I would like to know of any of you out there on dakka have had any bad experiences with the painting service worthy painting .
I was first inspired to start in this hobby because I came across there YouTube channel last year .
So in November I placed an order as I'm hoping that these models are goin to look great . I looked at there web page which goes through telling you what you should expect from them . Eg updates on how your project is doing and project times are usually 8 to 10 weeks . So as I said my order was in November now I didn't get any weekly updates and I have been calling up to see how they are getting on . Getting through to somebody is a challenge in itself . Now I paid a lot of the cost when I first ordered and is only a small amount to pay when I collect . So to not hear from them is slightly worrying . I have now been promised my models on two occasions . The first time I rang to check before I left only to be told they have not been painted yet to be then promised for this weekend . This weekend came and nobody answered the phone and I still cannot get an answer from them . Has anybody else had a bad experience like mine ?

Sorry, I haven't used them so can't comment, but you'll have more chance of someone replying to this if you repost in Dakka Discussions. You'll get a lot more views there.

Wow yer I'm in the same boat I'm still waiting for a order since November and up till the last couple of months they were terrible at communicating . I have to say they know are getting back to me quickly when I email them (Lisa) has been very good . How ever the time it has taken is terrible they have taken on to much with their new shop I think . Where maybe they just should have stuck to what they are very very very good at . I'm still hopeful that my project will be amazing and all the pain will be worth it. I would say that BTP are a better bet the service is out of this world and I've had 2 projects done in the time it has taken WP . This is sad because I would prefer to support home grown studios. Fingers crossed for you .


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Wow yer I'm in the same boat I'm still waiting for a order since November and up till the last couple of months they were terrible at communicating . I have to say they know are getting back to me quickly when I email them (Lisa) has been very good . How ever the time it has taken is terrible they have taken on to much with their new shop I think . Where maybe they just should have stuck to what they are very very very good at . I'm still hopeful that my project will be amazing and all the pain will be worth it. I would say that BTP are a better bet the service is out of this world and I've had 2 projects done in the time it has taken WP . This is sad because I would prefer to support home grown studios. Fingers crossed for you .


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Wow yer I'm in the same boat I'm still waiting for a order since November and up till the last couple of months they were terrible at communicating . I have to say they know are getting back to me quickly when I email them (Lisa) has been very good . How ever the time it has taken is terrible they have taken on to much with their new shop I think . Where maybe they just should have stuck to what they are very very very good at . I'm still hopeful that my project will be amazing and all the pain will be worth it. I would say that BTP are a better bet the service is out of this world and I've had 2 projects done in the time it has taken WP . This is sad because I would prefer to support home grown studios. Fingers crossed for you .

When going for commission work I'd always advise placing a small scale exploratory order first. You get to have a first hand look at their overall quality for a relatively small sum. If you do keep it small scale you become aware of their pro's and con's without the huge risk of sinking a lot of money, and time, into a bigger order.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing I suppose. Good luck with the order.

Two weeks later I've a finally been able to talk to somebody on the phone , they were now very apologetic
I must say the staff are always friendly on the phone . I have now been promised them for this weekend fingers crosses
I shall keep you updated ,


How are you getting on with your commission ? I really like worthy painting so it's sad that they have had trouble sorting my order

Friday has arrived and worthy painting have not answered any of my phone calls . Looks like I could be set for another week's wait ?

If I knew that I would be getting my miniatures by a certain date I would not mind too much
But I feel like worthy painting have messed me around a lot . Which has been very inconvenient .

Well worthy painting answered there phone on Friday afternoon and said somebody was just finishing my minis off
Picked them yesterday . Overall I have been really disappointed in my dealing with worthy painting !
And I'm not really impressed with the minis either . Big let down . When you pay £ 320 pounds for 2 stop pods you expect them to be awesome and also painted how you asked . With no sloppyness! Very angry with that !

£320 for 2 drop pods? Internals all done too? Pics?

320 bucks for two drop pods you say?
That's a ridiculous price tag if you ask me.

Not ridiculous if the internals are done as well, and the quality isn't too bad. They're big kits and take a lot of work, even if their points value isn't high. I'd be looking at a price starting at £175 per pod (inside & out), depending on scheme. Interested to see what the quality you got is though.

Yeah . I'm not to bothered about paying that . Just that it been rushed and isn't how I asked it for . I'm on my phone at the moment and don't know how to upload pics . One of them has lots of scratches on and looks a little battered . On the other hand my legion of the jammed models are cool !

Sounds unfortunate :( Got any pics of what you got?

drop pod pictures


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if you have a look at the pics full size , you should be able to see the scratch marks on them , i dont know what is all over the doors but looks bad !


", my ultramarines are fairly darker than usual, as for the drop pod colour scheme I would like it similar to the box cover and the pictures in there Codex with the black and yellow stripes along the inside of the doors, also if you check out marneus Augustus calgars YouTube channel that's mac from red steels channel , he has a vid of a luna wolves drop pod and I would like the weathering and scotch marks similar to that , possibly some of the light blue around the engine on the top I imagine that it would be glowing after a decent through the atmosphere haha, I've added a picture of a thunderhawk too because I like the idea with the white line but I don't know how to incorporate it into my drop drop maybe see what the painterthinks? Cheers"

"Ps, can I have virtually no chipping effect on the model and magnatized doors please thanks"

"Hi Dean,
Thats fine. We can get a pretty good idea of what to go with. If we need any more info we will contact you.

