Affordable painters

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**Smacks**

Abzapp wrote:good, and reasonably priced.
...
Anywhere from 1-4 dollars per model.

So you're looking to hire a skilled worker, and you think "reasonable" is expecting them to paint each model in less than 30 mins, just to make minimum wage? Without even getting into the cost of their materials, time spent consulting with you and updating you, time spent carefully packing stuff up and posting it back, and possibly having to pay tax on the money earned.

Maybe this guy...

Spoiler:

**Grey Templar**

lustigjh wrote:
Big Mac wrote:
And I still have people wanting discounts for bundles and such(which I said no), trying to negotiate as if they're in a flea market.

I'm not sure why you're talking down on trying to negotiate a price. Most people do it for other things so it's not like it's some abnormal activity restricted to flea markets.

Negotiation certainly has its place. But I don't think it would apply to painting unless you are talking a very large order. Like 5-6 grand worth of work. At that point, you have volume and that streamlines the process and you can possibly have room to negotiate. But if you're just wanting to get a squad or two painted at a time then you're gonna pay the base price. Unless you have volume you aren't going to get any discounts.

Only place I've used charges $6-8 for a Space Marine sized figure. Thats with 1 coat, one wash/highlighting, and simple flock base. http://www.figurepainters.com/services/

**djphranq**

PM sent

**Talys**

Smacks wrote:
Abzapp wrote:good, and reasonably priced.
...
Anywhere from 1-4 dollars per model.
So you're looking to hire a skilled worker, and you think "reasonable" is expecting them to paint each model in less than 30 mins, just to make minimum wage? Without even getting into the cost of their materials, time spent consulting with you and updating you, time spent carefully packing stuff up and posting it back, and possibly having to pay tax on the money earned.

Maybe this guy...

Spoiler:

At $1 per model, I think you've got to find child labour in sweat shop >.<

I think you have the right idea with your solution, though

**Abzapp**

I get it, Im fething slowed haha.

**AllSeeingSkink**

Saevus wrote:
You all assume someone has to paint like a slave monkey and do it for money. There are painters that paint because they like it.

I personally paint to a decent standard (Not a pro, but I like it and at least pay attention to detail), and because I have an actual job, I take on commissions and accept payment in the form of a box of minis. I generally accept a box of troops for every 30 dudes you ask me to paint, assuming mostly troops and normal sized dudes (Most Warbike/Jetbike models I paint in batches of 10 instead). As a point of reference, takes me 10-14 days to finish 30 dudes depending on theme.

Personally, I do gak like that because A) I get a box of minis for doing something I love to do. B) I get to try out new styles and themes on armies I will never own. C) I help guys in my local area who won't get off their ass and paint, get decent tabletop standard armies. (So I can fight them with my Orks) Nothing I paint is gonna win an award, but it looks like someone tried and at least watched some youtubes.

I'm not saying that what he wants, for a pro painted army, isn't too low. Just pointing out, if you want something that is better than primer or bare plastic/metal, and can find a guy who loves to paint. Ask him to paint of a squad or something and offer him a box. Or what I really love, is having guys from my club come over, sit at one of my painting tables and try themselves. Getting to a decent tabletop army is as simple as a good primer, 4 colors, 2 paintbrushes and a wash. You don't need to do OSL or draw in eyebrows on a 1.5 inch tall dude, but having some good color and a couple variations, then doing a simple flock on the base = 1000% better than nothing.

Cheers!

Yeah, you might be able to find a local willing to paint for a pittance. Though I still think trying to get a whole *army* painted would be a problem, you don't want to commission a local kid to paint your army for the price of a few boxes of models and then they discover the huge time investment it will be and can't pull it off.

I still think ebay is probably your best bet, or anywhere that you can buy 2nd hand models. My FLGS bought and sold 2nd hand models and there were a couple of times over the years that he got a whole army in that you could buy for not much than the cost of the bare models.

**Naaris**

Abzapp wrote:
Anywhere from 1-4 dollars per model. I know some of the higher end studios get to upwards around 5 - 8 and thats a bit much for my blood.

Lowest allowable USA minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. You want that investment you made in the hobby worked on for minimum wage? No.

At $10/hr, rough estimates below: probably a basic job. no fancy highlighting or layering, basic basing.
10 model tactical squad takes 1hr to assemble? Then 5 hours to paint? That equals 36 minutes per model.
so $60 for someone to model and paint + $40 for the models. $100.

My numbers are probably low.

If you don't want to pay, look on ebay or other online classified pages for people selling painted armies.

**Solis Luna Astrum**

Hmm, maybe I'll open up my own painting service. But I'll do it in Malaysia and pay my child labor painters $2 a day!

