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.

Don't know if this is the right thread. Sometimes with my horde armies I'll look on ebay for models that are base painted so I can start painting them from there but you'll find people that obviously don't even water their paints or have never even heard of lining etc. selling their models for the most steel ball inflated prices like 3 times or more than the retail. Are there any good sites where you can buy base painted models etc. I mean ebay really is ridiculous for 40k you'll get people trying to sell a box set of something like 'here is an opened box set of mega nobz, I'm only selling them for the same price as you could get in GW, but with 3 pound for postage on top' bwahaahahaha Before commenting this has nothing to do with me wanting cheaply done models money isn't an issue, its being able to find models on ebay that are not painted as base models (which are terrible for even being just based) and priced at showcase models lol

You want someone to build and base-coat your mins, then sell them to you at less than retail?

Good luck.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
Sometimes with my horde armies I'll look on ebay for models that are base painted so I can start painting them from there but you'll find people that obviously don't even water their paints or have never even heard of lining etc. selling their models for the most steel ball inflated prices. Are there any good sites where you can buy base painted models etc. I mean ebay really is ridiculous 'here is an opened box set of mega nobz, I'm only selling them for the same price as you could get in GW, but with 3 pound for postage on top' bwahaahahaha

You could try the Dakka Swap Shop. Obviously quality will vary (I've done some sales myself, and my work is... Painfully average, at best) but you can get pics ahead of time, so you know what you're getting.

Edit: Also, as the poster above me pointed out, that's gonna sell for a premium.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
You want someone to build and base-coat your mins, then sell them to you at less than retail?

Good luck.

Who said I wanted them for less than retail. That bit was just an example of how ridiculous ebay is.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
You want someone to build and base-coat your mins, then sell them to you at less than retail?

Good luck.

I think his point was that people have poorly painted minis on there for 3x retail.

He's not saying how much he's willing to pay for base-coated only minis.

 Horst wrote:

 Excommunicatus wrote:
You want someone to build and base-coat your mins, then sell them to you at less than retail?

Good luck.

I think his point was that people have poorly painted minis on there for 3x retail.

He's not saying how much he's willing to pay for base-coated only minis.

Exactly. If they are based they have to at least be well-based, not lumps of un-watered down paint labeled 'pro painted'

What you’re looking for is commission painting; there is a pinned post in the Dakka swap shop forum on the current members that do commissions; frontline gaming do a solid job, I’ve painted for them before going separate ways, Cosmic UK based painter does a great job imo, there are many others showcase their recent commissions you can contact for a quote. Though anyone worth a damn is usually booked, you’ll have to beg them to squeeze you in their time frame.

Go to a FLG and ask around. At least here in the bay area, there are a ton of pros that'll do it

You're in the UK though so that doesn't help you much.

 Big Mac wrote:
What you’re looking for is commission painting; there is a pinned post in the Dakka swap shop forum on the current members that do commissions; frontline gaming do a solid job, I’ve painted for them before going separate ways, Cosmic UK based painter does a great job imo, there are many others showcase their recent commissions you can contact for a quote. Though anyone worth a damn is usually booked, you’ll have to beg them to squeeze you in their time frame.

Doesn't take talent to base though, so I wish there were a site where people sold their models, but were accurately labeled/priced, I just don't have a lot of time anymore for painting. Wondering if there was a bridge between ebay and commission painters.

Just a little bit of advice. If someone is calling themselves a pro painter....they probably aren't a pro painter. If the guys says he's okay - then he might be worth considering.

99% of the "pro painted" stuff I've seen on the internet looks like trash.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

 Big Mac wrote:
What you’re looking for is commission painting; there is a pinned post in the Dakka swap shop forum on the current members that do commissions; frontline gaming do a solid job, I’ve painted for them before going separate ways, Cosmic UK based painter does a great job imo, there are many others showcase their recent commissions you can contact for a quote. Though anyone worth a damn is usually booked, you’ll have to beg them to squeeze you in their time frame.