Kind regards,"


there are some of our conversations , so my ultramarines drop pods are blue , thats about all you have to tell that they are ultramarines . no insignia , no white at all and no blue source lighting ,
i would have at least expected the sides of the drop pod to be painted silver as per the codex . and some of the inside detail usually the green on the console.
the doors are also not magnatized . although if this would have cost more i would not have minded , but i was not contacted ! pretty much have not got what i asked for im upset about this and
that i had to literally ring non stop for days to get a answer . no email updates either !


oh and one is missing its engines ha

The outside is bland but looks good at least. Maybe it's just the photo but the interior looks kind of awful to me. I don't think it would be hard for you to repaint at least the inside to a better quality than they did.

They're alright, but hardly breathtaking. I'm having a hard time understanding how they can charge £320 for this. Were the two kits at least included in that price? I have a lot of respect for a lot of commission painters, for the standard they can achieve in a certain period of time. But these cannot have taken that long and I really don't think the standard is unattainable by your average hobbyist.


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Just noticed the engines. This is poor.

Not good, that.

Yeah that was including the drop pods so 280 labour !

When I asked for my high end table stuff to me that would be on the table and people thing yeah that's cool
So I would want to look at it not me mediocre

The standard lf painting I can put up with . But not getting what I asked for is rubbish !

I try not to critique other commission painters, as I have my own dog in this ring and don't want to come across as trying to muddy the competition, but the lack of engines on the one Drop Pod and the incomplete interiors are pretty bad. The painting is fine on the exteriors, but the interiors look they were just basecoated with Boltgun Metal.

Did you give Worthy a reasonable deadline? Commission services are very eager to get new jobs, and they can sometimes get overly-optimistic about how fast they can get a job done, which could explain the rushed nature of these paintjobs. Worthy Painting normally do really great work, so I'm kinda surprised by this thread.

~Tim?

I ordered them in November and picked them up last weekend I was originally told 8-10 weeks , what a joke

Dang. There's a chance they gave your job to a newly-hired painter, but I can't really see them doing that as you requested OSL and insignia/magnets, and I doubt they'd trust that kinda work to an untested employee. That is one of the dangers of multiple-painter studios - you can get very varied results from what is shown online, depending on the age of photographs. Still, services like Worth are usually a lot faster. Blue Table Painting, for example, is crazy fast, and I think Golem painting studio is known for speed as well.

~Tim?

Yeah I took those pictures as straight away

From the stuff I've seen out of Worthy Painting, this is way below their usual standard. Usually they put out some fantastic stuff, but this looks like it was rushed. It's possible they had a lot on their plate and had to put your project aside in favor of other, bigger projects. When you started to hound them about it (rightfully so), they probably rushed it out as quickly as possible after realizing how much of a delay there had been.

Having contacted these guys personally in the past and knowing many who have dealt with them, they are not in the business of ripping people off and are very friendly chaps. They usually put out some great stuff and I'm sure if you contacted them with your displeasure they'd try to work something out.

 Darth Bob wrote:
From the stuff I've seen out of Worthy Painting, this is way below their usual standard. Usually they put out some fantastic stuff, but this looks like it was rushed. It's possible they had a lot on their plate and had to put your project aside in favor of other, bigger projects. When you started to hound them about it (rightfully so), they probably rushed it out as quickly as possible after realizing how much of a delay there had been.

Having contacted these guys personally in the past and knowing many who have dealt with them, they are not in the business of ripping people off and are very friendly chaps. They usually put out some great stuff and I'm sure if you contacted them with your displeasure they'd try to work something out.

Yeah, totally agreed here. They seem like a very, well, "Worthy", company. I've always heard good things about them and seen good results from people I know that have had work done by them in the past. I bet if you did your best to contact them and let your problems be known, they'd be happy to help.

~Tim?

Yeah . It is a shame because worthy painting is what got my in to this hobby in the first place , stumbling across the YouTube channel .

I might try to email nick but it's just hard work ggetting in touch with them

Man I'm real sorry to hear this. I don't paint my own stuff but I do hire a local guy to paint so I know the excitement of getting something painted and wanting it the way you want it... With the price tag they tossed on these models you should have gotten something amazing. My guy charges way less and does amazing work. I haven't taken a gander at their work, but it sounds like their usually pretty awesome.

As far as the pods go... Like I said I'm a pretty terrible painter, but I feel I could have matched this paint job. I would def get in contact with them and see what happened.

The exterior is good, if not amazing or anything special.
The inside is just a big letdown tbh.... the missing engine parts are the worst
350pounds for this gacked-up job is just ridiculous

I've never put together a drop pod, so I'm not sure how they look pre-painted, but I was wondering something about the doors...

