User Guide

1. Getting Started

Create an account or log in at wipsmithapp.com. Once you're signed in, you'll land on your Dashboard where you can see your collection at a glance.

Quick Start Wizard

First time here? The Quick Start wizard walks you through setting up your first army, miniature, paint recipe, and tutorial link in one go. You'll find the prompt on your dashboard if your collection is empty, or you can access it from the mobile menu.

2. Dashboard

Your dashboard is the central hub. It shows everything happening with your collection at a glance.

• Collection stats — count of miniatures by status: Unpainted In Progress Completed
• Painting time — total hours logged, with weekly and monthly breakdowns and your completion rate
• Weekly painting chart — a bar chart of how many minutes you painted each day over the past week, so you can spot your most productive sessions at a glance
• Active Goals summary — your in-progress painting goals with progress bars showing how close you are to each target. Click any goal to go to the Goals page for full details.
• Goal deadline warnings — a red banner appears at the top of the dashboard for any overdue goals, and a yellow banner for goals with a deadline within the next 7 days, so nothing sneaks up on you
• Recent activity — your latest paint log entries, newly added recipes, and saved tutorials
• Armies overview — each army with its miniatures listed underneath, showing status at a glance
• Getting Started checklist — tracks whether you've set up armies, miniatures, recipes, tutorials, and backup

3. Miniatures

The heart of WIP Smith. Track every model in your collection from box to display cabinet.

Adding a miniature

1. Click My Miniatures in the navigation bar
2. Click the Add Miniature button
3. Fill in the name, manufacturer, and description
4. Choose a status: Unpainted, In Progress, or Completed
5. Assign it to an army (optional)
6. Save — you'll see it appear in your collection

Miniature details page

Click any miniature to open its detail page where you can:

• Edit the name, status, manufacturer, description, or army
• Log painting sessions — add notes about what you worked on and how long it took
• Link paint recipes — connect the recipes you used on this model
• View your paint log timeline — a chronological record of every session

Changing status

You can update a miniature's status at any time from the detail page or directly from the dashboard. When you mark a miniature as Completed, a completion date is recorded and you'll see a celebration animation.

Painting Timer

Each miniature detail page has a built-in stopwatch so you can time your painting sessions without leaving the app.

• Start — press Start Timer to begin counting. A live badge pulses in the card header so you always know it's running.
• Stop & Log — press Stop & Log to save the elapsed time directly to this miniature's paint log, with an optional note
• Discard — press Discard to reset the timer without saving
• Persists on refresh — if you reload the page mid-session, the timer picks up exactly where it left off

Bulk CSV Import

Got a spreadsheet of miniatures? Import them all at once using the Import CSV button on the Miniatures page.

• Supported columns — Name (required), Status, Manufacturer, Army, Description
• Get a template — use Export CSV first to download a file with the correct column headers, then fill it in and re-import
• 500-row limit — each upload can contain up to 500 miniatures. For larger collections, split your file into batches.

Bulk Actions

On the Miniatures page you can select multiple miniatures using the checkboxes and then apply an action to all of them at once:

• Change status — move a batch of miniatures to Unpainted, In Progress, Completed, or Wishlist in one click
• Assign to army — add a group of miniatures to an army at once
• Delete — remove multiple miniatures in a single action (you'll be asked to confirm)

4. Kanban Board

The Board gives you a visual, drag-and-drop view of your entire collection organised by painting status. Access it from the Board link in the navigation menu.

• Drag to change status — drag any miniature card between the four columns — Wishlist, Unpainted, In Progress, Completed — to instantly update its status
• Filter by army — use the army dropdown at the top to focus the board on a single faction or project
• Completion confetti — drag a card into the Completed column and enjoy a burst of confetti to celebrate finishing a miniature
• Theme aware — the board respects your dark / light mode preference and looks great in both

5. Armies

Armies let you group miniatures into logical collections, for example by game system, faction, or project.

