Painted playing pieces

Cash machines only give out 500 at a time….in 20s
I keep $1000 of cash in a safe place in case of some sort of unforseen incident…
If the internet crashed and ATMs everwhere exploded, everyone else would have only their useless debit cards while I would lord over my town, a veritable Bill Gates.

@oztea:

Cash machines only give out 500 at a time….in 20s
I keep $1000 of cash in a safe place in case of some sort of unforseen incident…
If the internet crashed and ATMs everwhere exploded, everyone else would have only their useless debit cards while I would lord over my town, a veritable Bill Gates.

Hmm… if the Internet crashed (a global wide EMP?), and the ATMs everywhere exploded… I think there are some serious problems going on, and I think paper money at that point would be as valuable as the paper it was printed on.

Wait… so you’re saying you’re going to use your ‘secret stash’ to buy a painted set?

So where is this ‘safe place’  :evil: ?

In my back yard fallout shelter thats 10 feet below ground with battery backup and two years of food.
Right beside my guns and gold bullion, precious stones and all my other Mad Max gear.

:-D
Just kidding. Its in a shoe box

…well no, I wouldnt use my secret stash for a painted set
I have other money…the Benjamans picture was just to convey how serious I was about the issue.

I dont even think $1000 dollars is unreasonable. Considering that it costs $150 for both the games (Euro+Pacific) new in box, maybe $50 dollars for the Paints, brushes. That leaves shipping, which may be $50, and time paid for the painter. Which with somewhere in the ballpark of 750 pieces from both sets thats a dollar per piece.

@oztea:

In my back yard fallout shelter thats 10 feet below ground with battery backup and two years of food.
Right beside my guns and gold bullion, precious stones and all my other Mad Max gear.

:-D
Just kidding. Its in a shoe box

Dammit - I’ll ignore that you told me its a shoebox… I like the other answer better.  :-D

I’m not sure $1000 would cover it. When I get serious about painting I can paint for 3 hours after work for 3 weeks just to do one faction. Considering there is 11 factions (Counting US and UK as different factions on each map) that is a rough estimate of 495 hours. $750 would be ~$1.66/hour.

Before I started painting I thought $1000 for a set would be fair too, but I was amazed how much time I spent getting as far as I did. I’m not even done yet.

Some people might paint faster or slower depending on their skill or how much detail they are trying to add.

@trackmagic:

I’m not sure $1000 would cover it. When I get serious about painting I can paint for 3 hours after work for 3 weeks just to do one faction. Considering there is 11 factions (Counting US and UK as different factions on each map) that is a rough estimate of 495 hours. $750 would be ~$1.66/hour.

Before I started painting I thought $1000 for a set would be fair too, but I was amazed how much time I spent getting as far as I did. I’m not even done yet.

Some people might paint faster or slower depending on their skill or how much detail they are trying to add.

Precisely what I was say’in early Track.  The numbers just don’t add up…

I guess if the buyer covered supplies (2 new games in box) shipping and paint it might be more reasonable.
or if the painter developed som kind of system

I paint 28mm scale Warhammer models….and I have a hell of a lot of them
I also have a job and money, so I can afford to pay someone to paint 750+ plastic dudes
After painting my figures, I bought a varnish/shading product that you dip the models into adding a protective coating and shadeing to all the recesses. Dramaticly increasing the detail in the model for almost no time consumption.

If an A&A painter first dipped them like easter eggs. Then detailed them. Then dipped them in a varnish I think they would look pretty sweet.

@oztea:

I guess if the buyer covered supplies (2 new games in box) shipping and paint it might be more reasonable.
or if the painter developed som kind of system

I paint 28mm scale Warhammer models….and I have a hell of a lot of them
I also have a job and money, so I can afford to pay someone to paint 750+ plastic dudes
After painting my figures, I bought a varnish/shading product that you dip the models into adding a protective coating and shadeing to all the recesses. Dramaticly increasing the detail in the model for almost no time consumption.

If an A&A painter first dipped them like easter eggs. Then detailed them. Then dipped them in a varnish I think they would look pretty sweet.

Shipping and material costs, and a system, still does not break even. Whether the client/customer has a job and money is not important (other than the fact that if they have neither than they probably aren’t going to be a customer).  How much they’ll pay in comparison to what it would take to break even considering min. wage is what we were referring to.

That being said… a lot of variables to consider that can’t necessarily be quantified.  Some of them situational: If the painter is unemployed, I suppose anything is ok (but then we get into what is fair for paying for another’s work that is both an artistic endeavor and kinda “factory work”… which involves a whole host of things to consider). Or if the painter is independently wealthy, I suppose it also doesn’t matter.  There’s also the less tangible side of it… you like the idea of your little troops out there on some other board being appreciated, your troops fighting the good fight many miles away… and/or if you like painting them so much that time and money is not in question.