Where the insignias are supposed to be, am I seeing blemishes where they poorly filed off the insignias or is that weathering made to look like someone removed the insignias?

I guess what I'm asking is whether the insignias are molded to the doors, normally?

Also, the lack of engines on the bottom, and the overall lack of shading in the interior is a damn shame.

However, if you're hoping for Worthy to fix it or refund some of the money, complaining on Dakka and not contacting them is a poor way to do it. They may surprise you, in a good way, with how they fix it.

Then again, they could just rattlecan the whole thing Army Painter Ultramarine Blue and call it a day.

The insignia are not molded on, you get several you can glue on
OP: did you contact worthy painting about the pods?

It's an ok start.

My guess is they wasted too much time edge highlighting all that crap. Since each one is a pentagon that's a ridiculous ammount of edge highlighting.

Yeah, I think you deserve a refund man, those don't look bad but 280 quid, no. Those guys are jerks and I'm really sorry they ripped you off.

walkiflalka wrote:
Yeah, I think you deserve a refund man, those don't look bad but 280 quid, no. Those guys are jerks and I'm really sorry they ripped you off.

That's overreacting a bit. I think they basically followed his instructions - they tried to follow the scheme on the box. The pods just need some ultramarines decals to finish them off and maybe a blue wash on the interior.

By saying you want no weathering and to follow the scheme on the box you are greatly limiting the painter. Just saying.

that said, 500 US for the pair is too much. you overpaid. If you have that kind of cash to throw around i'm wondering why you didnt just go to coolminiornot and track down one of the crazy awesome painters on there.

No I said I wanted lots of weathering but no chipping effect . I'm going to contact nick and see what he says as he may not have even seen the quality of this and he does seem like a nice guy . All of the worthy painting guys have been friendly .

I also don't expect a refund . I have no problem paying that much for the pair as some other posters have said that price is about right .

Just that I've been given something that's not how I asked , if you pick up a Codex it's differs t to what these are .
As in the interior is painted and the outsides are silver along the edges .


I'm in two minds weather to contact nick . To leave it and not deal with worthy anymore .
It's hard work contacting them to begin with . I have simply posted this as I was getting nowere trying to find out how long my minis were going to be

Thanks for the replies guys

I work with a commission painter who painted two drop pods for me for 90. The quality was better than this.

My advice is to find a commission painter you can work with and pay them well. The guy I work with is an absolute diamond and he is just about to finish my tau. I am gonna drop him a bonus because his prices are good, he is reliable and paints good tabletop quality miniatures.

In relation to worthy they are normally very good, but too rich for me. He wanted about 1.5k to paint my elysians. I got them done for 750 in the end and they are great.

I would 100% complain to them, this is not worth what you paid.

Hey nserviceofultramar

Please contact me at info@worthypainting.com if there has been a problem. I sure we can sort this out.
I am sorry for any compilations with this order.
I believe it was not £280 for 2 drop pods but there where some Legion of the Damned also?

I am more than happy to work with you to get this sorted and make sure you are happy with your commission.

Regards
Nick

cheers nick , i have emailed you back

but the price was actually £160 each for the drop pods , and £115 for the legion of the dammed

Ga've nick my number but he has not been in touch yet, I'll keep you updated as to the oh come guys

I saw the quality of their paint jobs last year on Miniwargaming and was so impressed I decided to have them paint up an HQ for me. I commissioned a Blood Ravens Terminator Captain last September and have yet to receive it. While I can attest that they are extremely pleasant when you finally get a reply, it's extremely disappointing to have a 9 month(and counting) turn around time for a single model.

Holy flip a frickin table.. 320 pounds wow... Not to disrespect them or nothing of course. Just strange..

September ! I would be ringing them everyday ! . I think nick had just replied on here to make worthy painting look batter because so far i have had no response ! Looks like many people are having a terrible time with worthy

I'm debating weather to make a YouTube video to show people the service I have had
Every time somebody searched worthy painting it would give them the real perspective

I feel sorry for people spending mega money on minis only to be sorely disappointed

Still no reply!

inserviceofultramar wrote:
Still no reply!

Ouch

interesting to see this been brought up I used to work with them (I did the lamenters and the titans for the give away plus a few other bits) suffice to say I no longer work with them.... I seemed to spend all my time chasing them for payment wasn't a good way to work :-(

that said I've gone my won way and do commission work now...... how's that for a shameless plug!! :-P

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/514200.page

You were scammed. The quality is amateur and the price professional. I would throw this up as a warning if I hear anyone inquiring about this service. Sorry this happened to you.

You were scammed. The quality is amateur and the price professional. I would throw this up as a warning if I hear anyone inquiring about this service. Sorry this happened to you.

they do have at least one really good painter in Dan Twiss (multiple GD winner) but I have to say that there quality has taken a massive nose dive recently :-(

any update on this?

Truely shocking 'quality' for what you paid. I hope you have had a reply by now and had them redone properly.

Over 300 pounds for what amounts to tabletop standard work is disgusting.

Combined with their completely unprofessional service and conduct and this is simply atrocious.

