FlatlanderBoss  11/04/2006 - 21:28   

Are you Being Served? - Four Things to Look for When Picking a Miniature Painting Service

Not enough time or inclination to paint? A familiar curse among busier wargamers. Many look to "miniature painting services," a glorious label that applies to everything from high school kids raising cash for minis, to Asian sweatshops cranking out armies by the week. Here are some tips to think about if you decide its time to take care of the "I buy 'em faster than I paint 'em" problem.

Making Your Pick: Four Things to Look For

Quality - There is no point in paying for a paint job that looks bad. As tight as your budget maybe (you've already paid a lot for those minis!) don't break down and pay for something low grade, just because its cheaper. It will look bad, you will feel bad, and the world will be a worse place. Make sure the quality is good enough. Not good enough for the money, but good enough to be proud to own.

Price - Quality is important, but it has to be affordable. If the work looks great, but you are uncomfortably paying those prices, then these are not going to be people you can keep sending armies to in future. You want a price range that supports your hobby, not constrains it. You don't want a miniature painting service, you want a miniature painting solution. This is the problem with "trade in" services that offset high prices, by offering to take minis for painting. Its a little like an animal chewing off its own leg to get out of a trap. You solve the "trap" of what are unaffordable painting rates, by sacrificing some of your precious minis. Don't do this. Find a solution that supports your hobby, not confines it. "Trade in" is fine, but it should not be something you do because you can't otherwise afford the work.

Service - Miniature painting is about service -- and that means you should expect to be treated well. It is important to find a service that is able to give you the time you need to make sure your army is what you want it to be -- down to the last mini. These companies will welcome your input, because that way they can be assured you will like the work they do and will send them minis again in future. If they don't, then they simply do not get it -- and you should not patronize a painting service that doesn't understand what service is. Do they refuse to assemble or clean flash? Can you send them random snippets and ideas for your army? Do they try to accomodate your enthusiasm and questions about the work as it gets done? Are they friendly and keen to hear your thoughts, or do you get the feeling they see your input as an obstacle, and not a resource? How quickly do they reply your emails?

Relationship - A lot of time, trust, and money goes into picking a miniature painting service. After you find one that can paint how you want at a price that you're happy to pay, you'll want to be able to work with them again in the future. Did they treat you like a person, or like a transaction? Do they know your first kid's name, or do you wonder if they'd even care? A service that is interested in you as a person is going to do better work for you than one that doesn't care or have the time to care. It's hard to not care about someone when you've chatted with them about Johnny Damon leaving the Red Sox (he will pay for that crime, you mark my words). Its just human nature. A good relationship translates into better work, better service, and a real interest in your happiness.

Number One: Quality

Quality: Finding the Good Stuff for Cheap
There's quite a range out there. You've got high end, display case work by the Polish masters at MicroArts, to the simplest base-coat-only, "wargaming" quality by some others. If you're disappointed by the prices you see at first, don't get discouraged. Good quality is out there, and its cheaper than you may realize.

A good idea is to try out what people are offering on their lower end. True painters will give you good quality at the low end because they simply feel bad turning out something that looks substandard to them. True professionals on the other hand, will not want to give you something that looks bad because this hurts their brand. I feel professionals are a better bet because there are more true pros out there than true artists, and they worry about brand and reputation day and night. Their standard quality will probably by fairly high end looking -- they wouldn't be in business if it looked bad.

Quality: Pictures, pictures, pictures
Pictures are your best friend. Look for large images that fill up at least half or more of your screen: it's hard to hide true quality in large images. That said, unless you are used to looking at minis in huge, five megapixel images, truly enormous pictures will not give you an idea of how well a figure is painted.

Look for websites that have lots of pictures up. These are services that are proud of their work, and are not just showing the cream of the cream or work they did just for the site. They are also making a very important filtering decision: by showing lots of their work, they are guaranteeing that anyone who wants their painting, knows what they are getting into. If you don't see golden daemon quality on their site, don't ask for it. Even if they can do it, they are probably not interested in offering it.

Quality: "How We Paint"
The better painting services will declare, up front, how they paint. This way anyone with technical knowledge of painting will be able to understand exactly what is on offer -- and can check this against what they get in the end. For standard or basic painting, look for at least one shade and one highlight. Even with just one shade and one highlight, simply through good use of inking, washing and drybrushing a painting service can give you some truly excellent looking work.

