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).

---

Painting Tokens for Mage Knight

We’re getting more and more jobs to do board game tokens. Some come stock with their games, but others are 3d printed from third party vendors, often on Etsy.

Here are some tokens we did for Mage Knight. Each is about half the size of a regular 28mm figure.

There were all painted to Showcase 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).

Painting Classic Warhammer Chaos Trolls

I like to show off all the cool new minis, but a lot of what we get are people’s collections of older minis, sometimes quite old. Often its classic D&D and Ral Partha goodies, but we also get a lot of classic warhammer miniatures.

This is where I shine. Everyone’s like “what are these?!” “Ask him!” 50/50 chance it’s just stuff from about 20-25 years ago and I can usually answer. But, otherwise, its off to Solegends and Google.

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).

---

More Adeptus Mechanicus Warhammer 40k Miniature Painting Service

This is my favorite Adeptus Mechanicus commission. I’ve blogged earlier about the first round of minis, these are the reinforcements. Some Serberys Sulphurhounds, Raiders, and Sterilyzors (why would they want it spelled that way? Are flying dudes with flamers somehow lacking if they’re just called Sterilizers?).

The raiders are fantastic - total space cowboys. They just need cowboy hats and your done.

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 Sisters of Battle

We’ve been painting Sisters of Battle for some weeks now. Two armies, both huge. Here are some highlights from the first one.

The plastic battles sisters are pretty sweet. They are - somehow - elegant and brutal at the same time. They have grace, but none of the brittleness that Eldar have. They are very much an army of the Imperium.

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 Tau!

They’re green. They’re Tau!

These were a mix of quality levels. Tau have a billion guns and the all magnetize well. The result, is a that our Tau battle suits all look like someone ran off with their hands. Instead, we magnetize all the options (though this does cost a bit extra).

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 Free Folk - CMON Game of Thrones

Finished up some Free Folk recently; Cave Dwellers, Skin Changers, Followers of the Bone. Here are some highlights.

There were all painted to Showcase 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).

Kickstarter Painting: Anno 1666

Anno 1666 is a Kickstarter board game set in 17th Century Vienna:

“It is the year of our Lord 1666. Emperor Leopold is dead. The election looms. European monarchs send their envoys to Vienna to participate. But the struggle for the Empire's future takes place not only at the noble courts. In Vienna's slums and alleys swashbucklers, musketeers and thugs wage a secret war on behalf of their powerful superiors.” [Board Game Geek]

We were commissioned by one of the creators to paint up a nice big set of these very characterful minis. My favorite in the Not-Leon. You can’t miss him.

There 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).

Prices Going Up

Our core rates have been unchanged for about 10 years. Unfortunately though, a lot of other other things have changed in that time:

• our wages have gone up, commensurate with skill and experience

• some materials and services have gone up, especially shipping

• figure complexity has boomed

I have always preferred to grow our output and sales, rather than just hike rates. However, there’s only so far that goes before putting off a price increase becomes unhealthy for the business - and 2020 has underlined this.

So we are raising our rates. Painting is going up by 10%, and Shipping is going up marginally. Depending on what happens with international shipping in the coming year, shipping may increase again. However, I don’t see painting rates changing again, for several years at least.

Navin

Turquoise Thousand Sons!

We usually paint Thousand Sons miniatures in blue. For this miniature painting service project though we were given a turquoise reference with a more muted gold. Here are the results.

These were painted to Exhibition Quality [corrected. This originally said ‘Showcase’]. 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).

---

Painting Adeptus Titanicus

We’ve been doing a little Adeptus Titanicus here and there. Not as much as we expected given the hype when the game launched (also — TITANS. What's not to like?!), but enough to have more than a passing familiarity with the work.

Here are some Titanicus miniatures we’ve painted - mostly for Lucas, our shipper in Illinois :) .

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).