@OP did it take more than 10 weeks for you to get your models? By their own website it's supposed to take 4 to 6 and if it goes over 10 you're typically offered some kind of refund or consideration.

They also say 'we don't put up our best work and deliver something different to you'. Certainly looks like what happened to you.

Keep chasing them up, make the youtube video and post reviews and such explaining your dissatisfaction. You deserve better treatment than this.

If you can't get a refund or compensation get them to redo it, they say they do so under their terms and conditions.

For £300 i would have been expecting hand done chapter symbols and a much higher standard of overall painting and after the mess around they gave you i would have reported them for scamming your out of your money.

thats appalling for the money you have paid.

Hey guys if your looking for a new artist check out my stuff ultra low prices I have no overhead so garaunteed to beat anyone's price. Tryna build a rep here thanks guys.


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And a 2 week turnaround or less for most projects

I have no clue what’s up with Worthy Painting, unfortunately I found this post after I ordered some stuff. At first it was fairly quick, fast response via e-mail and such until it was about paying which I did because I thought they had a good reputation, heard of them from miniwargaming and others.

Since I paid and that is now over a month ago they didn't answer my e-mails I haven’t heard a single word, nothing. I wouldn’t even care if the project takes longer but not to answer any of my e-mails after I paid is just a joke.

My money is gone I have no clue what they are doing with it, I write them every other day but still no answer. What I learned the hard way is stay away from them, at least until they sorted out whatever they messed up. If you are looking for professionalism WP is the wrong place.

Ionisis wrote:
I have no clue what’s up with Worthy Painting, unfortunately I found this post after I ordered some stuff. At first it was fairly quick, fast response via e-mail and such until it was about paying which I did because I thought they had a good reputation, heard of them from miniwargaming and others.

Since I paid and that is now over a month ago they didn't answer my e-mails I haven’t heard a single word, nothing. I wouldn’t even care if the project takes longer but not to answer any of my e-mails after I paid is just a joke.

My money is gone I have no clue what they are doing with it, I write them every other day but still no answer. What I learned the hard way is stay away from them, at least until they sorted out whatever they messed up. If you are looking for professionalism WP is the wrong place.

Care to provide some validation? Accusations shouldn't be thrown around lightly.

And I gotta say, the whole thread is really strange. I've heard nothing but good things about WP ever since I got involved in the wargaming world. It seems like ll of their problems are a recent thing, so there has to be something going on at their end that they aren't talking about. The quality of their work seems to have taken a hit recently as well...

~Tim?

 Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:

Ionisis wrote:
I have no clue what’s up with Worthy Painting, unfortunately I found this post after I ordered some stuff. At first it was fairly quick, fast response via e-mail and such until it was about paying which I did because I thought they had a good reputation, heard of them from miniwargaming and others.

Since I paid and that is now over a month ago they didn't answer my e-mails I haven’t heard a single word, nothing. I wouldn’t even care if the project takes longer but not to answer any of my e-mails after I paid is just a joke.

My money is gone I have no clue what they are doing with it, I write them every other day but still no answer. What I learned the hard way is stay away from them, at least until they sorted out whatever they messed up. If you are looking for professionalism WP is the wrong place.

Care to provide some validation? Accusations shouldn't be thrown around lightly.

And I gotta say, the whole thread is really strange. I've heard nothing but good things about WP ever since I got involved in the wargaming world. It seems like ll of their problems are a recent thing, so there has to be something going on at their end that they aren't talking about. The quality of their work seems to have taken a hit recently as well...

~Tim?

I can’t tell what the quality of the paintjobs is of WP for all I know that quality was the reason why I chose them. I’m not throwing those acquisitions around lightly nor am I saying they ripped me off because I don’t think they did.

But something isn’t working out with them right now, maybe too many project all at once I don’t know. I wouldn’t even mind that but I can’t say this any other way if you can’t keep in touch with your costumer that is just unprofessional.

I've never dealt with WP, and I have no dog in this fight, but it's starting to remind me of the Vintone Circuits story.

Vintone was a boutique guitar amp manufacturer who had a reputation for building BEAUTIFUL amps (point-to-point on hardwood circuit boards, beeswax capacitors, hardwood cabinets, etc), and they started getting busier and busier. Vintone was a one-man show, though, and at some point he ran into problems with health and/or the law and stopped returning emails, stopped refunding money for amp orders he hadn't finished, and stopped returning amps that were sent to him for repair (he wasn't just providing bad customer service, he was outright stealing from customers).

So, he dropped off the planet, the internet found him a few states away living in near-squalor, and last I heard a handful of people were getting together to sue him for their stolen amps and money.

Hopefully, Worthy Painting isn't going the way of Vintone.

Wow that's Terrible. I couldn't even do that to a customer I'd feel like crap.

7 months I'm still waiting . ( I like the pods I think they look cool so don't feel to let down .) Once I get my models ill report my findings .

Hi All,

Recently worthy painting announced their promotions called "worthy offers" which i am sure some of the people here have seen on their Youtube channel. Wondered if any Folks here got into that offer?

