Some Flames of War Deutsche Afrika Korps (DAK) miniature painting.
Historical Wargame Miniature Painting: a Fireforge Mongols Army
An Infinity: Defiance Miniature Painting Commission
Corvus Belli did a large Infinity kickstarter not too long ago. A few clients went all-in and sent the figures over to us to get painted up.
The sculpts were, as usual, quite excellent. What stood out for me though was the Megalodron. It is the largest Infinity figure we’ve yet painted. As far as I understand, they are the largest Infinity figures, ever. I do hope this means that we will see Corvus Belli experiment with other super-large miniatures!
This miniature painting commission was done 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).
Warhammer 40K Painting Service: Painting Classic Praetorian's
It is not everyday that we see Praetorians. It is not everyday that anyone sees them. If you're wondering, these were created because someone at Games Workshop (when they were more playful company) did a head swaps on the Mordian range using pith helmeted heads. They proved quite popular, and the Praetorians became a thing.
I can't remember the last time we painted the praetorian army - certainly not want this large. We did them as proper redcoats, to Exhibition quality.
As charming as these models are, they are a little tough to work with. The Mordian sculpt and has its challenges. The buttons and the trim around them can be tricky. The faces, too. Most difficult however the epaulets. Some are well sculpted. Others -- not so much. We had to take a bit more time with these.
Praetorians - Today?
You would be hard-pressed to find these models today. However Victoria Miniatures had a go at them. Here are some we did. These were also painting 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).
Sisters of Battle: An Order of the Bloody Rose 40k Painting Commission
Some Sisters of Battle painted up to Exhibition Quality.
I’ve not been fond of the Order of the Bloody Rose color scheme because I feel it needs a bit more green to balance it out. Normally you see green lenses, plasma glow, and instrument panels. These look good - but they are smaller details and therefore painted bright so they stand out. This I find comes off a bit gimmicky.
Here we got to use a bit of dead grass (matching the client’s basing reference). The muted green worked better I feel. It balances out the red and feels more natural.
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 Miniature Painting Commission for The Game 'Moonstone'
Moonstone is a fairytale-themed skirmish wargame. Their miniatures are charming, whimsical - and quite excellent. They are well-cast pewter figures and the official artwork for these on their website made painting these a breeze.
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).
Green Primaris Space Marines, Red Basing - 40k Miniature Painting Service
Some straight-up Green Marines!
We were matching a client’s color scheme with these. The colors were straightforward. What’s different with these from what we’d normally do, was the use of crackle medium and the red tufts.
Crackle Medium
First we dabbed on some PVA glue in areas on the basing. A PVA undercoat makes the crackle effect more pronounced. When it dried we added the crackle. Crackle medium is great, it needs to go everything. It takes an hour or so to start cracking.
Red Tufts
We didn’t have any. We just took some yellow ones and painted them red.
basing matters
You can add a lot to a mini’s table presence with some simple basing. More advanced basing will make them badass, but there is a trade-off. The more you fancy up a mini, the more it will jar with the table when you put it down. It comes down to what you prefer.
I like going a bit on the fancy end for my own minis. I rarely get to play, so display matters a bit more for me.
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).
Kingdom Death - More Lanterns!
Kingdom Death isn’t my cup of tea, but their design is always impressive. The monsters are as much dreamlike as they are disturbing.
We did a little bit of light sourcing on these. If you look closely, you’ll see each one has a bit of glow onto its surroundings. Light sourcing is fun; even I did a few of them!
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).
A CMON Dark Age Miniature Painting Commission
Out of print games never die, or at least their minis don’t. Here are some of CMON’s Dark Age. They have a brooding, menacing aspect that reminds me of the early Cryx minis line from Privateer Press. I would go so far as to call them nightmarish.
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).
Some Fallout Miniature Painting Service
Just finished some Fallout. I know we keep showing you Fallout painting commissions, but that's because:
-These ones are new to us
- The sculpts are badass
-There are only so many Primaris lieutenants I can show people…
These were painted to Exhibition quality. Enjoy!
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 Large Skaven Miniature Painting Commission
The Skaven are one of my favorite armies. I never sat down to collect an army’s worth of figures but they were regular Mordheim crew back in the day. If Mordheim was before your time, think of it as Oldhammer Kill Team with weirder art.
This was a Clan Skryre job. I expected problems with the warpstone as some bright green I ordered didn’t arrive in time given recent lockdown drama. However, the warpstone went fine. It was the fur on the clanrats that was the problem.
At first we tried to match how GW did them. GW’s official art shows clanrat fur done in many styles - but except for one or two, I just didn’t feel they looked like rats. So, we picked one style instead, put our own spin on it, and ran it past the client. He liked it, and that was that!
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).
A Giant Tzeentch Miniature Painting Commission
Another ‘too big for the light box’ army. This only the first part, too.
This entire order was done at Exhibition Quality.
Here are some close ups:
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).
Black Adeptus Custodes - 40k Miniature Painting Service
Gold is a pretty intense color for a basecoat. It looks cool — but it tends to shout out everything else, and limits you palette for creating contrast. Doable? Yes. Nice? Also, yes. However, you want to be sure it’s what you want.
Use Black, Get Away with Anything
Here is an Adeptus Custodes 40k painting service commission we just finished. Please note, we did NOT come up with this palette. However, we can tell you why it’s great:
1 - Black is neutral so it works with anything
2 - By being the dominant color, the black allows the gold to do what it does best - draw attention to the trim and flair
3 - The darkness contrasts well with the gold’s brightness (what painters call ‘value’)
Black works with pretty much any scheme, but I feel in terms of theme and having ‘posh’ looking figures, it works particularly well with Custodes.
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 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).