Painting Services:

Terry Sirk and Alatair Ltd

by Jay Hadley

Over the past several years I have been asked about the practicality of painting wargaming figures for other people. In my younger days I did operate a mail order painting service, and since Mom didn't raise no dumb kids I learned a lot. What you can expect is long hours, low pay, and a fair degree of frustration. Like many people in our hobby you will quickly come to the point where you will either go with it full time, recruit other people to paint for you, or fall so far behind that your customers will be looking for a good recipe for tar and feathers.

Atalair Ltd.

Now for the other side. When should you use a painting service? You should consider a painting service if (1) there is a special unit you want painted in some special fashion or (2) you have what many of us have-more money than time. Many good painters will "farm out" some of their figures simply because of a time crunch. The one reason you should never use a painting service is because you feel that your work is not good enough. You can only get better if you practice. And remember no matter how bad you are there is someone worse.

I have been asked to review two painting services: namely Terry Sirk and Atalair Ltd. Both do very nice work. The styles tend to be somewhat different with Sirk developing a high degree of detail and Atalair concentrating on shading and blending of colors. Both tend to paint a very clean figure which is critical for visual effect. Both companies sell their work for under $2.00 per 25 mm foot figure (excluding the cost of the figure proper) which is a good value. For other scales and prices write to them: Atalair Ltd, P.O. Box 421, Cedar Rapids IA 524061- Terry Sirk, 5940 Muncaster Mil, Derwood MD 20855. - Jay Hadley

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