Commission Painting, 40k Miniature Painting
Navin Weeraratne
How to Pick a Miniature Painting Service (And ...

We Just Keep Painting Salamander Space Marines

The third Salamanders army we’ve done, in a row. These have a grimmer, much darker palette. No weathering, but we took the opportunity to bring out some of the more extreme highlights a bit.

Bases left unfinished so the client can finish them up per his own style.

These were done to Exhibition Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Exhibition-Painted Black Templars!

The more we paint Black Templars, the more I like them. They are much classier than they have any right to be. I suspect it is the combination of the sleek, Primaris ‘tacti-cool’ look, with black, and the red / white offset. It’s like fielding a whole army of Chaplains.

These were done to Exhibition Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

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(Some More) Bloodbowl at Exhibition Quality

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This was an unusual set of Blood Bowl teams.

They’re by Punga Miniatures; as far as I’ve seen Punga make the nicest Blood Bowl teams these days. They all have a bit of humor them. My favorites in this lot were the dancing Slavic-looking dudes.

These were painted to Exhibition quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Our First Time Painting Fulgrim Transfigured

Fulgrim was a treat to paint. He’s got a lot of detail and is a well thought-out piece. We went with the official colors which I was also quite pleased with. The purple offsets the gold, and the yellow in the basing. The light wings contrast with the darker lower body. The blue of the hair offsets the red in the tail, both work with the main scheme.

Fulgrim Transfigured was painted to Exhibition Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Age of Sigmar: Painting Archaon Everchosen and his Varanguard

It’s not every day you get to do Archaon Everchosen. Indeed, I think this might only be the second time. What stood out though about this time around was his basing. Along with Archaon, we also did a bunch of his Varanguard. They in turn were divided up along each of the Chaos deities.

This gave them unique color schemes, but also unique basing. Our challenge was to fit each style on Archaon’s base. I was worried it would create a hodge-podge look, but it worked out.

These were done to Exhibition Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Age of Sigmar: Khorne Bloodbound

As far as I can tell, the angriest, reddest, and fightiest of the Khorne-related factions in the Warhammer universe are the Age of Sigmar Khorne Bloodbound. They almost seem a parody of themselves. I’m alright with this; its part of why they have so much character. Every time we do them, I notice something new about the models.

Oil washes helped give these a bit more oomph. Oh, and there’s a mammoth at the end!

These were done to Exhibition Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Warhammer Underworlds: Some Painted Warbands

This was a fun order; a whole bunch of Warhammer Underworlds warbands. Namely:

Ephilim's Pandemonium, Gorechosen of Dromm, Khagra's Ravagers Gryselle's Arenai, Hexbane's Hunters, Drepur’s Wraithcreepers, the Storm of Celestus, the Farstriders, the Sepulchral Guard,
and of course, the Crimson Court.

These were done to Showcase Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Warhammer the Old World: Some High Elves Miniature Painting Service

We haven’t done High Elves in years. We’re better painters now, and have a better appreciation of High Elf cavalry sculpts. The Dragon Princes of Caledor are particularly impressive figures that have aged well.

High Elf cavalry look good even with basic paint job. With advanced ones, they look miles better!

These were done to Exhibition Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Our Strange Relationship with the Sri Lankan Fashion Industry

Colombo Fashion Week, 10 years ago.

Pilar from Venezuela. I’m 6 feet tall, and she would have to bend down to talk to me. She remains the tallest woman I have ever met.


You wouldn’t think of glitzy fashion weeks and wargame miniature painting going together. Strangely, they do. Fashion designers work with color, materials, and 1:1 scale models.

Miniature painters also work with color and materials, but our models are smaller. Both sides can appreciate the other’s work, and have similar discussions about design.

Entirely by accident, we’ve ended up interacting with the fashion industy, on-and-off, for years. Many of our painters are fashion design graduates. Two of us in management are, among other things, dressmakers.

I want to talk a little about this. Fashion has helped our work, and we, in turn, have done a little bit to help out fashion here and there.

Early Years: Colombo Fashion Week

The HSBC Colombo Fashion Week, 2013. It was four nights of shows, back to back. I was young enough at the time that I specifically wanted the burden of managing it, along with my Paintedfigs work, just for the mental exercise that strain would give me. I must have been completely mad.

