Getting my WSS Cavalry "Profesionally" painted

[sunjester]

Just to add in my experience of Turbil now that I have received my WSS infantry after just 3 weeks.

For the price they are reasonably painted and based and look very effective on the tabletop.

However there are a couple on minor problems.

Firstly, the figures were based on 20x20mm mdf, as I'd requested, but an overenthusiastic application of basing material meant that they are all a bit irregular shaped now, and I cannot line the units up with the correct frontage. I can easily rectify this by running a Stanley knife down the side of the bases.

Secondly, where the unit had hat lace, this has been carelessly applied and often the entire top of the tricorn is white. A small dab of black paint will correct this in no time.

These are minor issues and will only take me a few minutes to put right, however I am surprised that these points were not noticed before the figures were sent back to me. I am not a disatisified customer, just one that is not as satisfied as I might of been. Minor points like this detract from what was otherwise a speedy and reasonable quality service.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Hmm... the plot thickens!

[Leman]

It  might have.

[Orcs]

Well I checked the Post Office tracker for my figures and they were signed for on 31st July , so they have now had them three working weeks. No figures as yet and no correspondence.

I thought that as I was a dissatisfied customer returning  faulty product I might have got a speedy rectification.

[Orcs]

Well the supposedly repainted figures came back from Turbil miniatures today.


Main Issues:-

Figures had obviously not been undercoated

Less bare metal ( note less not none)

The underside of the horses muzzle was still bare metal - I know you don't see it but it should have been painted.

Some of the horses had bare metal on most if not all of the underside

most had seen a lick of paint but not enough to completely cover the bare metal

The Left hand side of the jackets were not painted - obviously to difficult to get the brush in there. 

At least 75% of the figures had not been touched. of the remaining 25% perhaps 8 were satisfactory as far as the jackets were concerned


Much of the horse furniture was unpainted including the broad girth strip under their stomachs.

Most horses had a black line around the girth vaguely on the girth strap. a few only went half way round.

The horse furniture that had been painted was seemed to be by just Running a black brush round the neck where the reins are

No change here.  No attempt to paint horse furniture on black horses.

ALL horses had black tails and manes even the whites and grey ones. Making them look like pantomime ponies

No change here, although to be fair I had not asked for this to be changed ( I think I had lost the will by then)


A couple had sand embedded in the paint - obviously they had not cleared the painting area properly after basing some other figures.

One still had the sand, the other had had it gouged out leaving a deep line on the figure that had just been over painted.

Odd spots of bare metal where they had handled the figure before Varnishing

Less of these

One regiment has the facing colour from the saddle all over the bottom of the musket stock on all but 2 of the figures

Fixed



So as they have had the figures for another three weeks. Not quite sure why as the corrections they have made would only have taken a hour or so. The figures are still way below standard. I have opened a PayPal case requesting a full refund of the £64 painting costs. 

To show I am not trying to get a refund and keep the figures I have offered to send them back to Turbil to do as they wish with them provided the cover my £27 bare metal costs.

To get them up to standard I would have to do the following after Trying to match colours used

Horses (all)
Touch up all horses base colour
Paint over mains and tails with base colour
Overpaint the black round their necks and girth strap
Pick out horse furniture in colour that stands out

Cavalrymen

Paint all unpainted areas on tunics
Touch up figures where pint has got in wrong place from painting tunics
Pant all half painted faces (50% of Figures)
Paint straps on blankets
Touch in musket straps as most are only half done

Run suitable coloured wash over horses and cavalrymen

Varnish the whole figure and base

So basically this touch up (if I can find the correct colour) will take as long as painting  from scratch. If I cant get a near match on the colours it will involve more work than painting from scratch, with the possible exception of those on black horses

I am so fed up with them I am hoping they will take them off my hands by refunding the painting cost and the bare metal cost. 

If I only get the  painting cost refunded I will probably touch up the two regiment with black horses and bin the rest. 

