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Today was the day. The day I first laid eyes upon not only my first Fire Raptor ever, but also MY Fire Raptor.
In consideration of the lack of reviews of known and not so well known painting studios, I write this review.
This "miniature", if one may call it that, was done as a Level 5 of 6 by Den of Imagination.
They are a studio based in Poland, and therefore of interest to us fellow Europeans.

While reading this review, keep in mind that this is my first comission ever, so I can only speak from this point of view.
Without further ado now, let's dive right into it.

The Beginning
After deciding that I want that Fire Raptor in my collection and army, I narrowed down my search of painters and finally landed with DoI. Taking a look at their prices, I guestimated what it MIGHT cost and requested a quote that entailed purchase, assembly, basing, painting, magnetising and shipping. In a rather short time, I got what I asked in a neat PDF file that listed all steps and prices. Luckily I hit a time window which made basing and assembly free - I also got a 3% discount due to the net worth of the quote.
They required a 50% deposit and gave a further ~5% off if I payed up front - which I did.
And so began the process of waiting for my model to hit my doorstep.

The Process
All in all, it took 7 weeks for the project to come to completion. Mind you, this is with FW shipping the item to Poland and then over to me - so not a huge timespan. They were pretty speedy with the project, and I think the rather small size allowed them to fit it in between larger armys.
Due to waiting for it to arrive in Poland, I got updates to tell me it was ordered and did not arrive yet - which was a good way to stay in contact and ease the pain on my F5 button
After having received the shipment, it took them a few days to assemble, on which completion I was notified again - with the information that painting would take place the same week.
Here is the point where I have to level the first critique:
The pictures I was sent didn't show me the entire model - I got now view of either the top, the rear or clear of the sides. They rather focused on a overall view and some of the highlights like it's wings. I also expected them to ask for more instructions than the simply "Ravenwing scheme" I gave in the quote request - but they did pretty much exactly what I'd have wanted anyway, so that is just nitpicking I just might have asked for more pictures, so it's more my mistake than theirs!
A minor change request later, which was done with the same speed, I gave permission to ship.
After a few days of silence I was a bit bummed about not hearing from them again, so I asked about the progress - which a few days later was answered with a tracking no. Yes, just the number and no link or info whatsoever on what service took the package. My google-fu was strong, so I figured that out myself - and to my horror found that it was bound to ship into the UK.
Now, you may have noticed the little flag up there that pretty much does not show the Union Jack. They admitted the mistake, made a promise of recompensation should they not be able to fix their error and went about to change the destination.
They delivered. The package arrived today at my house, eagerly awaited by me.

The Result
Now comes the meaty part.
All in all, the paintjob is a good one. No slops, crispy, the pattern on the wings is fab. The base is absolutely beautiful and matches the Raptor just phaenomenally.
The edge highlights might be a bit more crisp (or it's just my imagination, after all this is the first pro painted model I have ever seen in person, so beware of noobishness!)
Enough added details to make it ravenwing-ey, so all in all, it is a job I can be happy with.
But. There always has to be a but, doesn't there?
After taking a closer look I've removed the complaint about the not-so-fitting magnets.. after all it's goddamn difficult to place a magnet in a sphere!
The biggest problem is that they damaged and drilled through a Autocannon sensor. They placed the magnet inside and painted it's front black as not to be too obvious, so it's easy to miss - but this is not acceptable. The targeting sensors also has some missed detail - like the small secondary lense, which you can actually see in their shot of the autocannons. Maybe it was a casting error, you never know with resin, but in that case I'd expect some quick gs repair job.

The Verdict
In the end, the price was, I'd wager, about right. They were speedy with the project, the communication could be a TAD better, the paintjob overall is good with nearly no critique to level at it. I've added all the pictures they sent me as well as some I made (again, bad photography, but I hope it allows for some judgement).
8/10, would purge with.
Deductions for the the missed detail and most of all the damaged cannon (IF it was their fault) .
I will use their service again for future comissions (Sammael, I'm looking at you!)

Very cool

I always love that ball turret and the base is cool.