From 2005-2015, you could do anything in this town if you were at least semi-competent. I did everything from being an underground MMA announcer (for which I would wear a suit), to being the backstage manager for a few years for the Colombo Fashion Week (for which I didn’t).

Hiring Fashion Graduates As miniature Painters

It all just bit of fun on the side. However, it’s how I discovered the common ground between painting miniatures and designing clothes. This would effect our hiring practices. We had always preferred candidates with art backgrounds and formal art training. From this point, we understood fashion design graduates would likely make good miniature painters. We began hiring them, and noticed this was indeed the case. Many of our strongest painters today are fashion graduates.

side note: What Happens At A Fashion Show?

Models are much smarter than people give them credit for. They tend to support each other, and see solutions to problems that can come up on the ramp.

The man in red is Arry Dabas, from Bangalore, India. Arry would watch out for problems people were having, and would let me know about them. This is a bigger deal than it sounds - South Asians are not often forthcoming with problems.

Weeks or even months of planning come to a specific moment where everything has to go perfect. Many people have work to do for it. Any one of them may not be ready - compromising the show. You will only find out on the day, and have hours to fix it.

Just hours.

Practicing choreography.

Designers will send their clothes in. The clothes should turn up the night before, or in the morning of the show. They don’t always — that causes drama.

Choreographers drill models in the dress rehearsal. The models may make mistakes or seem unready. The choreographer might then melt down.

Volunteers need to know which models they are dressing, and with what outfits. if you don’t have enough volunteers, you can end up with screaming models.

Outfits need to be documented in pictures. They need to be lined up on wracks. There are never enough hangers for some reason. Lack of equipment can cause bottlenecks, and there will likely be an injury.

later PAINTEDFIGS involvement

During the Fashion Week years, the other Paintedfigs team members only have an occasional and peripheral role in these shows. What lead to a deeper connection with fashion was that I got to meet a chap named Naveed Rozais:

Naveed is on the right. Everyone thought it was hilarious to say one of names quietly, and have us both answer, thinking they were asking for us.

Naveed now has more experience managing fashion shows than anyone else in the country.

Naveed went on to run over 50 shows over the next 10 years. He did so working in organizations that controlled the shows. Lately, however, he started an event management company. He sent me a message about a show the company had landed.

I asked if we could help out. He said yes. This was that show:

What was different this time was that a bunch of the Paintedfigs team were interested in helping out. Their background was in fashion; here was a chance to get some useful experience and have their own company help and cheer them on:

It went well, and the team had a blast. We’ll be volunteering at more shows from now on.

Our Art Director’s Collection

Aishwarya Tennekoon, Paintedfigs Art Director

Aishwarya Tennekoon is something of a young celebrity artist out here. He’s an architect by training, and our art director. Right now he’s working behind the scenes, but you’ll encounter him directly as time goes on.

Under his personal brand Aishwarya has been making cosplay costumes and props for years. Recently, he was invited to present a cosplay-based collection at a show. This was the first time someone from Paintedfigs had been ever had anything like this happen, so we were all quite keen. Painters helped him with the sewing work after hours, we put in a bit of sponsoring and printing time. Here’s what he did.

In the year 40,000, there is also fashion

I feel the more art streams the team gets exposure to, the better. This has driven our capacity building in 3d printing, the crafting you see in our advanced basing, and even our making our own figures:

Oh yeah; we made a Conan.

It has made the team more confident in themselves as artists, and given them more tools to solve problems or add value. It’s also a ton of fun!

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this unusual glimpse of what we get up to at an unusual company.

Navin

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting the Crimson Scales Expansion for Gloomhaven

The Crimson Scales is an unofficial fan made expansion for the Gloomhaven boardgame. I find the idea of a fan made expansion delightful. Someone should do one for Mordheim. I suppose someone already has.

These were painted to Exhibition Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting HUGE 3D Printed Star Wars Vehicles

We got to do some quite large minis designed by Darkfire Designs. The figures were amazing; the AT-TE had a paintable interior so large, you could run an encounter inside it.

