How Adz Paints...

A grouchy purple dragon PNGTuber, painting minis and making content about it.

[howadzpaints]

Socials and a bit about me

Hi! I’m Adz and I paint tiny figures!

I’ve been painting miniatures since about 2005 - Took a break from the hobby to go to uni and came back to it in 2018, and I’ve been documenting my progress since. Slowly I’ve been getting more comfortable with the process and I’m getting some nice results ...well, so I’m told.

The majority of my painting is Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000, though I dip around to other interesting miniatures when I need a break. You can expect Necrons and Tyranids, as they’re my two main armies, a splash of some other 40k armies, 3D prints and anything else I finish that I think might be cool to look at.

I’m also posting my minis on other social medias, and trying my hand at recording the process for Youtube videos. Feel free to view my stuff at any of these:

Instagram/Threads Primary 'portfolio', WIP in stories Youtube Full tutorials and stream timelapses Twitch I stream painting once a week at the weekends Paint Pad Text tutorials and recipes BlueSky Much less focused, but still mini posting

Thanks for dropping by, hope to see more of you!

[howadzpaints]

Tyranid Prime with Lash Whip, Hive Fleet Leviathan 01-Jun-2026

Had a big move recently that's stopped me painting for a couple months, picked this guy up as a motivator for the end of the move. First mini prepped and finished in the new place! Particularly happy with the Lash Whip, I had a particular idea for it and it came out about as close as I could get it.

That also explains the janky photography, I don't have my usual setup back yet ^^; Glad to be back painting again though, missed it a lot.

[howadzpaints]

Biosigns Terminated 03-Feb-2026

Something else that needed getting off my desk in January that managed to eek out into February. Fun double whammy of having never painted a Terminator before and having not painted a Genestealer for like 20 years (no joke!).

Added some minor spots for the carapace markings on this one, ties them to the Broodlords I painted a little bit back.

[howadzpaints]

Da Red Gobbo's Tinboy 02-Feb-2026

Another year, another Gobbo!

I really like this one honestly, really charming little mini. Got to play with a lot of weathering on the tinboy which is always a good time.

[howadzpaints]

Helsmiths of Hashut Infernal Cohort 09-Jan-2026

January of this year was 'FinishIt-uary'. My desk was teeming with unfinished work, so I decided to put January aside to just finish some stuff. I didnt clear the desk off, but I put a dent in it - Starting with this!

I got this Infernal Cohort as a free mini of the month from my local Warhammer store. The new Chaorfs very appealing, so I wanted to pick up one and try fiddling with a scheme that's a bit more reminiscent of the classic scheme. Bit more vibrant red, touch more gold and orange flames where necessary.

I really enjoyed this! I'd love to grab some more at some point!

[howadzpaints]

Strakh, Nightmare Incarnate 14-Dec-2025

Well this was quite a mammoth task... I was gifted this absolute creature from a frequent stream watcher back in August. I was, understandably, quite apprehensive about it. It's enormous - 30cm+ from base to top of the wing - and I don't use an airbrush, I was faced with painting this entirely with normal brushes.

Painted with my avatar's colour scheme (I'm a dragon whelp, this is totally me when I grow up), I started with the base and worked my way through it once a week on my weekend Twitch streams. Had a great time with it, I took it as an opportunity to toy around with textures.

Insanely proud. I've not finished a mini this big before.

[howadzpaints]

Gems 09-Sep-2025

Just a quick Short on how I paint my gems and some recipes!

[howadzpaints]

‘Kihmari’, RN Estudio 17-Aug-2025

Been a hot minute since I painted one of these RN Estudios Classic JRPG minis, and I had to grab one based on a FFX character. Kimahri always struck me as a cool character, just never got on with using him much in the party x)

[howadzpaints]

Tyranid Broodlord proxies, Hive Fleet Leviathan 11-Jul-2025

So in keeping with how streaming is going, I offered chat the option of picking a project for stream and they opted for Tyranids! Yay! I picked out these alternatives to Broodlords, as I've had them for a while and I'd like to do a Broodlord that's not the current sculpt from GW. I don't like it, personally! The Genestealer Cult Patriarch is a sculpt I've had my eye on for a while. I love the calculating look to it, he's far more menacing than the more beastial Broodlord sculpt. Big fan, very pointy to paint though. Kept stabbing into my fingers with the spike mohawk. And the Cthulord is just a stunning sculpt done by Hive Delta. I'm a fan of Delta's work, and was saddened that he had to take down his work from a GW cease and desist. I grabbed this and a closed mouth Hive Tyrant head and spare torso a while ago, and now seemed a good time to go at the Cthulord. Was good practice with gore effects, that's not something I typically do - I feel it's very easy to go wildly overboard and make it look cartoony. The Guardsman (My first painted Guardsman, btw lmao) kind of called for more than I'd be comfortable with and I think it turned out fine. I nabbed the footage from the streams this time, and I want to try splicing it all together into a timelapse on the Youtube channel! Hopefully get that done this week!

