oh, ciao!
I'm Matteo, I was born in Sanremo, Italy, on a hot August in 1988. Honestly, I'm not sure it was a particularly hot August, but it makes the story more dramatic.
I'm Ligurian, which means that I like to complain about anything and, of course, I know how to make and recognize a properly made focaccia.
I discovered this hobby a long time ago, almost by chance. I was 12 years old and I came across my first box of miniatures in a stationery store: it was love at first sight. I assembled my first kit, glueing more fingers than plastic, I tried my best to paint it with an old set of colours and I spent hours inventing a story for that proud, little toy soldier. Despite the result being terrible, I was proud of myself like never before. I realized how much I love to create things with my own hands and imagination. Since then, I just kept making things to the best of my ability.
It makes me happy.
Durgin Paint Forge was born with one goal: to create my own miniature game!
Starting from scratch wasn't easy, and when I think about when I decided to sell my beloved motorcycle to finance the first miniatures, it feels like a century has passed!
For better or worse, everything about my career has followed a path that is anything but conventional, starting with the very name of this company!
Durgin was, in fact, my historical nickname on the former official GW forum, the Forum GWTilea, the virtual square where I grew up first as a simple enthusiast and then as a painter. In the limited Italian context, no one knew me as "Matteo Donzelli," but simply as "Durgin." At the dawn of Facebook, my friend Alberto, knowing that I took painting commissions, decided to open a showcase page for me to give some visibility to my activity: Durgin Paint Studio. I certainly didn't go viral, but those were simpler years compared to today, and in a short time, I gathered around a thousand followers: those were times when you could film a low-resolution painting video with live audio and metal music in the background, post it on YouTube, and not feel particularly out of place.
I miss that somewhat naive and improvised carefree time a lot.
Over the years, I decided to set aside commission painting and take the big leap: producing my own range of miniatures! I needed to convey this change to my community (or rather, to the friends who followed my rudimentary career!), and I thought of replacing "paint" with "forge," which seemed the simplest and clearest way to solve the problem: thus, Durgin Paint Forge was born.
I can imagine it’s a somewhat funny and not very understandable name; I think it's the exact opposite of what any marketing expert would advise a startup looking for a name, but try to understand me: Durgin is a name I’m very attached to.
I believe that the greatest strength and weakness of Durgin Paint Forge is precisely this naive carefreeness. This, and not having rich parents.
But don't think I'm venal: we Ligurians are made this way!