White Metal Games- The Interview

White Metal Games has officially thrown their hat into the painting studio and assembly arena and joined the ranks of other studios like Next Level Painting, Brush for Hire, and Stiff Neck Studios.

“There’s more studios out there than you think. But they’re much harder to find than they should be. The problem is clients don’t know how to find them and that’s what I’m trying to change.” 

I recently had a chat with Caleb, the owner of White Metal Games, about just what it takes to run a studio. And from even my brief conversion with it him, it was clear that running a miniature studio isn’t easy. The common misconception about having your own painting studio is you just paint up a few minis, throw them up online to sell, and boom, you’re in business.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This might work at first, but like any business, you need clients to bring in the all mighty dollar, and to attract those clients attention you need to advertise. Ebay will only take you so far as Caleb was quick to learn.

“I was getting a lot of sales, but they were the wrong types of sales. I was looking for gaps to fill (IE, when GW didn’t support their product line in some way), but I had a niche business; 90% of my business was Tyranid models, like tervigons and dooms and the like. Then the Necron codex dropped, again missing key units, and I built a few hundred of those. I must have built over 50 Triarch stalkers. I was ordering kits from you (Spikey Bits) like crazy back then! But I wasn’t drawing new clients. I was just sticking my finger in the dam.”

For the first few years they were around, WMG spent most of their efforts scratch building models, offering custom conversions for figures that either weren’t being released (IE, the Tyranid Harpy, Primes, etc), or had their release pushed back (I.E. the doom scythe, tervigon, etc). He sold most of these through Ebay and attained top rater seller status, which he still holds today.

“Sure, I had a lot of sales, but the ebay fees will kill you. I needed to launch an official website that I could show clients, so I stopped being perceived as an ebay business and started presenting myself as a fully fledged miniature studio.”

Then GW cracked down on vendors like WMG, Chapterhouse, and others for piggybacking off GW’s business and borrowing their IP. WMG got the equivalent of a cease and desist letter. But they didn’t give up.

“I had to change my entire business model, and go back to square one. I couldn’t keep selling custom made Dooms or the like. But legally GW can’t stop you from painting and assembling models as a business. They do frown up you converting figures, so I had to change the language I used as well.”

If you bought a Doom of Malantai conversion the first few years to codex was out there, you likely bought one of his. How many did he build? “I lost track, well over 200.”

These days, however, you won’t find the words ‘conversion’ on his site. He calls it ‘transfiguration’.

“Even though converting is sort of the official term used by the community, converting is kinda a misnomer. Conversion has to do with changing the nature of something, like changing ice to water or water to steam. Transfiguration is all about glorify or exalting a piece, making it stand out. We aren’t melted the minis down, we’re putting them up on a pedestal and saying ‘look at me!’ At its root, I want to change the way we think about the business, and that starts with the culture I promote in my studio.”

There are plenty of vendors out there that offer resin bits and replacement parts for you miniatures, but there are few that offer custom hand built models made to order at a price that is affordable for the average wargamer.

Check out this wicked wraithknight they just built for a client. I’m not sure it would be able to drop that bloodthirster in a one on one, but the pose is very evocactive!

“I call that one the Iyanden Smile.”

Caleb has been selling his models through Ebay for years, but finally made the transition to a fully armed and operational battle station . . . er, website about six months ago. Even though his gallery (which has more than 9000 pictures!) is a little sparse on painted models, he is quick to point out that his passion is more for building than painting.

“Even though I like to paint, I LOVE to build. I can’t wait to grab a kit so I can cut it apart and see what I can come up with. GW gives you a lot of bits on every sprue, which is great for a guy like me. It’s like Christmas with every kit.”

Not too long ago I put up this pic on Spikey . . . 

and less than two weeks later, Caleb posted this . . .

Pretty sweet, even if those legs do need a little gussying up. Nothing a few icons of Khorne or the like won’t solve.

Be sure to check out the discount page too. WMG offers discounts for referrals, repeat clients, larger orders. For most of his larger order he goes through Spikey Bits, so if you buy an army off of him you’ll get the kits for 20% off!

“You should never pay full price when you buy an army though White Metal Games. You get your models at a discount (through Spikey Bits), there are lots of discounts you can apply from referrals to volume to just being a repeat customer. I did a comprehensive breakdown of over 50 miniature painting services out there, including the big guns like Blue Table and Next Level and the like. Each studio has its perks, but nobody offers as many discounts at we do and nobody state side is as competitive in their pricing as we are.”

With the recent closing of Worthy Painting, it clear that running your own hobby business is a bit more complicated than sitting up a painting station in your garage.

“I have expenses like every other business, tools, supplies. I also have to make samples of anything I want to sell to show what we’re capable of. So I may paint an army that doesn’t have a home yet. That’s why we built such a comprehensive gallery . . . so folks can see exactly what we’ve done in the past and so they can buy with confidence. Our methods have only gotten better over the years.” 

Most of Caleb’s most recent stuff can be seen on his Flickrpage or through his youtube channel. He’s also got a facebook page, an active twitterfeed, and they’re about to launch a new podcast called War Council with it’s ownfacebook page. “Social Media is the name of the game. I spent twice as much time posting images and videos as I do actually producing new stuff. But if nobody knows about it, it does me no good.”

As far as plans for the future go . .

“We’re still developing a method that is unique to our studio. We’re not at the level I want us to be . . . yet. We want our minis to have our personal stamp on them, and so we’re still refining out method and technique, even though our philosophy towards painting is that artistic style trumps technique. But its crucial in these early years to keep building our portfolio. And to do that we need clients, so to draw clients we offer the lowest rates out there for painting.”

Caleb always signs off his videos the same way. “Put your minis where your mouth is . . . It’s just our way of saying we stand behind our product.”

Be sure to check them out here. Tell them MBG sent you and you get a special $3.00 credit towards your first commission of $100 or more!