Once you post your ad, odds are you will recieve a handfull of responses to choose from. I will list the most likely:
New Guy: this is the guy who is thinking about painting for money. He maybe a good painter, maybe not. Odds are he has no idea what to charge for anything and thinks a little too highly of his own work. However it could work out with cheap good work, but dont count on it.
New Service: and individual or group that has just started and needs work to display to potential clients. Website may be up or in the process of going up. Usually these guys are a good deal, they are probably working bellow market and will give 110% just to have word of mouth and nice pictures on their webpage.
Established Individual: this guy has probably been painting for moeny for a while and knows his stuff. He should have examples of his work somwhere online. Price will be a factor in your decision as well as knowledge of genre.
Established Service: they are kind of the most boring responses to get. Its more "look at my website for quotes and examples" unless they need the business and then expect a better market rate.
Dont choose anyone without an example of their work either painted by them or a picture.
Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts
Monday, August 31, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
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.
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.
Starting
Alot of people are curious about getting things painted and ask me where to start. The first step is a budget.
Whatever you spend on gaming a month, halve it. Stop adding to an increasing pile of unpainted miniatures and dedicate half that money to getting things painted.
You need about $50 to start, so set that aside either in your hand or in the bank.
The next step is finding a painter. I dont recomend using anyone you know or game with, that only leads to problems. Painting alot of minis can be tedius and humans by nature are procrastinators. You will have much better results with professionals.
Where do you find those? I use two places.
The first place I go is the painting services section of Bartertown.
http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewforum.php?f=21&sid=f762c283bce49915042f111b16185c73
The next place I would go is the painting services of The Miniatures Page
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/topics.mv?id=34
I prefer Bartertown because the painters can PM you, on TMP you need to post your email address for them to contact you. However, if you are getting anything historical done, you need knowledgable people, odds are they are on TMP.
Whatever you spend on gaming a month, halve it. Stop adding to an increasing pile of unpainted miniatures and dedicate half that money to getting things painted.
You need about $50 to start, so set that aside either in your hand or in the bank.
The next step is finding a painter. I dont recomend using anyone you know or game with, that only leads to problems. Painting alot of minis can be tedius and humans by nature are procrastinators. You will have much better results with professionals.
Where do you find those? I use two places.
The first place I go is the painting services section of Bartertown.
http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewforum.php?f=21&sid=f762c283bce49915042f111b16185c73
The next place I would go is the painting services of The Miniatures Page
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/topics.mv?id=34
I prefer Bartertown because the painters can PM you, on TMP you need to post your email address for them to contact you. However, if you are getting anything historical done, you need knowledgable people, odds are they are on TMP.
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