Posting an ad.

After you have decided on a place to look for a painter, you need to post an ad.

Before i get to that, I did want to say that game specific forums are another good place to look for a painter. Most have a painting/hobby section, either at the companies forum or a fan forum.

That being said, when you post an ad you need to be as descriptive as possible.

What you need painted

What condition its in

Any special instructions

Does location matter?

What you need painted is pretty self explanatory. IE: "I have a Space Marine tac squad I need painted"

What condition its in. This is important because alot of companies charge for assembly, basecoating, basing, ect. I usually get things done on the sprue, sometimes I have things that are assembled or primed. I have yet to run into a service who is willing to strip the minis of paint. So you may have extra work to do.

Any special instructions? You need to tell them what kind of painting scheme you have in mind and also you need to tell them ahead of time about any conversions, big or small. My Cadians I am having done, I wanted a simple 2 tone desert scheme with desert basing. I did need 2 demo charges converted and paid for it. You can usually request an example figure either mailed to you or photos before its over.

Does location matter? All of my posts are tagged with "US only please". There are MANY painting services all over the world and alot of US posts attract Canadian painters. I generally find the customs to be too much of a hastle to fool with outside painters.

I advise against putting "I am wanting to pay XXX amount of dollars" on your post. You want to treat like an auction, with the winning bid being chosen by you. There are several factors you should look for in a bid and I will cover those later.