I might ebay them at bare metal cost with  heading

"10mm WSS Cavalry VERY POORLY painted by Turbil miniatures - Bare metal cost"

Then in the description explain what is wrong with the painting

If someone feels they are worth the work - good luck to them

A very very P*SSED OFF 

Orcs 

[FierceKitty]

Take your revenge with a clean conscience. Shoddy service should not be tolerated.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Not at all good.

[Techno]

What's the going rate for individual figures, then, Gang ?

I presume it varies considerably, depending on the standard of the painting ?

How many figures did you get painted for your £64, Mark ?

Just curious.

Cheers - Phil.

[Orcs]

What's the going rate for individual figures, then, Gang ?

I presume it varies considerably, depending on the standard of the painting ?

How many figures did you get painted for your £64, Mark ?

Just curious.

Cheers - Phil.

Hi Phil,

They were 75 pence per cavalry figure, so I got 84 painted (if you can call it that).  They were a little on the cheap side but not by much. eg Fernando enterprises charges 80p for a reasonabley painted cavalry figure with more details on it .

Sunjester had a similar number of infantry painted for him and these were nicely done.


What has really annoyed me is I sent them back with a detailed list of the issues - particularly the half painted tunics and no attempt has been made to correct this. Even stuff they have corrected like painting the Girth strap on the Horses has been done so shoddily it has actually made the figure look worse.

[Matt J]

That price is mental. To earn minimum wage you'd have to paint a cavalry figure in 6 minutes. I know you can set them up production style but I cant see how the hell you can make any figure good in 6 minutes.

[kev1964]

I have to agree with you Matt, how anyone can make a half decent wage on those prices is beyond me. I'm a reasonably quick painter so i timed myself the other day , the fig was a ready primed FPW French dragoon, there were nine colours and i just did one coat of each and it took me 13 minutes. Production line is obviously a bit quicker  but  no way  could i  keep that pace up all day, i dont think even a super fast painter could do more than 10 per hour to a reasonable standard and that's only £7.50.
I have heard all the bad comments and seen the great feedback on ebay, i can only assume their customers are happy with a 6mm figure that has blue paint indicating French and red as British, or their relatives are putting a good word in  .

I hope this gets sorted out for you Orcs , but anyone can take this up as a living and then call it professional if they are being paid, even if they turn out rubbish.

kev

[Orcs]

I agree with both Kev and matt on the pricing and the fact you cannot make minimum wage. However there are many "cottage industries" where this is the case. 

How much they earn per hour is not the issue. I did not set their prices  they did, and having done so they  are contractually obliged need to supply me with the product I paid for.  Something they they have failed miserably at TWICE

I am personally confused how they can supply Sunjester's  figures (which I have seen) and Wombles (which I have seen  on his blog) to a fairly good standard and then paint mine  abysmally twice, even  when the faults were pointed out to them in detail

[toxicpixie]

Crikey. That doesn't sound good at all :/

Especially bad if other shave come back at reasonable quality - did you (or someone else?) mention they thought they might be "farmed out" - I'd hope they wouldn't have the same person do them again, if so, but sounds like they did...

Hope PayPal comes through for you, and you get it sorted to a decent satisfaction - from what you've said I'd be tempted to just overspray them and start from scratch!

[Orcs]

Crikey. That doesn't sound good at all :/

Especially bad if other shave come back at reasonable quality - did you (or someone else?) mention they thought they might be "farmed out" - I'd hope they wouldn't have the same person do them again, if so, but sounds like they did...

Hope PayPal comes through for you, and you get it sorted to a decent satisfaction - from what you've said I'd be tempted to just overspray them and start from scratch!

I was only voicing that it might be a possibility as it would explain the variable quality of the product.

They have been fairly thickly painted so over spraying them is probably not an option

[toxicpixie]

It does sound likely, either that or they're a "friday afternoon special" and got bunged thru last minute ? Not that that helps either way :/

Damn, they'd need a thorough stripping before trying to recover them? I hate stripping mini's >_<