Do NOT accept painting that does not include at least one shade, and one highlight. Anyone who offers less than this is either using a quick-and-dirty, easy technique (which is fine if their price reflects this) or just doesn't get it.

For higher end work, look for services that declare how many shades and highlights they use. Two shades and six highlights are a good high end.

If the service you are looking into doesn't list this information, just ask them. Painting weenies will love to talk to you about this sort of thing, and will be happy to have a prospect who knows something about painting. If they tell you that they paint "'Eavy Metal" or "Golden Daemon" quailty, this is either a dodge or them not understanding your very basic question (both not good signs).

Quality: "Glazing" and "Dipping"
Not everyone likes the look of glazing - typically a watered down paint layer over a heavily white-drybrushed, black-primed surface. It is excellent for creating contrasting light and dark and giving depth and presence to minis. On the down side, the drybrush undercoat can look quite messy and the minis can look rather dark overall. If you do like the look of glazing, just make sure you're not paying an exorbitant fee for what is at the end of the day an extremely quick and easy miniature painting technique.

Dipping is another technique to pay attention to. Dipping is the process of taking a basecoated mini and either brushing on or dunking the entire figure in a polyurethane varnish, Minwax wood finishes are popular for this. It works great on some miniatures lik tyranids, but generally looks foul on anything else (unless you are a gloss varnish freak). Look for services that are sparing in what they offer dipping for, and that offer it at a lower rate than their regular painting. Like glazing, this is a very quick and easy technique. When done right on the right kind of minis, it's worth it.

Number Two: Price

Price: Getting your favorite character painted....
If you're just looking to get a few characters or a little piece for the display case done, then you want to go to a one-man show. These are typically great painters who enjoy spending hours upon on hours making figures look great. They will charge you a lot, but they will likely put in a lot more hours than a larger, army-painter service would. They are also more likely to be small order friendly -- larger services will try and get a minimum order value out of you to make your order "worth their time." If you go with a one-man mastro service, expect to pay $9 and upwards per figure, and most will charge between $20 and $25 per figure. It is not uncommon to see Golden Daemon winners charge upwards of $50 a figure. If you are looking for that kind of quality, this is where you go.

Price: ....Versus getting an entire army painted
An army of $100 space marines gets impractical fast. If you need an army painted, go to army painters. You need a service that focuses in doing entire armies. These will typically put more than one painter on your order, and will probably be done with the job in just a few weeks. Their prices per mini will usually be lower than the one man maestro outfits, though probably more than your FLGS "painter dude."

Price: ....Looking Overseas
You'll find that foreign miniature painting services, especially the Asian ones, excel on price point. Their quality tends to be rather strong too -- their weakness is that they are not necessarily familiar with the 28mm universe. They mostly emerged to paint for the 15mm historicals market, and while they're the best people to go to for Assyrian Archers, you want to be sure they know the difference between a bolter and a buckler. If you're trying an Asian service, the most important thing I've found is to be sure that they use GW and/or Vallejo paints -- otherwise you will find it extremely hard to discuss paint schemes with them. Also, do go over their galleries to be sure they have experience with mainsteam 28mm minis.

Number Three: Service

Service: Professional Painters or Artistes?
Miniature painting is a service industry -- and that means you should expect to be treated well. If you don't have the time to paint your own miniatures anymore, then you certainly don't have the time to assemble them, let alone remove flash. You should expect a miniature painting service to offer to assemble your figures. They may charge you a fee for it, and if they really don't want to do it they'll charge you a high fee -- but they should offer it. If they don't, well, you have to wonder why they are in a market that exists because people don't have the time to work on their miniatures. Me? I'd go find professionals.

The only time when its acceptable for a service to not offer an assembly service, is when that assembly can jeopardize the product. Foreign painting services for example may be quite nervous about drilling out bolters, because if they make a mistake, the nearest place to get replacement bitz from may be from Paradigm Infinitum in Singapore...

Some of the larger painting services offer free assembly. This means they've costed it into their work, and you should ask if you can get a discount on the work you've already assembled. They really ought to give you one.

Service: Communication is Key!
As professionals providing a highly consultative service, you should expect your painting service to be easy to contact. Barring weekends and holidays (which may not match with your calendar if you are trying a foreign service), You should expect them to respond to any email within 24 hours. If they are professional they will do sooner than that, because its in their interests to make sure they are painting how you want them to.