I was enticed by the offer and decided to go big on this one, however till now the project hasnt even started considered the full amount has to be paid for the offer to be valid. Been abit peeved lately by the lack of response from the folks at WP . Came across this thread and realize people have yet to receive their minis since Sept, looks like i gotta wait till next year for the project to actually get started.

GGWP Worthy Painting.

Ken

hum its not sounding good here and I hate to be the bearer of possible bad news but worthy gaming (the store below the WP studio) has posted on there face book that they are closing down on the 30th of this month..... I'd guess that means that they have lost the building weather this means worthy painting has gone as well........

https://www.facebook.com/WorthyGaming?fref=ts

as for the quality of there work they still have loads of my personal work on there website advertising their painting service like I said earlier on here I do not work for WP I just did some commission work for them to get the store started :-(

Davey80y wrote:
hum its not sounding good here and I hate to be the bearer of possible bad news but worthy gaming (the store below the WP studio) has posted on there face book that they are closing down on the 30th of this month..... I'd guess that means that they have lost the building weather this means worthy painting has gone as well........

https://www.facebook.com/WorthyGaming?fref=ts

as for the quality of there work they still have loads of my personal work on there website advertising their painting service like I said earlier on here I do not work for WP I just did some commission work for them to get the store started :-(

Now *that* doesn't seem like a good omen..

Oh man

I think I’ll chime in here since I am in an odd position here with worthy painting aswell. Forgive the nonexistent post count but I’m not a forum person but I have been lurking here for quite some time.

I put in a commission for quite a large army to game with in 2014 not dreaming that now four months later I’d be staring at the "Worthy Gaming" Facebook page with updates on about how it will be closing. I must say that this doesn't come as a surprise to me in the least. I did my research initially and what precious little info I could find other than their Youtube vids all pointed to this being a low risk endeavor. After researching the company again it seems that starting in March, after I sent my commission in, things began to slip with the culmination of them closing.

Needless to say I’ve been trying to contact them for about a week now, which is a chore in itself since I am on the east coast of the U.S., to no avail. So at this time I am going to chalk it up as a loss and move on. Yes I’m out models and some money but learned a valuable lesson. If you are going to have someone paint your models for you make sure you know the person and can easily reach them to wring their neck if they screw you over.
I’d give more detail but I don’t think this is the place to air grievances but pm me if you have any other questions.

yep really not looking good here don't know if its just me but you cant post messages on the WP facebook page any more and nick's personal facebook page has now vanished..... not before he posted a message to me on facebook on the 19th :-

"i thought we left on good terms dave? I have seen your attacking posts on dakka and im disappointed you would be so quick to turn on us with one misstake we mad with a customer. Burning bridges in such a small community is not wise."

I only post this to distance myself as much as possible from Worthy Painting i'm pretty much sure that I speak for all commission painters when I say don't let one companys mistakes put you off using commission painting services the majority of us are honest and professional :-)

What I would say is just try and follow a few very simple rules :-

1, do your research, and make sure the person you are going to do business with is active and can provide lots of clear examples of THIER OWN recent work.

2, NEVER PAY UP FRONT!!, again I can only speak for myself but I never ask for payment until a commission is finished that means the most you as a customer would have to spend would be for any models that you supply not £1000's. that also should give the painter the incentive to finish the commission as quickly as possible.

3, always pay via paypal/credit card at least then you have a chance of getting your money back.....

To be fair, especially with larger jobs a deposit payment is pretty standard. It discourages timewasters. Also payment by paypal is expensive for the commissioner (and potentially the client), especially on large jobs.

winterdyne wrote:
To be fair, especially with larger jobs a deposit payment is pretty standard. It discourages timewasters. Also payment by paypal is expensive for the commissioner (and potentially the client), especially on large jobs.

Yeah, it's in the best interest of the commission painter to ask for an initial deposit, even a small one. Otherwise we have to deal with people who just talk and talk and talk and never actually commit to anything. Or, and this is equally annoying, people that don't pay. An initial deposit insures that the customer is serious and that they intend to pay in full.

Contrary to popular belief, it isn't always the customer that gets ripped off. Commission painters can and have lost a lot of money/time to unpaying/noncommitting customers. I sure know I have...

~Tim?

I tend to let the customer supply the minis that works as a deposit and also if the customer backs out then you can sell on the finished project its always worked for me in the past :-)

as for PayPal yup its a bitch but it adds that extra layer of protection for the customer that way it adds a extra layer of trust.

Yea that's a good method I usually take deposits though.


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I do that for local commissions.

Seems a shame that someone so involved with the hobby that they can actually start up a commission painting service would let things play out this way.
From what I've read in this thread they've been rather unprofessional, basically stealing from their customers. The stories on here should be followed up with lawyers for breach of contract, and if it were any big bussiness, people wouldnt hesitate.
If you have commissioned worthy painting, paid upfront, had your commission accepted and some interaction with them, and then nothing for months past the deadline with no explanations as to why or whats going wrong for them, or a refund and cancelation of the contract, then I would suggest you look at legal action, especially with the kinds of prices this type of thing can cost the customers. People generally just don't have hundreds to throw away... most case scenarios they probably have a tough time justifying buying models without having them painted

I'm kind of assuming that Worthy Painting was a registered bussiness that would pay taxes on its earnings and recieve a break in sales tax for work supplies etc. If they are/were not, perhaps the tax man caught up with them?

