Herrick Games and Hobbies: The Painting Masterclasses on Pine Street

Skye Herrick had owned his Boulder Creek home for two days when the CZU fire forced his family to evacuate. His gaming collection stayed behind. Other gamers sent models, paints and tools while the family was displaced.

The house survived. The experience later informed Adopt-a-Gamer, the program Herrick Games and Hobbies uses to rebuild collections disrupted by fire, illness, job loss or another crisis through donated products and community purchases.

Skye had started the business in September 2019 in the back of his brother Christian's hardware store in Virginia. After the move to Boulder Creek, the first local shop opened above Jenna Sue's Cafe in October 2021, then moved to Pine Street in 2024. Skye and Christian now run it with Skye's spouse, Jade.

The Pine Street room carries Warhammer games, miniatures, paints, brushes, tools and terrain. It also hosts multi-day masterclasses in airbrushing, weathering, color composition and other competition-painting techniques.

What's on the shelves

• Games Workshop: Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, The Old World and Horus Heresy, plus the specialist boxes smaller shops skip: Kill Team, Necromunda, Blood Bowl, Warcry, Warhammer Underworlds, Adeptus Titanicus, Legions Imperialis. Black Library novels and Lord of the Rings alongside them.
• The paint wall: Citadel, Vallejo, Army Painter, Scale75, Tamiya, Kimera Kolors, AK Interactive, Abteilung 502, Coat d'Arms, Dirty Down and Colour Forge, plus brushes, glues, tools, spray and terrain. Seeing those ranges in one room is why a painter drives here rather than ordering online.
• Other miniatures: Bushido, Moonstone, Perry Miniatures, Victrix, Wargames Atlantic, Relicblade and Star Wars, plus Big Child Creatives busts and board games.

There's a special order form on the site for anything not in stock, and the shop ships nationally, free on orders over $100, going out Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

The painting classes

Herrick hosts multi-day masterclasses taught by competition painters, on subjects like airbrush intensives, large-scale mechanical weathering, non-metallic metal, and color composition on resin busts. One visiting artist designed the class model herself and based it on the redwoods.

The store says spaces fill fast and classes regularly sell out, and it passes 95 percent of class revenue to the teaching artist. Dates aren't posted on the artist page, so text the store to find out what's coming.

How it started

The hardware store belonged to Skye's brother Christian, who is the other half of the business. Skye built it around a young family and a high-tech day job.

The interest goes back a lot further than the shop. By the store's own account Skye has been a nerd since he was six, when he found Magic: The Gathering and his dad's old Dungeons & Dragons models. Warhammer 40,000 arrived when he was fourteen, and that was that.

The house survived the fire. The shop above Jenna Sue's Cafe opened in October 2021, and it moved up to the larger Pine Street space in 2024.

As of a 2022 profile, about ninety percent of what Herrick sells goes out online. Warhammer can only be sold in an officially sanctioned store, so the physical room is what makes that side of the business possible, and it is what gives the town a table to play on. Open gaming nights run out of it, though the shop publishes no current schedule, so ask before you turn up.

Adopt-a-Gamer

If someone loses a collection to a fire, an illness, a job loss, the store takes an email at adoptagamer@herrickgames.com, works out what was lost, and puts a replacement army together from donated product and community purchases. Anyone with unbuilt models sitting in a closet can send them in.

Herrick's own summary of it is blunt: "Charity is a core piece of what we do and who we are." The shop also commits every February and September profit to charity, sponsors the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation, and has run auctions for Doctors Without Borders. For more on the fire that started this, see six years after the CZU fire.

Getting hold of them

The address is 13111 Pine Street, a short walk off Central Avenue. The store publishes the number (479)-HERRICK and says it prefers texts, so that's the way to reach them, about class dates or anything else. There's also support@herrickgames.com if you'd rather write.

Store hours aren't published anywhere on the site, so message ahead before making a special trip.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Herrick Games and Hobbies?

13111 Pine Street, Boulder Creek, CA 95006, just off Central Avenue downtown.

What are the store hours?

The shop doesn't publish hours on its website. Text (479)-HERRICK before a trip. If you know the current hours, tell us and we'll add them.

What does it sell?

Games Workshop's full range including the specialist games, hobby paints and brushes across a dozen brands, terrain, tools, board games, and miniatures from Bushido, Moonstone, Perry, Victrix, and others.

Does it run painting classes?

Yes. Multi-day masterclasses taught by international competition painters, including Golden Demon winners. Individual classes are listed on the shop's own site as they are scheduled, and the store will confirm by text.

Is there open gaming?

The shop's own event page refers to open gaming nights, but no current schedule is published and two different patterns are in circulation, so ask before you turn up with an army.

Who owns it?

Brothers Skye and Christian Herrick, with Skye's spouse Jade.

Address, stock, and program details come from the store's own site. It publishes no opening hours, so contact the shop before a special trip.

If you are looking for something for a kid who is into this, kids activities in Boulder Creek has the rest. Class dates and stock move, so tell us if this page has fallen behind.