Anime Figurines

[Gorbash Kazdar]

In order to add to my geek cred and to absolutely ensure that I spend all my money as quickly as possible, I've added collecting anime figurines to my list of nerd-approved pursuits. My first acquisition (http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/6835/fingerposeym2.jpg) should be arriving soon.

This leads to a pair of questions that I figured someone on this forum could probably help me with:

1) Where to get figurines from? I personally prefer to order online, but many sites are in Japanese, and I sadly lack the necessary skill with the language to make ordering from them a smooth process. Can anyone recommend some good sites to order from? Is eBay a good place to shop?

2) I wish to acquire a certain figurine (http://www.e2046.com/product_info.php?products_id=6376) that normally comes unpainted and unassembled, and I lack the skill to give the figurine the paint job it deserves, and lack the time to develop my skills. I can order it pre-painted, but the price differential between painted and unpainted is about 3:1. Can anyone recommend a good professional painter I could commission to do the work, so I can see whether it would be cost-effective to buy the unpainted version and have it worked on professionally? I would need some examples of the painter's work before I would commission him or her, and I'd definitely need a quote on the price.

[Closet_Skeleton]

2) I wish to acquire a certain figurine (http://www.e2046.com/product_info.php?products_id=6376) that normally comes unpainted and unassembled, and I lack the skill to give the figurine the paint job it deserves, and lack the time to develop my skills. I can order it pre-painted, but the price differential between painted and unpainted is about 3:1. Can anyone recommend a good professional painter I could commission to do the work, so I can see whether it would be cost-effective to buy the unpainted version and have it worked on professionally? I would need some examples of the painter's work before I would commission him or her, and I'd definitely need a quote on the price.

I would personally say paint it yourself but I paint and convert models for player's individual d20 characters. I wouldn't think it would be that hard to make it look okay since there are usually a few easy to grasp techniques. I've never actually tried to paint a figurine like that though. My godfather was selling handpainted Simpson's figurines last time I talked to him but he lives in Wales so I doubt he'd be useful.

[Ryujin]

1) Where to get figurines from? I personally prefer to order online, but many sites are in Japanese, and I sadly lack the necessary skill with the language to make ordering from them a smooth process. Can anyone recommend some good sites to order from? Is eBay a good place to shop?

The people I know usually order from http://www.hlj.com/ as they have good customer service, don't charge until it's ready for shipment, etc. Things can get slow, though, when you're ordering, say, a replacement runner for a model kit.

A word of caution regarding e2046: their customer service, among other things, has really gone downhill in the past few months.