About Mahon - Miniature Painter • Chest of Colors

Nickname

Mahoń

Painting since

1992-1993

About myself

Probably the only relevant fact here is that I am the person who started the whole Chest of Colors thing. Want to know more? Well, just read on…

My interest in fantasy and sci-fi dates back to my childhood. First it was only about books and movies, then some boardgames, and then RPGs. When our PRG group decided to use miniatures for gaming, I bought my first miniatures – plastic high elves and night goblins from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle 4th edition boxed set. I painted them with enamel paints, and they were terrible. Later we started collecting Warhammer armies, and I swapped them for a few dwarfs for our own army. While my brother had a knack for generalship, I was the painter of our army. And so it stayed – we stopped playing Warhammer, but I didn’t stop painting.

In 2002 I started my first and very primitive website about painting miniatures. It was one of the very first Polish websites about miniature painting. Soon I stumbled upon some interesting websites on this topic and I learned how much I was missing and how limited my knowledge and skills were. The internet (and CoolMiniOrNot in particular) opened a lot nf new opportunities and options for me. There I met people from the Headblast Design team, which gathered a nice community of painters and hobbyists on their forum. I was invited into the team, and soon my own website evolved in the first incarnation of Chest of Colors.

When Headblast Designs team ceased to function, I offered a new home to the community at Chest of Colors. This was a time when I needed to do a lot of commission painting in addition to my regular job, and soon I got my girlfriend Ana into the hobby. At the moment I already was a recognized and popular member of the miniature painting community, which eventually resulted in some kind of change of our responsibilities – Ana became much better painter than I could ever dream of ever becoming, and I focused on running the website and team. I always wanted to run a popular miniature-related website, and so what I am doing now is just pursuing my dreams 🙂

My reputation and popularity of CofC allowed me to be actively involved in many miniature painting events and projects – especially here in Poland. I painted for several manufacturers of miniatures, I helped in organization of many contests, was a judge in quite a few painting competitions, wrote several tutorials, organized miniature painting events and courses, helped promote new manufacturers. Now I specialize in helping people take better photos of their miniatures – which is a very important skill for all people showcasing their miniatures online.

Even though these days I am not painting as much as I used to, I am stil an active member of the community. I do as much as I can, because I believe that the hobby is something to be shared and something to connect people – not something to create divisions.