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

custom miniature painting

Age of Sigmar: Painting Blue Flesh-Eater Courts

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: 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).

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).

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).

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).

Too Many Gloomspite Gitz! A Large Night Goblin Army at Exhibition Quality

One of my favorite armies are the Night Goblins. They’re mad, charming, cute, murderous. We’ve done them more than a few times. However, this was the first time we were to paint an entire horde army of them as Exhibition Quality - even the regular spear gobbos.

We did some oil washing on these to help bring out the recesses. Some freehand was needed to sort the banners. The basing was straightforward but the client wanted some fancy swamp basing for the centerpiece minis. You’ll notice mushrooms on their bases - some of them we made, using hot glue and toothpicks!

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 a Horde of Exhibition Quality Battletech

This was a fun order. It was a huge number of mechs and we got to go all the way with them. We matched a range of schemes. My favorites are the blue ones.

These were done to Exhibition Quality.

About Battletech:

BattleTech is a tabletop wargame that simulates combat between giant robots called "BattleMechs." The game was first published in the 1980s by FASA Corporation - with, shall we say, GREAT INSPIRATION drawn from Harmony Gold's Macross/Robotech?

All the new, high-detail hotness for Battletech now is coming from Catalyst Game Labs.

In BattleTech, players control a lance of BattleMechs and engage in combat with their opponents' lances. Each player has a certain number of points to spend on their lance, which they can use to purchase different types of BattleMechs, vehicles, and other support units.

BattleTech is known for its complex gameplay, deep lore, and for getting FASA sued by Harmony Gold. The game has a large and dedicated fan base and has inspired a number of spin-off games and other media. I look forward to Battletech for years to come.

About Paintedfigs:

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

Gothic Buildings for Sale! Only Slightly Armageddoned.

These are 20% Off for Memorial Day Weekend.

3d printing. Old school crafting. Hand painting. AI Art.

We combined these for a richer, grittier look.

Right now, it’s just these 5 (so get them before someone else does). However, from here we’ll be printing and painting a bunch of these so you’ll always have access.

Even if you’re just browsing, enjoy! I hope this gives you some ideas for fun things you can do with your terrain. Have a great weekend!

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

Mainly Peasants - Painted Fantasy and Medieval Minis

This was a large, assorted set of fantasy miniatures. Many of them are townsfolk, but there are some interesting outliers like the Discworld figures and the Reaper cultists. My favorites in this set were the goblins being used for target practice.

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 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 Fantasy: Warrior of Chaos Miniature Painting

359 models. Each with a unique paint job.

If you’re a Warriors of Chaos / Slaves to Darkness player tired of waiting for new chaos figures teased three years ago, then you might be close to doing with this gentleman did.

He sent us a group of mainly classic figures so he could get on with it and start playing.

It was nice to see some of these older figures, especially the metal Chaos Knights. I don't think we've seen those in the studio in over 10 years.

These were painted to Exhibition Quality.

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

Warhammer Fantasy: Classic Dogs of War and More

Warhammer fantasy is alive and well. These are some classic minis we painted up recently. Many are Dogs of War / Regiments of Renown, but there are other Warhammer odds and ends. There is even a Mordheim Witch Hunter Captain. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen him "in the pewter."

These were painted to Showcase Quality.

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

3d Printed and Painted Scatter Terrain - For Sale!

3d printing AI Art. Hand painting.

We’re starting a terrain printing and painting side business.

Designs by Forbidden Prints

Forbidden Prints is a talented designer on MyMiniFactory who specializes in terrain files. Here’s a little video he made on who he is, why and he’s cool:

We like his work and got a commercial license to sell the prints. We’re starting small with some scatter terrain, specifically with pieces from his “Ruins of Empire” scatter set:

In time — and if people like the price point — we’ll move on to large buildings and entire table sets.


Posters by Midjourney

Prompt: 40k, World War Poster, USSR Poster, Soviet

To give these a bit more character we prompted some posters to shrink down and put up. For most we went with a red, Soviet theme to offset the blue tones in the piece.

We want little touches of ‘after-painting’ value addition to be our thing. It’s not enough to passively print and paint. The pieces need to feel real, lived in. We have more value-add touches we can do, with larger pieces, especially. We’ll showcase them over time.

Get the Set for $175

You can buy it here for $175, and that includes the shipping cost (the board is not included).

These terrain pieces were painted to Standard Quality.

Right now there’s just the one set. However, you can preorder a set, if you like. Orders will be printed on a first-come-first-served basis; so, we ask for your patience as we add more printers.

