About | The Gunman

The Gunman is an Automotive Spray Painting site, Ideal for Apprentices, DIY handyman, Experienced Tradesman looking to learn some new tricks or people just interested in seeing how its done. I am a qualified Tradesman Spray Painter and know the fundamentals of Panel Beating, A 3rd Generation Spray Painter / Panel Beater with over 15 years experience in the Trade.

History of The Gunman

About The Gunman age 16 in a Steel Fabrication workshop

This Photo was taken of me at the age of 16 in 1999 at a Steel Fabrication company in my home town of Bendigo, located in Central Victoria, Australia. The photo was published in a university magazine, this was my first full time job straight after finishing year 10 at school I was at a friends place where his mother asked us boys if anyone was interested in some holiday work to which I jumped straight at it and started 2 days later.
After doing this hard and dirty work for 2 months over the summer break the project finished so I was no longer needed, I had to start to think about my future and which trade to choose so I started a 6 week course in the building industry, after trying out Carpentry, Plastering, Brick Laying & House Painting I just didn’t feel I had the passion for the building industry as I previously thought then a Spray Painting Apprenticeship came up in Melbourne and of course I jumped at it and started 2 weeks later.

This is me all proud of the paint Work I did on this 1933 Hudson Pacemaker Eight in Glasurit 55 Line 2 tone Dark Green over Gloss Black.
Excuse the image quality but back in 2004 we didn’t have the good quality cameras we do now.
Throughout my career I have always liked a challenge and have a passion for historic & classic cars.

I continued on with my career and was foreman of a large panel shop in Melbourne’s east by the time I was 22 years old.
in 2010 I moved on from the 4X4 Specialist shop to pursue better wages, challenge myself again and further my knowledge by moving to a prestige collision repair workshop in Hawthorn.
This is just an example of the kind of work we did.

Remote Western Australia Mines

in 2011 I went on my first trip to Thailand with a few friends and immediately fell in love with the people, places and food I encountered, all I could do every day was come up with ways of getting back there, at this time there was a mining boom going on in Western Australia so I decided to pack up my life and head out to the Wild West and do Fly in Fly out work enabling me to have more time in Thailand.

In February 2012 after being in WA for less than a day I met some great guys from Esperence, they were a local bunch of speedway guys and in exchange for painting some of their cars they fixed my XF Falcon that had broken down.

I worked for a year as a Drillers Offsider, this was by far the hardest year of my working career, 12 hour day minimum and up to 17 hours when needed with no breaks in extreme conditions including night shift.
Left/Above: My first month on the job in Coolgardie WA
Right/Below: Golden Grove WA, It doesn’t get much easier as time goes on.
I set myself a goal to last in this job for 12 months and 13 months later left the mines with the intention of going back to Melbourne.

Mid way through 2013 I got a fill in job in Perth and ended up really enjoying it. I cleaned up my lifestyle and no longer drink or smoke, being in Perth helped me stay away from my friends back in Melbourne who could sometimes be a bad influence on me and vise versa, this helped stay on the right track.

After wanting to make a YouTube channel dedicated to Spray Painting since 2011 I was finally in the right frame of mind to do it and uploaded my first edited video as The Gunman on Feburary 6 2014. See this video at bottom of page.

I also love tattoos and have spent many hours under the needle in Thailand, there’s loads of great tattoo artists there and much more affordable than in Australia.

Left/Above: Hanya mask done by Leo, a freelance tattoo artist operating in Pattaya Thailand, this tattoo was 23 hours done over 3 days, 3 hours after being finished I was on a flight back to Perth.

Right/Below: Gorillaz character 2D over Red Hot Chili Peppers logo, Done by the famous EX of Dragon King Tattoos, this one is my personal favorite tattoo.

I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit more about The Gunman and what bought me to the place I’m at now in my life.

See where it all began and watch my first video.

I think I’ve come a long way but “although it is important to have an end to journey towards, the journey is more important than the end”…..
Stay tuned for the next chapter.