JOHN STALLERT & NANCY WOOD'S Covering all periods and scales from Ancient to Futuristic Fantasy

FAQS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

In the past 5 years we have received a considerable amount of e-mails dealing with questions regarding our figurine products. Below are the most commonly asked questions we have received and we suggest you browse through them in hope of finding the answer to the questions you may have before writing us!

Q. - How is payment made?

A. - Effective July 1st, 2003, since we no longer supply the miniatures for painting, we have decided that the customer send us 50% of the figure painting price up front along with their figures. The remaining 50% will be due upon notification by us that their order is ready to ship. Figures will go out on receipt of said balance of payment.

Q. - To whom do I make payment payable to, and in what form must payment be made?

A. - Personal cheques, money orders, or bank drafts should be made payable to: "Nancy L. Wood". Any payment not made out to Nancy L. Wood will be returned to you for a replacement. Sorry but we do not accept credit card payments! Also, for our American customers: we cannot cash Postal Money Orders negotiable only in the US and its Territories!

Q. - I do not have any miniatures and do not know where to go to buy some for painting by you?

A. - If you are unfamiliar with the Manufacturers, different types and quality of miniatures or where you can buy them, we suggest that you visit: THE MINIATURES PAGE.COM. There you will find every possible make, type and scale of miniature and where to buy them either online or by mail from a distributor near you.

Over the past years we have also dealt with a number of very reputable and excellent suppliers of military miniatures ourselves and we have listed these on our LINKS pages. We invite you to try them out yourself as they are all proven and reliable not to mention friendly and helpful to deal with.

Q. - Approximately how long will it take before I receive my finished order?

A. - Under ideal conditions, Canadian and US orders take anywhere from 16 to 20 weeks to complete and International orders take around 20 to 24 weeks. That said, however, many things can occur to delay your orders. The first and most tenuous obstacle is sheer volume. We have but 1 full-time painter on staff at present (John's oldest daughter Natalie works part-time) who are doing all that is humanly possible to keep up with the flood of orders we are currently dealing with. We cannot control the eventuality of illness on our staff such as John not being able to paint at all for nearly 20 weeks back in 2001, or acts of God such as the terrible heat waves we sustained during the summer of 2002 which caused us to lose another 9 weeks of precious painting time. Just bear in mind when ordering that delays can occur, and, to those of you to whom we still owe miniatures, PLEASE bear with us and indulge us with your patience and understanding which we most gratefully appreciate! We have not forgotten you and we are working on your figures as rapidly as humanly possible under the circumstances at hand and we will not sacrifice quality or detail for the sake of a hurried and slovenly paint job! We have an excellent reputation to maintain and we strive our utmost best to keep everyone of our customers both happy and satisfied with our workmanship.

Q. - Are there any minimum or maximum quantities for an order to be filled?

A. - In previous years we tried to take on as much work as we could from our customers during the months from January to August. However, due to the overwhelming response and large quantity of orders and customers we now find ourselves obliged to limit the size of an order to a maximum of: 75 x 25mm, 150 x 15 or 20mm, 200 x 10mm, or 300 x 6mm figures. We have decided to allow customers to send more than one order to us while another is still being worked on. We hope that customers will not abuse this by sending more than 2 or 3 orders to us at a time as this would be unfair to other customers. Also, if you are indeed planning to send us more than one order, please try and space your orders out a bit, say a minimum of 30 to 60 days apart before re-ordering.

Q. - How will I know the status of my order?

A. - Though we would love to be able to contact each and everyone of you on a regular basis to advise you of the status of your order, this is simply not possible. We have too many customers and too much e-mail to respond to already dealing with customer inquiries. Writing and responding to your e-mails takes away precious painting time we could be devoting to your orders. What we will do, is if we anticipate any serious delays in your orders, then we will contact you to let you know... otherwise, the only time we will contact you will be to advise you of the initial receipt of your order, and of any shipments we make out to you as well as veryfying your current mailing address before mailing out your finished figures. Please, do not bombard us with endless e-mails of inquiry either. If you have questions, please write them down and forward them to us all at once in a single e-mail. We are always glad to help our customers in any way we can, but it is extremely time consuming to respond to all this mail so please keep your questions to a minimum. Most of your questions can be answered if you look on the entire site in most cases anyway.

Q. - Could you put a rush on my order, or perhaps move it up ahead of someone else's?

A. - Absolutely not, do not even ask!!! We treat all our customers' orders equally and do not show favouritism to anyone! Your order will be worked on in sequence in the order it is received by us. If you require your order by a specific date, then the onus is upon you to get it in to us at least 30 weeks before said date or earlier! (Preferably earlier as suppliers can be fickle and volume of work and other factors mentioned above can affect shipping times).

