Hello everyone,

A month ago I received my minis in the mail from Greg Purcell (GorillaGrody ON BGG) for a paint commission. I commissioned him to do the core set and wave 1 minus the ATST, and General Weiss. I was completely unhappy with the overall quality (or lack there of) and also not pleased with how Greg spoke with me about it when I voiced my feelings to him. After having the minis in front of me for a month now I decided to throw them away and buy a new core set to replace them. Yes, thats how awful they were done. I am simply making this post to warn anyone who would consider having him paint your minis.

Issues I had with the minis more specifically

-Minis not painted fully as in no paint applied to the back of the figure (royal guard champion) or legs (luke skywalker) patches of no paint(imperial officers)
-Paint slathered on sloppily with no color variation or accuracy (just about every unique mini)
-Paint from the base on various parts of the figure the worst was Chewy. He is brown with a black weapon, the base was a light tan and yet the base paint was on his shoulder, head, leg, and blaster.
-Minis chipped and damage in transit. The minis were put in an empty egg carton and then placed in a box, in transit all the minis were jumbled up and my royal guards staffs broke and many of the minis bases were chipped
-All my storm troopers were pink, yep because the royal guards rubbed up against the storm troopers in transit they all came out tinted pink including the E-webb.
- Paint run from the figure onto unpainted bases (nexu were the worst ones)

I can continue going on but I know I wont get anything back and I literally threw money away. I contacted a few other painters and unanimously I was told its easer to start from scratch, than remove the paint or even touch up the shoddy work. Speaking to 3 other people I used for commissions and for what I was charged they themselves were upset for how I was ripped off. After speaking with other painters I decided to paint a set myself with their help (coaching and questions etc.)

Maybe Greg could do good work and the time restraint he put on himself to finish before he went back to his profession really messed him up in terms of quality, but I know I could never ever recommend him to anyone. His solution was to send him a handful of the worst minis I had back and he would "get around to them when he could" yes thats his words. I said I would not want to continue to have him work on my minis for an unsolicited amount of time and suggested a partial refund to close the matter to which he said "I'm not giving you any money back" throughout the entire dialog he was very condescending, especially when I voiced what was wrong like paint from the bases on the figures which to that the sends me back quotes of profession level painters. As if paint from the base on the figures upper torso is something to be overlooked. I love this game both campaign and skirmish I wont let this deter me from playing but it still doesn't sit right with me and I wanted to share it.

​This is a cross forum post but I wanted to warn as many as I could

-Coop

I-...why did you throw them away? You could have soaked the models in Purple Power or Simple Green to strip the paint. D:

I-...why did you throw them away? You could have soaked the models in Purple Power or Simple Green to strip the paint. D:

I threw them away because of a mix of things. I tried soaking with simple green with 3 troopers it took around 9 days to get most of the paint off and thats with using a brush every day after soaking for 4 days. While it worked sort off it wasn't a complete from scratch, but, I also moved last week and decided it would just be easier to toss em and start fresh for 40$ vs take them with me and try with more.

Or just keep them as wounded versions of the heroes...

Or just keep them as wounded versions of the heroes...

Thats actually a pretty clever idea. Thinking with a cool head would of been more beneficial. At the same time looking them just pissed me off

do you have Pics? it is good to take pictures as evidence to provide to the one you commissioned the work to. you can show them to the painter, or get a general consensus from others

yeah i don't think you should have thrown them out

do you have Pics? it is good to take pictures as evidence to provide to the one you commissioned the work to. you can show them to the painter, or get a general consensus from others

yeah i don't think you should have thrown them out

Yeah I have pics and shared them on the BGG thread. I have spoke with him and in that thread he commented as well.

do you have Pics? it is good to take pictures as evidence to provide to the one you commissioned the work to. you can show them to the painter, or get a general consensus from others

yeah i don't think you should have thrown them out

Yeah I have pics and shared them on the BGG thread. I have spoke with him and in that thread he commented as well.

..A link would've been nice, and would've helped your argument.

do you have Pics? it is good to take pictures as evidence to provide to the one you commissioned the work to. you can show them to the painter, or get a general consensus from others

yeah i don't think you should have thrown them out

Yeah I have pics and shared them on the BGG thread. I have spoke with him and in that thread he commented as well.

