Technically it's a who...
I'm Joe Wiedeman, the person behind Minidragon. Minidragon is the handle I've been using for a looong time on the internet. What can I say, I like miniatures and I like dragons... When I decided to start a miniature painting service I decided to use my web handle as the name of the business.
I first realized that I could earn some income from my hobby way back when eBay was first getting started. I posted a few figures and they quickly sold for more than I had expected - I decided that I'd use this new resource to fund my hobby! Pretty soon I had developed a reputation on eBay! and people were beginning to contact me to request that I paint specific figures - Minidragon as a commission service was born!
There are lots of painting services out there, how is Minidragon different?
The way I see it, there are three broad categories of miniature painting services; 1) those that slap bad to mediocre paintjobs on lots of figure for a relatively low price, 2) those that offer a range of qualities where price increases with level of detail (ranging from cheap, ugly paintjobs to more expensive, better looking work), and 3) services that focus on high end work and are, typically, fairly expensive.
When I started Minidragon, I wanted to create the latter kind of painting service, one that focuses on high quality work. I also decided that I would paint primarily single figures and vehicles - no armies or units (unless the whole lot were to be done to a very high standard). I've stayed true to that ideal for a long time now - each figure that I paint is a unique, high-quality piece of artwork.
While I do work to a very high standard, my prices are not nearly as high as some other miniatures painting services that work to a similar standard and have a comparable painting resume (you can see mine here). I'm able to keep my prices relatively low because I can paint to a high standard in a relatively short amount of time - it doesn't take me 50-100 hours to produce a Golden Demon caliber piece; in fact - the most time I've ever spent on a single figure is right around 25 hours, and that was a very big, very intricately detailed job that included lots of sculpting work!
Wait a minute!!!
You might be wondering why I say I can paint things quickly but my turnaround time is still 1-2 months. The reason is that I maintain a backlog of commissions. Lots of people want me to paint things for them and I can't possibly get everything done immediately; basically my customers get put in line - think of it as taking a number at the deli.
Minidragon also stands out because of the flexibility I offer: I'm equally happy working with a customer to ensure that the piece I'm producing is exactly as desired, or spontaneously coming up with schemes and details that I think bring out the best in a figure. It is my goal to ensure that my customers are not just happy with, but delighted with every figure that I paint for them.
You can find out more about having Mindragon create a unique work of miniature art for you on my Commissions page!