First off I just wanted to say this a very informative review and I think reviews are a good idea and this was nicely objective.

I won't ask how much you paid but i will comment on the paint job.

I think they did a very good job.

This kit is (in my opinion) one of FW's most problematic to build. It has all sorts of problems and I would hesitate to build one.

I think aside from minor damage to one of the autocannon sensors they appear to have done a good job with it and the fact it has been magnetised will have made the job more tricky.

I do agree they should have informed you of the autocannon sensor, but it may have not been their fault but yes they probably should have mentioned it.

However that build alone would have been a lot of work.

In terms of the paint job they did a really nice job.

Black is a tricky colour to do n vehicles and I think they controlled the air brush work very well, and got it looking black.

Edge highlights even at pro level won't always look crisp at close inspection but maybe in one or two areas they could have corrected but to be honest they did a good job.

Most painters will disguise edge highlight mistakes with a bit of battle damage but I think in this case the weathering and battle damage are about right.

I would say an 8/10 is a very fair score considering the postal error and i don't know how much you paid so can't say if it's value for money, but then again value for money is entirely subjective so I don't think needs to come into a review (unless you are unhappy with the service).

So I think the fact they built it, painted it and shipped it in 7 weeks is pretty good, and the paint job is top notch, or at least compared to other commission jobs I have seen.

Good review.

Thanks for the heads up!
And to be more clear: The did manage to change the shipping adress. it arrived at my place in a total of... letme check... 6 days, including the weekend. So another kudos to them for managing that feat.

I cought myself staring at it yesterday evening AND this morning sitting in my cabinet while brushing my teeth... It really is quite a looker. I might just add a lil dab of blue into the lense, that is something I can manage even with my skills

As for my satisfaction rating.. I just got another quote for some small stuff I asked for, so giving repeat business is the most honest compliment I can give

I can't help but compare how this painting company deals with customers and how the infamous BTP does. What a massive difference.. I think the result looks pretty darn awesome!

I think that's why this kind of review is important, and it's good that this was so objective.

It would be handy to have a thread similar to the rumour tracker where we can look at reviews for painting companies and make informed choices before committing to their services.

I know we have a lot of commission threads in the painting section but those for the most part seem to be started by the commission company.

However reviews will need to be objective and honest and I think this one is a very good example of how they should be done.

And I agree that repeat business is probably the best compliment you can give.

Oh you....

A thread like that would indeed be good, but quite a bit of work to keep up to date. If we can get more people to write reviews, we might even get a subforum in the P&M section...?

I had some work done by DOI about a year ago maybe a bit more; a sculpting commission meant to be given as a gift and i'm going to be honest and say i would not go back to them again. I placed the order at the end of august and it arrived the day before Christmas eve, unfinished and badly done. It was nowhere near the standard of the other sculpts they used for advertising, and for a little under £100 i was not much pleased. Their painting work is ok, but i would be weary of getting much else from them if there are better alternatives around.

It does look like they've improved in the year since, but i do not wish to gamble my money on that. Looking at the pictures i would say the joins between parts, especially noticeable on the nose, could do with a bit more cleaning up and a drop of GS to fill it. A good paint job can be marred when the model beneath has issues with construction.

markond wrote:
I had some work done by DOI about a year ago maybe a bit more; a sculpting commission meant to be given as a gift and i'm going to be honest and say i would not go back to them again. I placed the order at the end of august and it arrived the day before Christmas eve, unfinished and badly done. It was nowhere near the standard of the other sculpts they used for advertising, and for a little under £100 i was not much pleased. Their painting work is ok, but i would be weary of getting much else from them if there are better alternatives around.

It does look like they've improved in the year since, but i do not wish to gamble my money on that. Looking at the pictures i would say the joins between parts, especially noticeable on the nose, could do with a bit more cleaning up and a drop of GS to fill it. A good paint job can be marred when the model beneath has issues with construction.

This happened a long time ago.

This was our reply:

Date 2013-22-12

"Den of Imagination 12/22/2013
To: XXXXXXXXXX

Sir,

First of all I apologize for the inconvenience. We have 2 contracted sculptors both did models like Horus or Perturabo. Please keep in mind that all of these sculpts are hand made and will never be 100% perfect like the printed versions from 3d programs.

