Figures may now be ordered PAINTED.  Painted figures are usually available right from stock, however as demand has increased significantly there could sometimes be a slight delay in delivery until stocks are replenished.  This is a new service and it has proved to be very popular so please be understanding if there are the occasional delay while I get the routine established. 

By the way, Mountain Blue Miniatures painted figures are still cheaper than just about all other brands of hand painted figures available today. And in most cases the quality of our figures is significantly better than what is available from Europe or China.

How do I go about providing "painted" figures?  All Mountain Blue figures now leave the factory (OK, the backyard shed) painted with a grey metal etch primer.  Figures destined to be sold as "fully hand painted" are either sent in batches to Michael Flack (famous for his part in the Red Stag Lumber Company exhibition layout and more recently the group's Muskrat Ramble layout) who hand paints each figure to a very high standard, then coats each figure in matt spray to seal in the colour.  These figures look great anywhere on the layout, both right at the front and in distant scenes.  I said either sent to Michael, because I also spend many hours meticulously painting figures for select orders, to a very high standard. My painting includes a layer of fine dust to simulate wear and tear, just as you would find in real life.

I am still toying with the idea of sending bulk figures to a firm of specialist figure painters in Sri Lanka.  The extra shipping and a three month delay in receiving goods back make this a long-term process.

Their painting process is quite outstanding.  They class these figures as "Collector Quality."  First they sand off any mould lines or casting lines, then they assemble any arms or other movable parts.  They then undercoat the figures with their own etch primer.  Each figure is then hand painted by a figure painting specialist and given the base colour.  The figures are then given a second coat of paint, this time focussing on shadow detail and deep folds in clothing.  The detail is then highlighted, like pockets, or features like a watch chain.  This really makes the detail stand out.  Only the finest quality paints are used, usually in muted colours so that the figures don't dominate your layout. 

After drying, each figure is then given several coats of dull-coat spray to seal in the colour and make them ready to be handled, or installed onto your layout.   The finished figures are just fantastic.  Although they cost more than either undercoated, or normally painted figures, they make excellent front-of-layout detail figures for when a special super-detailed structure or mini-scene is being made. Just install a few collector quality figures on your layout and viewers will think the whole layout has been built to the same extremely high "competition" standards.

I try to vary the colour scheme in a batch of painted figures, just so they don't all look the same.  When you pay extra for painting, you want your figures to be individual and not like those painted-in-their-thousands plastic things turned out by some other suppliers. So our painted figures will usually look similar to, but not necessarily exactly like, the colour photos shown on the web site.  

Return to the HOME page to download a complete price list (.pdf document).