There are two pages coming. One page will be of painted minis for sale. The other will be of unpainted minis we have in stock that you can order to have custom painted.
STAY TUNED!
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Hey all. Rebekkah here.
It's been crazy since the last post. Not only did I go to two "First annual" conventions last year (TimpCon and MyCon), but I actually quit painting! I wasn't going to paint customer orders ever again. "WHY?" you ask? Well, I got bad news from a doctor that rocked me to my core. That same day, when my world was crushing around me, I got a message from a customer who I was doing a custom paint order for. Turns out all the colors were wrong (I had been sending this customer regular pictures for feedback and heard nothing for weeks.) and they wanted me to start over. The brave face I had maintained the whole way home broke away and I fell apart. I didn't change it, and I didn't pick up a brush for a few months after that. For a while, looking at the paints made me thing of that doctor visit, and I'd walk away. Fortunately, "quitting" ended up just being a hiatus for a few months because not only did I still have the games we bought from Kickstarter waiting to be painted, but this year's SaltCon booth was already paid for, so I decided I had to go. January, I sat at my desk and painted again. Our personal copy of Massive Darkness by CMON. It was like I never left. I felt like myself again! I painted every day until SaltCon and had a blast! Many thanks to Matt, Melodie, and Lynell, who kept the booth running while I painted! It was the most successful convention we've had! Turns out a lot of people thought the figures we had out were for display, not purchase, so we could've done even better! Next year I'll have a sign that says "everything is for sale". So, with renewed vigor, I'm not only painting again, but I've set up an etsy shop and we're slowly working to get all these figs up for sale. Being busy is good for me, and gaming is the best kind of busy! Turns out this website gets more traffic than etsy (tho, etsy's only been up for a few days, so maybe I'm not being fair), so I decided I need to do a few things to get "out there" more: 1-Create the Etsy shop (done!) and sell the painted minis! Maybe even get some custom paint orders coming in between conventions. 2-We're going to be updating the website! This will include posting unpainted minis we have that you can buy and get customed painted (I'll be directing etsy shoppers here, I think). We'll also post what's for sale on etsy (also, check the facebook and twitter page. I'll post the pages there, too.) 3- Get more active on social media. (Ugh. I don't actually enjoy being on social media much. Alas it's the nature of business today. One post a day is enough, right?) If you have custom paint jobs, we're open for business again! It's good to be back, and we hope we'll see you around! ~Rebekkah I am so excited for Salt Con! It’s a week away, and I still have a ton to paint before I feel ready. That said, I have already painted quite a few figures just to sell at the event.
As I did the last two conventions, there will be a raffle! Khorne Bloodthirster will be up for $2 a ticket, or 3 tickets for $5. Oh! If you come by my booth on the first day with your own item for me to paint, I will have it painted by the end of the day Saturday, provided I don’t get overwhelmed with figures.
A return customer is one of the greatest feelings ever! To have your work enjoyed so much that someone will spend their hard earned money on your skill, again, is just downright exciting! This order was a bit of a challenge. The game is called SeaFall. The pieces were simple enough, but oh! Those sails!! Many games have pieces that can be disassembled for various reasons. The best thing about pieces that can be disassembled is that they are easier to paint and detail. If SeaFall’s ships could have been disassembled, I would have been done in an afternoon.
You know one of the best things about being the artist for Paint My Game? I get introduced to games I might never have heard of otherwise.
SaltCon is in March. To get prepped for that I have a box full of small dragons and mimics to paint. I also got a Reaper snap turtle (I think that's what he's called... I'll have to go look) which I am going to paint like Bowser from Mario.
Name one founding father. From which country did the U.S. declare independance?
If you didn’t know the answers: There were many founding fathers. Among them are George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Abraham Lincoln was NOT a founding father, although he was considered a great president. The United States declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, which was a great deal bigger back then. Anyway, keep an eye out on ebay for some of our painted miniatures! Right now, we have Caryatid, Pillar of Good and Pillar of Evil and Mashaaf Great Old One up for auction.
