniatures, historical models are inspired in historical facts. They tell a true story. By that time, I already loved history and I used to devoured book after book. But then, I combined both hobbies: military history and painting. It was (is) always very exciting to start a new project and do a little bit of research to understand which colors should I use to paint the uniform of a given miniature or how the unit should look like if the soldiers fought in this part of the planet. This boosted my interest in military history; and as a result, my hobby became my personal time machine. During this period I discovered Flames of War, a 15mm wargame based on the WWII, and my hobby radically changed. Due to the huge amount of vehicles that this game requires, I started to paint more and more vehicles. And I found a new an amazing world: the weathering effects. Before this point I only used one type of paints (acrylic paints) to paint my tiny miniatures. But then I started to try new paints (oils, enamels and pigments), discover new techniques and do thousands of experiments. I really love(d) this!
I created this blog in September 2008. Initially, I used it as a “painting journal” to remember what I was working on and which paints or techniques I used for this or that. However, little by little I started to focus more on painting guides and tutorials. I try to share what I learn on my painting table. Ten years ago there was an important lack of information about painting techniques of wargaming miniatures on the internet. Perhaps people just did not care much about painting (after all most of the historical wargamers prefer playing rather than painting), or perhaps some people did not want to share their tricks. Either way, this is luckily changing in the recent years, and this is my small contribution to enrich the community of historical wargames.
I hope you enjoy my work as much as I enjoy when painting my models.
Sincerely,
Rubén
Besides HeresyBrush, some friends and I run another half-brother blog: ModelBrush, www.modelbrush.com. Do not miss it!
Ruben, thankyou for all your brilliant painting articles. I found them about 2 years ago and think they are unparalleled both in quality of painting and also in terms of good taste in blending and matching colours. I love your colour modulation and weathering effects and I respect the fact that your painting continues to become ever more realistic, from the earlier more ‘cartoon-like’ style to a much more subtle and realistic style of recent projects. I have only recently come back to modelling historical figures after a decade of 40k painting. I have been painting figures intermittently since I was 6 years old. I am now 55 and have bought about a 150 flames of war vehicles – my painting improves with each batch I paint …. but you are such a cool guru for such a young man, Well done! If you ever get down to Australia you are welcome to come and stay at my house. (I am a Science teacher) All the best for the future. Chris Hardy
hy, i’m Dario, from Italy.
i think to myself like a good 1/72 and ho scale figures painter, but your work is really great, figures,models and scenery.
i saw the spanish civil war women that you painted, a super work.
just that:great work, great skill and passion.
Dario
Thank you very much mate!!! Do you have any website or blog to take a look at your models? I would like to! 🙂
Trying to contact you re a new range of 12mm vehicles we are releasing. Do you take on commissions?
Hi Julian,
Please, you can send me an e-mail to Heresy87@gmail.com
Regards,
R.
Tus artículos son simples y efectivos. Se pueden utilizar en todas las escala. Continua por favor. Gracias
Muchísimas gracias!