**Talys**

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

I still think ebay is probably your best bet, or anywhere that you can buy 2nd hand models. My FLGS bought and sold 2nd hand models and there were a couple of times over the years that he got a whole army in that you could buy for not much than the cost of the bare models.

This is actually a good solution. If you sniff around eBay long enough, you can find something that's probably painted a lot better than a $1-$4 paint job, AND is (much) cheaper than the models new.

Of course, the challenge is finding the right models on Ebay

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Naaris wrote:
Abzapp wrote:
Anywhere from 1-4 dollars per model. I know some of the higher end studios get to upwards around 5 - 8 and thats a bit much for my blood.

Lowest allowable USA minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. You want that investment you made in the hobby worked on for minimum wage? No.

At $10/hr, rough estimates below: probably a basic job. no fancy highlighting or layering, basic basing.
10 model tactical squad takes 1hr to assemble? Then 5 hours to paint? That equals 36 minutes per model.
so $60 for someone to model and paint + $40 for the models. $100.

My numbers are probably low.

If you don't want to pay, look on ebay or other online classified pages for people selling painted armies.

The fastest possible way to paint a model is to hit it with colored primer out of an airbrush, line them all up on a block of wood and hit them on an angle with another color ("highlighting"). Dip it in quickshade, and BOOM. I've actually seen people play armies like this (and it meets any silly technical color count requirements).

Now, why anyone would pay someone else money for this is totally beyond me. But, equally mystifying is why anyone would actually spend hundreds of dollars on models and then just shove them through the assembly line.

**Smacks**

Talys wrote:
Now, why anyone would pay someone else money for this is totally beyond me.

Actually I'd probably pay money to have someone prime all my stuff. As someone who lives in the city, I don't have an outside area (at least not one without a 40 foot drop), so spraying and airbrushing is a real pain in the ass. There are so many occasions when I'd love to sit down and do some nice technical painting, but I don't have anything primed up, and just can't be bothered.

last time I primed up loads of stuff all at once, I used a can of Army Painter and this happened:

Spoiler:

So now, not only do I have loads of priming to do, but I've got loads of stripping to do as well, including nearly all my infinity stuff. Just thinking about it makes me lose the will to live.

So yeah, priming service would be awesome.

**Loborocket**

A lot of talk about minimum wage and reasonable expectations for what someone will "work" for, however painting miniatures is a "hobby" for many people.

Hobby: noun: an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation

So it is possible you could find someone who simply enjoys the hobby of miniature painting willing to paint for a pretty low price. Speaking for myself as a hobbist, I would consider painting miniatures for someone else for very little money if I had completed everything in my own collection (yeah, I am a good distance away from that but in a few years when my kids are out of the house yeah maybe). It would give me something to paint without laying out money for the models.

Finding someone like that is probably pretty rare, but it could possibly exist. However that person is probably NOT going to be found "advertising" painting services (see definition above), but is the old guy in the corner of the FLGS who is there every weekend who might not mind painting models on the cheap just because it is his "hobby".

Look around for someone like that at your local shops and you might find what you are after.

**oftenwrong**

I teach basic paining at the local shop. Here’s the 5min speed pained marine I keep as an example to inspire or embarrass the local gamers.

He was pre-assembled and primed black. I started by air brushing (you can use a can of spray paint) white at a 45deg angle over the model. This gives it a zenithal lighting and shading. The IG helm was then painted green for a 3rd color. Applied a layer of brown wash and remove the excess. After it dried, the details where painted black. Last “everything” got a dry brush of bleach bone.

**Xerics**

I understand the idea behind wanting a beautiful painted army but I believe in painting your own stuff because it is yours. What better way to personalize it than with your own hard work. It may not look drop dead amazing when you start but the more you practice the better they will look. (I am not even close to high end painting jobs)

**AllSeeingSkink**

oftenwrong wrote:
I teach basic paining at the local shop. Here’s the 5min speed pained marine I keep as an example to inspire or embarrass the local gamers.

He was pre-assembled and primed black. I started by air brushing (you can use a can of spray paint) white at a 45deg angle over the model. This gives it a zenithal lighting and shading. The IG helm was then painted green for a 3rd color. Applied a layer of brown wash and remove the excess. After it dried, the details where painted black. Last “everything” got a dry brush of bleach bone.

I'd be rather impressed if that actually took 5 minutes, were you timing yourself? It'd probably take me 5 minutes just to pick out the details. Though it is also a rather simple model.

The fastest models I can do take me about 25-30 minutes from sprue to finished model. Typically half of that is painting, the other half is assembly/cleaning mould lines/priming and then 10 to 15 minutes actually painting it. I've tried to cut down the time more than that and there's no real way I can see without sacrificing a lot of quality at that point. Some examples:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-59981-44149_Speedpaint.html

Most of those took me 25-30 minutes from sprue to finished model (the spider riders were closer to 60 minutes). Add another few minutes for basing.

