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I have something of a dilemma. I've been asked if I want to start a miniatures painting club, and I have no idea where to start, or even if I'm up to it.
It's a long story, but I was talking to one of the staff at my local library and we got talking about painting miniatures, specifically 40K, and he said that he'd had the idea of starting a painting club there for youngsters, as a 'craft' group for the community. This employee had been in touch with Games Workshop HQ and they'd sent a box full of stuff - paints and brushes, minis, books, I don't know what else - related to setting up a school league.

Now, this guy from the library is a player, not a painter. He plays D&D and HeroQuest but can't paint at all, he says.
I'm not a player but I enjoy painting, though I'm no Golden Demon winner - I'm competent at best.
But, I've been asked if I'll run a painting group, in the library, times and frequencies TBA.

I'll get help with publicity, I get the use of a nice warm room and everything laid on, but I don't know. I don't even know if I'm good enough to teach, let alone whether I should restrain myself to painting GW products.

Any ideas, people?

why do you have to teach???
why can a painting club not just be about people getting together and painting???
if you do this, and someone asks how you achieved a certain effect, or why you chose a particular color combo, then you obviously have something to offer, in their opinion, even if you you do not think you are good enough to teach...
a painting club is not necessarily a painting course...

why would you have to restrict yourself to only GW products???
the paints will be there for club members who want to use them...
nothing would stop you from bringing other brands of paint, or minis, since the venue is in a library and not a GW store...

sounds like something worth giving a go, if you enjoy painting socially...
i enjoyed my weekly paint group in Portland, Oregon, at Guardian Games...
nobody ran the group, in a strict sense, people just showed up if they wanted to...

i, myself, hate the idea of painting classes, as if there is a set way to paint, or a set of rules...
i would never want to teach painting, but when someone asks why i chose a color, paint brand, or style, it just feels like conversation, and not dictating how people should paint...
in that light, the once a week painting club was a lot of fun...

unless i am missing some restriction that you would be operating the club under, it sounds like a few people getting together to talk shop, motivate each other, and have fun...

cheers
jah

Thanks for your feedback, Jah. A lot of what you said was what I'd thought about myself, but didn't have the time to explain (I'm writing this on my tablet computer and it's difficult for me to type on).

The impression I got from the chap at the library was that I'd be expected to teach (or at least demonstrate techniques to) youngsters who were completely new to painting miniatures, between the ages of 8 to 16 or so - this would be a community youth group held in a community space with funding from a community committee. But with the right advertising and promotion we could get established painters and modellers to come along and I'm quite happy with that because we can all learn something new, we can get links to the gaming community in Manchester and we can have a good time.

I don't know whether there would be any restrictions placed on me regarding only using GW products, and I would hope not, but I wouldn't want to encourage youngsters to make and paint their ideal miniatures, with third-party bits and bases or whatever, only for them to be told at a GW store that they couldn't use them in competition.
Me, I use all sorts of parts, paint a wide range of minis and use many different brands of paints, and I'm happy to encourage others to break the GW monopoly, but not if it affects their future playing.

So... yeah. I'm leaning more and more towards doing this, I think it might be good for a lot of people and get me some experience in working with youngsters - I'd like to teach motorcycle mechanics at college one day.
I shall speak to the library chap next week and sort something out.

Just my zwei pfennig but I would love if there was something like this near me. I enjoy painting but I would also like to have someone to talk to and compare notes.

Teaching the basics is easy and I dont think anyone would expect you to be world class or even know a huge variety of techniques.
To invoke a boke-causing cliche: you and the kids can learn from each other! *vom everywhere*