Miniature painting services (ones that do Blood Bowl teams)

[rvlvr]

Hi all,

Do you know of any that have been tried and proven to be a) not a scam and b) not so expensive as to not necessitate the sale of one's car and/or other valuables?

And if this topic has already been done to death, please, do let me know (and point me to the correct thread).

Thank you.

-rvlvr

[mawph]

You can take a look in the for sale section where there is a Painting for Money topic which is stickied.

[rvlvr]

But of course!

Thanks, man! Will take a look.

[Lychanthrope]

PM Xtreme on here. He paints for hire. Not sure of his prices, but I doubt they're outrageous.

Edit: Look here http://www.zlurpeebowl.com/wordpress_x/

[Waldorf28]

Akka just painted the humdrum Human plastics in an amazing way for me:

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=39399

[Rolex]

This is the website of an good italian painter that painted some of my teams.
He's a BB player as well.
The site is in Italian, but under "contatti" there is his e-mail and he understands English fairly well.

http://alessiobonvini.com/wordpress/

[lawquoter]

I have a lot of experience with this, especially since I've had twins (for some weird reason my painting time is all but gone ).

I've used David with Laughing Ferret Studios, who has done a LOT of blood bowl teams, and a lot for Impact's display case. http://laughingferret.blogspot.com/ He's really very good at communicating with you and working with your theme, as well as brainstorming different ideas with you. He did my Amazon team a couple of months back.

Xtreme is a really good friend of mine, and he's been hard at it, painting a lot for folks. http://www.zlurpeebowl.com/wordpress_x/ He's doing a woodelf team for me now. He's conscientious, communicates well and does a really nice job.

I'd start there if you want a really nice looking team and you want to stick tightly to a budget. You'll get first class service. David has a sliding scale of prices depending on the quality of the paint job you want, and as far as I can tell, Xtreme has a set level and you get the best he's got.

If you have a "special" project (i.e. collectable team or massive project) and you're willing to pay a higher fee, I'd suggest Golem Painting Studio in Manchester. http://www.golempaintingstudio.co.uk/. In my experience and opinion, these are the best of the big boys. Mike and Tommie are former members of GW's 'eavy metal paint studio, and they have a phenomenal staff. Tommie even puts on painting clinics (I'm going to attend at some point). I've got a 36 model 2nd Edition Chaos All-Star team out to them now. They paint all of Mantic's dreadball models. Check out their facebook site, there's some Blood Bowl test models. They aren't cheap (by far the most I've spent on a team), but for a really special project where you're willing to spend the money, you'll get an amazing team.

As far as expectations, every painter or studio has different terms, but generally, you are expected to pay half the quoted fee up front, the balance before your models are shipped back to you. If you need models, most painting services are quite happy to acquire them for you.

The best thing you can do is be realistic on communication. If you get an update a week, that's really considered good communication, because this is a quantity of work game, they've got other projects going on. That being said, you shouldn't go more than 7-10 days without an update once a project is commissioned. You'll get a quote for most places per model, and an estimated time of completion.

To be a good client (I think I am ) you need to be specific about the look and/or theme that you want. If you can provide pictures, do it. You can't expect a painter to paint what you've got in your head if you don't communicate to he or she clearly on what the end result should look like. I don't like to pester the painters. They've got my models, my illustrated instructions, I generally sit back and wait for them to tell me in their good time the update. It may be hard, but trust me, with the three studios referred here, you'll get plenty of updates.

It also goes without saying, pay timely and don't nickel and dime them. They get that enough. It's a lot of work and effort, and these guys have spent thousands of hours practicing their craft to get to this point, and it's a lot of work and effort to put paint on a model and make it look stunning. Plus you'll avoid a headache later and be happier with the end result.

[Akka]

Great post, lawquoter!

[lawquoter]

Great post, lawquoter!

Thanks.

Dipping the toe in the commission field can be scary, I get it. So many folks are out there, I'm sure I've missed a lot of quality painters, but I've always really had good fortune with the ones I've used.

*Edit*

This is something I forgot and I think it's really important (and often overlooked by the client). Shipping! You've paid hundreds for a really nice team, you want them back home safely. I really suggest sending your unpainted models to the painting service in a case that you already have. You'll have peace of mind, and most painters will be happy to ship them home in the case they came in. If you don't have an army transport or case, then make sure you clear with the painting service how they intend to ship it back to you. Then make sure you are comfortable with it. I wouldn't do less than an army transport or a hard case team transport case with a multi-part model. Some services offer the option of sending the team back in a case they provide at a cost. It's worth it. Think of it as insurance. There's nothing worse than shelling out a nice amount on a team to find out that I have to do some greenstuffing and touch up paint because a few models broke in transport. Shipping is on you, so take precautions. Once it leaves the painter's studio, they don't take responsibility for breakage.