Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Here is a video review of my chaos dwarf army and my experience with Blue Table Painting. Please watch and heed as a warning as well.
Chaos Dwarf Review

Follow the repaint blog here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/624649.page#7382552

LINK TO NEW THREAD:

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/714878.page

Sucks, dude. BTP don't have a good rep, why'd you use them?

Lol I'm wondering how much they charged you for this Please don't bypass the language like this. Reds8n ...
It's under BASE standard. The osl looks horrible disgusting. All looks horrible.... don't worth any penny to paint stuff like that. I will feel shame to show smth like that! I'm painting sometimes for my friends without charging them or taking just few penny for working time and it's looks way more better...
On your place I'll want to get my money back. Rly.
Stay strong dude.
Cheers

winterdyne wrote:
Sucks, dude. BTP don't have a good rep, why'd you use them?

I have been away from the scene for many years but i remembered them being great. And honestly I had a hard time finding any other company in the states. Sending over $2000 worth of figs overseas was not an option. And they assured me they could do what i wanted.
I could not find any negative reviews, so i figured they were good. And they did a CD army a while back that looked cool, but they were selling that themselves so i guess they spent time on it.

Stateside, GMM have an excellent reputation; I believe Brandon's normally booked up for around a year or so ahead (most good places are). Quite how he finds time for those AdeptiCon displays he does is beyond me. Possibly he's some kind of insane time-travelling insomniac.

Great video. Sorry you had such a bad experience with those guys.

That sucks man. Sorry. Glad I never used that service, because I've thought about it. (I usually do all my own work, but had commission jobs done while I was deployed)

I have to point out (and I haven't watched the entirety of the video to see if you already got it) but the basing is just some cork painted black. That's it. When I lay down cork on a base, it gets primed, and then on goes a layer of texture paint, so it doesn't LOOK like cork, and then away I go with details, washes, etc...
Inexcusable for what was a costly paint job.
Looks like they're just assembly lining with no continuity just to rake in bucks.

Thanks for posting this; there's far better services out there that people will be able to use.

Feel sorry for you dude, hope you can fix them up or have them fixed up for you

at one point i considered comissioning them too, after your video i'm not so sure.

BTP is far too hit-and-miss to use, imo... thanks for sharing your experience.

That's really disappointing, man. The figures look nice, but not for being professionally commissioned. Also, the handling time is abysmal. Crappy way to find out, but I guess live and learn on using BTP

That's a pity, as those Forgeworld CD's are stunning. Hope it all works out in the end.

On a side note, I recognise you from your previous line of work.

Wow that really sucks. How much did you pay? You said in the video it coated what 4x the cost of the models alone just for the painting?

The models don't look to bad but I think that the cost of them painting and them always being late (I have heard this around before) really sucks and makes it not worth it.

I will be painting my army myself haha

tenebre, PM sent.

As winterdyne suggested, GMM is great as is Garden Ninja Studios.

There are plenty of quality paint studios in the US. I used BTP about 10 years back and had some initial successes with them, but subsequent commissions went south and I avoid them now entirely. I wouldn't recommend their paint service to anyone, but their assembly/conversion services seem solid. I can't comment on their turn around time, as its been a decade since I used them and I doubt anyone but Shawn is still part of the operation from that far back.

I too was strongly considering having them do some work for me. Glad you posted a video. Sorry you spent good money on that.

I will be honest I didn't watch all the video and this was mainly due to the close ups, they were always being shown to the bottom of the camera and I couldn't see what was actually wrong.

I do have one question though, why did you pay for it if you weren't happy? I have had commission work done before now and I get detailed 360 pictures sent before any cash exchanges hands. It's pretty obvious the Lamasu (spell?) wasn't up to scratch so why not just tell them you don't believe that is level 4 and detail what you expect to see using the examples on there site to back up your claim.

 PastelAvenger wrote:
I will be honest I didn't watch all the video and this was mainly due to the close ups, they were always being shown to the bottom of the camera and I couldn't see what was actually wrong.

I do have one question though, why did you pay for it if you weren't happy? I have had commission work done before now and I get detailed 360 pictures sent before any cash exchanges hands. It's pretty obvious the Lamasu (spell?) wasn't up to scratch so why not just tell them you don't believe that is level 4 and detail what you expect to see using the examples on there site to back up your claim.

He explained in the video. You have to pay 65% up front, if you refuse to pay the rest they sell off your stuff, keeping what they make and the 65%.

 PastelAvenger wrote:
I will be honest I didn't watch all the video and this was mainly due to the close ups, they were always being shown to the bottom of the camera and I couldn't see what was actually wrong.

I do have one question though, why did you pay for it if you weren't happy? I have had commission work done before now and I get detailed 360 pictures sent before any cash exchanges hands. It's pretty obvious the Lamasu (spell?) wasn't up to scratch so why not just tell them you don't believe that is level 4 and detail what you expect to see using the examples on there site to back up your claim.

He goes into it in the video.

