"How long is a long time?" Topic

How long to you expect the average painting commission to take.(Not sent overseas).

1 day per miniature, minimum one week,
plus whatever time the service says is back-logged.

Maximum six months,
(but I'd never send 'em if I thought it would be more than three months)

How long is a piece of string ? What scale ? How many What quality ? All these have a bearing on time taken. Is the painter full-time or part-time ?

In my experience as a painter there is no such thing as an 'average' commission. ANY painting service should keep a customer informed of expected completion dates and, wherever possible, progress toward completion.

I know from experience that estimates often go badly wrong, real life often gets in the way, but keeping a customer informed is the key to good service.

I agree with Gildas. NEVER keep customers in teh dark. If there are delays man up and let everyone know. Most gamers are (frankly) overly patient with painters and vendors.

I would expect an update every two weeks. Even if it's just a quick note to say "You've moved up from #42 to #29 in the queue."

Mark "Extra Crispy" Severin
Owner, Scale Creep Miniatures
ScaleCreep.com
DeepFriedHappyMice.com

I agree with the above comments. This year I have placed 2 orders with different small UK painting services. The first was 2 15mm armies of around 1000 pieces. While it did take longer than the estimated turnaround, communication was good, and the painter very enthusiastic, I felt I had received a good service. The second is for 120 28mm figures. So far all I have had is excuses for the delay, and I am still waiting nearly 6 months later instead of their advertised 6 week turnaround! Good customer service, I think not.

I would contact the service you used and ask him for a sure date for completion if he says he will have them back to you with 6 weeks then make this a deadline.

If not ask him to return the figures to you.

Mark

I send a deadline date earlier this week, asking for completion or return. I'm stll waiting for a response on that!

Does he have a phone number you can contact him on. If so ring him till you get an answer.

Did you pay in advance?

Mark

No phone number, I have a couple of e-mail addresses. They ask for a 50% payment in advance.

Delays, although regretable, do happen but there is no excuse for ignoring customers emails and a second line of contact should also be available in case of pc gremlins! I never ask for payment in advance as I've found that payment upon completion gives me the incentive to get the work done!Good luck in resolving your issues.

Painting services should never ask for payment in advance unless they are also buying the miniatures on your behalf.

They should already have the paints and equipment, so there is no reason for them to need up front payment. As far as guaranteeing that you will pay – the painting service has your miniatures, so if you don't pay, they simply don't send you your stuff back until they do.

mywifepaintsbattleships.com provides status updates generally once a week or so (although she is out of town on business at the moment).

Painting services should never ask for payment in advance unless they are also buying the miniatures on your behalf.

It is certainly an opinion but not one that I, as a paid painter, share.

To imply that there is no risk to the painter in accepting a commission is nonsense. If the customer defaults he is very unlikely to get the full value of his work by selling them on e-bay.

Asking for a deposit establishes a 2-way trust and, in my experience, clients are happy to pay a pert of the fee up-front. I only ask for about 25% and only when the job actually gets started.

Also the exchange of funds related to a commission is more likely to establish a contractual obligation on both sides. It makes it a safer bet for both parties if things go sour.

I agree with GildasFacit.

I ask for and get full payment upfront.

I do not want to spend 3 months painting for a person only to be hundreds of pounds out of pocket when they never pay.

Totally depends on what you want done. A couple hundred Gauls where each fig was to be unique took . . . about 6 or 8 months.

Some painters work on several things at once. They don't drop everything for a single commission.

mjc

Gildas – Certainly that is one approach.

However, as a consumer I would never do business with a painting service that required money up front.

The painting service already has a tremendous amount of leverage in the fact that they have your miniatures – which in my case are fairly expensive. I am not going to send them a big chunk of money as well and compound my loss if things go bad for one reason or another. IMO, the transaction s/b

1. I send the miniatures
2. Service paints them
3. Service sends pictures of the finished miniatures to verify colors and whatnot.
4. I send money
5. Service sends miniatures

The service I use takes this approach, and perhaps in addition to quality and price, the approach is why that service is expanding, and still has orders coming in as fast or faster than they can be completed despite having the fastest turnaround in the business.

The answer is 21 months for 120 28mm figures painted to 'good' wargaming standard.

I recently waited five months for a small order from a painter. However, I consider his excellent customer service, his wonderful style, and his upfront admission of the wait time to be acceptable. I'm happy.

Joey