Using Commissioned Painting Services or DIY?

[DinoTitanedition]

Actually, I think the lesson is that you shouldn't trust someone who routinely gives fake names out to people and organizations he deals with on the internet, but wants to do trust-based business with those same people.

And I think it`s a lesson to just learn how to paint the own stuff yourself and not use painting sevices This way it is also easier to make a compliment on well painted minis.

[VoodooMike]

And I think it`s a lesson to just learn how to paint the own stuff yourself and not use painting sevices This way it is also easier to make a compliment on well painted minis.

There are only so many hours in a day, and no one person can be an expert or even vaguely competent in all things. Our world works on an epistemological division of labour... we split up the knowing and the doing among many so that everything can be known and everything can be done, but no one person can cover even a fraction of it.

You can have a really nice car and get compliments on it without having built that car yourself... maybe a sour engineer might say you shouldn't, but things be things. I like having nice things but certainly don't want to make all those things myself.

[lunchmoney]

And I think it`s a lesson to just learn how to paint the own stuff yourself and not use painting sevices This way it is also easier to make a compliment on well painted minis.

I cant hold a paint brush anymore. So if I want a painted team I have to give it to someone else. Have some consideration for others.


Plus what Mike said.

[nazgob]

I would suggest that the lesson is to work with people you know personally. For example, I see Al regularly at tournaments; I'd be happy to send him my team for painting if he were offering...services...

Someone I see less regularly or not at all might not get my attention.

[rolo]

I enjoy painting, but I totally get that not everyone does. If someone's willing to spend what it takes to get a team professionally painted, it's their money.

I think the lesson here is less "don't use painting services" and more "buyer beware". Although from what I understand, Laughing Ferret had a pretty solid reputation before (whatever happened). Were there red flags?

[DinoTitanedition]

I cant hold a paint brush anymore. So if I want a painted team I have to give it to someone else. Have some consideration for others.

Well, sorry to hear that, but that is rather an exceptional situation. What springs to my mind is people not painting or stating they cannot paint well, due to sheer laziness. I`m not a great painter myself, but I´ve got to a likeable certain standard for one simple reason - I practiced. And before someone calls upon the time issue, I have a wife, kid, job and quite some other obligations as well. It`s not a big deal to paint every now and then. Getting better is a process that takes it´s while.

But rolo points out something as well - some people do not enjoy it. To my experience it is because expectations are set to high for the beginning. But why am I stating my opinion on this? Well.....maybe just personal negative experience, but it`s the "not that well painting, using services"-people that brag about rules most often. A just as dislikeable situation. Again, just my two cents from my personal experience point of view.

[Shushnik]

I cant hold a paint brush anymore. So if I want a painted team I have to give it to someone else. Have some consideration for others.

Well, sorry to hear that, but that is rather an exceptional situation. What springs to my mind is people not painting or stating they cannot paint well, due to sheer laziness. I`m not a great painter myself, but I´ve got to a likeable certain standard for one simple reason - I practiced. And before someone calls upon the time issue, I have a wife, kid, job and quite some other obligations as well. It`s not a big deal to paint every now and then. Getting better is a process that takes it´s while.

But rolo points out something as well - some people do not enjoy it. To my experience it is because expectations are set to high for the beginning. But why am I stating my opinion on this? Well.....maybe just personal negative experience, but it`s the "not that well painting, using services"-people that brag about rules most often. A just as dislikeable situation. Again, just my two cents from my personal experience point of view.

Why so judgmental?

Some people like to paint. Some people don't. I enjoy murdering all of those pieces.

[nazgob]

Ultimately, painting services are there for a reason. Some people, like me, won't use them because they want to paint their own minis. Others might use them for a special team of star player, to get a really good centrepiece model. Some will get everything done that way.

I think that the issue is linked to the whole concept of internet retailing. Sometimes, it's just a bit shady.

You do your research, get a recommendation, but ultimately, you have to hope. Even good companies/individuals can drop the ball. Bad ones can get it right.

I think that the most you can do is to be careful and limit your risk as best you can.

