"ebay painted fig purchases from China" Topic

Has anyone here ever dealt with them? I have gotten some nice stuff from DPS in Hong Kong, but am unfamiliar with these painting groups in China. Are they reliable, how is there work (do they compare favorably with the pictures on ebay?)
Thanks in advance.

I used to do a lot of business with 4 different businesses until I found out (on TMP) they were using re-castings of other manufacturers models.

All of them were extremely reliable. The shipping was very quick and you got exactly what you saw, bent bayonets and all. I never had a shipment lost or wrong and, as I live in Thailand and the Thai post service makes the Italian one look good, this was a minor wonder.

Remember that, if you do buy from any of them, the figures are recast models from AB, Old Glory etc. On your conscience be it.

I sent them a message (ask the seller a question) a month or so ago asking who made the Spanish Napoleonic figures they were selling and they never responded.

I'd stick to DPS as they have experience dealing with os customers.

I agree with Narratio, bought some on E-Bay from a Chinese company, decent price, great packaging to Canada. However, they are re-casts. I will NOT buy again.

As a matter of principle I would advise against buying them. As noted above they are almost certainly the same pirated AB castings that Eureka and Fighting 15's alerted us about some time ago.

My experience was much the same.
Quick response ship.

Recast inferior copies of AB

Spotty paint quality both in paints used and application. I since stopped using them.

MG

Well, I guess I was correct in my reluctance to send money to China. I certainly don't want to give money to Pirates. It is a shame as they seem to dominate ebay these days. Thank you to all.

Many orders with Dragon Painting Service (DPS), never been disappointed

I bought a few units of Prussians from one of these companies before I figured out (and then had it confirmed on TMP) that they were recasts. Now I have the ethical dilemma of what to do with them….

I've had some excellent painted figures from imfadcom of Hong Kong. None appear to be pirates, and the painting is excellent

auction

Dragon Painting Services from Hong Kong are a reputable company using genuine figures and Herbert Wong (the owner) is well known on the European DBMM circuit and unsurprisingly his armies often win the best painted prize!

A web search failed to provide a working link to Dragon Painting Service. Can anyone post a link? Thanks.

Dragon Painting Services from Hong Kong are a reputable company using genuine figures

"reputable" = by?

"genuine" = proof?

Can Eureka/AB confirm sales to this entity? My impression of the old thread was there were no sales? But refresh my memory if its faulty.

I purchased some figures a long time ago from DPS and they were recasts, IN MY OPINION. And when I questioned them on the make…they never responded.

I told them they were not AB's nor did they seem quite right for BH and voila…those references disappeared from all future items I looked at. In fact they seemed to stop referencing any make of figure.

DOn't you think that is….peculiar? NOT to list the make of the figure?

Must be me. Half the fun is painting them yourself. The standard is up to you, you get better and more fussy, but they are individual…they are your own work. No one else in the world has exactly the same figure in the end. I love that.

Confess. I am not a wargamer, though. If I was, I think I would still say "Half the fun is painting them yourself. The standard is up to you, you get better and more fussy, b………"

Anything that starts "E Bay, Far East, low price, please send card details" rings alarm bells for me. Rip off, cheap nasty copy, sweat shop, local urban gangsters exploiting poverty-stricken agrarian types.

Oh I promised I would get off my high horse for the New Year. Sorry folks

The way to kill the hobby and the figure manufacturers is to buy illegal copies. There is a lively competition among the legal companies, so there is no excuse of "they have a monopoly, and are gouging the consumer".

Isn't this stealing?

Strictly speaking our crime is receiving of stolen goods………it is our fault if we use these, just because they are cheap and easy and quality is less important than having some new unit, on your table tomorrow. If I was a sculptor, a caster, a retailer, who commissions such work this would infuriate me.

Just to add my tuppenceworth to this thread. I used to use DPS regularly when the exchange rates £-$ were very favourable but haven't done so for a while. I couldn't fault any of their work.If anything was painted wrongly, which only happened once, it was swiftly altered FOC.They once mistakenlY painted me a unit of a Napoleonic mounted Cossacks instead of SYW ones and didn't charge me for them as it was their mistake. The only slight quibble I had was the last lot of SYW Hanoverians they painted were actually SYW British repainted so they didn't have certain unique features of the Hanoverians.
I tried some SYW Highlanders from imfad.com recently, and whilst the paint job was very good, the figures were quite plainly recasts of Fornt Rank figures as you could see when the unit was placed alongside the same figures from DPS.The imfad ones look more like 25mm by comparison. I suspected they might be copies, but I've never had recasts from DPS so I thought I'd suck it and see. Needless to say I won't be buying anything from mainland China again.
Looking at the imfad 15mm figures you can clearly see they are knock offs as they are so thin, but with the 28mm it isn't easy to spot until you actually have them in the flesh so to speak.

Support those who keep our hobby supplied with expensive-to-make new goods. Don't support those who steal these products and their intellectual property (e.g. paying for the modeling of the figures and their introduction) to make more money for them.

Bought lots of 15mm late Republican Roman legionaries from Imfad.com on ebay. They looked very nice and I thought they were Essex. When put alongside a genuine Essex figure, however, it was clear as day that they were re-casts. I alerted Essex to this and took some along to a show so that they could see for themselves. They agreed that they were recasts but, given that Imfad is in China, they said there was nothing they could do about it. It would be hellishly expensive to undertake legal action and the prospects of winning are almost nil.

had most of my Bavarian and Austrian armies painted by DPS. Some real good painting (my Kürassier units) and some crappy ones (my Hussars, which were recast on top) so stopped working with them.

I now stick to Big batalions, and ship genuine minis to them, not the cheapest way or the fastest painter, but quality is a premium

It only takes an experienced eye a few minutes to recognize the Recast from China and the terrible paint jobs. These companies in China need to be boycotted. Complaining/alerting the various manufacturers wont work since its very difficult and expensive for those companies to pursue legal action in China. Try alerting EBAY instead. I'm guessing that many of the Chinese companies were set up by less than honest non-Chinese wargamers.