In this video I do something a bit different: I teach my girlfriend Julie how to paint her very first miniature with oil paints. She’s never touched oils before, so you’re getting the real beginner experience—mixing colors, making a couple of classic mistakes, and figuring out how the medium actually behaves on a model. We start from an acrylic basecoat (because oils are a bit transparent), talk about why a matte surface helps, and I walk through a super simple limited palette: titanium white, chromatic black, napthol red, ultramarine blue, Indian yellow (very strong), plus transparent red oxide and burnt umber. The big takeaway is how forgiving oils are for miniature painting. I show my “sketch it in, then blend” approach: place shadows, midtones, and highlights where you ultimately want them, then use a clean, soft blending brush to stipple everything together. Because the paint stays workable, you can move it around and get smooth gradients fast—Julie literally says it feels more beginner friendly than acrylics. We also cover Liquin to make drying more predictable, why I use odorless white spirit sparingly (not like acrylic water habits), and how old, softer brushes become perfect oil tools once they’ve lost their tip.