As I mentioned in my previous post, my supportive husband enjoys buying Hero Quest miniatures for me to paint. One of the reasons he does this is because he really likes how I paint them. Sometimes, when I’m painting for someone else, I’ll paint the miniature in a way that he thinks is awesome. Then, he wants me to paint a copy for his set. Well, I finally finished Rob’s Hero Quest. Now, I can paint something else! Humm. . . . Zach, who had me paint his Blood Rage figures, did comission me to paint his copy of Firefly soon as he got Blood Rage back . . . Shiny ships? You betcha! It’s been a nice change of pace painting the different spaceships from the game. It’s amazing how the creators used as much as they could from the Firefly tv show and the movie, Serenity. I enjoyed both the show and the movie, but I can’t name all the ships I’ve been painting. Also, don’t forget to follow us on ebay. We’ve got some fun miniatures going up for auction this week! . . .but not in the way you think- I have a wonderful husband. He's very excited about Paint My Game and our success at Gaming Con. He supports me, he helps where he can by being my quality check and photographer, and patiently waits as I paint into the night. Supportive husbands, however, can go too far. First, understand I don't use air brushes or glazes. My style of painting is slower than most other professionals. I like to consider it my own style. He likes it too, but he wants me to be compensated for my time. While making an inventory sheet and listing prices, he decided to be helpful by putting in a few equations. Excel then used the time I spent painting and calculated it into the prices. I told him the resulting numbers were completely impractical. He said something about working for peanuts and walked away. Come Gaming Con, I was glad he got distracted by the nostalgia video games so that he wouldn't be at my booth telling people things were three times (at least) more expensive than I was charging. Everything I sold ranged from $5-$20. Now, we both understand that gamers realize how expensive it is to paint miniatures for a hobby. They were not surprised at higher prices, but 'understanding' does not mean the same thing as 'willing to pay'. Still, having him on the other side of the booth talking to customers about the affordability of the miniatures helped! After Gaming Con, I decided I would prepare for SaltCon. It will be March 2017 at Davis County Convention Center. We find a lot of our stock by checking ebay for complete out of print games with miniatures at a good price (Hero Quest, Battle Masters). Our plan is to paint then resell them at conventions and on ebay. While shopping on ebay, my sweet, supportive husband won more bids than he intended.
This week has been filled with miniatures and more miniatures from Gaming Con. Most of the week was spent working on four figurines for a new game called Blood Rage. I did one a night, since I have a day job. Fenrir was probably my favorite to paint. I really liked painting the chains. I also got a bit excited when I sent a picture to the customer, and he asked me to bloody Fenrir up a bit. I always feel like blood adds movement to the miniatures. They look like they’re doing something. Nobody should have to play with a boring, smiling piece. Besides, blood is cool. I found the Mountain Troll the most difficult to paint. He has this staff that just blocks my access to the belt. When you look at the pictures, you can see a lot of detail behind the staff. A. Lot. Of. Detail. It could have been worse. I’ve painted pieces that were smaller with more difficult detail. I think the end product was worth the extra effort. I also got to paint some Bones characters for Miranda and Jeff, whom I also met at Gaming Con. They had made the character sheets, and knew what colors they wanted for each miniature. Normally I use the character cards to show me what they look like, but Bones brand don't have those. I asked questions at Gaming Con about their characters, are they good? Is their armor rusted? Then I did what I could with the colors they gave me. Harsk was probably the hardest. His back had a variety of items that were either brown or yellow. I had to be extra careful to make each item distinct within the color scheme. I had fun painting the Crusader in royal purple. When I sent a status update to the customers, they wanted more blood, too! All in all, it has been a busy week. I might just have to take a break when I finish all these commissions. When I went in on a booth at Salt Lake Comic Con in September, I didn't make any of my money back, so I had a low bar set for Salt Lake Gaming Con this past weekend. I kept thinking that if I could just make back the cost of the booth, I'd be happy. Well, I was happy. Thursday saw many people pass by my booth, most of whom stopped thanks to my friend who volunteered to call people over so I could paint. Many of those who stopped to look at my figurines for sale bought raffle tickets to try to win either my Dungeons and Dragon's Red Dragon, or the Bones Kraken. I made back the cost of my booth that first day!
My amazing sister-in-law came and helped me on Friday and Saturday. It was great! Between my friend and my sister-in-law I not only got tons of painting done, but I was also able to wander the con. I talked to other vendors and had some fun seeing if there was anything new I hadn't seen before. Plus, it was nice just to stretch my legs every few hours. Saturday was by far my busiest day. I'd spent most of Thursday painting Hero Quest furniture that my husband had bought to keep me busy. Friday, I had a few commissions, but all I painted on Saturday were commissions. I guess word had spread. I had also sold the most miniatures on Saturday, and traded a few with some of the other vendors for some cool stuff. The raffle was also held Saturday night. Much to the chagrin of a few people, Zack G. won the dragon and Robbie S. won the kraken! I probably won't have a booth at Salt Lake Comic Con, but I am planning on being at Salt Con in March! |
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March 2019
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