..A link would've been nice, and would've helped your argument.

I wasn't sure if links to another forum were ok

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1646725/horrible-commission-experience-warning

This is the reson way you should know your painting speed and quality perfect before you commission your work. To me it sounds like the. Sound like one big problem was the chipping, this might be the base coat, the models are not washed before priming or transport error.

Also there are many strange things going on here, sounds like you both are quite young and inexperienced? The fact that he allowed you to prime and paint models before sending them is plane stupid! Also the price are ridiculous low, the painter should know his limits. For that price you need to paint really fast. If I shod paint your models I probably charege 1000$ not 150. The painter should know better then that, or he should not commission.

There are a lots of things that made this go bad and I'm sorry that this happened to you

I read the forum post. As an animator and an illustrator myself. the price was very low, for a job that requires an artistic skill, as well as the time frame. i agree with Zentradi, i think you both may have been a bit inexperienced.

communication from both sides was needed, he needed to tell you that the time frame and task may have been a bit too much, and perhaps you needed a better timeframe and pricing.

again, sorry this has happend to you, but i see it all the time with clients in my industry.

hope you figure something out.

I read the forum post. As an animator and an illustrator myself. the price was very low, for a job that requires an artistic skill, as well as the time frame. i agree with Zentradi, i think you both may have been a bit inexperienced.

communication from both sides was needed, he needed to tell you that the time frame and task may have been a bit too much, and perhaps you needed a better timeframe and pricing.

again, sorry this has happend to you, but i see it all the time with clients in my industry.

hope you figure something out.

I hear you both, I don't disagree with what you are saying.

In the end I simply made this post so others may learn from the experience I had.

I read the forum post. As an animator and an illustrator myself. the price was very low, for a job that requires an artistic skill, as well as the time frame. i agree with Zentradi, i think you both may have been a bit inexperienced.

communication from both sides was needed, he needed to tell you that the time frame and task may have been a bit too much, and perhaps you needed a better timeframe and pricing.

again, sorry this has happend to you, but i see it all the time with clients in my industry.

hope you figure something out.

I hear you both, I don't disagree with what you are saying.

In the end I simply made this post so others may learn from the experience I had.

ok, thanks for posting.

It's really good that you made the post. It can look so easy to commission your work or buy painted products. But it's so easy that things go wrong. I have heard quite a few similar story's as yours.

It's really good that you made the post. It can look so easy to commission your work or buy painted products. But it's so easy that things go wrong. I have heard quite a few similar story's as yours.

Thats really unfortunate

Always pay for samples on commissioned products before buying a whole lot. Granted it may not work out the way you'd like but it does provide some example of how a painter may work on a certain product. I've been painting minis for over 15 years and I'd like to think I've painted almost everything out there, but there's always something new. If someone asked me to paint a mini from a line I had no experience with, I'd want to do some kind of test run just to get used to the details, quality, etc. I can tell you that the FFG minis have a way different feel than, say, GW. For that reason, I would offer a sample before diving into a whole lot.

Followed links and saw the pic and yeah...ouch. Looks like the paint didn't stick on some. Wash and prime. Wash and prime. Did he just not paint the back of the RGC at all? I've missed some spots myself from time to time like inside of capes but that looked completely forgotten.

Followed links and saw the pic and yeah...ouch. Looks like the paint didn't stick on some. Wash and prime. Wash and prime. Did he just not paint the back of the RGC at all? I've missed some spots myself from time to time like inside of capes but that looked completely forgotten.

Yeah almost 1/2 the fig just not even attempted. lol

I see his response on that link. While the shipping method sounds inexcusable, you pretty much got a $3/figure rush job that you were in for. You paid $150 for 46 figures, most unique, in 4 weeks, and then wanted them in 2. What did you expect?

For those miniatures I don't see anything less than $300 happening for a good job and even then you're expecting someone to work for less than $7/hour while paying for their own materials.

Id like to weigh in on this and explain my thought process.

