A Cursed City Miniature Painting Commission

So a good friend commissioned us to paint up his Cursed City miniatures.

The brief was to work with the official art with some changes here and there. For the most part, it was swapping out any warm tones in the bad guys, and cool tones in the heroes.

He’s doing his own basing so we just dry-fitted the figures to the ones they come with. I’m keen to see what he does for this - he’s going for a Mordheim-style board but with stone ruins painted in the new, Necron blue-greeney.

This miniature painting commission was done at Showcase Quality.

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Hedonites of Slaanesh: This Miniature Painting Service Commission was Too Big for our Light Box

So it took us 3 shots to get them all in:

(Note: This order was painted at Standard Quality.)

Not all miniature painting is the same, and neither are all miniature painting services. If you see us enter a Golden Daemon contest it's because we got lost on the way to the bathroom. Where you will find us is doing large armies. Its what we’re optimized for.

These Hedonites of Slaanesh were a fun bit of Warhammer painting service to get into. This was the first we’d seen of the new Hedonites. They have no shortage of pomp and flair.

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

A Darklands Miniature Painting Commission

Mierce Miniatures makes disturbing and barbaric figures. There is a murderous their monsters have that you don't often see.

We don't get Mierce Miniatures to work on very often, but when we do, you know the blood effects are coming out. Here are some Darklands Fomoriac figures. I find them as disturbing as Adrian Smith’s HATE.

These were commissioned at Exhibition Quality.

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting Modiphius Elder Scrolls Miniatures

Modiphius is unusual among miniature makers because of the amount of third-party IP work they do. What’s great about this is that it’s given us miniatures for games we'd otherwise not have. We've painted a fair bit of their Fallout range. This was the first time though we got to do some of their Elder Scrolls.

What stood out most for me in this miniature painting commission were the terrain pieces. They have a lot more character than you tend to see with terrain. The stock color schemes give them a very brooding, aged feel. The catacomb wall sections are my favorite.

These were commissioned at Exhibition Quality.

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Marvel United Miniature Painting Service

We've been painting Games Workshop figures for 16 years. However, if you asked the painters what their favorites are, they will tell you anything to do with Marvel or DC.

The cultural impact in Sri Lanka of the mainstreaming of superhero IPs has been considerable. This contributed to the excitement around this large order of CMON’s Marvel United. Here you see the painted figures from the core game and all the Kickstarter stretch goals.

Chibi figures used to kick our ass. They're more difficult than regular miniatures and the faces are trickier than they look. We been doing them a while now though, and the painters have gone from being anxious about them, to being excited to paint them. I think that excitement shows in these paint jobs.

These were all painted to Exhibition Quality.

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting a Khorne Bloodbound Army (Standard Quality)

When the first Khorne Bloodbound figures came out for Age of Sigmar I didn’t know what to make of them. They seemed a bit - much? Just how far can you go with a design brief of blood and skulls?

The answer it turns out is quite far. The army has a sense of menace and brutishness without any comic overtones. At first glance the miniatures can seem a bit full on, but their design is strict. The use of armor, the muscles, the use of horns and skulls, the trimming on blades, is consistent throughout.

The conversion potential for these is also strong. The Bloodreavers for example would take 40k weapons without too much difficulty. Here, you can see how a previous client used the Blood Varriors to make his own, updated, Khone Berserkers.

These are a good range.

This miniature painting commission was painted, for the most part, at Standard Quality.

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Miniature Painting Service Tactics: How We Paint Large Armies

You may have noticed we do a lot of miniature painting commissions. Also, that some are quite large. Managing large miniature painting commissions is a skill set all of its own. Here are some of the tactics we’ve come up with, over time.

If you work in manufacturing, I expect you will find none of these to be surprising.

Multiple full-time painters

Nothing quite like taking a multi-week job and splitting it across multiple painters.

The pros are:

• the commission gets done faster

• if one painter misses work, the others can compensate

• it’s good team-building to make painters, er, work in teams. This pays forward in morale, and people supporting each other.

However, the cons are not trivial:

• Communication is key. If it fails, there will variances that need to be fixed, afterward.

• there can still be variances. Over time, painters develop their own styles and hallmarks. You can’t mix painters with too much variance, or it will be noticeable in the finished army.

• Better painters end up carrying weaker painters. Weaker painters, instead of growing, become reliant on those better painters to help them with their problems.

Technology

You want paint to dry? Build a dryer. We once built a crate out of styrofoam and plugged it to an AC’s hot air output. It had a row of PC fans running to draw the air out. It could dry any number of figures in a minute or two. Any number.

Painters didn’t like using it (it broke up the flow of their work which made focusing difficult). So we put fans at every table. The painters work in air conditioning (a must in hot, super-humid Sri Lanka), so the fans blow drier air. That’s not as good as hot dry air, but it still makes a difference.