[howadzpaints]

Grampus' Companions, Rascaltown 28-May-2025

So this is a little different from my usual. And out of character too, I hate Christmas...

I love the work that Louise at Rogue Hobbies is doing with her Rascaltown line. Lovely big, fun, characterful miniatures that I highly recommend if you want something a bit bigger than Warhammer to get your teeth into. Around Christmas they put out the 'Grampus' mini, and with him was a terrain pack that included a reindeer. My partner adores deer. So I got the pack. XD

I wanted to paint something from the box and this little puddle of critters spoke to me, just looked like fun to do and I wanted to push my colours much harder than I had been with my Warhammer projects. Great mini to do it on, lots of options for colour play.

[howadzpaints]

Emperor's Children Tormentor 28-May-2025

Grabbed the month's free mini from my local Warhammer store and, quite frankly, blasted through it. Great fun to paint!

Managed to nail a nice scheme for a bright pink, which I still need some patience to execute smoothly but still managed minimal texture build up this time. Like it a lot, I can play with adding panel shading next time I do it.

[howadzpaints]

Commander Shadowsun 29-Mar-2025

My second Tau mini and I chose a doozy...

Couple barriers going into this mini - 1) I haven't painted large masses of white so far since returning to painting, only small details and spot colours. 2) I don't own any Tau transfers. And 3) This mini's been sat in my cabinet for about 5 years, and was primed black and dusty as hell.

I tried my best here. I tried an airbrush first to lay down the light grey primer but I don't have the knack with it yet, so ended up doing the whole thing by brush. I was learning on the fly that flood washing with the blue wash wasn't the best idea, and that Ulthuan Grey's coverage is terrible when it's as thin as it needs to be for minimal texture. It's not perfect, but it's as good as I can do!

I still had fun with her, don't get me wrong. Just quite glad to be through the slog now!

[howadzpaints]

Tyranid Tervigon, Hive Fleet Leviathan 12-Feb-2025

This big lass has overstayed her welcome 😅 What started as an ambitious project for Nidvemeber turned into a 2-ish month slog. She's made a great streaming project, and I'm super happy with the overall results, but I am so ready to move onto something else. Something smaller, at that.

[howadzpaints]

Da Red Gobbo's A-Bomb-Inable Snowman 04-Jan-2025

First mini of the year! And my first Red Gobbo too!

Started this a few weeks back at the behest of my chat and he came out really well! I'm not often painting with brighter colours so this was nice to get out of my comfort zone a bit.

Green skins are always fun!

[howadzpaints]

Imotekh the Stormlord 25-Sept-2024

When the showcased the new sculpt for Bossman himself, I knew I had to grab one when it became available. I painted an old Finecast one almost exactly 3 years ago, and by comparison this mini is so so much better. The scale is more in line with current minis, the pose has barely changed, and because it's not Finecast resin the painting experience was infinitely more enjoyable.

Enjoyed myself a lot with him! I had struggles with edge highlighting the blades this time, I need some new brushes with sharper tips I think.

Video showing the process of painting him here.

[howadzpaints]

Reblogging as I've gotten a video out showing the process for bossman!

[howadzpaints]

Tyranid Termagant, Hive Fleet Leviathan 01-Jul-2023

Continuing on with the Leviathan box, still figuring out the schemes for each unit. I need to nail the Termys down, I'm sure I'll be painting a lot of these!

Video showing the process of painting these is here!

[howadzpaints]

Reblogging as I've gotten a video out showing the process for these guys!

[howadzpaints]

Space Marines Redemptor Dreadnought, Blood Ravens Chapter 5th Company 31-Oct-2024

20 years of being around this hobby, and up until now I've never put hands on a Dreadnought. Glad I've changed that now!

Honoured Brother Kanos here was good fun, especially the weathering. It's quite easy to go too far cuz you're enjoying yourself but I think I got enough on there.