Q. - Can I obtain a painted sample of your work before ordering?

A. - Yes, you can send us a sample figure in the scale you desire and we will gladly paint this figure up for you to the degree of detail you want based on our prices for the same scale and type of figure. Please add $3.50Cdn / $2.75US to cover the cost of handling & return postage of your miniature

Q. - Can you base my figures for me?

A. - Yes, we can base your figures to your specification, the cost for this service is an additional 5% per figure plus the cost of the actual bases which we can discuss via e-mail prior to placing your order. We use a variety of bases manufactured by either, The Outpost, Renaissance Ink or Bill's Bases in an assortment of standard gaming sizes and a variety of materials and thicknesses with optional magnetic undersides in some cases.

Q. - What type of paints do you use?

A. - We use only the highest quality acrylic colours along with some enamel laquer based paints for such things as priming and glossy leather or metallic colours. We also use inks in the shading and highlighting of our larger 25mm + Museum Quality miniatures.

Q. - Do you offer quantity discount prices or give discounts to dealers?

A. - No, we do not operate a discount store... Our business is a small home based operation and it would be foolish to offer discount prices for our painted miniatures, as it would: 1.) Reduce their value, 2.) Each and every one of our hand-painted miniatures are an individual work of art, and no two figures are exactly alike, though their uniforms may be the same.

That said however, from time to time we may run a special or offer a reasonable discount to customers to whom we have had lengthy but unavoidable delays on their orders. We also offer a system by which you can now earn points to actually get your miniatures painted by us for free...

Here is how it works: When you place an order with us, we will give you a customer reference number say: "2003-025". You can then give this number to any friends you refer to us. When they place an order with us and give us this number, you receive points for the amount they order from us as outlined below, each point value translates to $1.00US (this also applies to Canadian and International customer orders):

When you have accumulated sufficient points, you can either redeem them for part or all of your order, it's that simple!

Q. - What periods or types of figures do you paint?

A. - We can paint up any miniatures in any scale covering any historical time period or campaign even Fantasy and Sci-Fi miniatures. Contact us by e-mail with details of your tentative order prior to sending us your figures for painting prices or with any qurestions you may have concerning our services.

Q. - How do you ship your miniatures?

A. - All our miniatures are shipped by either P.O.D. (Proof of Delivery) Xpresspost within Canada, or Air Mail Small Parcel up to 1 Kg in weight depending on where you are ordering from. Parcels exceeding 2 Kg will be shipped via Expedited Post which means they may go partly by air and partly by surface post and may take up to 6 to 8 weeks to arrive. All figures are individually wrapped and labelled in zip-lock bags and packed in heavy cartons with styrofoam peanuts and/or bubble pack so as to protect them from any damage during shipment as well as an extra layer of good quality brown wrapping paper on the outside of each box.

Q. - How many figures do you put per base, per company or squadron, etc?

A. - The number of figures on a base, and the arrangement of said figures depends on the rules and scale you are using for your wargaming or collecting purposes. It varies from 1:20, 1:30, 1:50, 1:60, 1:100 or 1:120. The most popular being the DBA & DBM rules for Ancients. Though some wargamers who prefer large scale units with smaller sized actions commonly employ the 1:20 or 1:30 scale. We can base your figures to any of your specifications just drop us a line and we can give you a better idea.

Q. - When does work begin on my order?

A. - We process all orders from the day your cheque, money order, or bank draft clears our bank and the money is deposited into our account (usually 4 to 5 business days) for Cheques while other payments are usually the next day. When your figures arrive, they are cleaned of flash at no extra charge and mounted on painting sticks then prepped with an undercoating of white metal primer. They are then set aside and labelled in plastic trays and your order takes a number in our painting queue but most times except during extremely busy periods, painting begins on the day the figures arrive but usually from 4 to 6 weeks from the date of having received your order.

Q. - What assurance do I have of satisfaction with my order, and what happens if my figures arrive damaged?

A. - If you are not certain about the quality of our workmanship, we invite you to send us a figure for a painted sample miniature of the scale and figure type you desire to help you decide. We ask that you insure all your shipments (both to us and from us), and though we take the greatest care in packaging our products, should there be any breakage that occurs during shipment, you then have a recourse to claim reimbursement for damaged goods for their insured value from the Postal Service. However, if you fail to insure your figures and register your parcels to and from us, then, we accept no liability for lost, stolen or damaged goods.

Q. - Can I have my finished miniatures protected by some form of varnish coating?

A. - Yes we do offer a special Krylon dull-coat lacquer spray coating for those who desire it at and extra 5 cents per figure.