Armies, especially Warhammer 40k armies, tend to have a dominant base color. If this the case on a painting commission, we spray that color over the whole army. Not with an airbrush - with a spraygun. The kind you use to paint cars. We go through a garage-grade air compressor once every five years or so.

Wherever possible, if we can use a machine to make our lives easier, we do.

Supervision

Nothing saves time like catching mistakes early.

Further, nothing saves time like not wasting time. I don’t sit when I do staff meetings, there’s no point getting comfortable - I’m usually done in under 15 minutes. The longest I’ve done is about half an hour.

We save time on management by using shared Google documents for our dashboards. We track what we have to do, what’s due when, and how we’re progressing. Anything a client asks for gets written down. This is also why we confuse you writing from a single email address. It creates a single archive that we can refer. Knowledge management saves time.

Ancilliary Specialists

Everything that’s not painting-related, we put specialists on. Specialists can optimize, and this frees up painters to sit and paint. Building minis? Specialists. Priming minis? Specialist. Packing minis? Specialist.

If you want to see an army built in a day, give it to someone who’s been building armies for a decade or so. The Ten Thousand Hour rule is real.

Specialist Painters

This I have problems with. It works well: painters with an aptitude for painting tanks, will always paint them faster, and better, than those who don’t have that aptitude. The catch though is that the skill base erodes because painters get less practice and what they specifically should be practicing. It’s not an issue if you address it, but that's just another thing to keep your eye on.

Give it to an All-Star

Our whole shtick is treating miniature painting like a consistent manufacturing process. If we do ‘x’ then ‘y’ will always happen within at least the known bounds of ‘z.’

The reality however is that the biggest multiplier is the painter themselves. Are they happy? Did they just fall in love? Do they like the subject they’re working with? I have a painter who paints Captain America faster than any other Marvel/DC figure. He paints Marvel/DC faster than he paints Warhammer. He just prefers them because he likes the characters and their stories.

The fastest painters are always the most inspired — and there is no corresponding increase in error rate. Our most inspired painters have the least errors.

All-Stars are as real in painting as they are in sports. They will always pull of something insane.

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

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Kickstarter Board Game Miniatures : AltarQuest Painted to Standard Quality

Doing miniature painting for Kickstarter board games keep us on our toes. You never know what you’re going to get. You see different designs and styles from the usual. Often, the figures are as good as the ones the big-name brands produce.

We painted quite a large number of figures recently for a game named AltarQuest. It didn’t just have a range of monsters, but also terrain. That’s all I know about the game! This blog is about our miniature painting service. Here is what we painted.

These were all painted to our Standard Quality.

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

A Lumineth Realm Lords Miniature Painting Service Commission

Recently, we finished a fair-sized Lumineth Realm Lords miniature painting commission.

GW goes to town on all its armies now. However, there is usually a gradient in terms of the work involved. Troops and lower-level figures requiring less, HQs and named characters needing more.

This is not how they approached the Lumineth. This army has no ‘easy’ figures. From the Wardens upwards, each mini needs a fair bit of attention. I suspect this is because GW wanted this army to keep the more advanced painters happy.

We’re happy with these, too, and for the same reason. It gives us a lot to work with. The drawback though, is that it drives the price up. It is not the most affordable option when it comes to commissioning professional miniature painters.

Here are some highlights from this commission:

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Chaos Space Marines: Painting World Eaters and How to Update Your Berserkers

Finished a World Eater’s army built with converted cultists and Khorne Berserkers (the client did the conversions). He used Blades of Khorne (Age of Sigmar) Blood Warriors for their core. He also did some cultist conversions using Bloodreavers:

This was a straightforward miniature painting service commission. The client gave us a clear art brief and Chaos Space Marines feel like every other figure in the studio these days.

Where we ran into problems though were the rhinos - they arrived without their tracks.

3d Printing The Rhino Tracks

We have an Anycubic Photon printer we don’t talk about. This because the actual work of 3d printing is more art than science, and we don’t approach art like art. We approach it like science. We keep it as ‘back pocket’ asset to pull out in emergencies or if there’s a weird problem.

Here was one of those weird problems. The client has ordered some custom tracks to give his rhinos more oomph, but the seller never shipped them. So, rather than hold up the whole army waiting for tracks, we found some designs on Thingiverse and printed them. There’s only a small gap we had to kitbash and fill, but the rest came together nicely. Cost to client? Nada. This was a win for everyone.

Hey Angron, check out my emergency treads!

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

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Painting Beastmen for Age of Sigmar and Warhammer Fantasy

We got to do quite a large Beastmen army. The challenge with Beastmen is all the muscles - they need to be consistent. We often split armies between painters to help guarantee completion dates, but here we just kept it with two. Even then, at the end they needed to reconcile some differences that crept in. It was a fun miniature painting commission all the same.

