Commission Painting, 40k Miniature Painting
Navin Weeraratne
How to Pick a Miniature Painting Service (And ...

Nethermaze and Harrowdeep, Painting Warhammer Underworlds

We painted more Warhammer Underworlds this month. Among them was Nethermaze and Harrowdeep. Here are some highlights.

These were painted to Exhibition Quality.

About Warhammer Underworlds:

Warhammer Underworlds is a tabletop miniature wargame set in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe. It is a skirmish-level game that is played with small teams of miniatures, and it is designed to be fast-paced and easy to learn.


About Paintedfigs:

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).

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Painting Fallout Wasteland Warfare Miniatures

Some Fallout Wasteland Warfare miniatures we did recently. Just some additions to a client's collection. I quite like the Brahmins; Many people in Sri Lanka have a beef about eating beef. So, for me the Brahmins have a delightfully transgressive feel.

These were painted to Exhibition Quality.

About Fallout Wasteland Warfare: Fallout Wasteland Warfare is a miniatures game set in the Fallout universe. Players field armies of characters and creatures from the series, and engage in battles in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. The game features a variety of unique mechanics that reflect the setting, such as radiation hazards and the use of scavenged equipment. It is published by Modiphius Entertainment.

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).

Alien Jungle Basing with 3D Printed Plants

You've seen our Star Wars Legion painting before. What you haven't seen, however, is our use of 3D printed plants to give bases a bit more pop!

We have a merchant's license to buy, print, and paint plants and doodads made by “Fantastic Plants and Rocks” on Myminifactory. Here are some examples of their work:

Picture credit: Fantastic Plants and Rocks

These are meant to be printed out (fairly) large. However, we wondered how small could we make them? Kashan and Manul did some tests, and found many of the designs could shrink down just fine.

You can see how we used these printed plants here, on this Star Wars Legion order. The client wanted us to give the figures an alien forest/jungle look. Toward this we applied a few unearthly-looking plants. We painted some purple to offset the use of green, and to draw attention to their alien nature.

We’re also quite pleased with how this came out in execution. We are adding 3D-printed plants to our bag of tricks for doing advanced basing!

About Star Wars Legion: Star Wars Legion is a miniatures game that features characters and units from the Star Wars universe. Players build and paint their own armies (or, ask people like us to), then engage in tactical battles The game features a wide variety of units, including soldiers, vehicles, and characters such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. The game's mechanics focus on squad-based movement and combat, and players must make strategic decisions to outmaneuver and outsmart their opponents.

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).

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Some Warhammer Underworlds Miniature Painting Service

We got to paint up a few Warhammer Underworlds warbands recently. Underworlds minis are always fun, and it was nicer still to see them at Exhibition Quality.

About Warhammer Underworlds:

Warhammer Underworlds is a tabletop miniature wargame set in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe. It is a skirmish-level game that is played with small teams of miniatures, and it is designed to be fast-paced and easy to learn.

About Paintedfigs:

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).

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miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

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Some "Darkest Dungeon" style Tyranids for 40k

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This was a real treat to work on. We were asked to paint a Tyranid army inspired by the art below for the game Darkest Dungeon. The client wanted black Tyranids with glowing joints and mouths.

Once I saw how it came out, I fell in love with the look. I have some Tyranids set aside for a Kill Team that I’m going to do this way.

These were painted to Exhibition Quality.

How We Painted These

We’ve been getting a lot of requests on how we did these, so I figured best add a tutorial to help:

What Colors Did You Use?

We do a lot of blending and we get our colors custom-made. As such, we can’t really give a meaningful color list, sorry :( .

Instead, this will help:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/iLR9Xbd8k1raWrZM9

It is a gallery link to the army that shows large images. This gives a better idea of the technique we used.  

Claws

Black. Grey highlights. Gloss varnish -- the key is to make them look different from the rest of the black. 

Body / Carapace

Black. Grey highlights (seriously). 

Glowing Effects 

Pick a cold color of choice - blue, turquoise, purple, for example. Target the open joints and recesses in the minis. Don't target them all; part of the look is skipping some. 

Do a shade wash (contrast paints might work here, too). 

After that, take the cold color you used and mix in a bit of white. Just a bit. Then drybrush that over the areas. 

Go back and repeat this for as many drybrush highlights as you like, each time, increasing the white. 

Testing

Test on a sprue first, make sure you have the look you want!

Happy painting :) .

Navin  

About Tyranids:

The Tyranids are a race in Warhammer 40k. They are depicted as a vast, interconnected hive mind that seeks to assimilate all other forms of life into its collective consciousness. Tyranids are characterized by their overwhelming numbers, their ability to adapt and evolve quickly, and their relentless pursuit of their goals.

They are believed to have originated from outside the Milky Way galaxy and travel through space in massive fleet formations known as "hive fleets," which are composed of billions of individual organisms. These hive fleets consume all forms of life that they encounter, using the genetic material of their prey to create new, specialized Tyranid organisms.

