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I figured this would be a discussion based thread, as it pertains to the Professionally Painted tag on any/all miniatures.

So, I've been perusing EBay and the rest of the tubes, looking for some pre-painted items for a gift army for a friend, and I've noticed that a great deal come with the "Pro painted" or "Level-x Paintjob". I understand that there are different levels of painting quality, and that's cool. But where does this "Pro painted" crap come in? Aside from viewing someone's work myself, I haven't found a way to see some credentials or some way of verifying just how 'pro' a paint job is.

I'm not saying that the paint jobs aren't worth that little bit extra, far from it. I suppose what I worry about is that everyone claims to be a professional when all they did was drill the gun barrels, dry brush the treads, and give the guy eyebrows. So I guess the question boils down to, is there a set of rules or maybe guidelines that someone can check a paintjob against to make sure they're not buying crap? As much as pictures speak a thousand words, some of the ones on Ebay were taken by potatoes, and offer no way to verify detail.

Aside from taking some random seller at their word, is there a scale or chart that I can use that would help clarify why some of this stuff is in the upwards of a thousand dollars for like thirty figures?

If the picture is blurry or they have made the picture very small then chances are they are not very proud/confident in the work. Crap photography will most likely have crap painting to go with it but not always, they could just be very terrible at photography and you might end up getting something better than what the picture shows. Sometimes someone will pay a ton of money for a great paintjob from a top painter but then they will need money or whatever, and they will resell the work and take some crapy pictures of it with the flash on. You might be very pleasantly surprised if youre lucky enough to have that happen.

The real pros are good at both painting and photography.

Even really bad painting can look "ok" from far enough away. When It comes to pictures, it's all about the close ups.

If you cannot properly evaluate the painting then the painting isn't worth much.

No. There isn't a set of rules or guidelines. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Personally I wouldn't buy models that I couldn't have painted myself in a reasonable amount of time, but my own standards are modest. I don't see the point of buying something I could have done myself without a lot of effort.

If you want "pro painted" there are a few actual painting companies, such as "Reinforcements by Post" that have staff and set levels of detail, such as Tabletop, Museum, etc.

I got a marine army that was "pro painted" what it really meant is that they guy was good at taking photos....even to the point of hiding the broken land raider hatch by making it look like some marines were climbing out of it.

Its a good play on wording most of the time.
Some people paint as a profession, so seem to call it pro painted.
Very rarely the case though.

Show piece and master painted tend to bring up alot better work most of the time.

Failing that, dakka has tons of painters who i would happily say "pro" paint for money.
As the pictures are allways crystal clear and show just how good the painting is.
They are also not worried to show all round the models, rather than just the better parts so they can hide things.

Always do your homework on the person in question. Is their feedback good? Do they have example work shown? Are the pictures clear and shot from multiple angles? What's their CoolMiniOrNot rating like? Are they well-known online? Are there positive or negative mentions of them?

There's no 'certification' for painting as such, but having satisfactory answers to the above is a good start. Dakka has a number of pro's that post around; lurking in the painting forums and seeing what crops up is a good idea. While direct advertising isn't encouraged, most folks that do commission or work for sale have a link in their sig or on their images.

This makes me chuckle from time to time coming across these eBay listings. I'm by no means a "pro" painter, but I take pride in my work and feel I can achieve at least what the general consensus can call "decent/table quality". I don't know if at best these sellers are naive or beamingly proud...or willfully ignorant when the pics clearly show a less than "pro painted" standard. In any case, anything I would buy on eBay falls into another sub-category. To me "pro painted" = "candidate for a bucket of Simple Green salvage"!

To be honest, I'm not the best painter out there but I only buy painted models I intend to dip in Simple Green. If you want an honest answer, a "pro" painter is anyone who can get people to pay him/her to paint. So technically I'm a "pro" painter, as I've sold painted minis and had people pay me to paint their minis, but I would never con someone on eBay by claiming my stuff is "Pro-Painted".

Actually, I have put painted stuff on eBay with the tags "mediocre painted" and "amateur painted". Just for fun.

just to point out, this can work the other way.

I brought some Blood Angels off face book and they had poor pictures up so no one was buying/bidding - they cost me less than £1 each but they are really well painted.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Over 30 at 95p each

It can be very hard to sell painted models. I've been sitting on the same small lot for 8 months. Sometimes people like to use "attention getters" to get more views. "pro painted" is one of those old familiar terms that seems to work in spite of us knowing better. I find most reasonably good painters will use a more humble term like "well painted" knowing the stigma and scrutiny that comes with the more familiar pro title.

 Frankenberry wrote:
I figured this would be a discussion based thread, as it pertains to the Professionally Painted tag on any/all miniatures.