Creating an army

1. Go to Armies from the navigation bar
2. Click Add Army
3. Enter the army name, faction, game system, and an optional description
4. Save — you can now assign miniatures to this army

• View miniatures — each army card shows a count of its miniatures
• Export to PDF — generate a formatted PDF of the army and its miniatures
• Edit or delete — rename, change details, or remove armies you no longer need
• Pagination — armies are shown 24 per page with previous / next navigation if you have a large number of factions

6. Paint Recipes

Record the paints and techniques you use so you can replicate results across your collection.

Creating a recipe

1. Go to Paint Recipes from the navigation bar
2. Click Add Recipe
3. Enter a name, technique (e.g. drybrush, layering, contrast), colours used, and a description
4. Save your recipe

What you can do with recipes

• Link to miniatures — see which models use this colour scheme
• Link to tutorials — connect YouTube videos or guides that helped you learn the technique
• Export to PDF — generate a printable reference of all your recipes
• Pagination — recipes are shown 24 per page with previous / next navigation

7. Tutorials

Save links to painting tutorials, YouTube videos, and guides you want to refer back to.

• Title & URL — save the link with a descriptive name
• Category — organise by topic such as "Skin Tones", "Metallics", "Basing", etc.
• Description — add your own notes about what the tutorial covers
• Link to recipes — connect tutorials to the paint recipes they support
• Pagination — tutorials are shown 24 per page with previous / next navigation

8. Goals

Set painting targets and track your progress over time. Goals let you commit to finishing a set number of miniatures by a deadline — great for event prep or hobby challenges.

Creating a goal

1. Go to Goals from the navigation bar
2. Click Add Goal
3. Enter a title (e.g. "Finish my Space Marines by June")
4. Set a target count and choose which status counts towards it (Completed, In Progress, or Unpainted)
5. Optionally filter by a specific army and set a deadline date
6. Save — the goal immediately starts tracking your current progress

• Progress bar — each goal shows how many miniatures currently match the criteria vs. the target, with a visual progress bar
• Dashboard integration — active goals appear on your dashboard with progress bars so you can check in at a glance
• Deadline warnings — goals with a deadline appear as coloured banners on the dashboard: red if overdue, yellow if due within 7 days
• Army filter — scope a goal to a specific army so you can track individual project deadlines separately

9. Stats & Analytics

The Stats page gives you a full picture of your painting habits and output. Everything shown is personal to your account — no one else can see your stats.

Summary cards

• Total painting time — the sum of all time logged across every miniature and session
• Average time per miniature — total time divided by completed miniatures, so you know how long your projects really take
• Total completed — how many miniatures you've finished
• Current painting streak — how many consecutive days you've logged a painting session

Charts

• Weekly painting time — a bar chart of minutes painted per week over the last 12 weeks
• Cumulative completion — a timeline showing how your completed miniature count has grown over time
• Status breakdown — a doughnut chart showing the split between Unpainted, In Progress, and Completed across your whole collection

Tables

• Top 5 most-painted miniatures — ranked by total time logged, so you can see which models have had the most attention
• Recent completions — the last few miniatures you finished, with completion dates

10. Activity Feed

The Activity page shows a chronological feed of everything you've done in WIP Smith: miniatures added, recipes created, paint sessions logged, and tutorials saved. It's a quick way to see your recent progress and jump back to items you were working on.

11. Linking Items Together

One of the most useful features in WIP Smith is linking items together to build connections between your collection.

• Recipes ↔ Miniatures — link a paint recipe to the miniatures you used it on. You'll see badge links on both the recipe and miniature detail pages.
• Recipes ↔ Tutorials — connect a tutorial to the recipe it helped you create. Great for remembering where you learnt a technique.

12. Search

Use the search bar in the top navigation (or the mobile menu) to find anything in your collection. Search works across miniature names, descriptions, manufacturers, army names and factions, recipe names, techniques, colours, and tutorial titles.

Results are grouped into three sections: Miniatures, Paint Recipes, and Tutorials, each with direct links to the detail page.

13. Keyboard Shortcuts

WIP Smith includes a set of keyboard shortcuts to let you navigate and act without reaching for the mouse. Shortcuts only activate when you are not typing in a form field.