Nonetheless our clients satisfaction is the most important part of the commission and we need to fix the damage here.

I can offer you that we will resculpt the face and hanging plates. This is of course free of charge but you would have to send the model back to us.

After that we will send you more photos and maybe a short video to be double sure of the final result.

You are our first unsatisfied customer and we would like to to handle that case best way possible.

Once again I apologize for the problem.

Best wishes,
Michael"

markond wrote:

Looking at the pictures i would say the joins between parts, especially noticeable on the nose, could do with a bit more cleaning up and a drop of GS to fill it. A good paint job can be marred when the model beneath has issues with construction.

Fair enough. It should/may have been done, but honestly, considering the price I paid I'd wager they had about a "budget" from maybe 35h total on this model. It is fairly big and hard to assemble and the paintjob itself is good. Some gap filling would have helped, but with this model being as "edgy" as is and it being no display quality I don't think it really distracts from the model. I feel every hour I paid for was invested in the model - and what more can one ask?
Since DoI is active and knows of this thread (I sent them the link just for this purpose, and they shared it in their FB so they agree to some extend with my view at least) we will see if things change in this regard.
Knowing what your customer likes and does not like is not as otiose in this niché as some people believe

 Thairne wrote:
I feel every hour I paid for was invested in the model - and what more can one ask?

So long as you're happy with it what more can you ask for really. I'm glad you got something that made you happy and can be fielded with pride.

I didn't take them up on the resculpt offer simply because it was too late, it was a christmas present for someone and not enough time remained to get it back to them and redone. I made an attempt to fix it myself sanding out the irregularities in the gs, and giving it a quick airbrush over. In the end i was still not happy, even after my cleanup it was still really badly flawed. So I bought the person it was intended for a last minute gift and buried the model in my bitsbox. My biggest complaint other than the GS needing a little more care was that even a cursory glance would show the face was lopsided. I've made an album for people to decide for themselves if i'm being too harsh or not, keep in mind this is after my attempts should that sway your opinion: http://imgur.com/a/3hETp#16

markond wrote:

 Thairne wrote:
I feel every hour I paid for was invested in the model - and what more can one ask?

So long as you're happy with it what more can you ask for really. I'm glad you got something that made you happy and can be fielded with pride.

I didn't take them up on the resculpt offer simply because it was too late, it was a christmas present for someone and not enough time remained to get it back to them and redone. I made an attempt to fix it myself sanding out the irregularities in the gs, and giving it a quick airbrush over. In the end i was still not happy, even after my cleanup it was still really badly flawed. So I bought the person it was intended for a last minute gift and buried the model in my bitsbox. My biggest complaint other than the GS needing a little more care was that even a cursory glance would show the face was lopsided. I've made an album for people to decide for themselves if i'm being too harsh or not, keep in mind this is after my attempts should that sway your opinion: http://imgur.com/a/3hETp#16

If you decided to not give the model away I would had taken DOI up on their offer, better to just have them fix it for free rather then just have it laying around collecting dust. But maybe that's just me..

I took a look at the pictures you posted. Not sure what it's supposed to be but it definitely doesn't look good. What ever it is.. I've seen allot of DOI work and I think their paint jobs are fething awesome, but perhaps not their sculpting..

It should never have been sent out in that quality in the first place, a cursory check over would have alerted them to the fact it had been botched. It was too late to be given as a gift, and i really didn't want to pay more shipping on top of what i had already paid to send it half way across europe in the hope that it wouldn't return to me in an equally awful condition. If that boat had not sailed a long time ago i might consider sending it back if only to get it to who it was meant to go to all along, i just have little faith it would be any better now than it was a year ago.

Also it was supposed to be a wraithlord reforged in the image of a dark eldar incubi.

Just to be clear how does it look from our side.

Free of charge means that we cover the shipping cost. Furthermore with dozens of commissions proceeding at once in our studio there might and probably will happen some mistakes. Our job is to avoid them but if they happen - to fix them best possible way. All clients can always ask for more photos or a video before accepting the final product.