And that's what I consider speed painting, you're still looking at 5-6 hours to paint a single unit of 10 models. It's really just painting to get it done (as in, it's a chore, I'd much rather be spending 2-3 hours on a model to get them looking nice).

This is why so many armies get bought but not finished, totally under estimating the time it takes to do stuff

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Loborocket wrote:A lot of talk about minimum wage and reasonable expectations for what someone will "work" for, however painting miniatures is a "hobby" for many people.

Hobby: noun: an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation

So it is possible you could find someone who simply enjoys the hobby of miniature painting willing to paint for a pretty low price. Speaking for myself as a hobbist, I would consider painting miniatures for someone else for very little money if I had completed everything in my own collection (yeah, I am a good distance away from that but in a few years when my kids are out of the house yeah maybe). It would give me something to paint without laying out money for the models.

Finding someone like that is probably pretty rare, but it could possibly exist. However that person is probably NOT going to be found "advertising" painting services (see definition above), but is the old guy in the corner of the FLGS who is there every weekend who might not mind painting models on the cheap just because it is his "hobby".

Look around for someone like that at your local shops and you might find what you are after.

You definitely might be able to find someone willing to do that. But even as a hobby, painting is very time consuming and I even people who might enjoy painting a squad here or there will find painting a whole army tiresome and excessively time consuming.

Sure, you MIGHT find someone willing to do it, I don't like your chances, especially in the context of painting a whole army rather than just a couple of models here and there.

Xerics wrote:I understand the idea behind wanting a beautiful painted army but I believe in painting your own stuff because it is yours. What better way to personalize it than with your own hard work. It may not look drop dead amazing when you start but the more you practice the better they will look. (I am not even close to high end painting jobs)

Most the novelty of it being "mine" wore off about 15 years ago

**Grey Templar**

Well painting is something that takes practice, especially if you want to improve your speed. Batch painting helps with that.

**ausYenLoWang**

Bottle wrote:
Try Blue Table Painting. They'll give you a $1 dollar paint job no matter what you pay :-p

just to be fair.... this is an example of their work

and if you wanna say the paint jobs only worth a buck we will have to agree to disagree

now i do know there has been a few ahhh abominations come through there, and plenty of dramas, but when some of the artists are on fire... the work can be pretty good. though your also paying for it.
as a comparison, there are other studios out there that can do it cheaper... buuut well if your not paying top $ to them your project may wait while others that pay more get theirs done first.

its really all going to depend on how deep your pockets are though.

**Grey Templar**

They're overpriced, and have inconsistent quality. Basically the inconsistency is the biggest problem. And their business model is terrible.

**Xerics**

ausYenLoWang wrote:
Bottle wrote:
Try Blue Table Painting. They'll give you a $1 dollar paint job no matter what you pay :-p

just to be fair.... this is an example of their work

and if you wanna say the paint jobs only worth a buck we will have to agree to disagree

now i do know there has been a few ahhh abominations come through there, and plenty of dramas, but when some of the artists are on fire... the work can be pretty good. though your also paying for it.
as a comparison, there are other studios out there that can do it cheaper... buuut well if your not paying top $ to them your project may wait while others that pay more get theirs done first.

its really all going to depend on how deep your pockets are though.

I utilized Blue Table Painting to pin, and make my Phantom titan modular so i can transport and pack it away easier.

**Talys**

Grey Templar wrote:
They're overpriced, and have inconsistent quality. Basically the inconsistency is the biggest problem. And their business model is terrible.

You're not painting a house; each model is a work of art, and artists have different skill levels (and even aesthetic), hence the inconsistent quality.

I think you must know who is painting your model, and they should show you a similar model that they painted for the same price point. It doesn't help if someone there can paint a gorgeous Storm Eagle for $1,000, if you what you want and are being quoted on is 10 space marines painted for $50.

**Portugal Jones**

Bottle wrote:
Try Blue Table Painting. They'll give you a $1 dollar paint job no matter what you pay :-p

Now that's just mean.

Although seriously, stay far away from BTP. They're not in a good place right now.

**Abzapp**

Whats happening at BTP?

**Grey Templar**

Abzapp wrote:
Whats happening at BTP?

Years of mismanagement and bad business practices coming to a head. Not to mention he treats his employees like crap.

**conker249**

A lot of the problems with commissioned painting is the initial response when the quote is made. Most hear the quote and go "...What?! How?" No thought into how much effort it takes to assemble, clean, base, then finally start painting.
I paint for fun, for locals and friends, and improving my skills as I go. Usually don't ask for much. My next one is Primarch Guilliman when he is released, As payment for painting him for my friend he is buying me one