Pro painting - caveat emptor

[Silent bob]

That's good news, nothing lost except time then.

Yup only time....6 months of waiting in anticipation, planning and scheming, trying to keep a 10 year old 'interested' in all the buildings we have made......

I'm not sure if, as human beings we have anything as valuable as time.....

I really must get out more.......

Cheers

SB

[Silent bob]

LAF is being a bit slow tonight - I tried to post this 2 or 3 times, then they appear all at one.....

[Silent bob]

Hi,

Figures & money were supposed to be returned last week......(he was undercoating them to return them to me) no sign.....two ignored e-mails...

So far the whole sorry effort has been delayed by :-

hold-up in the previous order
two more commissions coming in at the same time
family holiday
medical condition (stress caused by overwork - obviously not my Alamo stuff)
and now a family funeral

If nothing else has come from this farce, at least I have found a couple of good painters for my 28's and 10/15's figures (just need my figures back and a refund).

I am taking suggestions for the next cause of delay/failure to show......

Ta

SB

[Danger Close Miniatures]

Aliens

[Cubs]

[Silent bob]

Aliens

Yes I did think, I had not had that one as yet but with the BBC War of the Worlds - it might be a bit obvious....my money is on 'disruptive weather'

I am pursuing this in the Small Claims Court on 25th November (when I can afford the up front fee),so hopefully it will bring it all to an end - either that or blow another £25 in the effort....

[Legion1963]

Indeed. Just this spring i decided it was time to find someone to paint the last miniatures for my Vietnam project. The reason is that my eyes are older (like the rest) and i really need to spend time on terrain.
The first one i came into contact with (not via LAF) send me photos (after i asked him for visual examples of his work) that somehow looked very familiar. So i did a search on the www. And yes there they were on a website from an American pro-painter. When confronted with that info he acted very immature and i said goodbye.
 
The second one i found was on FB and i send that small batch of the Nam-project miniatures to him. It took awhile. About 4 months but the result is very good and i am very pleased with them. And his prices are really okay. For me the lack of communication was the worst part. It was a valuable lesson learned.

In the meantime i found another painter who does it purely out of hobby-enjoyment. Very good communicator and he's quite fast. 15 miniatures in a (very) little over a month. He paints a fair tabletop standard at a very reasonable price. Quite happy with that and my second commission is now on his table.

Just yesterday i found another painter via FB. Really professional and more costly. Nothing happened here as i need to think about it.

What funny is about all this that i put out a thread here on LAF asking for a miniaturepainter and suprisingly there was very little response. ;-)

[Khmorg]

Indeed. Just this spring i decided it was time to find someone to paint the last miniatures for my Vietnam project. The reason is that my eyes are older (like the rest) and i really need to spend time on terrain.
The first one i came into contact with (not via LAF) send me photos (after i asked him for visual examples of his work) that somehow looked very familiar. So i did a search on the www. And yes there they were on a website from an American pro-painter. When confronted with that info he acted very immature and i said goodbye.
 
The second one i found was on FB and i send that small batch of the Nam-project miniatures to him. It took awhile. About 4 months but the result is very good and i am very pleased with them. And his prices are really okay. For me the lack of communication was the worst part. It was a valuable lesson learned.

In the meantime i found another painter who does it purely out of hobby-enjoyment. Very good communicator and he's quite fast. 15 miniatures in a (very) little over a month. He paints a fair tabletop standard at a very reasonable price. Quite happy with that and my second commission is now on his table.

Just yesterday i found another painter via FB. Really professional and more costly. Nothing happened here as i need to think about it.

What funny is about all this that i put out a thread here on LAF asking for a miniaturepainter and suprisingly there was very little response. ;-)

You are telling so interestingly.
Please show please the work of the artists you talked about. I live in Russia and in spite of my old eyes I have to do everything myself. I really want to see the good work of the artist, so that I try to be a good artist.

[LazyStudent]

@Khmorg,
I can recommend Ilya at http://littlegreenstudio.me/, he's a Russian miniature painter that I have used a few times. He's very good reasonable prices and quite a decent time I'm a very happy customer of his!

Best,
LS

[Silent bob]

Well, finally got refund out of him but he has not returned the lead as yet........

Thanks

SB

[Jay Adan]

I hate reading these threads. This is how I make my living and as somebody else mentioned this is a business run mainly on trust. Luckily, I've been doing this for a while so I don't have the issues finding work like I did when I first started. Now the problem is that the wait list is too long for some folks. There are only so many hours in a day.

[Terryb]

I know what you mean a Jay. Started up my figure painting business this year, concentrating on painting a good standard of Wargame figure for a competitive price.
Work has been pretty consistent, but I always try to communicate with my customers and let them know what sort of timescales I am working to.
I always try and finish each commission before starting the next one. Common sense really.
I had a computer issue during the year which meant I didn’t receive a couple of commission enquires and felt mortified that I had let people down. Thankfully that has now been sorted.
I hope you get your figures back soon Silent bob and it hasn’t scarred you too much. There are some good painters out there, more than happy to give a good service.

[Cubs]

Well, finally got refund out of him but he has not returned the lead as yet........

Thanks

SB

I'd recommend you keep the claim going for the cost of the mins, or you're running the risk of this going on forever because they reckon they've done what they need to do to get you off their back.

[Silent bob]

Yeah thanks Cubs

I have emailed him again today to give him one more chance to explain himself.

The cost of the lead is about £40-£50 but it has come down to the principle now.

I have gone from thinking the guy is just unlucky & slightly incompetent to believing he is crooked.

I can't figure out why he wants to keep the lead (assuming he still has it)

The only reason I have not put his name up 'in lights' is the fact that maybe his is the former and is going through a bad patch......

Thanks for your help

SB

[Silent bob]

Things are moving a pace now.......

He's communicated with me......mainly to say "God help the next painter who deals with me" and to refund me - he has had to "paint a job that pays" so he has not had time to spray undercoat the figures to send them back  - so he must have done some work on them over the last six months (I did offer to pay for any completed figures)

I can't really understand how it has suddenly become my fault.....