Over the last year we had one similar case with an unhappy customer. We've covered the shipping cost and repaint the part that was in question. The repair took around 2 weeks and the unhappy client became our regular and happy client

 Bania wrote:
Just to be clear how does it look from our side.

Free of charge means that we cover the shipping cost. Furthermore with dozens of commissions proceeding at once in our studio there might and probably will happen some mistakes. Our job is to avoid them but if they happen - to fix them best possible way. All clients can always ask for more photos or a video before accepting the final product.

Over the last year we had one similar case with an unhappy customer. We've covered the shipping cost and repaint the part that was in question. The repair took around 2 weeks and the unhappy client became our regular and happy client

Again I just want t say that your paint jobs are unreal, they are so insanely good! But that sculpture is horrible.. It's not something anyone would pay for, and in that case I would probably expect a full refund offer. I mean I couldn't even see what it was supposed to look like. I couldn't even guess it.

Don't want to drag this furthermore on the post about the Raptor but I feel that I should show our photos of this commission.

First draft: (EDIT)


And after I believe around 4-5 changes to the horns and head we agreed on this: (EDIT)


IMHO the commission cost, number of changes to it and the final result is not that bad. But on the other hand I'm not impartial here

I've also found a photo of one of the commissioned parts - Incubi Sword for Wraithlord. It was missing from the gallery above - http://on.fb.me/1235XBZ

Have a great weekend,
Michael
DOI

 Bania wrote:
It was missing from the gallery above

I no longer have it to photograph, a friend laid claim to it for a scenery project.

 Thairne wrote:

markond wrote:

Looking at the pictures i would say the joins between parts, especially noticeable on the nose, could do with a bit more cleaning up and a drop of GS to fill it. A good paint job can be marred when the model beneath has issues with construction.

Fair enough. It should/may have been done, but honestly, considering the price I paid I'd wager they had about a "budget" from maybe 35h total on this model. It is fairly big and hard to assemble and the paintjob itself is good. Some gap filling would have helped, but with this model being as "edgy" as is and it being no display quality I don't think it really distracts from the model. I feel every hour I paid for was invested in the model - and what more can one ask?
Since DoI is active and knows of this thread (I sent them the link just for this purpose, and they shared it in their FB so they agree to some extend with my view at least) we will see if things change in this regard.
Knowing what your customer likes and does not like is not as otiose in this niché as some people believe

The Fire Raptor is a pain to assemble. It took me a couple weeks of green stuff work to get the fuselage seams hidden. The large resin pieces were pretty warped and had bad edges everywhere. Luckily mine is a 40k Death Guard unit, so I just put some rust on a few spots with visible imperfections. I probably wouldnt buy another one.

Good review (of what looks to me a good professional paint job)

I like the final result (and the base is a nice touch too)


for what is reputed to be a tricky FW build (I've no personal experience to dispute this) I think you and the studio did well

 Bania wrote:
IMHO the commission cost, number of changes to it and the final result is not that bad. But on the other hand I'm not impartial here

I looked back through my skype logs for the bill, all totaled it was £126 for the commission. The only change i asked for was when they made a mistake from the brief and designs I gave them and asked them to correct the horns and plates to match what i originally gave them. That's for three parts, two of which were an unfinished mess.

I merely wanted to say this a very informative review and reviews make the perfect idea this also was nicely objective.

markond wrote:

 Bania wrote:
IMHO the commission cost, number of changes to it and the final result is not that bad. But on the other hand I'm not impartial here

I looked back through my skype logs for the bill, all totaled it was £126 for the commission. The only change i asked for was when they made a mistake from the brief and designs I gave them and asked them to correct the horns and plates to match what i originally gave them. That's for three parts, two of which were an unfinished mess.

you havnt convinced me of much except that you dont know how to take a picture. 126 include model price?

Well one must admit the helmet looks a bit shrewd.