[nightwing]

I cant hold a paint brush anymore. So if I want a painted team I have to give it to someone else. Have some consideration for others.

Well, sorry to hear that, but that is rather an exceptional situation. What springs to my mind is people not painting or stating they cannot paint well, due to sheer laziness. I`m not a great painter myself, but I´ve got to a likeable certain standard for one simple reason - I practiced. And before someone calls upon the time issue, I have a wife, kid, job and quite some other obligations as well. It`s not a big deal to paint every now and then. Getting better is a process that takes it´s while.

But rolo points out something as well - some people do not enjoy it. To my experience it is because expectations are set to high for the beginning. But why am I stating my opinion on this? Well.....maybe just personal negative experience, but it`s the "not that well painting, using services"-people that brag about rules most often. A just as dislikeable situation. Again, just my two cents from my personal experience point of view.

Harsh. I've been painting for 20 odd years. I'm still pretty rubbish, and normally achieve 'decent tabletop standard'. It's not because I haven't practiced- I have- I'm just genuinely not very good at it. And I don't mind painting, and like being able to put out a fully (if poorly) painted team that I painted myself.

Not everyone is going to be a great painter, no matter how many hours you put in.

[Twelfman]

Some are players.

Some are painters.

Some are collectors.

Some are fluff lovers.

Most are a combination of them, not everyone is everything. You can enjoy this hobby in plenty of ways, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I might like playing but dislike painting.

I might like the fluff but hate the game.

I might love collecting teams and the fluff, but can't paint for toffee.

I might hate the fluff but love the rules.

[nazgob]

Tumpkin, the Vegan Barbarian!

[Darkson]

I don't paint because I don't like it, the results are still rubbish (after 20 years of trying), it's a chore.
If I could afford it I'd get everything painted by others.

I also really dislike some within painting "stable" constantly patronising people like myself - "keep going, you'll learn to like it" and "you'll improve the more you do" - yeah, I'll keep painting until I die, maybe I'll produce some decent that I enjoy 5 mins before I snuff it.

[Wifflebat]

I paint all my own teams because I feel like it's cheating if I don't do it myself. I feel a greater sense of identification with a team I've painted myself. I also don't feel like I should spend money on something I could do myself. I wish I didn't feel that way because, despite having spent decades doing it, and getting reasonably good at it, I still really don't like painting.

In the amount of time it takes me to paint a Blood Bowl team, I could play dozens of games (of Blood Bowl or something else.) I have probably a decade of backlogged minis to paint for all my games, and yet I feel the need to paint them myself.

Anybody who says they don't like painting and walks away from it in favor of paying somebody has my empathy, my respect, and my blessing.

[nazgob]

I'd imagine that I'm in the painting stable that Darkson mentions, but I largely agree with him on several points, if not others.

Practice will make you a better painter. But some people are not natural painters - just as I can't learn languages, no matter how much time I put into it, some people don't get on with painting. That is fine.

Some people don't like painting. I do, others don't. That is also fine.

We do a hobby for enjoyment, and if there is a way to skip the parts you don't enjoy, then do so. I for one could stand to lose the occasional dicing, but haven't found the solution just yet...



The problem is that we all like to have painted models. Which, I guess, is where we are with this thread.

[mikeyc222]

i am a decent painter. there are many who are MUCH better and many who are MUCH worse. i have even won a couple of Fan Favorite trophies at local tourneys... but i HATE painting minis. it is pure work for me to paint minis and i do not enjoy it at all. even being a decent painter, if i could afford to pay someone else to paint my minis, i would never paint another mini again. not because i can't paint them, not because i'm too lazy to paint them, but because i would rather be doing any number of things other than painting frikkin minis...
i know some people REALLY enjoy it, and i am happy for them. if they want to offer me a great deal to paint my minis for me, then i'll gladly throw what little money i have available at them. but as it stands, i can't afford that vast majority of painting services, so i suck it up and paint them myself. i have to take huge breaks in between projects due to the fact that pretty much every time i finish a team, i want to throw all my paint and brushes out the window.