Some services go beyond, and make themselves available to their customers in real time. If they're in your country or close to it you should expect to be able to call them during their working hours. Others will use instant messenger programs to offer "consult times" to customers, ideally several days a week. I recommend instant messenging, because its low impact, low cost way to exchange a great deal of information, you can save chat transcripts, and you will get to know who your painters really are.

A note on foreign services: just because they may be halfway around the world from you, doesn't mean they can't communicate with you in a timely manner. Indeed, if you go to bed when they wake up, then you can set up a great cycle where you suggest something, and when you wake up in the morning you have pictures in your inbox of what that looks like. This "warp speed" illusion is very satisfying for both clients and painters.

Service: Do they treat you as a resource or an obstacle?
They should also welcome your input. Discussing paint schemes goes beyond exchanging a few pictures and painting guides. You need to be able to email them random ideas and shoot off questions on the fly -- this is your army after all and you need to be able to feel as personal about it as if you painted it yourself. If they are brief, terse, or in anyway discouraging of your further emails and pictures, then they don't really understand the "service" part of painting service.

A good client, is one who sends their painting service a lot of information (it's their job to make sure they collect and sort it out). If you don't reply their emails for days or not at all though, then expect to find prices being hiked dramatically on you on future orders as they try and deter your business. However, if they aren't bothered that you don't have time to communicate with them, then they also aren't really that bothered about how you want your figures painted either. Avoid these sorts.

Handy Tip: The First Date! Getting a Sample Painted
Once you've found a service that offers you good pricing and is proud to display its work, its time to test them. Ten miniatures makes for a good sample, keep them from the same unit so you can test them for consistency. Make sure you include a character to see how well they can do these. Unless you play a smaller army like a Warmachine force of a Babylon Five fleet, don't expect how quickly they can turn this around to reflect how quickly they can paint a large order. They may take longer on your sample because they are working simultaneously on larger orders, or they may work faster on your sample to get it back to you before you go and find other things to buy...

Number Four: Relationships

Relationships: Are You a Name or an Account?
Sooner or later, customers start telling their painters about their various painting escapades, especially the bad ones. I like to joke that a painter is like a mistress, they know all about their dirty secrets sitting in up in the attic or entombed in jars of Simple Green. Now that you've found a painter who paints and works with you well - ask yourself, is there any evidence they actually care about you?

Some may feel this is irrelevant. No one in a DVD player factory needs to know anything about the person who finally receives their work. But if you had a factory filled with signed pictures of happy customers and framed snippets of their emailed praise, how do think that would effect the morale of the staff? And what would it do for the quality of the work they do if they knew exactly who was going to receive their work, and that they tucked their kid in at nine? Trust me, it makes a difference when your customers are real people.

A great sign that you are a name and not an account, is when your service offers to painting or make things for you for free. If you're sending someone a small army to get painted, they shouldn't see it as a problem to offer to a paint that limited edition Games Day figure you keep talking about that you've never had time to do anything about. They may tell you they would love to put a picture of it up on their site, but really, they just want to say thank you for picking them over the next act.

At the end of the day, business is about relationships. The beautiful thing about service businesses is that they are intensely personal, and allow for great relationship building. Don't be surprised if you find yourself advocating your painter to your friends, or sending them random links you find interesting. You've built a good relationship with them, and you probably know a great deal about each other's lives. Business, especially the service business, is all about dealing with people. If a painter doesn't like meeting and talking to people, they're simply not going to have the same passion to serve you as someone who does.

For the full version of this article, please visit: www.paintedfigs.com

About the Author: Lucas Como
Lucas Como is captain of Adepticon team BLOID, winners of Adepticon’s Best Team Appearance in 2005, Best Team Theme and Presentation 2006, his and models were included as part of the Best Team Appearance 2004 as well. Look for pictures of his award winning army in White Dwarf 311, US edition. This year he will be appearance judging at an Indy GT and FlatCon. Feel free to contact him about this article or his miniature painting company, paintedfigs.com, at orkboss@gmail.com .

About Paintedfigs.com
Paintedfigs.com is an US-Asian miniature painting service that offers quality miniature painting at affordable rates. Founded by gamer geek, Navin Weeraratne from Boston, Massachusetts, and run from the tropical island of Sri Lanka, its a 28mm paradise playground where we get paid to paint the latest minis and play 40k as "training." This year, paintedfigs.com is proud to be a painting service sponsor of Adepticon. You can visit our site at www.paintedfigs.com, or feel free to contact to the him at navin@paintedfigs.com .

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