Doesn't take talent to base though, so I wish there were a site where people sold their models, but were accurately labeled/priced, I just don't have a lot of time anymore for painting. Wondering if there was a bridge between ebay and commission painters.

Doesn't take talent, but it's a long process to cut out of sprue, assemble, and prime models. Like, for a squad of 10 guardsmen it would take me ~3 hours to do. if I charged $20 an hour to do the work, you're looking at $90 for a squad of primed and assembled guardsmen, which is a bit steep.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
Doesn't take talent to base though

Apparently it does, given how many complaints you've just made about people not being able to do it to your standards. There is no easy way around it, you're going to have to commission someone to do the work and pay them for it.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

 Big Mac wrote:
What you’re looking for is commission painting; there is a pinned post in the Dakka swap shop forum on the current members that do commissions; frontline gaming do a solid job, I’ve painted for them before going separate ways, Cosmic UK based painter does a great job imo, there are many others showcase their recent commissions you can contact for a quote. Though anyone worth a damn is usually booked, you’ll have to beg them to squeeze you in their time frame.

Doesn't take talent to base though, so I wish there were a site where people sold their models, but were accurately labeled/priced, I just don't have a lot of time anymore for painting. Wondering if there was a bridge between ebay and commission painters.

Ah, what you are looking for is low end commissions; look at BlueTable painting or local gamers who are just starting out to paint miniatures. In order to find the best value and painted miniature in your budget, you have to do your own homework, no one knows what you’re looking for better than yourself.

Even though this is the Information Age and you can find anything on the internet, if there's this theoretical medium ground exchange site, and it doesn't show up on the first few pages of a google search, then it's so niche/small that it may as well not exist due to the difficulty of finding it. And I'm inclined to believe that no such site exists (but the NSFW parody of it definitely exists). Beyond dredging ebay looking for models of sufficient paint quality, I don't think that the solution you're hoping for exists at this moment. The closest I can think of is commissioning someone to basecoat a batch of models for you at a lower rate than what they would charge for fully painted models--although I have a hunch that, in order for it to be worth it to the painter, the commission fee(s) would not carry the degree of discount that one would hope for.

People listing models on eBay have an incentive to list things as being pro-painted, it attracts more interest. Doesn't mean it looks good, it's just a label.

While Dakka is a good place to find good commission painters, might I suggest your FLGS?

 techsoldaten wrote:
People listing models on eBay have an incentive to list things as being pro-painted, it attracts more interest. Doesn't mean it looks good, it's just a label.

While Dakka is a good place to find good commission painters, might I suggest your FLGS?

Keep in mind some Dakka commission painters may not deliver. I (stupidly) took a commission request, and like 1/2 squads into it realized I bit off way more than I could chew, that i was basically working for slave labor wages for the time it would take / money I agreed on, and wouldn't finish in anywhere near the time I quoted. I apologized, refunded the guy all his money + shipping costs, mailed him back all his models, but I still wasted a bunch of his time and now he has a bunch of half finished minis.

I mean I intended to do a good job, but it just didn't work out, and I screwed up. Commission work can be a crapshoot because you might get a guy like me who gets in over his head

 Big Mac wrote:
look at BlueTable painting

OP is looking for basic painting commissions, not trash sold at high-tier prices by a scammy owner whose explicitly stated refund policy is "first rule is never give the customer their money back".

 Horst wrote:

Doesn't take talent, but it's a long process to cut out of sprue, assemble, and prime models. Like, for a squad of 10 guardsmen it would take me ~3 hours to do. if I charged $20 an hour to do the work, you're looking at $90 for a squad of primed and assembled guardsmen, which is a bit steep.

Steep but fair? Look, model assembly takes time, and time = money. I'm in the same ballpark - I'd say 15min to cut, clean and assemble a standard trooper model, more if I'm painting in subassemblies. So even if you find someone willing to work for minimum wage (that's $14 CAD/hour where I am), that's $35 smackers for 10 models, and then there's basecoating (depending what you mean by basecoating, if you mean priming and a single primary color, add another 30min (total, I'm assuming the use of airbrushes for this stage and including post-spray clean-up and such), so we're up to $42 CAD plus cost of paints expended.