I have painted a lot of my sets and will provide a breakdown of the effort i put into them.

to do the core set and the wave one expansions to the level shown in the photo below i estimate i expended 30 units of time.

i know that i would class a unit of time as about 6-8 hours based on when i start and finish painting of an evening. for arguments sake lets say 6 hours makes one unit of time

The minimum wage in the UK is currently set at £6.70 a hour so for 6 hours that makes £40.20 per unit of time, lets call it £40.

I estimated 30 units of time above, times that by £40 and we get £1200!!! (thats $1500 for the americans on here). if we take into account that normally i'd lose at least 40% of that here to the tax man etc id take £720 of it for myself.

now i am very happy with my results and very happy to have spent such time on that (effectively a months full time work) but you really do need to take everything into account, time = money. low money = low time invested = quality is significantly reduced

as always, buyer beware and of course you get what you paid for.

Here is my Luke

my diala

Well, thats way I sad abort 1000$ for the paint job. But I'm a bit faster then you. I painted all the models from the starting box, twin shadow and there ally and villain packs + hired guns in a month. Im working full time at the hospital as well. Thats 60 models + 2 at-st. So I can probably paint the starting box in two week, if I work on it full time, especially if I don't put to much time in removig molding lines.

Your models looks good, but there are faster techniques then the layering you are using. Agen this is the reson way you shod not start to commission your work before you know what you are doing. It can be fun selling a few models and not charge that much money but as soon it stops being fun it's quite tedious to finish a big project for a under price.

Also as someone mentioned the IA models are quite unique so it's harder to batch paint them fast.

A link to my IA models:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/228074-painted-models/

you paid him $3 per mini? what did you expect? if you had paid me $3 per mini i would have gave them a prime coat, slapped a flesh tone on the skin, gave them a colour for the shirt and a colour for the pants.. averaging about 5-10 min per figure

you would have got exactly what you paid for, which is crap quick work.

if you want decent quality (which you can see in my signature below) where i'd spend roughly 2-4 hours per figure. This is roughly my quick pace with quality i'm happy enough to show off in public but not fully proud of and wouldn't ever consider this in any kind of painting competition

for top quality it's roughly 6-8 hours of work per figure with 3-5 layers of gradual shading and highlight with mixing paint colours (sometimes more depending on the person, skill level and the very few out there that can do the most incredible things with miniature painting that leaves most of us in awe)

i think you need to re-evaluate your perception of other people's valuable time and effort in comparison to your own, because i view your personality type as the kind of clueless and ignorant customer that expects a brand new mercedes at used hyundai prices

you paid him $3 per mini? what did you expect? if you had paid me $3 per mini i would have gave them a prime coat, slapped a flesh tone on the skin, gave them a colour for the shirt and a colour for the pants.. averaging about 5-10 min per figure

you would have got exactly what you paid for, which is crap quick work.

if you want decent quality (which you can see in my signature below) where i'd spend roughly 2-4 hours per figure. This is roughly my quick pace with quality i'm happy enough to show off in public but not fully proud of and wouldn't ever consider this in any kind of painting competition

for top quality it's roughly 6-8 hours of work per figure with 3-5 layers of gradual shading and highlight with mixing paint colours (sometimes more depending on the person, skill level and the very few out there that can do the most incredible things with miniature painting that leaves most of us in awe)

i think you need to re-evaluate your perception of other people's valuable time and effort in comparison to your own, because i view your personality type as the kind of clueless and ignorant customer that expects a brand new mercedes at used hyundai prices

I don't know why you think it is ok for someone to offer a service for a price that THEY set and then not just do a **** job but also not even actually do the job to completion. I don't have a perception of peoples valuable time when I am paying for a service that THEY set the parameters for, I just expect them to follow through on what was agreed. It is really that simple. Regardless if I am a clueless ignorant customer on what the job may entail I am going by what I am being told will be done. I made this post to explain and tell my experience take it how you will.

then you clearly have no clue at all

you got a better quality job than what you paid for and you have the nerve to trash talk the painter. I feel sorry for the poor guy

and according to him, you even put a rush on his schedule by asking for it sooner.

Thanks for you input.