How Minipainting for Free Works

Hi. My name is Dave, I’m a miniature gamer and I have a problem.

Actually, I have several problems. I don’t think that I’m alone in these, so let’s just get them all out in the open.

1) I buy way too many miniatures. I own enough that I could never paint them all in my entire lifetime, possibly two lifetimes if I also decide to eat, sleep and use the bathroom. Why do I keep buying them? No idea. Problem #1 leads me right into problem #2.

2) I can’t paint fast enough to keep up with my purchases. In fact, the backlog of figures that I want to paint is so large that I sometimes give up on painting altogether. Instead of painting, I spend the gained hobby time browsing the internet, looking to buy more miniatures that I know I’m never going to paint. It’s a vicious cycle.

3) I lack the motivation to sit down and paint. Sometimes I go 6 months or more without gaming at all. As a result, every purchase is a half baked idea to get other people excited about whatever game/genre happens to strike my fancy at the moment. Since the idea exists solely in my head I’ve got to buy all the figures myself and paint everything. With a determined look in my eye I order up all the figures. While I’m waiting for the figures to arrive I’m out on the internet looking around when I get a new, completely different idea. I like this new idea so much that by the time I get the first order I’m already not excited about it and waiting on the next order of miniatures I just placed. See problems #1 and #2.

So there are my problems. My guess if you are reading this than you have at least the first two also. Maybe we can help each other out. Here’s my plan…

I want to paint your miniatures.

Clearly, I’m never going to paint my own. I’m also going to keep purchasing new ones until they repossess my house and I’m forced to live in a crude shelter made out of little pewter figures, most of which are armed with swords and axes. I can only imagine how uncomfortable that would be. So I had a brilliant solution. I get other gamers (such as yourself) to send me your unpainted miniatures. Then I paint them and send them back. Brilliant, huh?

It’s a great solution to my problems. Firstly, I’m not buying the figures. So, if I buy 0 and paint 1, then my painting to buying ratio is actually positive. Also, If I’ve got someone else’s miniature, I’m sure they are going to want it back, which gives me the motivation to actually paint it. All three problems are solved!

This isn’t just about me. See, this helps you too. First, you have hundreds of miniatures you are never going to paint too, right? So send me one or two! You will get them back painted. That means that your painted/purchased ratio improves also! It might not help you get more motivated to paint, but helping with 2 out of 3 problems isn’t too bad.

How will this work?

Easy. You send me an email (bobbo.is.me (at) gmail.com) with the miniature you want to send and as much or as little detail about how you want it painted. I’ll get back to you with my address and a time estimate on how long I think it will take me to get it done. Then you ship the mini to me and I’ll get it back to you hopefully within the timeframe I specified.

How much does it cost?

I’d be lying if I told you it is free. It is, however, extremely cheap. All you have to do is get the mini to me. I don’t even care how you get it here. Mail it, drop it off in your car, build a catapult to fling it, doesn’t matter. I’ll pay to ship it back to you. One day I’ll set up a Paypal tip jar sort of thing so if you wanted to reimburse me for the shipping expenses back I’d appreciate it, but it’s not necessary. I figure the money that I save in not buying new miniatures will more than make up for any shipping costs I’m going to incur.

Any fine print?

Not really. The only thing that I guarantee is that you will get your miniature back, even if I never get to paint it . I’m going to do my best to paint in a reasonable timeframe and in the colors/method that you specify. I constantly switch painting styles searching for one that I like and am comfortable with, so if you get two different minis from me they might be painted differently. Basically what I’m saying is that I’m open to any and all requests, I reserve the right to say no thanks and I make no guarentee about the quality of the paintjob that you get back. The best things in life are free, but you also get what you pay for.

Oh, and before you ask, I’m not really interested in doing large units of figures. I generally work on 6 figures at a time, so try to keep any requests to the maximum of 6 figures at a time. If I wanted to paint large numbers of identical figures, I’d paint my own. One request. Please send me an email before sending any miniatures through the mail. Depending on what my free time looks like and how any other projects I’m working on, I may not get to your mini for awhile. I’d hate for it to be sitting here in my house not getting painted when it could be sitting in yours also not getting painted.

That’s my goal and the course is set. Wish me luck!