On a sidenote, while the Raptor was beautiful on the table, it performed absolutely horrendous. Might be the New-Model-Syndrome, me forgetting the Strafing Run USR, it coming in at a near-already-lost time in T3 or general bad dice or just general inexperience with flyers - but gawd it did nearly nothing

I expect my next comission from DoI to arrive at their place within the week (Lvl 5 Sammael and Librarian with swappable Force Weapons). I will do the same kind of review in here too, but so far I think I can shorten it a bit since the experience of working with them is just the same. If the paint job holds up (what I do not doubt) it will basically read the same

 Thairne wrote:

I expect my next comission from DoI to arrive at their place within the week (Lvl 5 Sammael and Librarian with swappable Force Weapons). I will do the same kind of review in here too, but so far I think I can shorten it a bit since the experience of working with them is just the same. If the paint job holds up (what I do not doubt) it will basically read the same

So, I'm wondering--and don't take this necessarily as a criticism-- is this the clever way to go about getting a commission done?

1. Post relatively favorable review of finished commission.
2. Inform the artist of the post.
3. Get another commission done by same artist.
4. Artist is now aware that a thread exists where their work will be shown.
5. Artist maybe is a bit more diligent and throws in a few extras for another positive review.
6. OP profits.

Blue Table Painting got a bit of a black eye, so another poster commissions their work to prove the criticism is umwarranted. If the artist knows he's being watched, is it an accurate portrayal of their work?

You're right, BUUUUT:
They weren't aware that I'll do a review and post it here. So their first work was neutral with no... "incentives".
The difference here is that the BTP thread was done before the commission is done.
I wrote mine after holding the Raptor with my very own hands (as proven by the bad pictures I snapped with my cell).
So if I get the same level of work done like I did previously - what did change? I expect nothing more or less than what others get with their lvl 5 comission and what I got with my lvl 5 comission.
A good review is always automatically kind of an advert, as the opposite is true for a negative review. And, after all a review is a review - they should know what their customer thinks about their service.


I'm aware of the whole Tenebre and Moff3l condondrum and it is a sad thing turned well in the end (at least for Ten).

 Thairne wrote:
You're right, BUUUUT:
They weren't aware that I'll do a review and post it here. So their first work was neutral with no... "incentives".
The difference here is that the BTP thread was done before the commission is done.
I wrote mine after holding the Raptor with my very own hands (as proven by the bad pictures I snapped with my cell).
So if I get the same level of work done like I did previously - what did change? I expect nothing more or less than what others get with their lvl 5 comission and what I got with my lvl 5 comission.
A good review is always automatically kind of an advert, as the opposite is true for a negative review. And, after all a review is a review - they should know what their customer thinks about their service.


I'm aware of the whole Tenebre and Moff3l condondrum and it is a sad thing turned well in the end (at least for Ten).

Certainly, there are no real parallels to your situation and the BTP thing. I was just pointing out that it's rather clever to go about things the way I posted. I'm also not implying any impropriety on your part. In fact, intended or not, it's a sly way to go about getting an additional piece commissioned if you were happy with the initial product: it almost guarantees the next job will be as good or better.

Or, if the studio is as good as they are, you will get that anyway Sometimes you just like what you get and come back for more

All these suspicions can be eradicated by one simple thing: more reviews. They really help everyone... Studios get feedback on their work, potential customers get an estimate on what a studio can do and the reviewers won't benefit from it anymore since there are so many reviews out there that singling out clients that take 10 minutes to post in a forum is not relevant anymore
So go on, we need more reviews on studios and painters!

I don't think that applies in this case. There are gak loads of pictures of DOI awesome work out there.

It think it's pretty lame some guy who had his situation resolved some time before the OP even ORDERED this job decides to post his poorly written criticism (filled with plot holes the size of a planet) in the thread.

That all having been said, I've had to build one of these stupid things for a friend; well done. True, the nose does have need some work, but overall the thing is amazing, 8/10 is definitely a fair score in my eyes.

Quick update:
They completed my follow up comission of a Lvl 5 Librarian and a Lvl 5 Sammael.
I'll go more indepth with my experiences with this order once I can see the minis in person, but so far it looks promising.