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I suck at painting, I've tried and tried for 3 years now, trying every technique and paint there is out there, but to no avail . So, im considering trying a painting service, but, is it worth it? If so, who should I go with?

Seriously? This kind of question totally depends on the person. I am not you, but for me painting services are not worth it. I go for tabletop ready and can do that fine. Washes help me tons. You appear to have much higher standards than I do (or far less likely, are worse than I am at painting). For you, painting services may be worth it, depending on your time and finances.

CommisarBruno wrote:I suck at painting, I've tried and tried for 3 years now, trying every technique and paint there is out there, but to no avail . So, im considering trying a painting service, but, is it worth it? If so, who should I go with?

If you want a painted army but can't do it yourself, and can afford to get it done professionally, it's just like any other purchase.

Keep in mind that paint services range the gamut in quality, reliability, speed, availability, and price. You will not find a reliable, high quality painter that's both quick and available.

If you want an army painted for you, then yes they are. Do not expect it to be cheap tho.

I don't have any experience with any to recommend one, but theres a lot of commission painters here that would probably quote you a price.


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Your other option is using techniques like coloured spray paints and dipping to quickly paint lots of models to a tabletop standard. Some armies lend themselves better to this than others.

Skippy wrote:Your other option is using techniques like coloured spray paints and dipping to quickly paint lots of models to a tabletop standard. Some armies lend themselves better to this than others.

In my experience, people that flatly state that htey cannot perform a task probably will never do so. I feel that few people are incapable of painting to at least a tabletop standard, but it's possible the OP is one of them.

It's more likely that he wants a certain quality that he is unable to achieve, either through a lack of talent or simply not spending the time.

As a commission painter, I would say that the answer to your question all depends. It sounds as though you are looking for someone who is talented, and are not looking for basecoat and a wash type work. Keeping that in mind, here are some tips from my experience:

1: Good painters who strive to paint well will not be fast. While there are some exceptions to this, those painters who paint speedily and well are most likely going to charge a good chunk of cash.

2: Painters outline in (1) tend to charge a good bit of cash for commissions. The reason is simple: they, like other people, have a life to attend and in many cases have an official dayjob. From your avatar, I assume you play IG. Most commission painters who paint skillfully will charge you around $40 to paint up a Chimera in a simple, two-tone camo color scheme. And a unit of 10 IG Infantry should cost about $40-$60. I am working on a CSM army at the moment. It includes 5 Terminators, 20 CSM, 2 HQ, and 4 vehicles. This has cost my customer $450. So, as I said, commissions are not cheap if done by good painters.

3: The customer needs to be patient, and the painter needs to be informative and helpful. The best commission painters send regular updates on the progress of the commission, and are receptive to feedback. However, the customer needs to reciprocate this attitude. I have had the lovely experience of finishing a commission and sending it off, only to not hear if the customer had received it 2 weeks after I had sent it. I attempted to contact said customer asking them if their models had arrived yet, but a month after sending them this email, I still had not gotten a reply. Assuming that the customer had gotten their models, I went on with my life.
Eight months later, I open my email to find a very threatening letter from the customer, in which they tell me to send them their models immediately or they will defame me on a podcast that they did. I emailed them back, explaining that I had sent the models 9 months ago, but I got no reply. Two weeks later, I got another nasty email, from which it became clear that the customer had not read my prior email.

The above story is the kind of thing every commission painter dreads. It is up to BOTH parties in a commission to take it upon themselves to let the other know if anything appears to have gone wrong when the models are in transit. Otherwise, situations like the above will occur.

I hope this has helped,

_Tim?

For me, painting, and modeling is such a large part of the hobby that I wouldnt dream of paying for someone else to do it for me. That said I'm not much of a player.. I will dabble with tables and dice, but don't play very regularly or competitivley, its a lot more about the painting for me But I can appreciate that some people would hold quite the opposite view, players and not painters, Commisioning your painting to someone else might really suit those people. And they might well seek painting services from the hobbyists that are primarily painters - its a very circumstantial question really. Only you can decide that its worth your money to get results quicker than learning the techniques yourself.
3 years is'nt very long to have spent learning to paint like a pro. Many have been doing it for decades! Don't be disheartened that you're not at a pro level after such a short time in the hobby.

I like the painting part of the hobby. If you really do not like to paint or simply do not have time, there are some alternatives. Army spray paints give you a base color. Washes give the main color some depth. Then just hit the metal parts with bolt gun metal or if organic a bone color. Wash those. Hit the edges again with a similar color and you are table top ready.

If your a perfectionist and can not paint, well be prepared to spend a great deal of money to get your army painted. If that is worth while, go for it. All I ask is you mention you did not paint your army if your entering events.

Personal pet peeve is someone winning a painting score with someone else's paint job.

Javin wrote:I like the painting part of the hobby. If you really do not like to paint or simply do not have time, there are some alternatives. Army spray paints give you a base color. Washes give the main color some depth. Then just hit the metal parts with bolt gun metal or if organic a bone color. Wash those. Hit the edges again with a similar color and you are table top ready.

If your a perfectionist and can not paint, well be prepared to spend a great deal of money to get your army painted. If that is worth while, go for it. All I ask is you mention you did not paint your army if your entering events.

Personal pet peeve is someone winning a painting score with someone else's paint job.

