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As my disability progresses painting is becoming kind of impossible. As much as it hurts me, I need to turn to painting services as I have two projects I really need done. Where do I begin? Ideally some healthy balance of price/quality/speed would be great, but I mostly can't afford to get scammed as this will likely consume my 2022 hobby budget. I have looked locally, but upstate NY can be pretty barren.

I just want tabletop quality, so it isn't a big vanity project.

Any advice is appreciated!

I'll dump some info since I used to commission paint.

I'd recommend hunting through local groups, local painters, or some local kid you know has painted other armies to get tabletop quality for a good price. Cash is king since venmo and paypal get 1099's. A good deal would be under $1000 for an army since an average 2k 40k army might be 50-80 hours to build and paint. This also avoids getting scammed since you know the person and can small claims them. Get a contract if they do want to pay taxes on it to lock you in. Vibe the painter out and get recommendations

A local kid trying to get experience might do it for less than 1k for the build paint. I used to do armies for 300 build 600-900 to paint back in 2011-2015 but with inflation anything under 1k is a great pitch price. The majority of commission painters I talk $$$ with make $15/hr but its work from home so not too terrible. This is for lower end table top quality or 12/20 paint scores at GTs. Most clients are also repeat customers. I have about 5 clients that all paid me 10k ea~ over 5 years from various add on to their armies. Turn around time for a 100 model army should be 8 weeks or so. I used to x2 the price if it was a tournament rush paint. I havent taken commissions for about 2 years since its not worth my time. A lot of professional painters hit a weird point where their reguarl job is paying x2 or x3 their painting hours. This is why the majority of good commissions painters are over in the EU (My friend commission painter over in the Ukraine lives "well" off 2kusd/month and just paints an army a month over there full time but he's young)

If if a painter is taking more than 3 months and he's not charging you a severely discounted rate - something is up. You need WIP photos weekly to be a professional with lightboxes. When I paint an army without a deadline for a friend (I did some super low quality imperial fists awhile back but I had a year to paint them) the price was 60% off since I've painted for the client for ten years.


If you cant paint due to disability - Mitch talks about painting with Parkinsons and he tends to hire lads to assist in some projects. Great guy and talks about the subject. https://www.youtube.com/user/Terrainosaur


On the two ends of the spectrum from high to low quality :

Siege Studios are great. Army projects tend to be 2-3k usd starting ~ but you should max out paint scores at most events. GMM studios is super booked out but also top notch quality and priced around the same.

Blue table painting on the other hand is [redacted] for more then a decade and legions of clients can back this up. Avoid avoid.



Good luck! do some research! Instagram is probably the best tool to use after Zuckerbook.

Thanks for the tips. I know local is the way to go, but my options in that area are either booked waaaaaaaay into the future, or are non-existent. I appreciate the broad strokes for universal expectations though.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Thanks for the tips. I know local is the way to go, but my options in that area are either booked waaaaaaaay into the future, or are non-existent. I appreciate the broad strokes for universal expectations though.

For a locator of painters - this is how new commission painters get their resume filled up: (It's a looking for artist group for wargamers mostly, you will get some predatory quotes but at least you can get a conversation going) https://www.reddit.com/r/brushforhire/ - also you sort of need a trusty profile so maybe mention you've posted on Dakka for years and have an online presence.

It just doesnt pay that well right now. You're going to want to find a locate an artist that doesn't have a huge resume / starting out so they can have lower rates. I know I sound like some boomer corpo manager right now in an office but availability right now is for the highest paying clients or the tournament players that are repeat customers. Everyone that is mid tier or paints horde armies on the cheap is booked during quarantine. It's also much easier to get a skirmish game army painted or a smaller force than an average AoS or 40k army. You're committing an artist to work for you for a few months unless they're a studio (which then they're charging higher rates). Sorry for the rambling sort of post here I'm just musing about how to assist here.

I mentioned previously a lot of guys that get commissions have been paying the same artist for years. I had a few players I painted for and wouldnt add on another person since I was maxed out year round painting. I had to also find artists that could mimic my style and redirect my old clients when I quit. These are my go to guys:

For the EU - I got a really nice dude that can mimic my style and has my quality of work: @rustybolter https://www.instagram.com/rustybolter/

If I cant reach the clients quality demand by bump up guy I send projects to is: https://www.instagram.com/trog_lobite/?hl=en but you're paying premiums since its a higher quality than I offer. I also do co-op projects with him if I need help.

The local lower quality guy is a teacher and is booked for all of 2022 already unfortunately in New Jersey. Go check out instagram and dig around local NY painters and see if anyone is free. The vibe of the interaction is a friendly gamer sort of back and forth you want unless its a professional studio.

We have a local builder that builds armies for 300-500 but he's locked into an army a month for 2022 as well