If basecoating means blocking out the main colors (no shading or highlights), probably another 15min per miniature, so another $35 and you're up to $77 CAD for a squad of 10. And if you're hiring a service, that' means someone above the painters is often taking a cut, so you're probably up to around $100 for that squad! And that's with people making minimum wage for what amounts to semi-skilled labor, truly pro paint work would be skilled labor and charging a lot more.

The point is, manage expectations. Even assembling and priming an army can take dozens of hours and should cost at least as much as the army is worth at retail, though the newest (i.e. most expensive) stuff from GW can probably be done for less.

It's going to be tough to find exactly the models you want already assembled and painted to a decent standard, typically you'd have to buy the models yourself and send them to a commission painter just to make sure you're getting what you want. And the cheaper the service is, the less likely it is that the painter is experienced with commissions as opposed to someone with good intentions just trying to be a nice guy but biting off more than he can chew like Horst is saying.

Looking for anything particular?

Something like Marines can usually be base coated with a spray can if you aren't particular to a GW Specific colour.

 techsoldaten wrote:
People listing models on eBay have an incentive to list things as being pro-painted, it attracts more interest. Doesn't mean it looks good, it's just a label.

But does it? I know whenever I see a listing labelled as 'pro-painted' my automatic assumption before even looking in detail is that the paintjob will be awful. I think I would assume higher quality if a listing didn't use that phrase.

 Xenomancers wrote:
Just a little bit of advice. If someone is calling themselves a pro painter....they probably aren't a pro painter. If the guys says he's okay - then he might be worth considering.

99% of the "pro painted" stuff I've seen on the internet looks like trash.

That seems to be true everywhere, even here it's exactly like you said. Stay away from people that define themselves pro-painters.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
Doesn't take talent to base though

Apparently it does, given how many complaints you've just made about people not being able to do it to your standards. There is no easy way around it, you're going to have to commission someone to do the work and pay them for it.

Point taken.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Likan Wolfsheim wrote:
Even though this is the Information Age and you can find anything on the internet, if there's this theoretical medium ground exchange site, and it doesn't show up on the first few pages of a google search, then it's so niche/small that it may as well not exist due to the difficulty of finding it. And I'm inclined to believe that no such site exists (but the NSFW parody of it definitely exists). Beyond dredging ebay looking for models of sufficient paint quality, I don't think that the solution you're hoping for exists at this moment. The closest I can think of is commissioning someone to basecoat a batch of models for you at a lower rate than what they would charge for fully painted models--although I have a hunch that, in order for it to be worth it to the painter, the commission fee(s) would not carry the degree of discount that one would hope for.

Would be good if it did, I think they'd be a market for it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 John Prins wrote:

 Horst wrote:

Doesn't take talent, but it's a long process to cut out of sprue, assemble, and prime models. Like, for a squad of 10 guardsmen it would take me ~3 hours to do. if I charged $20 an hour to do the work, you're looking at $90 for a squad of primed and assembled guardsmen, which is a bit steep.

Steep but fair? Look, model assembly takes time, and time = money. I'm in the same ballpark - I'd say 15min to cut, clean and assemble a standard trooper model, more if I'm painting in subassemblies. So even if you find someone willing to work for minimum wage (that's $14 CAD/hour where I am), that's $35 smackers for 10 models, and then there's basecoating (depending what you mean by basecoating, if you mean priming and a single primary color, add another 30min (total, I'm assuming the use of airbrushes for this stage and including post-spray clean-up and such), so we're up to $42 CAD plus cost of paints expended.

If basecoating means blocking out the main colors (no shading or highlights), probably another 15min per miniature, so another $35 and you're up to $77 CAD for a squad of 10. And if you're hiring a service, that' means someone above the painters is often taking a cut, so you're probably up to around $100 for that squad! And that's with people making minimum wage for what amounts to semi-skilled labor, truly pro paint work would be skilled labor and charging a lot more.