Yeah, I HATE that. Saying that is the most disrespectful thing a customer can do to the person that took the time to paint the models for them.
Thankfully, that kind of neckbeard gamer riff-raff tend to not have the cash to afford to go to good painters for commission work...

_Tim?

It all depends on how you enjoy the game you play, I think. 40k, really is so much more enjoyable with painted models, it makes the people you play against respect you/want to play you and the whole point of the game really is that you are playing with painted models. If you can't paint I think that collecting painted models can be just as enjoyable as collecting the unpainted models, no? After all when you pay for a model you are paying for something that is meant to be painted, and is designed to have many small details that an experienced painter really knows how to make shine. If you play with unpainted models, what is the point? Why not play a viddy game instead? It's a lot more balanced and at least you can be immersed in the graphics. 40K is all about the collecting, and collecting painted models is just the same as collecting art... do yourself a favor and be educated a bit... don't go for the cheapest/fastest thing... and your army will have resale value as well as giving you some true satisfaction to own.

CommisarBruno wrote:I suck at painting, I've tried and tried for 3 years now, trying every technique and paint there is out there, but to no avail . So, im considering trying a painting service, but, is it worth it? If so, who should I go with?

For the clients for whom I have done work for, they feel it is totally worth it. Feel free to email me and I would be happy to talk about your project with you.

redmodeling@gmail.com

Ashton

thanks for all the info guys, i might try my hand at it again, if y'all could give a list of stuff for IG table top quality minis, i would greatly appriciate it. (cadian scheme)

This is the type of stuff i get. This is my farseer i painted

That's not a bad start. I notice that the primer may have been sprayed under the wrong conditions since it looks rough.

Have you ever worked a model all the way until the end? I've often thought mine looked terrible due to small goofs here and there. Until you do a touch up and the final highlights it may not look like much. Also, it really does take practice to get the control and technique down. I'm not nearly where I'd like to be but until then I've learned to moderate my expectations a bit and with each new project I try to push myself just one notch.

Agree with Tim here. I used to think that I should paint faster but if you really want quality (and you're considerate enough to consider your painter has a life), you should be willing to wait.

In case you missed it...

Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:Most commission painters who paint skillfully will charge you around $40 to paint up a Chimera in a simple, two-tone camo color scheme.

... going with a professional paint job can easily cost you more than you spent on the mini itself. You're taking an already really expensive hobby and doubling its cost. If you've got that kind of cash to throw around, then by all means, but seriously consider your alternatives.

For example, at least half the armies I've ever played against were just grey minis. Knowing the kind of time that it takes to make them better, I don't necessarily begrudge those who can't get their army painted. That you have ANY paint skills at all already lifts you out of a wide bottom slice of 40k hobbyists. Then, of the other half, about 5/6+ have been painted up to some basic, two or three color, no-detail tabletop minus to tabletop level of quality.

The point I'm trying to make is that if you've been painting and think you're no good, then what probably needs to happen most is for you to get some perspective. Just making an effort to get some amount of paint on your minis already puts you at least in the top 50%, regardless of how poor of a job that you do. What you probably need is a better attitude, not better painting skills.

No one starts out as a Golden Daemon winner.

It has taken me 12 years to get as good as I am, and there is plenty of room for my own improvement.

Some people use commissioned painting because they lack skill. Others use it because they lack time or focus to finish an entire army.

Just understand that on average, a full army commission will cost almost as much(and in some cases much more) than the actual cost of buying the models.

So that $500 army becomes a $1000 army after it's all said and done. Some people are fine with that.

One way to look at commissioning a job is this: you don't have to pay for the paints, brushes, palettes and all of the materials needed to paint the army. Also, you don't have to spend years and years perfecting techniques to get them on the table. For some people, the $500 for a commission is easier to get than all of the above mentioned items.

Other than the primer, I do not see a problem with that farseer. i think you are not giving yourself enough credit. However, if you have the spare cash a great resource is your local hobby shop. If you have one, check out some of the better painted armies other players have. Find out if they do commision work. Start off small, give the person one fig to paint. see if you like it. Then work with him or her from there. The other posts are right, you do need to be careful especially if you are mailing figs to someone you do not know. I say go to your shop and find someone, get to know them and see if they want to do business. My two cents.

Its a totally subjective situation.

I am a person who paints/magnetizes minis and builds terrain on commission.
My skills are limited however, and I only have a small base of clients. Sometimes I just do special effect base coating (special metallics, special lighting, etc.) and my client finishes the minis (obviously, I charge much less for just this).

Usually I am paid for my creativity (coming up with cool designs or conversions, or very custom terrain) rather than my specific painting skill.

If you are not willing to pay for the really high quality services (perhaps some of the posters on this thread - I don't consider myself high quality) talk to some of the local guys in your area who might take on work.

I would not sell yourself too short however, see if there are any painting "days" at any of your stores where you can get some basic techniques down.

best of luck!

Theres nothing really wrong with that mini, the fact it has paint on it makes it 100 times better than an unpainted mini.

Which guard do you play? We can have a think about products and techniques you might want to try if we know some more details.

It really all depends on the painter and how much he is charging vs time it takes to get your product back and how happy you are with it.

I have a current customer who is big on historical and He loved these Union Soldiers I did for him. Right now I am doing Zoans and Civil War Confets Calvery!


I charge x2+ and have a 2-3 week turn around on all projects.