For Christmas, my wife bought me an APCO Magnifier Lamp. She said she didn’t like seeing me strain to see fine details as I held a mini a few inches from my face, so she took pity on me and got me this wonderful tool. Last night, I took it through its paces while doing edging and highlighting on Hammerhead #2. I will say that it slowed down my work a bit at first, because it took a bit of adjusting to get used to it. If you haven’t yet worked with one of these, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. The light is very intense. The fluorescent tube on this lamp creates some very bright light, enough to light up an already-lit room. While this is great for being able to see details well, it can be a bit jarring at first. Even more jarring is the adjustment your eyes have to make when you turn it off; everything will seem very muted for a bit, and it can be hard to see the details you just painted in normal light. You will want to see them in normal light, because…
2. The light is very cool. I don’t mean cool as in “awesome”; I mean cool as in temperature. It’s a very blue-white light, which means it will change the nature of the colors you’re working with. I highly recommend mixing and testing your colors in natural/warmer lighting in order to get a sense of how they’ll really look on the mini before you whip out the magnifier lamp.
3. The light obliterates shadows. This may seem like it goes without saying, but I bring this up for two very important reasons. First, if you’re using natural shadows to figure out where to highlight, this light will make that very difficult; you’re best served doing that under natural light. Secondly, losing shadows means that you’ll lose one of those subtle visual indications of how far the brush is from the miniature. The intense light flattens everything somewhat, so you have to retrain your eye to look for the new, lighter shadows that the lamp creates. Once you’ve figured it out, you should be good to go.
4. The magnifier will wobble a bit. The lamp is mounted on a spring-tensioned swing arm mounted on a pivot point that clamps to your table or desk. You can tighten down the joints on the arm to lock it in place, but not the pivot point. Because of this, you will get a little residual side-to-side movement right after you get the magnifier situated, or if you bump it slightly while working. You can steady it again with your hand, but be prepared for a little wobbling, which, combined with the natural fish-eye effect of the lens itself, can be a bit disorienting.
5. The magnifier has a sweet spot. Thanks to the fish-eye effect, you can’t just put the magnifier generally over your work area and get good use out of it. You’ll have to experiment with the magnifier and figure out the right distance between you, it, and your miniature to get clear magnification. I’ve discovered that you can either work with the magnifier right in front of your face, or at about half an arm’s length away, and that seems to work well. The mini itself will have to be relatively close to the lens, so keep that in mind when using your brush; you’ll have to hold it at an angle, rather than pointed directly at the mini.
6. The magnifier will highlight every detail and imperfection. This isn’t so much a working concern as it is just something you’ll notice. You will see every uneven line and every incomplete brush stroke. You will see every minor flaw in the mini, in the priming, and in the painting. Details that look fantastic at arm’s length or on the tabletop may look crude and clumsy up close. Don’t let that discourage you. No one is going to be looking at the mini as close as you are at that moment, and once it’s out from under the lens it’ll look fine again.

Keep these six things in mind, and you can benefit greatly from a magnifier lamp. It will encourage you to sharpen up your detail work and to try finer details than you’ve tried before, because now you’ll actually be able to work on that small a scale. If you want to step up your mini painting game, I highly recommend one of these.

I love lamp.