Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I've been wondering - you see a lot of polish painters (from Poland! not painting with polish ) around, and so many of the are SO great.
Does anyone know or care to speculate why Poland seems to have so many great painters?

Too cold in the winter to do much else?

 darefsky wrote:
Too cold in the winter to do much else?

Then why are all Swedish painters horrible?

 fishy bob wrote:

 darefsky wrote:
Too cold in the winter to do much else?

Then why are all Swedish painters horrible?

They model instead

fishy bob wrote:

 darefsky wrote:
Too cold in the winter to do much else?

Then why are all Swedish painters horrible?

Hey! I resent that!

SilverMK2 wrote:

 fishy bob wrote:

 darefsky wrote:
Too cold in the winter to do much else?

Then why are all Swedish painters horrible?

They model instead

And approve of this


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 darefsky wrote:
Too cold in the winter to do much else?

Sweden is way colder than Poland (at least in the north), still they're better than us..

Poland has a long history of the arts, it's not unreasonable to imagine a fair few of them would turn their hands to minis.

As why there seems to be more of them, well we're just decadent capitalists who are too fat and lazy to compete with the hard working Polish proletariat!

Some countries just seem to have a lot of excellent painting come out of them. France and Italy's Games Days usually have way better Golden Daemons than the English or American ones, or the Asian ones back in the day.

Spanish painters are also pretty amazing, taken as a whole.

It wasn't so in the days of yore, when WFB and 40k were upstart games. During the times of 2nd the game was fairly unknown in Poland.

I saw the largest boost to the GW popularity in Poland (and the hobby popularity alongside it) around the introduction of 40k 5ed. We already had some painting studios back then, but most of the good ones got founded back then.

Currently the game is a lot more popular in Poland. Be mindful, that typical modes of business don't tend to wheel in the dough here (min. wage won't let you keep your apartment or pay for anything else apart from existing) - one really needs to be creative and the best there is. Those studios that fit well in the niche and have a base of faithful clientele are propsperous and hiring better painters. Therefore only the best painting studios remain in business, hence the quaity our painters display.

 darefsky wrote:
Too cold in the winter to do much else?

Dude. It is 10 celsius warmer in Warsaw then in New York today. And winter in Poland lasts about 3 months.

And as for painters - all the painters i know have one thing in common. They care about what they do. And if it is passion, not just a job then the effect tends to be great.

 MaCa wrote:
It wasn't so in the days of yore, when WFB and 40k were upstart games. During the times of 2nd the game was fairly unknown in Poland.

I saw the largest boost to the GW popularity in Poland (and the hobby popularity alongside it) around the introduction of 40k 5ed. We already had some painting studios back then, but most of the good ones got founded back then.

Currently the game is a lot more popular in Poland. Be mindful, that typical modes of business don't tend to wheel in the dough here (min. wage won't let you keep your apartment or pay for anything else apart from existing) - one really needs to be creative and the best there is. Those studios that fit well in the niche and have a base of faithful clientele are propsperous and hiring better painters. Therefore only the best painting studios remain in business, hence the quaity our painters display.

The first thing I think about is that here in Sweden for instance it would be pretty much impossible to make a living painting minis, life just costs too much here with rent and food etc.
How much do professional painters and studios make per mini on average? I'm shooting in the dark here but I've seen minis go for around £200 or so, rarely more - I might be VERY wrong on this as I dont really follow the auction prices!
In any case, the time that goes into making a mini that still only sells for a few hundred pounds is not feasible income in my country. I'm guessing that living is cheaper in Poland in general and thus allows more painters to step forward as professionals earning their living.

 Tommy wrote:
The first thing I think about is that here in Sweden for instance it would be pretty much impossible to make a living painting minis, life just costs too much here with rent and food etc.

This is certainly true. Painting toy soldiers is not gonna pay an apartment in Stockholm.

 Tommy wrote:
I'm guessing that living is cheaper in Poland in general and thus allows more painters to step forward as professionals earning their living.

You hit the mark right on. The living expenses in Poland are definitely lower than in Sweden or the rest of EU, therefore it is reatively easier to make a living off the painting studios.

That being said they still price themselves accordingly to what would be expected of good painting studios. I can't say from experience, as I never actually commissioned anything, but my friends did, and they reported the prices easily reaching the equivalent of 20-30$ for a space marine (to the best standard the studio can crank out of course).

There are obviously cheaper ones, but you need to lower your expectations

 MaCa wrote:

 Tommy wrote:
I'm guessing that living is cheaper in Poland in general and thus allows more painters to step forward as professionals earning their living.

You hit the mark right on. The living expenses in Poland are definitely lower than in Sweden or the rest of EU, therefore it is reatively easier to make a living off the painting studios.

That being said they still price themselves accordingly to what would be expected of good painting studios. I can't say from experience, as I never actually commissioned anything, but my friends did, and they reported the prices easily reaching the equivalent of 20-30$ for a space marine (to the best standard the studio can crank out of course).

There are obviously cheaper ones, but you need to lower your expectations

For $20-$30 for one space marine, a painter in Sweden would pretty much have to be able to crank out one finished space marine PER HOUR to be able to make ends meet. I think that is pretty near impossible to do while keeping ones sanity.

 MaCa wrote:

 Tommy wrote:
I'm guessing that living is cheaper in Poland in general and thus allows more painters to step forward as professionals earning their living.

You hit the mark right on. The living expenses in Poland are definitely lower than in Sweden or the rest of EU, therefore it is reatively easier to make a living off the painting studios.

That being said they still price themselves accordingly to what would be expected of good painting studios. I can't say from experience, as I never actually commissioned anything, but my friends did, and they reported the prices easily reaching the equivalent of 20-30$ for a space marine (to the best standard the studio can crank out of course).

There are obviously cheaper ones, but you need to lower your expectations

the best polish painters would charge a hellofalot more then that actually.

Yeah, I never said that my friends used the best ones, I just reported on the ones they did use and how much it costed them. I'm sure there are plenty of other more expensive studios, but in the end all that matters is "do you like your minis?"

Besides, I feel that the term "best" is not really appropriate when discussing the painting studios. Of course if you fail to uphold even the tabetop standards, one's not worthy of calling oneself a studio - but concerning those that do real good it's all a matter of opinion and taste. Person 1 might pay 4000$ at his "best" studio and be unsatisfied and person 2 might spend a 1000$ at a studio he just noticed and be really positively surprised.