I'm less inclined to think that they were just out to rob everyone as they apparantly have provided a satisfactory service to some in the past, and then at some point it all slipped.... Seems sensible to assume that something went amiss.. illness, family problems, mid life crisis.. whatever it may have been it seems to have been something that didnt allow for them to disable the website from taking orders... as it would definatly be unscrupulous to knowingly continue to take orders when your already aware (or even planned that) it wont happen.

Yea see if there's something I've learned doing commissions. You got to suck it up and take criticism. It's a very competitive business and a first I didn't see that and took criticism badly, but reacting instead of improving doesn't help. I would just like to know how you burned your bridge by starting this thread. I didn't know a customer could burn his a bridge. I mean its not to hard to find a commission artist.


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We are essentially here to serve you not the other way around

Become gradually more and more shocked as I've read through this thread. I've looked up to WP while setting up my own small business dealing in commission build and painting services.

On the drop pods... jesus... £280 for that standard seems very much out of order, and their not even providing complete miniatures is inexcusable, the second drop pod made me wince. I would have charged likely somewhere around £100-120 labour and could easily have delivered better quality... hell I have a Ultramarines gallery on my website of stuff better than this that took my usual standard of 5-6 hours per unit.

As to WP closing... have they stated the reasons why?

On the subject of deposits and payment; this is a sticky situation. As a painter you have to protect yourself; paintjobs are often very client oriented and if a guy renagues on payment, you're looking at potentially weeks of work that you'll have to struggle to get a secondary buyer for. This usually means ebaying it, and often you get significantly less than you originally expected. I do this work literally to pay my rent, so to effectively lose a months' work isn't really feasible. Thus, I give clients two options;

1) Paypal as a third party to give them some security if a dispute comes up, aswell as me if they try to pull a fast one. The downside is, paypal take 3% fees, so that tends to up the bill a little, as I can't afford to have it come out of my pay.
2) To get around the fees, the alternative I do is a bank transfer for the cost of model kits +50% of the labour up front, followed by the rest upon completion when they've received photos. I also make a point of mailing photos weekly, allowing the customer to give basic direction to make sure it goes the way it should. At the end, if they want minor corrections, it's fine. Any major repaint that isn't my fault however requires fresh pay for the significant time increase. All common sense stuff.

The last trick on my end is simple; I only offer tracked/insured shipping, which I require the client to cover when we start. Absolutely essential to avoid nightmarish situations.

ha I didn't even start this thread I just posted a couple of bits....!?!?!

my guess would be that they just had too many staff I'd guess that inc the shop there were 10+ staff add to that the rent of a 4+ story city centre shop and they must have been haemorrhaging money every month :-(

The fact that WP hasn't responded to this thread indicates (to me) that something's up on their end. Foul play, probably not. But this thread is a PR nightmare.

~Tim?

No kidding, but I doubt that they have much to worry over since they've apparently already been heading for closing down for the last month.

I guess it can only be good news for those of us looking to try our hand at building up to bigger and better things, but even so, I was impressed by WP's setup. To see them go is sad. If Dave is correct though, it's less surprising... ten staff and a high street shop? That will have been some frightening overheads. I guess they just tried to expand too quickly too soon. Better to rent a cheap workshop somewhere and hire several painters to get the core business going well... I don't even think I'd even want to try something like a city center store down the road... sounds like a recipe for disaster. The prices associated with GW products as they stand as bare kits are already enough to turn away many members of the public... you need the intermewebs and communities like this.

their ignoring post on the worthy gaming site about this issue as well :-(

Geez well I'm not sad I paint myself so more room for me.

The commission business is really cut-throat, and it's very unforgiving of mistakes. This is because it's often large jobs, drawn out over a long period of time. Sometimes to make ends meet you have to reprioritise jobs that have been booked far in advance, simply to cover running costs.

If you book projects for several artists, and then those turn out to be incapable of doing the job (for whatever reason), you are in essence, Royally fethed. This can lead to cashflow problems very quickly.

If you book projects up ahead, and then run into cashflow issues (very easily done when buying tools / materials / paying for your webhosting etc etc), then even if you have artists in place toddling away on a project, the chance that you won't be able to pay them when they need the money or finish their part of the work means you need to pay them off and cut the risk. This extends your own workload and costs you money on the job (which you may not have received from the client yet) which makes cashflow situations much worse. Again, good chance of being Royally fethed.

If the cash flow situation gets to the point where you need external income or faster turnaround jobs to survive, your working time on commissions is reduced, and again, good chance of being Royally fethed.

I've struggled through all of these situations, and with an understanding client it's survivable. You have to communicate though - clients understand that this is a tight margin business, with complex project management factors involved - it's unfortunately not just a case of sitting down with a box of marines and painting them in a week or so. Sometimes, you have to admit to your customers that you've screwed something up. It happens, and in most cases it can be fixed.

