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In the best interest of said service I am going to leave their business anonymous. I have always painted my own models, ordered my own models etc. So I have a pretty good understanding of the labor involved with commissions. Now the reason I chose to try a commission service for a few reasons:

1. Workload has increased exponentially this year
2. Limited free-time
3. Really like the way anonymous service present themselves
4. Have a handful of models that I wanted above my painting ability because I feel the models are exceptionally awesome

Now with that said, I made a deposit with said business back in May. We are talking several hundred dollars, for 8 models. Now, I have kept in contact with said service & this is what I have been told. It took the business 2 months to get the models. Upon following up with them a week after they "received" models, I was then told they were still waiting on models. After contacting business a month later this reassured me they had said models. Contacted them last month & they said they were being painted. Contacted them this week & was told they were being "assembled" despite being all metal....

Just starting to have some concerns. Is this normal?

It's a bit off. Stuff happens and projects get delayed all the time, but a decent service should simply be upfront about it, and not try to spin a line, so to speak.

Are you getting WIP photos? Generally these are a good way of showing the state of the project.

winterdyne wrote:
It's a bit off. Stuff happens and projects get delayed all the time, but a decent service should simply be upfront about it, and not try to spin a line, so to speak.

Are you getting WIP photos? Generally these are a good way of showing the state of the project.

No I haven't. I was told that I would receive pictures upon completion so that if any changes needed to be made I could make suggestions.

You should never feel ashamed about asking for WIP shots, at the end of the day, they're your models, and it's your money the service is working for. Someone that says no to this without a good reason usually has something to hide,

It does not take long to grab a camera and snap a quick shot to send to the client.

My main concern at this point is that they haven't even begun painting the models. After speaking on the phone they sounded very uneasy about the status of my order. The last thing I want them to do is rush. I'm concerned that if I request a WIP they will just throw paint on the models & I will end up receiving a lower quality paint job as a result.

If I call them in another 2-3 weeks would you feel I am being "aggressive" as a customer? After all in total, its going on 5+ months. I paint above table top quality, can receive models in the mail in 3-4 days, spend between 8-16 hours per model. This service is a level above my painting ability but, I feel 5 months is somewhat excessive for 8 models.

Sounds like they haven't started, yeah.

I'd basically ask them to be honest with you, as they've already told you several different things.

Either your work is on their workdesk now (so they shouldn't have a problem with sending a WIP shot), or it isn't (and they should have an idea of when they will be starting it).

Is this a well-established service with a proven track record? If so, then they really should be sorting this out as a priority - bad press gets around and it's important to preserve reputation.

If a service is asking you to keep their name or discussion of their work out of forums I really REALLY wouldn't trust them. It's certainly at the point of name and shame I think given the story you've told so far.

winterdyne wrote:
Sounds like they haven't started, yeah.

I'd basically ask them to be honest with you, as they've already told you several different things.

Either your work is on their workdesk now (so they shouldn't have a problem with sending a WIP shot), or it isn't (and they should have an idea of when they will be starting it).

Is this a well-established service with a proven track record? If so, then they really should be sorting this out as a priority - bad press gets around and it's important to preserve reputation.

If a service is asking you to keep their name or discussion of their work out of forums I really REALLY wouldn't trust them. It's certainly at the point of name and shame I think given the story you've told so far.

They haven't hasn't asked me to keep their name private, I am just choosing to do so to give them the benefit of the doubt. They are a well establish commission service. I think I will give them another 2 weeks & give them a call. In the event they still don't have answers I am going to ask them to be honest & get things sorted out. Really appreciate the replies guys thank you. Hopefully I am just someone who fell through the cracks.

I'd call them now. Leaving it longer just means you stew on it and get more annoyed in the long run. I occasionally shelf projects for a while here and there, and two weeks is usually a fraction of the time involved. If your job is on the side because they have a big army to finish, or some other such thing then they can tell you so and all will be good. If their top-end painter has gone AWOL or some other situation has arisen where they can't complete the work, then they need to fess up and let you know the situation.

From an outside point of view, I think the second situation seems more likely- you have a very high end job booked with an established studio. This means most likely only one or two artists within that studio being capable of doing (or at least finishing) the work (with the rest doing tabletop bulk jobs) That your job has been on book for 5 months rings some major alarm bells with that in mind.

First, in purchasing models for a job- if the cost of these is covered in the deposit, the purchase should be made more or less immediately on receipt of the deposit. The studio should have them in hand very shortly afterward, I actually got stung by both the UK VAT (sales tax) increase and Forgeworld hike by delaying once. Not a good idea. As I was paying another artist, I made a loss on that job. If the studio has eaten your deposit (running costs etc) and can't pay it's artists, then that obviously can bork your job.

Second, in terms of turnaround time. A 28mm competition grade infantry mini takes me an average of 20 hours, assuming its nothing too insane, basically even at a slow, part time sort of pace I'd expect to churn out one a week. For balls out crazy, more obviously, but that would also generally require showing off partway through the job (to check you like freehand or highlight patterns etc). Going from 'being painted' to 'being assembled' sounds like a step back to me. Somebody, at some point is telling porkie pies, which indicates that they may still be. It's possible they still don't have the miniatures, and also don't have your money any more.