Apparently they want a 65% deposit upfront. Their "work" is subject to such extensive delays that your paypal window is closed before they are done your project in many cases. There seems to be a worry that getting back your army if you don't pay might be difficult and it might be sold to someone else.

This is just the latest in a string of really bad experiences I've seen people have with BTP. The "quality" they are painting is deplorable for the prices they are requesting.

I appreciate your taking the time to make this video to help others see what they might be getting into.

Which I'm sure is illegal. Or at least should be.

 PastelAvenger wrote:
I will be honest I didn't watch all the video and this was mainly due to the close ups, they were always being shown to the bottom of the camera and I couldn't see what was actually wrong.

I do have one question though, why did you pay for it if you weren't happy? I have had commission work done before now and I get detailed 360 pictures sent before any cash exchanges hands. It's pretty obvious the Lamasu (spell?) wasn't up to scratch so why not just tell them you don't believe that is level 4 and detail what you expect to see using the examples on there site to back up your claim.

Yeah, he addresses this towards the end of the video.

If anyone is looking for a good stateside studio for commission work, I recommend Stiff Neck Studio.
They do quality work and were very good regarding updates and input for the direction of the job they were paid for.
They have also donated armies for auction to past NOVA Opens, for reference as to armies you may have seen.

PayPal just changed to 180 days for disputes though, so I'd look into that if your in that timeframe.

paypal wont take the dispute because its too old.

The close ups are by request of the Chaos Dwarf online forum

I did explain the pictures, It takes a week to get a picture and 360 pics never happen. I could not even get pictures of each model when i asked. I refused the models 3 times and still could not get pictures that i requested. I gave up and paid the last installment so i could at least get the models back. It literally took 10 days to get the hats painted on the war machine crew and get a picture.

Out of interest, how much did they charge for the "level 6" on the Drazhoath the Ashen (big bull thingy)?

I got a level 5 hero painted by BTP once. And his retinue painted at level 4. On both minis they didn't stay inside the lines when it came to details. On pretty much anything. I was shocked that they actually, for example, painted the nail on a clenched fist further up the finger, leaving the actual nail painted the color of the skin. Still, that's not the worst part of BTP.

The worst part was the customer service. I gave them concise and well formatted instructions and they half listened, apparently if you say "different colors" they just don't even bother and paint them all the same color anyway. When I called to correct the order they told me to just give them my address and they'd send them out. At that point my confidence in them was shot and I just complied and they sent over my models. I had to basically repaint them all myself.

P.S. Don't ask them to paint gemstones either, they don't. They'll paint it 2 colors that leak off the gem and call it a day. If they even paint it at all. Some of them were just left as black blotches that covered not only the gem but the surrounding area.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:
tenebre, PM sent.

I wouldn't recommend their paint service to anyone, but their assembly/conversion services seem solid.

If that was ever good it isn't anymore. I had them assemble 1 miniature, the hero I mentioned earlier. He had 2 weapon options, and I specified which one I wanted. That's right, they didn't listen AND got it wrong. I feel like even if you don't listen there's still that chance that you'll use the right one by accident, but I guess I got unlucky twice in a row. It makes me wonder if they wanted the same weapon to use as a bit, which they did keep as a bit, by the way. They keep all the bits unless you specify otherwise. Just kidding, that's just what they tell you. I specified otherwise and they still didn't send them.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Out of interest, how much did they charge for the "level 6" on the Drazhoath the Ashen (big bull thingy)?

about $250

tenebre wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Out of interest, how much did they charge for the "level 6" on the Drazhoath the Ashen (big bull thingy)?

about $250

Jesus.Is this something you can take them to small claims court for? I assume you have emails of your conversations. I feel like there's a point where it goes beyond "yeah, just deal with it" to "this is a lot of money". Also, I believe Paypal changed their limit to 180 days now, not sure if that affects your payment

tenebre wrote:
paypal wont take the dispute because its too old.

Talk to your credit card company and report it as a case of fraud and extortion (holding your models hostage for the remaining 35%). With a little luck the bank will take your side because they want to keep the customer happy and don't care about the business, and they'll reverse the transaction. Alternatively, consider suing them if they won't give you a refund. If their work is clearly below the promised standards and their business is clearly designed around "take long enough that the dispute window closes and the customer can't do anything about our scam" the court might side with you, or BTP might just give you a refund because it's cheaper than paying their lawyers to deal with you.

Have you sent them the email yet and if so how did they respond?

O dear :O
I hope they fix it all up for you mate.

Wow, what an experience! I was actually thinking about having a few things worked on and was looking at them to do it. Only because I've never had a commission job done and they were the ones that first came to mind. A lot of it looks like lazy, rushed work. If they were ever a good painting service, they seem to have lost their heart.

If I were you I would find a way to dispute this. I can understand not wanting to - feeling like you won something just by getting your stuff back. But someone needs to give BTP a bug up their ass so they change their ways. I can't believe they basically hold your minis ransom!?!?