Tyranids are often depicted as being insect-like in appearance, with chitinous exoskeletons and sharp, mandible-like jaws. They are known for their ability to adapt to a wide variety of environments and for their use of powerful psychic abilities. They are often seen as a force of nature, almost impossible to stop or defeat due to their vast numbers and their ability to evolve and adapt.

About Paintedfigs:

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).

We Built Dune Gom Jabbar Boxes to store these 1985 Revell Ornithopters

Warner Bros. Pictures

So we had the great fortune to be sent these almost 4 decades old kits. Revell Ornithopters from the 1985 Dune movie.

Painting them was fun, but we couldn’t help but notice that the plastic, not designed to last for so long, was quite fragile. As in, eggshell fragile. If they were going to survive shipping we would need to make special boxes for them and line them with foam.

And what better box to make than a Bene Gesserit pain box?

And so, we built two boxes, one for each Ornithopter. We used the one from the Villaneuve movie as the reference; I liked how it looked and it was easier to find images of it.

We designed and laser cut the boxes, but also trays to store the ‘thopters in. They slide in and out, but with a little bit resistance so they don’t come tumbling out.

The decorations were done with sticker paper and EVA foam. The dents were done with a machete.
Some trial and error (you’ll note in the first pic below the box was way too small) but we got there, eventually.

“Complain to HR?” This IS HR!


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 Some Battletech

Not too long ago, we showed off quite a bit of Battletech we painted up. Here are a bunch of reinforcements for those same armies / lances.

These were done to Showcase Quality.

About Battletech:

BattleTech is a tabletop wargame that simulates combat between giant robots called "BattleMechs." The game was first published in the 1980s by FASA Corporation - with, shall we say, GREAT INSPIRATION drawn from Harmony Gold's Macross/Robotech?

All the new, high-detail hotness for Battletech now is coming from Catalyst Game Labs.

In BattleTech, players control a lance of BattleMechs and engage in combat with their opponents' lances. Each player has a certain number of points to spend on their lance, which they can use to purchase different types of BattleMechs, vehicles, and other support units.

BattleTech is known for its complex gameplay, deep lore, and for getting FASA sued by Harmony Gold. The game has a large and dedicated fan base and has inspired a number of spin-off games and other media. I look forward to Battletech for years to come.

About Paintedfigs:

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).

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Painting Car Wars

Car Wars is a Steve Jackson Games board game going back to the 1980s. Like most awesome things from that era, it has got a revamp.

I'm a fan of Gaslands and have my own kitbashed rides, so I was suspicious these wouldn't be on par with what Gaslanders have been making. I was pleasantly surprised -- they are quite excellent.

These were painted to Showcase Quality.

About Car Wars:

In the game, players design and build their own vehicles using a variety of components such as engines, tires, weapons, and armor. They then use these vehicles to engage in combat with other players' vehicles. Combat is resolved using a combination of dice rolls and calculations based on the characteristics of the vehicles and weapons.

Car Wars is known for its detailed and customizable gameplay, as well as its dark and grim setting. It has inspired a number of spin-off games and has a dedicated fan base.

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 Exhibition Quality X-Men United

We showed you some X-Men United painted at Standard Quality, last month. This month, we got to do a set at 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).

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Painting Return to Dark Tower

There’s been a lot of buzz about Return to Dark Tower. What I find the most interesting about it is the light-up tower it comes with, but no pays us to paint accessories… Here are the minis.

They're well sculpted and have none of the ‘try hard’ detail you see in Kickstarter campaign renders that are oddly lacking or too small on the final prints.

These were painted as a mix of both Showcase and 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).

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Painting Super Fantasy Brawl

We painted up some Super Fantasy Brawl. I know next to nothing about the game, but the figures are great. Lot of nice, chunky detail and flowing surfaces to blend over. Pronouced muscles.

These were 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).

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Painting the 2008 Josef Bugman Mini

Theft. Kidnapping. Beer. Certainly some tax evasion. 2008 special commemorative mini? Ha! This man deserves a two-faction starter box with brewery terrain piece.

One day.

This was 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 Historicals: Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Mongols

I like to push the big brands and popular IPs in our newsletters. However, we do a lot of offbeat or unusual work, too. Decades-old classic Warhammer collections. Ral Partha D&D minis from estate sales. And nice, old school, 15mm historical wargame miniatures.

We have one painter in particular who is crazy about 15mm. He is something of a mad genius, so that’s on brand… Since I’m a 15mm fan as well, we both get very excited about projects like this while the others give us strange looks.

Here is a 15mm Mongol and Hunnic army he 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).

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We Painted Too Many Lumineth!

Some Age of Sigmar armies are quite accessible to paint. Stormcast Eternals, the Kruleboyz, and so on. Others though are clearly for painters looking for a challenge. The Lumineth Realm-lords are one such army. Even their basic infantry have as much details as characters do, in other armies.