*shrug

I’m familiar with some of the products used for the shading process you mention, I’ve used them on my 25mm & 28mm figs in the past.  But at 15mm and below you start running into problems - the recesses of the piece are so small the liquid has a tendency to blotch.  Not always - sometimes it turns out quite nice.  There’s also the problem of the material itself - sometimes the end results are different on plastic then lead/pewter.  I think I’ve even read some post on here somewhere about someone who had all of their (plastic) figs ‘bubble’ after using it.  At the end of the day, I wouldn’t trust that as a shading technique on A&A plastics.  It might turn out really cool… but I wouldn’t want to risk a huge “do-over” (or worse, ruining the minis).  In regard to the protective coating - yeah, I agree.  I use the spray cans from hobby stores, not a dull or gloss coat, the regular sealant (though that’s a personal preference, I do like the look of some of the glossed pieces I’ve seen).

You have a link to any pics of those models Oz?  I’d be interested - the Warhammer line produces some pretty cool sculpts.

I pulled from wikipedia various aircraft roundels and made a draft decal sheet at 1000 x 600 pixels.  The roundels are too large in the draft to go on aircraft, they would have be shrunk down quite a bit.  Sadly, my posting skills are not nearly as good as my cut and paste an image together skills.  Is there some trick to attaching a .png image file of about 150kb?

Thanks

It is the warhammer line of products, 40k to be specific.
I do not have very many pics right now, though in the future ill try to take some.

Deg - yeah, was led to Wiki’s roundels in the past, thought it was nifty but at the end of the day… nothing to do with them except perhaps use them to decorate a dice tower.  Hmm… don’t know the tricks you need Deg…

Let me know Oz… I like the 40k figs…

So think of this, my friend had an original classic game that went through a fire and the shading from the fire made some cool looking pieces.  I’ve had the dog find some pieces that were dropped and chewed up and they look like they’ve been in a battle, I still would like to take a few Naval units and cut them in half and put them on a base so they would look like their sinking

Chagadiel and Others,

I really enjoyed seeing the pics of your wonderful paint jobs. I especially liked the Japanese Carriers. Any more pics?

Here’s some links to a few pics of my units that I had “Allworkandnoclay” paint for me. Marines, Marine Raiders, ParaMarines, and Army Paratroopers.

For the “Special Forces” type of units I had their shoulder patch painted on their bases instead of their national insignia. And the “regular” Marine grunts have the Marine Anchor & Globe to differentiate them from American Army soldiers.

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=26127.0

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=26122.0

I hope Ya’ll enjoy them, I feel it’s important to share info/pics and in so doing boost each others’ interest in this hobby.

“Tall Paul” Â

Those are pretty nifty Paul!  Like those paratroopers… you got any pics of the Marine Raiders where the focus is on the soldier and not the stand as much - like some of the cool paratrooper pics? Would enjoy seeing the detail of those awesome camo jobs on those…

(btw - cool idea for designating different troop types)  8-)

Viracocha and Others,

Here’s a pic of the Marine Raiders. I hope this is what you wanted. There are two different threads I just started. One on the MARINES, and the other on the PARATROOPERS(see Reply #91 above for links). If you’ll scroll through them you’ll see several pics and graphics.

As you can see these Marine Raiders have camo from head-to-toe. The regular Marine “grunts” only have camo helmets.

I guess I should go ahead and post pics of the ParaMarine Raiders with the Paratroop thread, too.

“Tall Paul”

Viracocha and Others,

@Viracocha:

(btw - cool idea for designating different troop types) � 8-)

Yes, there are two different reasons I wanted to paint Service or Division/Regiment/Battalion shoulder patches on the bases of units instead of my standard National insignia.

First, I wanted the U.S. Marines to look different from the U.S. Army units. The Marines dominating in the Pacific, and the Army dominating in Europe and elsewhere.

I did the same thing with my UK-Europe(London-based) and my
UK-Pacific(Calcutta-based) Infantry. The UK-P© units I had painted with “Union Jack” insignia on their bases. I nick-named them “Jacks”. I’ll post a pic of my “Jacks” for you.

Second, IN SOME UPCOMING FUTURE GAMES the Marines will probably have different A/D/C/M factors from the standard Infantry units and thus need to be different looking.

“Tall Paul”

And a close-up, front and back of my “Jacks”.

“Tall Paul”

<long whistle=“”>Those will look sweet in-game.  :-D</long>

Viracocha,

I’ll consider that as a grand compliment from someone who’s painted some great looking pieces yourself.

Irregardless of how good the "Jack’s might look, I think it’s most important that they be easily distinguished from their European brethren.

The Italian Infantry are on the way, with the Germans soon available(?). I think I’ll get the Major and Minor Industrial Complexes and Anti-Aircraft Guns painted next.

Then some aircraft. I already have loads of them just waiting. Wildcats, Warhawks, Mustangs, Mitchells, Commandos, TBF “Turkeys”, FockeWolves, and all of the Italian a/c. Not to mention all of the OOB a/c.

“Tall Paul”