"Does anyone buy pre-painted minis?" Topic

Assembly and painting of minis is the main focus of the hobby for me, and I don't actually game that much. I am curious how many of you who prefer gaming over painting buy pre-painted units. I'm also curious what you think is a fair price per painted 28mm mini. I expect commissioning someone to paint for you is much more expensive than finding something on E-Bay. If you have experience with either, please share your thoughts.

I do both, pay someone to paint and buy painted figures on EBay. I paint a lot myself but if I'm looking to cut time out of it I'll buy painted units.

There are a lot of variables to your question.

Having someone commission them for you gives you the most control as you agree on the quality of the painting, number of figures, uniform info, etc beforehand. Theoretically, you know what and how much you are getting.

Buying existing pre-painted figures has the advantage of seeing them all completed and deciding if they are for you. The downside is if you want more units to match up with what you just bought you might be out of luck as various painting methods give different results. If you are not picky, that is not a problem.

I have done both, preferring the commission method. I also paint a lot on my own but time is always a factor there.

I paint for myself everything that I personally game with.

For genres in which prepaints are plentiful, they are just so convenient, and the quality has come a long way.

The plastic-type prepaints are also near indestructible.

In general, I hate painting. If I could afford to pay someone else to paint all of my figures I would gladly do so.

I like to paint my own stuff but also have over 2000 prepainted vehicles from Dragon Cando, World Tank Museum, 21st Century, Popy etc..

I buy pre-painted figures when I can. It saves me a tremendous amount of time!

I am an "Army Painter", which means all I care about is that they look appropriate at arm's length, on the tabletop, in-game. I look at my figures at 3-4 feet, 98% of the time. I paint for the 98%, not the 2%.

I recently discovered acrylic paint pens -- they cut my painting time, per figure, from 10 minutes, down to around 4-6 minutes! I just completed painting 96 figures, using the paint pens, which saved me around 8 HOURS of panting time and effort. More importantly, it motivated me to finish painting those 96 figures because it eliminated so much tedium in the process: no brush cleaning, no palette, no bottles, just remove the cap, and apply.

I have around 1,500 figures, table-ready, comprising around 20 different armies. I can provide just about all of the needed armies for all of the game's I will ever play.

Without buying pre-painted figures, my armies, and my figures, would be cut in half. I am OK with my figure choices. Painting is not a big joy for me, but playing is. Cheers!

So market at conventions. Hit or Miss on having the armies they want and the eras as well.

Estimate 50% of my collection were painted by me, 30% were acquired from associates liquidating figures and 20% were painted in Sri Lanka. I don't enjoy painting but have always considered it an integral part of gaming. Most painted figure costs seem sky high but deals can still be found from persons liquidating a failed project.

Painted the lions share of my figures myself. A lot of the spare figures get painted and put on ebay. They seem to sell ?

I paint my own figures and any second hand stuff gets repainted.

The only pre paints I have are my Star Wars mico machines figures.

Well, a lot of guys come to my table at flea markets and buy cheap painted castings. And I have been known to take money to paint castings for people who dug themselves in too deep. For me, the actual creation of units is one of the joys of the hobby.

Money. "Fair Price" doctrine is theology, not economics. Don't expect to pay under $1.80 USD a figure for a 28mm paint job. It's what they charge in Sri Lanka. But painted figures can sell for a good deal less even than the cost of the paint job. Find someone hungry or heirs stuck with disposing of a huge collection. I generally figure a dollar a casting for painted Napoleonic figures sold in bulk.

Yes thankfully. That's basically how I'm able to buy new minis.

I used to but the prices are insane: $6 USD a figure for 3rd world country painters.

Techniques like Slapchop have made it DIY accessible

It's not my army unless I paint it and I paint to a very high standard

No

I did my own painting until I turned 65. Then I just didn't have the patience/sight to paint, so I sent hundreds of figures to Sri Lanka and got beautiful armies. I also bought off eBay and at flee markets. Now I have other painters that I'm 80, doing skirmish games. My greatest fun in the hobby is basing the painted figure, this and playing with it of course. I have also bought hundreds of painted Britain's figures of eBay does that count?

No. I have occasionally bought a used pre-painted miniature and stripped the paint and repainted it. I love to paint. As long as my eyes and hands are up for it, I'm doing it.

"I paint my own figures and any second hand stuff gets repainted."

-- that's me, too. Similar to the OFM. Plus I have maybe a dozen or so figures out of thousands that were gifts from pals.

And I repaint any pre-painted new things like HeroClix or D&D pre-paints.

Since my open heart surgery 15 years ago, I lost my ability to paint. It is extremely hard to focus on detail. Concentration is hard, hands shake badly.
So I would consider buying more.

I do all of the above. There are figures that I really want to paint myself, and other figures I really want to get on the table sooner than that.

For buying painteds, I typically go for less expensive ones that can benefit from a bit of touch-up once I get them. Fair price really comes down to what you want to pay, what you want to pay for, and how likely are they to come around any cheaper.

Having said I paint all my figures, if I ever decided to go up a scale or two for my Napoleonics(all 6mm atm) I'd probably buy pre paints for some core forces. I really, really can't be bothered to paint hundreds of 15mm or 20mm Napoleonics, but I wouldn't mind doing a few units.

In reality I think I'll stick with the existing stuff…

Im a painter more than a player and like doing it, so paying someone else would be passing on the pleasure at my expense!

Everyone's priorities will differ.

Last Christmas I was given some 6mm figures by my brother who had pre painted half of them. Very nicely too

But on principle I had to partly alter them…

I buy both.

Most pre-painted (second-hand or retailed that way) get at least touched up (some colour changes) or complete repaints. If I am going to repaint, that affects my price point.

I also do a lot of conversions.

In the second-hand market, decorative bases are what drive my price point waaaaaay down. They are a pain to undo.

I buy prepaints when they can fill out a project I have. I rebase and flock the bases to match my army and sometimes add shading or highlighting to enhance the paint job.

For one project I had about 40 figures that were front rankers that I had assembled and based up. I hired someone to block paint these with my color scheme. When I work on a unit for that army, I pull a front rank from this batch, highlight and shade, add banner, then speed paint the back rankers, and flock all bases. I'm not sure I'll do it this way again, but I feel the money was well spent.

I consider both scenarios above as my own figures that I have painted, even though someone else helped.