Our prices reflect the time and effort taken to paint figures. Small figures with simple uniforms, such regular troops in the American Civil War, take less time to paint than large figures with collars, cuffs, facings, turn backs and piping to be painted. Free hand painting of shield designs or Heraldry on Knights requires a great deal of skill and is very time consuming. For free hand painting of this type please contact us directly to discuss the cost of the work.
Painting armies of uniform figures takes less time than painting a batch of highly irregular figures. For example, a batch of victorian personalities has no underlying pattern of uniform which we can take advantage of to speed painting. Figures of this type attract a higher rate which is listed in each size under the heading 'personalities'. This does not apply to troops which have variety in colours which can be specified in terms of the percentage of troops in given colours (e.g. troops with a variety of trouser and jacket colours). Such forces count as 'irregular' forces and attract a twenty percent premium charge (see possible waiver at the bottom of this document).
We offer two standards of painting; Connoisseur and Museum quality. Connoisseur offers a higher standard of work for the collector and the Wargamer. This standard allows for more detailed work and models will be shaded with ink and will have a simple facial highlight. Connoisseur standard is the entry level for 28mm miniatures and above. Museum quality miniatures are intended for the collector and Wargamer who wants to own the finest quality miniatures. Miniatures will be skillfully shaded and highlighted. We don't offer customised painting quality. So if you want us to copy your samples these will be charged one of our two levels of quality. Anything with dry brushing or highlights will be classed as Museum level.
It is very difficult to paint white at our regular standard (Connoisseur). White doesn't respond as well to our standard brown ink wash as other colours. So you may want to consider a higher quality paint job for figures with a lot of white like Austrian Napoleonics.
We also paint and assemble vehicles, chariots and elephants. Shield designs, banners etc. will be charged depending on complexity of the job but very simple designs, such as a cross, are free. We can drill figures to attach spears or swords for a small charge per figure. Swords and spears can also be supplied by us.
Cleaning mould lines and flash: In principle we charge for this work. In practice we don't charge for a small amount of this work. Modern metal figures have very few mold lines. Typically only poor Old Glory castings or older figures cause us so much trouble we have to charge for this work.
Painting plastic figures requires a great deal of work in preparation and finishing. Cleaning mold lines from plastic figures is a lot of work. In addition we thoroughly wash plastic figures in detergent using a tooth brush to remove mold release and any grease. Following this we 'paint' the figure using a watered down PVA glue prior to priming the figure. Before varnishing the figure we paint the figure once again with watered down PVA glue to sandwich paint between these PVA layers. This helps to avoid flaking which has been associated with plastic figures in the past.We charge 10 pence ($0.20) per figure for this work.
I can waive this charge when you give me enough figures so that I can develop a
convenient system for handling your order. If I don't have to spend extra time
working on your figures I won't charge you anything extra. A recent example of
such a discount came from a customer who sent me some Foundry 'Hordes'
comprising over two hundred 28mm figures. These figures were painted
from a selection a selection of colours but the colour of a particular item was
randomly selected. Since there was no need to pause and look up instructions
for just a few figures (which is a real time killer) I didn't need to charge
extra. I need a minimum of one hundred irregular figures of the same type to
waive this charge.
Please note that I don't give any discount for Museum quality Napoleonics or other Horse & Musket era figures as demand for this service is very high..