The point is, manage expectations. Even assembling and priming an army can take dozens of hours and should cost at least as much as the army is worth at retail, though the newest (i.e. most expensive) stuff from GW can probably be done for less.

I don't mind paying for value, I've bought a 10 man ork squad for 3 times the retail and it wasn't much more than a base coat but it was well done. I just wish instead of commissions there was a website where you could just have browse and buy like ebay, but ebay is either full of gak paint jobs or over inflated prices. If it was managed by a website, they people that buy in or advertise it could price value etc.

 Bellerophon wrote:

 techsoldaten wrote:
People listing models on eBay have an incentive to list things as being pro-painted, it attracts more interest. Doesn't mean it looks good, it's just a label.

But does it? I know whenever I see a listing labelled as 'pro-painted' my automatic assumption before even looking in detail is that the paintjob will be awful. I think I would assume higher quality if a listing didn't use that phrase.

I too avoid such entries on eBay typically because I'm looking for models to strip anyway, and such overinflated self worth leads to higher pricing on eBay. Why would I want to pay extra for a "pro-painted" model that I'm going to strip down? I'm looking for stuff that's used but fairly priced, and the "pro-painted" keyword is usually a red flag.

Don't forget that eBay takes a nice cut of whatever you sell.
With the cost of materials, packing, boxes, and the time it takes to paint something, it's no surprise you don't find anyone worth their salt selling on there anymore.

I used to take commissions and sell on eBay. But it's not worth the trade off in time for money. At least what gamers expect to pay, which is about 10% of minimum wage for highly skilled labor.

Now I don't bother painting stuff for anyone else.

My suggestion is if you don't have the time to do some thing, but you really want it done, you find the time.

Good luck OP. But I really don't see your search yielding much.

A&A

 Ghool wrote:
Don't forget that eBay takes a nice cut of whatever you sell.
With the cost of materials, packing, boxes, and the time it takes to paint something, it's no surprise you don't find anyone worth their salt selling on there anymore.

I used to take commissions and sell on eBay. But it's not worth the trade off in time for money. At least what gamers expect to pay, which is about 10% of minimum wage for highly skilled labor.

Now I don't bother painting stuff for anyone else.

My suggestion is if you don't have the time to do some thing, but you really want it done, you find the time.

Good luck OP. But I really don't see your search yielding much.

I think 1st tier models are waaaaayyyyy under priced in the GW community, its a shame what these people make but for bare minimum based models the money isn't that bad. If the money was better I would love to do commissions but I'd never get my own models painted, plus it isn't a good idea to turn your passion into a job, I used to be a tattoo artist, I can't stand the sight of a tattoo machine now.

eBay UK is so bad i’ve given up buying anything that isn’t still on the sprue. The number of sellers that have ruined models then want 3x retail saying it is pro painted is laughable.

phillv85 wrote:
eBay UK is so bad i’ve given up buying anything that isn’t still on the sprue. The number of sellers that have ruined models then want 3x retail saying it is pro painted is laughable.

Yeah ebay is so badly controlled, I refuse to sell on there. Plus when something doesn't arrive I get the money back straight away, so many scumbags that will wait until the case is closed and then just take the money without even sending you anything in the first place. Bought a sisters repressor off someone in America, never got it back, or the money, Ebay doesn't give you any advice, being a nice person you think sure you've had problems with the post, I'll just wait for you to send another and then bam you are out of 100 quid etc. I sent the guy a letter saying Karma will catch up on you. Don't know how a person could do that, scum isn't a strong enough word.

Even if people are just base coating minis you're not gonna get them at affordable prices.

If someone is buying 10 GW models for £30 they'll probably want to get at least £50-60 for the time and trouble painting them. That's not including the cost of boxes, bubble wrap, postage etc.
Your looking at £70 for 10 little dudes