Good Value Miniature Painting
Have the best painted miniatures on the table
(Without breaking the bank)
Painting Them Yourself
- Steep learning curve; long time to master
- Typically poor first-time results
- High initial set-up costs (paint, brushes, lights, tools etc)
- Requires space (desk, studio etc)
- Awful value-for-money, until you have some experience
VS
Getting a Commission
- Beneift from of years of experience
- Great results first time
- Good value for money
- Has all the kit (paints, brushes, lights etc)
Recent Commission Projects
Star Wars Armada – Mon Calamari Fleet
This commission project spanned over most of 2024. The idea was to paint the ships as and when I had time, in between other projects.
While I’ve painted a lot of Mon Calamari ships they don’t get boring – there’s just so much you can do with them. Â
Imperial ships tend to be grey and military*, but the the Rebel ships have much more variation and character.
*Not that I don’t like the an angry space triangle or two… 😃
Armada Painting Commission Fleet
Close up of painted MC105
Armada Commission – Viscount, MC95e, MC80b
These these ships were painted in the second half of 2024 and at the start of 2025.
Initially thought the MC80b and the MC90 were too brown in colour, but it turned out well as this gave more opportunity to add colour depth and variation. This was much harder to do on the MC95e (which is off-white.)
Rear shot of MC80 B Star Wars Armada
Painted MC95e for Star Wars Armada
Painted MC90 for Star Wars Armada
Star Wars Legion Range Troopers Commission
This commission was to paint 3 sets of Range Troopers to a high standard, following the box art as a guide.
To date, these are probably the best miniatures I’ve ever painted.
Painted Range Troopers Commission
3 Painted Range Troopers
Star Wars Armada Pirate Fleet Commission (part 3)
This commission was to paint a bunch of ships to add to the Pirate fleet being built by my client.
Here we have a couple of Bulk Cruisers, a Pelta-class frigate, a Venator-class Star Destroyer, 3 flotillas of Gozanti-class ships and a pair of CIS HMP Gunships
Painted Pirate Fleet Commission
Painted Venator-class Star Destroyer
Geonosians and Heroes of Dunland
This commission consisted of two separate parts
Geonosian Warriors, Sun Fac and Poggle
These guys were a bit of a nightmare to assemble as they’re so fiddly!
Heroes of Dunland
These are really nice Games Workshop Lord of the Rings miniatures. As is typical for Games Workshop, the minis have lots of detail and take way longer to paint than others, for example, the Geonosians above.
Painted Geonosian Warriors
Painted Poggle for Star Wars Legion
Painted Heroes of Dunland
Moff Gideon and Dark Troopers
A commission project to paint 3 units of Dark Troopers and Moff Gideon.
Two references were used to help paint these minis. For Gideon, the box art was used for guidance, and for the Dark Troopers, Sarastro’s guide for painting Death Troopers provided inspiration.
Moff Gideon with two rocket jumping Dark Troopers
Moff Gideon with 3 units of Dark Troopers, painted for this commission
Dreadnoughts and Squadrons
These ships were further additions to a Pirate Fleet that already contained the Neblon-B Cruiser and Providence carrier (see below).
Two Dreadnought-class Cruisers for Star Wars Armada
Two VT-49 Decimators and a Lancer Pursuit Craft or Star Wars Armada
Nebulon Cruiser
The Nebulon cruiser here was quite a straight forward brief: paint it in grey and then use colours similar to the vanilla Fantasy Flight Games Nebulon B Frigate where possible.
A “Delta” decal was added to match the Providence-class carrier which was to be part of the same fleet of ships (see below)
A Nebulon Cruiser painted for a Star Wars Armada Commission
Painted Providence-class Carrier
A lot of preparation went into painting this miniature – we discussed many topics with the client: we talked paint colours, whether to use a sigil and how to do it, and what to do for “battle damage”.
While all the communication was quite time consuming, it was very much worth it to esnure we were on the same page when it came to getting the requirements right!
A commission to repaint a Providence-class carrier for Star Wars Armada
Painted Revell 1/5000 scale Imperial Star Destroyer
What a fantastic model! At over 30cm long, its quite a bit bigger than a Star Wars Armada Star Destroyer. Plenty of surface detail really brings the model to life; just apply plenty of shading and lots of dry-brushing for highlights.
A Revell 1 to 5000 scale Imperial Star Destroyer – painted for a commission
Rebel Troopers Painting Commission
The brief for these guys was to paint a unit of Rebel Troopers and 2 sets of Rebel Trooper Upgrades in the same style as an existing set of Rebel Troopers that were for sale on eBay.
These minatures are a good example of painting to a “Tabletop Standard”. Extra time was spent on the colourful alien heads – they are very high contrast offer an opportunity to “draw your eyes” to them, and make a change from the normal drab military colours.
Painted Rebel Troopers for Star Wars Legion Â
Obi Wan Kenobi Painting Commission
Obi here is a good example of a character model that is painted to good standard.
Time has been spent on his face, the cloak and getting white armour to look right. White armour is notoriously difficult to paint and typically takes many layers of paint to be built up to give it depth.
Also, Obi Wan has been based on a more interesting red/yellow base which increases the overall contrast of the final miniature.
Painted Obi Wan Kenobi for Star Wars Legion Â
Revell AT-ST Painting Commission
This model was the first part of a larger commission project – creating an Endor-like woodland scene, full of Imperials!
The brief for the AT-ST was to have a new-looking AT-ST which meant no rust or battle damage, and to have the model not looking all flat and plastic.
A big round dry-brush from Artis Opus was used to stipple the hull. This gave a non-uniform texture to the paint.
Interestingly, the model took twice as long to assemble as it did to paint!
Revell 1:48 Scale AT-STÂ from Star Wars
Revell 1:48 Scale AT-STÂ from Star Wars
Hondo Ohnaka Commission
The commission brief for Hondo Ohnaka here was to paint him to a decent standard as he’s a display piece as part of a Star Wars Legion style collection.
Skreek for Star Wars Legion
Star Wars Armada Squadrons Commission
This was quite a large project: to paint 24 stands of squadrons for Star Wars Armada. That’s 72 tiny little fighters!
Clone Squadrons
The clone squadrons were quite straight forward as I’ve painted lots of rebel squadrons previously, and could use the techniques I’ve developed painting them.
The exception here is that the 4 Jedi fighters all required individual ship colours and markings.
Separtist Squadrons
The Separatist squadrons required a bit of exploration and experimentation before I started work on my client’s miniatures.
The Tri-fighters, for example, have a tiny pattern on the side of their wings. I had to work out how to reliably paints these triangle designs.
Droid Tri-fighters for Star Wars Armada
Delta-7 Squadrons for Star Wars Armada