There were some issues with the prints though, which came from a third party printer. Many were unusable; dripping, uncured resin, poorly cured parts, and very warped pieces. The client helped us out here, buying and sending us the 3d files so we could reprint whatever we needed to.

The reprinting ended up being a lot harder than we expected. We got there eventually, but it was quite tough. We won’t be doing large prints again till we can figure out how to avoid large parts warping.

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Shameless Tags:

miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Age of Sigmar: We Painted too Many Stormcasts!

This time, in manly black. You can’t go wrong with black, red, and gold. Add a bit of white or a bone tone, and you’re good to go.

The black also helped frame the colorfulness of the animals in this army. A less serious color might have given them a carnival aspect (which is awesome, but not very Stormcast Eternal).

These were done to Exhibition Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting the Miniatures from the Boardgame Arkeis

Arkeis is a cooperative game where players explore ancient Egyptian ruins. The minis are quite nice - good detail and casting quality.

These were done to Showcase Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Some Midwinter Minis-Inspired Winter Necrons

The client sent us some winter-themed Necrons to work with. The samples, by a different painter, seemed to have been inspired by these Necrons by the Midwinter Minis Youtube channel:

We did our own variants in line with the quality we wanted to offer. The client liked what he saw, and we stamped out the army you see here.

Blue Glow

The first task was to pick out which parts on the minis were emitting a glow. Then we had to pick out which of them to make glow — if they all did, it would take away from the effect. As implied by the video above, we used no airbrushing. We almost never airbrush anything. Whenever we do, I think to myself, “that’s right! We have those, don’t we?”

Black Sections

You can’t paint an army all-white and call it done. Especially with the snowy basing, we needed to offset all the white. Towards this, we just picked out some areas with black. It gave us the contrast we needed, and had the plus of being black. Black is always classy.

These were done to Showcase Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

SPIDERS! Painting Forest Goblins and Arachnaroks

Nothing quite as disturbing on the table as a bunch of giant spiders… We got to do quite a few of these. They were done to Exhibition Quality with some additional touches to the basing (those mushrooms are toothpicks and hot glue).

Here the client picked out some vibrant, super-toxic looking coloration. We played them to make these look as venomous as possible.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting Bob Murch’s Pulp Figures

I have been very fond of Bob Murch’s Pulp Figures ranges for many years now. I have a bunch sitting in a display cabinet, waiting for the day I run an 1930s adventure on the Orient Express, or a cozy murder in the English countryside. Not being a mainstream manufacturer, we very rarely see his work in the studio. This time we got lucky, and did quite a few.

These were painted to Showcase Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Another Month, Another Salamander Space Marine Army

This is the second of three back-to-back Salamander jobs we’re doing. Each is quite different in its own way. What was different about these was were to try and match an airbrush look - using regular brushes.

Getting an airbrush look with normal brushes is generally not a problem. The final result will always look done by hand, but the effect is close.

These were done to Showcase Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Exhibition Gloomspite Gitz!

Right after doing a big army of these, we got to do a few more, for a different order. These were done to Exhibition Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting the New(ish) Age of Sigmar Seraphon

We’ve done quite a few Lizardmen / Seraphon. This was our first time though, working with all new / newish sculpts.

The first thing we noticed was that they’re not as straightforward as the older minis. There’s a lot of detail you can miss out unless you take another good, hard, look. We went back and forth with some of these few times, but we figured them out.

These were painted at Standard, Showcase, and Exhibition Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a commission miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).

Painting Space Ork Forgeworld Squiggoths!

18 years in the business, and these are the first FW Squiggoths (regular and Gargantuan) we’ve done.

We’ve noticed a lot of Forgeworld pieces have a coarseness to them. These Squiggoths however were VERY polished. Give the size though the howdahs and skin started looking a bit monotone. To fix that used some oil washes to give the skin some “bite”, and to vary the rust effects a bit.

Inside the howdahs were lots of little details. We picked them out to amp up the contrast.

These were painted to Showcase Quality.

Shameless tags: miniature painting service, warhammer painting service, warhammer 40k painting service, miniature painting services, miniature painting commission, professional miniature painting, miniatures painting service

Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.

And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).