In terms of colors, the green and brown offset each other. There’s plenty of both in the beastmen themselves, and the grass and brown basing helps frame it.

Freehand Banner Designs

All the banners have freehand painted designs. Don’t get excited - we hate doing freehand. It is hard to forecast: we once billed for 5 hours of freehand that ended up being 2 weeks of full-time work (that sucked, but it was our fault). The more intricate the design, the more doubtful it is that we can match it. So, wherever possible, we don’t offer it.

Now, you can’t paint a Warhammer Fantasy Army without freehand banners. We had to cowboy up and get it done. We discussed it with the client and he was good with what we could offer. He paid us well for the time, and we went for a clean, uniform, disciplined look.

Here are some shots:

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

An Army of Trees! Sylvaneth/Wood Elf Miniature Painting Service

We had the good fortune to land this miniature painting commission. It was large, the color scheme unusual, and except for one model, entirely tree-based.

What I most liked about this commission was the dominance of blue. Paint makers have a good range of pigments for making blue. As a result, it's hard for miniature painters not to make blue not to look good. The brown helps frame it, and the snow basing brings together the theme.

Here are some highlights:

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting Sons of Behemat - Mega-Gargants and Gargants for Age of Sigmar

Games Workshop’s Mega-Gargants are insane. They’re not actually that big — but they are crammed with detail. We did two along with some regular gargants (remember when we used to think the Warhammer Giant was large?) as part of a Sons of Behemat miniature painting service gig.

Here they are doing the Right Stuff walk.

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Infinity Wargame Miniature Painting Service

The level of detail on Infinity miniatures is always increasing. Personally, I feel it has hit a point of diminishing returns, but it does work out in our favor as a miniature painting service when minis become annoying hard to paint… that’s our whole business model!

These are some highlights from a large and quite varied set of mostly newer, Infinity miniatures. WE did the miniature painting service on this order at Exhibition quality.

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting Daughters of Khaine - Age of Sigmar

We got very lucky with this Daughters of Khaine miniature painting service commission - the client threw the official scheme out the window! Instead, he had picked out a palette from World of Warcraft. We had to figure out the implementation, but he gave us a great set of colors to work with.

The bright green pools / blood / glow really bring the army together. These Daughters of Khaine miniatures for Age of Sigmar were painted to Showcase.

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting Hordes Trollbloods

Been a while since we’ve done some Privateer Press painting - I hope the pandemic hasn’t messed them around too much. We got these Trollbloods from a gentleman in Switzerland who has always been a big fan of all things Hordes and Warmachine. He’s been coming to our miniature painting service for years, and the latest work he’s had us work on were these Trollbloods.

This miniature painting service was done to Showcase and Exhibition quality.

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

A Classic Warhammer Fantasy Dwarfs Miniature Painting Commission

We recently had the good fortune to finish up a Classic, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Dwarf army. It’s strange for me to think of these as ‘classic,’ I suppose that’s just me showing my age.

What’s surprising about WHFB is that we see about as much interest in it as we see for Age of Sigmar. Part of this could be the model count - there always seems to be more miniatures to paint in a Warhammer Fantasy army. Down the road, we have a Lizardman army, and Forest Goblin army.

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

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More Sisters of Battle Painting

We are finishing up a pretty large Sisters of Battle right now. The colors are the stock black / red / white / gold and the synthesis is a delight. I hope you like these!

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

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A Bit Of Dreadfleet Miniature Painting Service

Nine years ago GW came out with Dreadfleet. It was a Warhammer Fantasy universe naval war game, coming out a time when there was no fantasy equivalent except Uncharted Seas, which didn’t have models anywhere near as impressive (and never matched). I had hoped it was a prelude to a Man-O-War type game reboot, but that never happened, sadly.

Here are some Dreadfleet miniatures we just finished a couple of weeks ago. Please not how distinctive each factions ships are — hints of what could have been.

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

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Weathering, Rust, Squalor: Painting Fallout Miniatures

Most of our paint jobs have a ‘squeaky clean’ look - even our tanks look like someone just peeled the plastic covers off them. This isn’t an accident: I always ask the painters to avoid applying any weathering unless it is in the instructions, or obvious given the context of the commission. This is because it is no problem to add weathering to a job — but a disaster to remove it.

However, most clients are happy to dispense with weathering, which means we don’t get to do it very often. For this reason, Fallout always an interesting change up for painters. Fallout is not just rust and paint wear - Fallout is full on squalor.

Here are some pieces from a large Fallout commission we finished recently. I’ve picked out the pieces with significant weathering to show how we handled it.

These were painted at a mix of quality levels. Hope you like them!

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

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