Interview with the team. Meet Ulgal!

Today, we’re taking a look at the work of our talented store manager, Ulyana, who brought DakkaDakka miniatures to life with her brush and airbrush. She’s sharing some of her secrets in a short interview—let’s dive in!

Ulyana "Ulgal", 24 years old:

— I started painting when all members of the DakkaDakka.Store team received some miniatures as a New Year's gift at the beginning of 2024 (the first dose is always free, right?).

It didn’t go well at first, and I painted only occasionally—just a little at a time. This is what the first miniature I painted a year ago looks like. I stripped many of my early paint jobs with isopropyl alcohol and re-primed them, but I kept this one for sentimental reasons.

Model: Make WAAAGH! not War

Over the last couple of months, I’ve gotten more serious about painting, and since then, Dakka has been generously sponsoring my addiction.

Here are some painting tips I’ve picked up along the way:

— You can’t properly work with acrylics without a good wet palette. A small flat container + a cloth or sponge + well-moistened parchment paper = about 50% less headache.

— Collecting references on Pinterest boards expands your visual library and makes the prep stage easier. As part of my prep, I usually gather references of similar armor—be it painted minis, photos, or illustrations—and pick a color palette. A great free program called PureRef lets you keep all your references in one place and display them on top of other windows, so you don’t have to keep switching back and forth. Super useful if you’re watching tutorials, YouTube, or a movie while painting. For these paint jobs, I mainly relied on concept art and colored renders from Dakka.

— Some Vallejo paints have an annoying tendency to separate, especially metallics. I bought a box of glass bead stuffing and dropped 3-4 into each bottle. This saved me from having to buy a vortex paint mixer, and now my hand doesn’t fall off from shaking paint into the right consistency.

— I prefer NMM (non-metallic metal), but a tiny bit of metallic paint on the highlight can work wonders.

Model: Mine Rat Shift Supervisor

Model: Lands Girl

Model: Blessed Tor`da Rek Warrior (Millennium Wars v.2 project)

Model: Musketeer Promo Model (Torquemada’s Inquisition project)

Model: TBA (Torquemada’s Inquisition project)

Ulyana’s journey from a beginner to a dedicated miniature artist is a great example of how passion and dedication shape our team! Each of us brings unique skills—whether it’s 2D or 3D art, miniature painting, game design, marketing, or project management.

Now it’s your turn to ask! Do you have questions for Ulyana, Greg, or other members of our team? Whether it’s about favorite games, shows, miniatures, creative process, tools, or behind-the-scenes work, we’re ready to answer!

Drop your questions in the form below, and we’ll feature the answers in upcoming posts!

👉 https://forms.gle/vMzVsM26sS3PHh7r5

Thank you for your support!

Best regards,

DakkaDakka.Store Team.