---

Crab Men, Shark Men, and Clam Men - Painting Wrath of Kings

Wrath of Kings is a game sadly out of print now. I know nothing about it, except that the sculpts are unique, excellent, and they have an undersea faction. We landed a miniature painting commission to work on some and here’s what we did.

These were all painted to Showcase Quailty.

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).

Slaanesh Daemons, Painted to Our Highest Quality

Every now and then someone says “paint ALL of them at Exhibition.” Here’s what that kind of miniature painting commission looks like - a Slaanesh Daemon army done entirely and Exhibition Quality.

I cannot think of enough good things to say about the sculpts, so I will shut up and leave you with that.

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 10mm: Warmaster Chaos

There’s a great Japanese show on Netflix named ‘Midnight Diner,’ where the chef has a set menu but will make anything a customer asks for, as long as he has the ingredients. Paintedfigs is like that. We have all the big brands on the menu, but if someone asks us to paint some Sparabara Achaemenid Persians, we can (as can any miniature painting service).

Not too long ago (minus Corona dislocation time), we were asked to help with some Warmaster Chaos. The client wanted a brighter palette, and for each faction’s allegiance to their chaos gods to be clear.

At 10mm there’’s not a lot of surface area to work, so you can’t be subtle. We went with obvious faction colors to make sure the player could tell what was what at a glance. Here are the results.

Most of these were painted at Standard Quality. Some, at Showcase.

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 Sisters of Silence

We’ve done the odd Sister of Silence every now and then -- maybe two or three ?

Then this happened:

They were a nice, straightforward commission - lots of silvery-gold for a platinum feel and purple for an imperial feel. The greys and white are essentially neutral and balance out the gold without competing with it.

These were all done 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).

---

Tzeentch and Slaanesh at the Same Time (Somehow)

An unusual commission — we had to paint up a Chaos Space Marine army that felt:

• A bit Thousand Sons

• A bit Emperor’s Children

• A bit Tzeentch daemon friendly

• A bit Slaanesh daemon friendly

And when you put them all together on the table, should look like a coherent army.

It took us a bit of back and forth, but we worked with the client to establish some core colors and outline his specific wants, then he gave us the leeway to fill in the blanks. Some of the results are below. Most of the painting was standard and showcase, but some work, like the Keeper of Secrets, was 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 Giant CMON Game of Thrones Army

We just finished a 358 model Game of Thrones miniature painting commission.

The CMON models are great, no surprises there. The Wildlings and more barbarous-looking sorts are particularly well detailed. I get the sense that the sculptors have become more experienced after doing Blood Rage.

There were all painted to Showcase Quality.

There’s too many to share here; you can see them all here.

Standard Quality Dark Angels

Some Dark Angels, both older sculpts and some Primaris Marines. The client opted for the practicality of a mostly Standard quality miniature painting service, with a few done at Showcase (eg: the Ravenguard bikers) and Exhibition (eg: Master Lazarus).

We did some freehand for the quartered kneepads.

---

A Bit of Carnevale

It is not every day we paint Venetian gondolas. These are the opulent and intrinsically OTT miniatures of Carnevale, a narrarive miniature skirmish wargame set in 1795 Venice.

We’ve only painted Carnevale miniatures maybe 2 or 3 times before, so I was quite pleased when we got this larger-sized set. Check them out!

There were all painted to Exhibition Quality.

Age of Sigmar Miniature Painting Service - Ossiarch Bonereapers

Work has restarted! We’ve painted some Ossiarch Bonereapers here and there but this was the first, full-on army of them we did. They are a LOT more detailed than the Tomb Kings ever were. In fact, the’’re more detailed than the majority of Games Workshop miniatures, even compared to other recent releases.

Katakros Mortarch of the Necropolis (the chap on a better diorama base than any Forgeworld Primarch has) is one hell of a set-piece. I’m really liking what they did here; I hope GW does more diorama figures.

The miniature painting service on these Age of Sigmar miniatures was Standard quality but some (like Katakros) were done at Exhibition.

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).