So, as you'd expect, we ended up with a Lumineth miniature painting commission so large, we couldn't find an elegant way to fit it all into the camera frame:

The art brief was to paint them as World of Warcraft Blood Elves. Given the size of the order, we thought it best to do samples for each unit type. As they were approved, we used the samples as benchmarks, and put together a team to crank them out. Consistency between painters is just a matter of clear objectives; strong communication; and smiling but skeptical supervision (“trust, by verify”).

The client also included some clear quartz crystals to be painted green. We weren’t getting the transparency we wanted with acrylic paints, so we made an alcohol ink and stained them, instead. A dash of gloss varnish and the crystals were done.

These were done to 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).

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Some Standard Quality X-Men and Marvel United

At any given time, there is likely someone in the studio painting Marvel United. What was nice about this order though, was that it had the first X-Men United we’ve seen, too.

These were painted to 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).

Shameless Tags:

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Painting the Deep Madness Board Game

We have been doing a lot of Lovecraftian painting of late. Mythos creatures are now as frequent to see on the shelves as Space Marines. What I find most interesting about them is how far designers have been pushing the subject matter to come up with distinctive creatures to set their games apart. Deep Madness by Diemension (sic) Games is a good example. They have some nice minis and the overall synthesis when everything is on the table at once, is strong.

 Crafted Bases

The client wanted the bases to have a bit more flair. They were to look suggestive of an unpleasant, undersea facility. The ideal solution would have been to print some industrial bases. However, the figures are single-piece castings. Cutting them off their bases would have been hit and miss - and closer to miss.

 Instead, we printed out some industrial-looking doodads and added some wire and tubing to use to suggest pipes.

These were 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).

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Painting an Adeptus Titanicus Warmaster

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Is GW preparing to release 40k-scale Plastic Titans?

I look at Games Workshop figures every day. After a while, you start to notice the changes a different designer brings in. How an element on one figure turns up again in a completely different army. You also start noticing changes in the "house style." For example, multipart kits becoming less flexible, but yielding more dramatic poses.

Even so, there seem to be design directives that don’t fundamentally change. Basic infantry are always accessible to paint. Set-piece HQs always seem grand. Nothing is more detailed than it needs to be.

Except for Adeptus Titanicus. Their detailing feels beyond GW benchmarks for comparable-sized minis. Also, there is more detail for relatively minor details, like pipes, than you’ll see on other GW minis.

When I priced this Warmaster, the first we’ve done, I based its rate on the images online. It seemed a true monster of a job. Once it was built, it was much smaller than I had expected. I was concerned I have overcharged. After the painting was done, I realized that wasn’t the case. It was as much work as I’d expected it to be.

So, why is this happening? The simplest answer is that it’s a different game, a different scale, and so GW is applying different design rules. Occam’s Razor.

However, it is a lot of extra work their designers. Work they could spend on making other minis, and for less niche games than Adeptus Titanicus. If we would ask the question, surely a GW accountant has too?

Another possibility is that Adeptus Titanicus is also an incubator for 40k scale, plastic Titan kits. They get to work on it without raising expectations, but also get the design work paid for, and much sooner. GW can take its time working out how to make its biggest plastic kits ever. If they can’t make it work, no harm done. And, at the least, they have the designs done which they can always use, later.

Guy from Midwinter Minis has already talked about this on Youtube. From what I’m seeing of Titanicus kits, like this Warmaster, leads to me think he might be right.

This Warmaster was painted to Exhibition quality.

This was 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).

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Painting Converted 40k Chaos Knights

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What I like most about these figures were the 3D printed, aftermarket parts the client sent along with the standard kits. The assembly was straightforward; all the 3D parts fitted and showed no warping. There was a minor issue with a couple of missing parts. However, the client just sent us the files, and we printed them out on this end.

We were extrapolating the scheme from a reference image. However, we felt it needed a bit more green to balance out the red. We went over it with the client and he agreed. We used the energy and weapon glow as an excuse to shoehorn it in, and that was that.

The rest was straightforward. We weathered the metal bits, and hit up the legs and lower portions with some Vallejo weathering pigment. Done!

It’s nice to see the rise of 3D-printed conversion kits and aftermarket parts. They are an easy way to make any army distinctive. As Nvidia’s text-to-3d asset tech gets closer to market we’ll see even more of this.

Who would have thought, even a year ago, that we might soon be writing text prompts that produce 3D files for complete miniatures?

This was 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 Some Punga Blood Bowl Miniatures

Just a few Aquatic Dwarves and some Amazons for Blood Bowl, from Punga Miniatures. Punga makes cool figures; they are easily on par with GW's Blood Bowl. Their dwarfs are also stylistically similar.

These were painted 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).

Shameless Tags:

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Painting the Warhammer Plus Year 1; Vindicare Assassin - Operative Umbral-Six

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This was a delight to paint. GW makes plenty of nice minis, but when they set out to specifically make an art piece - damn. You have to see one of these ‘in the flesh’ to really appreciate it.

This was 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).