We’re not taking custom printing orders at this time.

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

Big Fantasy Buildings - Some Tabletop World Miniature Painting Service

We got to paint these delightful buildings from Tabletop Terrain. They’re made in sections that can be removed and used for gaming / diorama-making.

The pieces have a great deal of detail. The design is charming, with little secrets and tucked in here and there for the painter to discover.

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 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).

The Sylvaneth Caught Fire (Again)

Some reinforcements we painted for an unusual Sylvaneth army.

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 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).

We Painted an Andy Chambers-Style Skaven Army

359 models. Each with a unique paint job.

The true delight of nostalgia isn’t going back to something treasured. It’s going back to something treasured that wasn’t possible at the time. This is the joy the younger you waited so long for that they’re gone, and you must have it for them.

As such, we felt quite honored to be commissioned to help with a Skaven army to be painted in the style of Andy Chambers's Skaven army in White Dwarf 137. It was an Oldhammer Warhammer Fantasy army with 359 figures. Almost all of them were out of print metal castings that we had never seen before.

Here’s how we did it.

Who is Andy Chambers?

Andy Chambers a game designer who has worked for Games Workshop for over 25 years. He helped create 40k, among other games, and adores Skaven, Tyranids, and Orcs, which are also my favorite armies :) .

 One of the things he is best remembered for is his Skaven army which was showcased in WD 137 in 1991. The army is a riot of colour, styles, and character. No two figures in it are alike - it is, legit, and all-character horde army. The army inspired many gamers to not only start collecting Skaven, but to also try and create their own Andy Chambers style army.

Our brief was to do one. Straightforward yes? Sure -- but which Andy Chambers army?

Which Andy Chambers SKAVEN army?

Lighting affects photos. How well a photograph captures the brightness and tones of something is very much a function of the amount and quality of the light at the time. Photography literally means "drawing with light," for a reason.

Then, there's printing. Even if someone takes a fantastic photograph, how well will that be translated, in print? Go look at any of the yellowed, saturated comics of the 1970s and 80s and compare that to the quality of any graphic novel, today, and you can see the problem. A photographer can do their best to capture what they’re seeing. The printer, however, will then just shrug and stamp on the photographer’s dreams.

Recall the outstanding and inspirational artwork by John Blanche in the Mordheim rulebook. He actually did all that in color. Blanche never intended for the Mordheim rulebook to be black and white. What we understand of the early years of GW art is constrained by the limits of the publishing tools available to GW at the time.

Herein was our first problem. What color are these minis below?

Is this what they actually look like, or is that just the photography?

Or, is it just the printing? Or both?

Fortunately, Andy Chambers later reshot his Skaven. Here are some images of what the army actually looks like, as shown in John Wombat’s blog post and interview with Chambers:

This however created a new problem. The Andy Chambers army as it actually is, is not the army that people were inspired by. They were inspired by the yellow-looking army in WD 137. This has lead to interpretations like this, by Nico on his Realms of Chaos blog:  

In the end, we decided to go for composite look. Part ‘actual’, part ‘inspired by.’


Decoding Andy Chambers’ Painting Style

No one interested in a practical outcome has time to paint every single figure in a horde army in a unique style. Chambers was no exception here (just look at how he painted the base trims…).

We studied images of his work and realized that his painting was actually quite straightforward. What he had done to create so much character was to employ a set of different techniques that he mixed and matched across all the figures. No one figure has them all applied, or in the same way. The net result was a horde army of characters.

Unit Colour Schemes

This was the easy bit. First, we had to work out what general color schemes each unit had. For some, we had to "reverse engineer" the colors from the White Dwarf images. For others, it was more straightforward, working off Chambers later photographs.

Stylistic Elements (this is the good stuff)

This took bit more time. Going over images of his work, we noticed the following elements:

Each element was applied with variations. No one figure had every element, and the variations in execution, added another layer of uniqueness.

So herein was the key. We just had to:

-Mix the figures in each unit, into small groups

-Apply a different stylistic element to each group

-Mix the figures together, and split them again into small groups

-Aply a a second round of different stylistic elements

-And so on.

We drew the line at three styles per figure unless they were HQ/character minis. This was because otherwise the figures would become too busy, and become visually hard to read.

Here is how it went!

This army was painted to Showcase Quality.

It was fun to try and get into another painter’s head and try to figure out what he had been thinking. We learned a lot doing this commission. It was an honor, and speaking for myself, one of the high points of my time at Paintedfigs.

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