So, I've been perusing EBay and the rest of the tubes, looking for some pre-painted items for a gift army for a friend, and I've noticed that a great deal come with the "Pro painted" or "Level-x Paintjob". I understand that there are different levels of painting quality, and that's cool. But where does this "Pro painted" crap come in? Aside from viewing someone's work myself, I haven't found a way to see some credentials or some way of verifying just how 'pro' a paint job is.

I'm not saying that the paint jobs aren't worth that little bit extra, far from it. I suppose what I worry about is that everyone claims to be a professional when all they did was drill the gun barrels, dry brush the treads, and give the guy eyebrows. So I guess the question boils down to, is there a set of rules or maybe guidelines that someone can check a paintjob against to make sure they're not buying crap? As much as pictures speak a thousand words, some of the ones on Ebay were taken by potatoes, and offer no way to verify detail.

Aside from taking some random seller at their word, is there a scale or chart that I can use that would help clarify why some of this stuff is in the upwards of a thousand dollars for like thirty figures?

EBey?

It's a catch-all phrase that people have tagged to thier stuff they want to sell. Yes, there are a few armies/ figures out there that were more or less sent in to Blue Table, or any other painting services, but on the whole when you see "Pro Painted" in there it is just a catch phrase to use as an excuse to charge extra for the model.

Examples are abound on the practice.

I remained skeptical on anything where 'pro' was used given that it really doesn't mean anything. I mean, when I think Professionally Painted I think Les from APJ.com. But some of the stuff I've found either meets the level of detail I've come to expect from 'pro' models, or it simply has a 300% price increase. Which has honestly put a bit of a sour taste in my mouth with regards to the so-called 'Pro's'.

I've considered buying the models I'd like painted, assemble them and then pay for a an actual professional to paint them. That way I get what I want, with the models I want, and generally I've found that commission taking folks are pretty conscious of their customer's opinion; bad feedback means less business, etc.

What say you Dakka? Commission painting or throwing the dice on some already painted lots?

 Frankenberry wrote:
I remained skeptical on anything where 'pro' was used given that it really doesn't mean anything. I mean, when I think Professionally Painted I think Les from APJ.com. But some of the stuff I've found either meets the level of detail I've come to expect from 'pro' models, or it simply has a 300% price increase. Which has honestly put a bit of a sour taste in my mouth with regards to the so-called 'Pro's'.

I've considered buying the models I'd like painted, assemble them and then pay for a an actual professional to paint them. That way I get what I want, with the models I want, and generally I've found that commission taking folks are pretty conscious of their customer's opinion; bad feedback means less business, etc.

What say you Dakka? Commission painting or throwing the dice on some already painted lots?

I'd say it all depends on what you want. If you want a specific color scheme, let's say "My Little Pony Orks", then you will want to go with a reputable commission painter. If you are fine with the GW color schemes (which are usually what people who sell painted models go with) and the seller has a good reputation/you want the models ASAP, then by all means go with already painted models! It's all about your individual needs.

~Tim?

"Professionallty painted" means exactly the same as "better tasting" does on food packages. It's a meaningless sales blurb.

Additionally, "master painted" and "showpiece" also are equally meaningless. In a few years, Ebay will be flooded with "master painted" models as the linguistic arms race continues apace.

 Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:

 Frankenberry wrote:
I remained skeptical on anything where 'pro' was used given that it really doesn't mean anything. I mean, when I think Professionally Painted I think Les from APJ.com. But some of the stuff I've found either meets the level of detail I've come to expect from 'pro' models, or it simply has a 300% price increase. Which has honestly put a bit of a sour taste in my mouth with regards to the so-called 'Pro's'.

I've considered buying the models I'd like painted, assemble them and then pay for a an actual professional to paint them. That way I get what I want, with the models I want, and generally I've found that commission taking folks are pretty conscious of their customer's opinion; bad feedback means less business, etc.

What say you Dakka? Commission painting or throwing the dice on some already painted lots?

I'd say it all depends on what you want. If you want a specific color scheme, let's say "My Little Pony Orks", then you will want to go with a reputable commission painter. If you are fine with the GW color schemes (which are usually what people who sell painted models go with) and the seller has a good reputation/you want the models ASAP, then by all means go with already painted models! It's all about your individual needs.

~Tim?

+1 absolutely

Dependent entirely on you and what you are looking for.

Some still run with the minis just to paint, some for add ons for thier established armies, some just get a deal, others still throw a few bucks to someone else just to get some paint on them.

Well, back in the day, Pro Painted could just mean that they used Reaper's Pro Paints to paint the model.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Well, back in the day, Pro Painted could just mean that they used Reaper's Pro Paints to paint the model.