• ? — open the shortcuts help overlay to see all available shortcuts at any time
• / — jump focus directly to the search bar
• n — go to the Add Miniature page
• g then d — go to Dashboard
• g then m — go to My Miniatures
• g then r — go to Paint Recipes
• g then a — go to Armies

14. Export & Backup

CSV Export

Export your full miniature collection as a spreadsheet-compatible CSV file using the Export CSV button on the Miniatures page. The file includes Name, Status, Manufacturer, Army, Description, and Date Added columns. You can also use this exported file as a template for the CSV Import feature — see Section 3 — Miniatures for details.

PDF Export

Generate professional PDF documents of your collection. You can export:

• Miniatures — a table of all your miniatures with status, army, and dates
• Paint Recipes — all recipes with colours and techniques
• Armies — each army with its miniature count and details
• My Collection — everything combined in a single PDF

Backup & Restore

Keep your data safe with JSON backup files.

1. Go to Backup & Restore (in the footer Settings section or mobile menu)
2. Click Download Backup to save a .json file with all your data
3. To restore, upload a backup file on the same page — data will be added alongside your existing collection

15. Dark / Light Mode

WIP Smith defaults to dark mode. To switch themes, use either of these controls:

• Hamburger menu — open the navigation menu (top right) and tap the theme toggle button near the bottom of the menu
• Footer — scroll to the footer and click the Light Mode / Dark Mode toggle button in the Settings section

Your preference is saved and remembered across sessions. The Kanban board, all charts, and every page respect the chosen theme.

16. Feature Preferences

You can choose which features are active in your workspace. If you only use WIP Smith to track miniatures and don't need recipes or the Kanban board, simply turn those features off to keep things clean.

How to manage features

1. Click your avatar or open the menu and go to Account Settings
2. Find the Features card and click Manage Features
3. Use the toggle switches to turn features on or off
4. Click Save Preferences

• Paint Recipes — the Recipes section and all recipe links
• Tutorials — the Tutorials section
• Goals — the Goals section and dashboard goal widgets
• Armies — the Armies section and army filter on the Miniatures page
• Board (Kanban) — the drag-and-drop Kanban board
• Stats & Analytics — the Stats page
• Painting Timer — the stopwatch on miniature detail pages
• CSV Import — the Import CSV button on the Miniatures page

17. Account & Password

Change Password

1. Scroll to the footer and find the Account section
2. Click Change Password
3. Enter your current password
4. Enter and confirm your new password (minimum 6 characters)
5. Click Change Password to save

Forgot Password

1. Go to the Login page
2. Click "Forgot your password?"
3. Enter your email address
4. Check your inbox for a reset link (check spam if it doesn't arrive)
5. Click the link and set a new password

18. Install on Your Phone or Tablet

WIP Smith works like a native app when added to your home screen. The mobile interface is optimised with larger touch targets, a slide-out navigation menu, and mobile-friendly cards. WIP Smith now ships with a full PWA manifest, so Android and iOS may show an automatic install prompt when you visit the site in your browser.

Android (Chrome)

1. Open wipsmithapp.com in Chrome
2. Tap the three-dot menu (top right)
3. Select "Add to Home screen"
4. Tap Add to confirm

iPhone / iPad (Safari)

1. Open wipsmithapp.com in Safari
2. Tap the Share icon (square with an arrow pointing up)
3. Scroll down and select "Add to Home Screen"
4. Tap Add

19. Troubleshooting

• Page not found (404)? — Check the URL or head back to the dashboard. You may have followed an old link.
• Missing data? — Try refreshing the page. If data is still missing, restore from your most recent backup.
• Can't log in? — Use the "Forgot your password?" link on the login page to reset. Check your spam folder for the email.
• PDF won't download? — Make sure you have at least one item in the section you're trying to export.
• Feature page redirects to dashboard? — That feature may be turned off in your Feature Preferences. Go to Account Settings → Manage Features to re-enable it.
• Printing a miniature page — use your browser's Print function (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P) on any miniature detail page. Navigation, buttons, and dark backgrounds are automatically hidden for a clean, readable printout.
• Still stuck? — Use the Feedback form (in the navigation or footer) to report a bug, or email help@wipsmith.com