Just as an update to those here they might want to take a look at this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM3ZasfAWqM

Not to sure how I feel about this. I went with worthy paint to begin with because I am quite honestly not a fan of Blue Table. I do appreciate Nick trying to make good on a tough situation but all one has to do is look up Blue Table Painting to see some many things to give a person pause about using them.

Nick just put out a Video explaining that Worthy painting is going out of business. He has worked out a deal with Blue Table painting to get all outstanding commissions finished. Good luck to anyone having a commission with Worthy Painting.

i'll paint your figures for non-professional fee at the level of detail of those droppods anyday. Just pay for paints, S&H, model itself + very modest paint fee

PM me if you want samples of my work!

Karnophage wrote:
Nick just put out a Video explaining that Worthy painting is going out of business. He has worked out a deal with Blue Table painting to get all outstanding commissions finished. Good luck to anyone having a commission with Worthy Painting.

Might wanna read the other comments before you post mate, the guy above had already put that and linked the video :3

Do not jump on me, I was watching the video when I made the post. If you care to look at the time difference on the post was only 5 minutes before I actually submitted my post.

Well for me I love BTP so I'm happy about that and maybe ill get my project done. I have to say I'm very sad for Nick as I know how much that must have hurt. It's never good when such a big player in this community that we all love goes under . I'm still crazy angry with the terrible service that I've had over the last 7 months. But will alway be thankful for the videos put up as they got me back in to the hobby . So I wish Nick all the best in the future and thank him for his work in the community .

I am from the Preston area and have frequented the store often, as well as being a member of the local gaming club, which used the store. Whilst I can't comment too much on the painting side of things I would like to make everyone aware that 200 pounds of the clubs gaming money went missing, which had been labelled as the clubs and was kept in the safe, funnily enough the one you can see on the shelf in the latest video. Also scenery had been ordered by the club, which had been paid for by the club, yet has been taken to be sold on as it was delivered to "Worthy Gaming" and not the club itself.

Personally I wouldn't trust this person with anything in future, or anything he affiliates himself to.

Well I hope everyone gets anything they lost back. If anyone's looking for a new artist I'm taking commission and I price match just do it to make a little cash and to make the customer happy. I love when I get local customers and I can hand it to them in person and see their face when they see it in person, other then in a photo. Very rewarding.

UN-worthy paintjobz

Not a good year for Wargaming in the UK - First the Maelstrom Games fiasco and now Worthy Painting.

And from what you hear through the grapevine, BTP isn't looking too hot either. The deal with Worthy Painting seems to be targeted to fill the books of BTP, not something you would do if you already had loads to do. If you add in the Kickstarter failure a few months back, things aren't looking to well there either.

 IK-Painter wrote:
Not a good year for Wargaming in the UK - First the Maelstrom Games fiasco and now Worthy Painting.

And from what you hear through the grapevine, BTP isn't looking too hot either. The deal with Worthy Painting seems to be targeted to fill the books of BTP, not something you would do if you already had loads to do. If you add in the Kickstarter failure a few months back, things aren't looking to well there either.

I was thinking the same thing. I have no idea how he can employ that many staff painting minis for peanuts, or do these people work for 3 dollars an hour or something?

the trade stock thing is not too great of an idea either IMO. He's basically buying other people's junk and trying to flip it. Minis can be hard to move, i could see alot of that stuff rotting on the shelf for a year or more unless he blows it out dirt cheap but then he would probably be taking a loss.

if i was a customer i would be pissed, i would just want a refund. I guess this worthy painting guy is refusing to give refunds or he already spent all the money?

I dunno me being in the industry. I feel they do everything perfect, except the amount of employees he's got working and operations. I mean I do the same thing with a few employees in a small studio.


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Keeps costs down which essentially keeps prices low.


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I can agree that the trade program can be hard but I do it aswell and it ultimately provides me the opportunity to really build some awesome packages for people at amazing prices. So it benefits me and my customers likewise.

The BTP employees get paid by the hour. This put pressure on the painters to actually get X amount of miniatures painted in a hour in order to keep on working there. What happens there is the quality varies in each commission since there may be several people working on it. There is also the problem with painters getting burned out which happens when working with a deadline. large studio will normally have a turnover of painters which is what I am thinking happened with Worthy Painting.

Someone looking for a large army to get painted fairly quickly and not concerned about the cost or the quality may want to look to BTP. If someone is not concerned with time but wants their armies to look consistent they should look for a one or two person operation. I

Karnophage wrote:
The BTP employees get paid by the hour. This put pressure on the painters to actually get X amount of miniatures painted in a hour in order to keep on working there. What happens there is the quality varies in each commission since there may be several people working on it. There is also the problem with painters getting burned out which happens when working with a deadline. large studio will normally have a turnover of painters which is what I am thinking happened with Worthy Painting.