Hah! That's technically correct - the best kind of correct.

I've won a couple of Demons. I have infrequently painted commissions. When I sell online (rare nowadays as I don't really need the money and hate to part with my shineys) I usually list as "Not Pro Painted". It still comes up in a pro paint search but without some of the stigma. And, it seems humorous self-deprecation goes some distance with potential buyers. Most of my commission jobs came after an ebay buyer received their model and then emailed with a commission request.

In most industries the only difference between "professional" and "amateur" is that a professional makes money off of their work. Doesn't matter if you are talking football, programming or painting.

Those words are commonly mistaken for high and low quality, when it is common enough for "professionals" quality to be over taken by that of particular amateurs.

A good life lesson here is that labels mean nothing. Kind of like the thought of not judging a book by its cover.

In this case, it really boils down to if you like what you see then buy it. Doesn't matter if it was painted by Michelangelo, if it looks like crap.

I think in some cases the "pro" stands for drug addled prostitute, judging by some of the stuff I have seen.

I had a laugh prowling through CSM on Australia eBay.

"Pro Painted" came up. My perspective of pro painted is vastly different to those people.

Pro painted doesn't mean sh@it there are things i have seen on ebay that claimed to be "Pro-painted" that a 5 year old could have painted better

 Ouze wrote:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Well, back in the day, Pro Painted could just mean that they used Reaper's Pro Paints to paint the model.

Hah! That's technically correct - the best kind of correct.

I use reaper master series, so all of my stuff is Master Painted.

I went fishing this weekend, and I'm really good at baiting a hook. You could say I'm a master at it.

I've put up a few models just to start building a rapport with the community. I did originally use the "Pro Painted" in my title but found that it really didn't do anything and was more superfluous than noteworthy.

When a commission painter or a "painter for hire" invests money in buying and painting an army without a secured buyer they feel as though they need to fluff it up to push a faster sale, hence the fluff words.

As an added note, I've owned my own oil field procurement business for going on 8 years and decided that I would venture into commission painting for a side business since I enjoy painting already. I greatly underestimated the market saturation and competition out there.

In short I would only really trust a dakka painter for work after researching their previous commissions.

/rambling post

 kronk wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Well, back in the day, Pro Painted could just mean that they used Reaper's Pro Paints to paint the model.

Hah! That's technically correct - the best kind of correct.

I use reaper master series, so all of my stuff is Master Painted.

I went fishing this weekend, and I'm really good at baiting a hook. You could say I'm a master at it.

I like you. You can stay.

Oh, and OT. Like others have said, pro painted doesn't mean anything. On Ebay, I personally believe it is used to add an aura of legitimacy to the paintjobs and prices, especially when the two don't match. The term doesn't even register anymore because it has been so diluted.

The legit auctions list the awards of the painter if any,, and show very good pictures of the actual mini for sale. "Pro painted" labeling is irrelevant in those cases.

"Pro painted" is just a short and efficient way of saying "deduct 90% of retail price for the extra work required to strip the models before they can be used for anything". Unfortunately a lot of people seem to press the '+' key on their calculator instead of the '-' key when calculating the new price so you have a lot of "pro painted" models listed at a price way above what they're actually worth.

I have an auction up right now for a FW daemon. Search for it if you want a peek. I painted it to a very nice standard but I no way labeled it as pro-painted. I think the term has been thrown around too much just to get people to look at the auction and hopefully bid.

Seems like a basecoat and drybrush qualify as 'pro painted' these days. Also putting models together with a trowel to apply the glue means 'masterfully greenstuffed'...

I sell armies and individual figures on ebay.

I dont class myself as professional, as its my hobby.

However whenever i put an army up etc, i always state what level i have aimed for, i.e. tabletop, high quality tabeltop, display quality or high display quality etc.

I take decent pictures and allow for supersize on screen, if you look like you are hiding something it never looks good, be proud of your work and let the buyers judge.

However the thing i laygh at is the Pro-Painted armies for sale...to order.

I cannot see how someone will spend the thick end of £1600 on something that isnt even made yet, okay if you can see the pics of THAT army fine, but sight unseen seems barmy.

But the term has been far too overused sadly.

I'm just going to say this now: The term "Professional" has no actual bearing on the quality of the paint job. It just means that their profession is painting... which just means that the phrase "pro-painted" is an even bloodier lie than it was when it supposed mean "'Eavy Metal Team quality".

I'm sure there are some people who eke out a living by painting minis but judging by the paint jobs on most "Pro painted" minis, I would highly doubt that the seller bases his livelihood on his painting skills. They can be decent but not really something to count on.