Ordering a miniature painting commission is a big deal. It’s a great way to get your figures painted to a high standard if you don’t have the ability or time to do it for yourself, but it’s expensive. So, it’s always good to know what to expect from a miniatures painting service.
Ideally, you’ll want to find a miniature commission painter that you trust and can stick with for future jobs. You want someone that fits your budget, paints in a style that you like, and that you get on with, as this can make it more comfortable asking for changes.
How to Find a Miniatures Painting Service
Google is a great tool for finding any service nowadays, and that includes miniature commission painting.
But, there are a lot of painters out there, and it might take you a long time to look through galleries, read about services and decide who you want to hire to paint your miniature figures.
Social media can be a great way to find miniature painters that you like, many of which offer a miniatures painting service. Follow accounts on Instagram and Facebook and join groups.
How Do I Commission Someone to Paint My Miniatures?
Once you’ve found a miniatures commission painter that you like, it’s always a good idea to take a look at their website.
Look at any galleries, but also prices and services, to make sure you know what to expect from a quote. If they are well out of your price range, it might be worth looking elsewhere.
Then, a good commission painter will have an easy-to-find contact form, contact details like email displayed, and easy ways to send a message on social media so that you can easily get in touch to ask about availability, to get a quote, and book in if you decide to go ahead.
At Dundas Miniatures we ask for a 10% deposit at this point, to secure the booking.
What to Look for from a Miniatures Painter
Some of the things you’ll want to look for in a miniatures painter include:
- Price
- Availability – They might have a waiting list
- Extras like building, basing, banners and transfers
- Testimonials or reviews
- Good communication – if they don’t reply for a few days or weeks, or you don’t feel like they are someone you could get on with, it might not be the right fit
- Quality of work
What about Painting Levels
Some 28mm miniature commission painters offer a range of painting levels, which allows them to offer different price points. If you don’t mind losing a bit of quality to bring the price down, this can be a good option.
Others (like us) just offer one level at a competitive price.
How Do You Price Miniature Painting
At Dundas Miniatures we try to price our miniatures painting service fairly. Our main consideration is time. So for our basic prices, we look at how many figures we can paint in an hour, and set a reasonable hourly rate, before adding a little extra to cover the costs of things like supplies (we use our own paints) and the general costs of working from home.
If you want something with lots of details that is going to take longer, the price quoted will reflect this. We also charge extra for basing, building and preparing metal figures, because it takes longer.
Then it’s just the figures. If you are sending figures you already own, that’s great, you’ll just need to pay for postage. If you want us to buy the figures, we’ll add those to the cost of the commission.
One way we’ve found that works really well, especially if we are painting for someone outside of the UK, is if you order what you want, but have them shipped to us directly. This saves time and postage costs.
What Our Miniatures Painting Service Can Do
As a UK miniature commission painter, we mainly work with 28mm historic miniatures, from any time period. But we’ve also done work on fantasy miniatures and can work with 15-18mm figures.
If you are looking for a different UK miniatures painting service, please do get in touch, we’re open to other projects and ideas.
We also sell the occasional set of professionally painted figures on eBay. This can work out a little cheaper as you won’t have to pay for the cost of the figures separately, and it’s our way of moving old stock. Think of it as a sale. However, if there’s a bidding war, it can work out more expensive, so it’s often worth looking at our commission rates and getting in touch for a custom order if you see something that you like on eBay.
You can see our eBay page here.
Away from figures, we also sell a range of homemade banners and shield transfers, which are ideal if you paint your own figures but want some pre-done details to finish your project off.
Getting a Quote for a Miniature Commission – What to Ask
When you get in touch with a miniature commission painter, you can just explain what you want painting, and ask for a quote and timeframe.
The painter will usually reply by letting you know their availability, and how long your job will take, and they might ask you some questions about the project, which will allow them to put together a detailed quote.
If you want to save time later, give the miniature commission painter as much information about your project upfront. Tell them whether you want them to build the figures if you want basing, any colour schemes that you’d like, or historical details you want to make sure they include.
You might want to ask things like:
- How much will my commission project cost?
- Can you use particular bases/paints/other materials?
- When are you free to start?
- How long will my project take?
- How much is delivery?
- Will you make changes if I’m unhappy?
- Do I need to pay upfront?
Set Expectations
Those details are a great way to let them know what you expect. If you’ve looked at their photos, you should have a good idea of the standard of their painting, but it’s ok to tell them if you want them to avoid anything or add extra detail.
Most painters will send you photos regularly to show you how things are going. If you want any changes, try to let them know straight away instead of waiting until the project is finished. This can help them to avoid doing the same thing on the rest of your figures.
If you’d like to commission a 28mm project, please take a look at our galleries and services, as well as our FAQ page, which can answer most of the questions you might have.
If you have any questions, would like a quote, or to make a booking, please do get in touch. We went to be booked up 3-6 months in advance.