Someone looking for a large army to get painted fairly quickly and not concerned about the cost or the quality may want to look to BTP. If someone is not concerned with time but wants their armies to look consistent they should look for a one or two person operation. I

I'm gonna agree here. Also, a one/two person operation will take longer to paint an army, but they tend to be get better results. The reason for the longer timeframe mostly has to do with the fact that the painters want to avoid burning out, which really sucks when it happens. It has happened to me before, and it's a huge problem. The greater the burnout, the harder it is to get yourself to work. It usually results in late-night binge painting.

~Tim?

I'm not impressed by BTP's standard of work. They've been going for years though, and by most accounts have a fast turnaround of jobs for a reasonable price point.

Well maybe it's someone else's turn to shine haha. yea I just keep things small, business wise.

winterdyne wrote:
The commission business is really cut-throat, and it's very unforgiving of mistakes. This is because it's often large jobs, drawn out over a long period of time. Sometimes to make ends meet you have to reprioritise jobs that have been booked far in advance, simply to cover running costs.

If you book projects for several artists, and then those turn out to be incapable of doing the job (for whatever reason), you are in essence, Royally fethed. This can lead to cashflow problems very quickly.

If you book projects up ahead, and then run into cashflow issues (very easily done when buying tools / materials / paying for your webhosting etc etc), then even if you have artists in place toddling away on a project, the chance that you won't be able to pay them when they need the money or finish their part of the work means you need to pay them off and cut the risk. This extends your own workload and costs you money on the job (which you may not have received from the client yet) which makes cashflow situations much worse. Again, good chance of being Royally fethed.

If the cash flow situation gets to the point where you need external income or faster turnaround jobs to survive, your working time on commissions is reduced, and again, good chance of being Royally fethed.

I've struggled through all of these situations, and with an understanding client it's survivable. You have to communicate though - clients understand that this is a tight margin business, with complex project management factors involved - it's unfortunately not just a case of sitting down with a box of marines and painting them in a week or so. Sometimes, you have to admit to your customers that you've screwed something up. It happens, and in most cases it can be fixed.

Wise words Maz.

T

Spot on with what he was saying


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A successful store can help a painting company greatly or hinder it

winterdyne wrote:
I'm not impressed by BTP's standard of work. They've been going for years though, and by most accounts have a fast turnaround of jobs for a reasonable price point.

I'm not gonna argue with that! They are wicked fast, but you could never hope to get anything painted by them to this quality(image not mine):


For BTP, speed trumps quality. Which is, frankly, cool with me. They attract exactly the opposite kind of customer I want. I really hope they don't go under, because they keep the speed-demon clients happy.

~Tim?

Like many other things: Fast, good, cheap. Sustainable business models usually mean you can pick two.

 Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:

winterdyne wrote:
I'm not impressed by BTP's standard of work. They've been going for years though, and by most accounts have a fast turnaround of jobs for a reasonable price point.

I'm not gonna argue with that! They are wicked fast, but you could never hope to get anything painted by them to this quality(image not mine):


For BTP, speed trumps quality. Which is, frankly, cool with me. They attract exactly the opposite kind of customer I want. I really hope they don't go under, because they keep the speed-demon clients happy.

~Tim?

Nice pictur! Who did that? thanks

In the video about them closing down, it sounded like they were going into administration, so that might be why they left your commission for so long. Nick also said the administrators told him to keep it quiet, which they could have taken a bit too seriously, and not talk to the clients at all about why their projects are not finished

Karnophage wrote:
Someone looking for a large army to get painted fairly quickly and not concerned about the cost or the quality may want to look to BTP.

Or ebay. (Example)

I like BTP, and I really wanna support a local company (they're about an hour and a half drive from my house), but unless you're going with a very specific color scheme or loadout, Ebay will almost always have a full army for you.

Glad you guys like the farseer

To be fair, Tommie Soule, I wish I could paint like that.

Cheap.
Fast.
Good.

You can only choose two regarding commission painting. It is fast and good then it ain't cheap. It is cheap and fast then it ain't good and so on.

Regarding WP I believe that if they were scamming people like the OP then it is good they went out of business, cause no one will miss them. Regarding BTP I strongly believe that their job is mediocre at best! The biggest joke of all is the exchange program.... Send in your minis and we will take them at half the retail price (at best!!) and will provide painting services for that amount? To all you people out there!!! HOW DESPERATE ARE YOU ?!?!!? Put them on ebay and get real money!

If I was to employ a commission service I would go for a small commission studio and not for a slave's painting factory.

-Shrike- wrote:
To be fair, Tommie Soule, I wish I could paint like that.

If you are ever down the studio I'll spare minute to teach a bit here and there

T

Cheap.
Fast.
Good.

You can only choose two regarding commission painting. It is fast and good then it ain't cheap. It is cheap and fast then it ain't good and so on.

hum dunno... all depends on what you class as cheap I'm certainly not charging WP prices.....

Davey80y wrote:

Cheap.
Fast.
Good.

You can only choose two regarding commission painting. It is fast and good then it ain't cheap. It is cheap and fast then it ain't good and so on.

hum dunno... all depends on what you class as cheap I'm certainly not charging WP prices.....

Well I don't have an exact margin in mind but you get the idea of how I feel it works.