masterminis.net - where we learn to be a better painter!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Welcome to the Painting Revolution!

"Welcome to masterminis.net & paintingbuddha.com -
where we learn to be a better painter!"


THANK YOU for stopping by! Chances are that you scanned our QR code on one of our business cards to find this post. 

This post is primarily intended for miniature related companies, services and independent local retailers to get to know us and our philosophy. We would love to work with you to further grow the beautiful hobby of miniature painting and gaming!

So without further ado, please allow me to introduce our company 学・Manabu and it's current brands masterminis.net and paintingbuddha.com to you. In this post you will find: 

  • The Painting Buddha Universe
    • Who We Are
    • What We Do
    • Y we do it
  • The Bruddhahood Network
  • SHARE & ENJOY
  • Contact
You can download a PDF of our company brochure here, make sure to use File->Download to view it in good resolution!


The Paintingbuddha Universe at 学・Manabu

Who We Are


Left to right: Ben Komets (Art Director Soul),
Mati Zander (Art Director Body),

Michael Bartels (Galactic President)
Imagine a company that creates high quality products for miniature painters and gamers at incredibly low prices, helps out its competitors and gives most of its profits back to its customers and to charity... 

Not in this Universe, right?

Welcome to the our company '学・Manabu' and our Painting Buddha Universe - where 42 is our answer to everything!

Let me introduce you to the building blocks of our Universe:


Ben Komets, aka "White Rabbit"
"I am an artist!" :) 

If you follow the professional miniature painting scene, you probably heard of Ben Komets - winner of no less than three Slayer Swords and countless international awards. 

With a keen sense for color and composition and a talent for storytelling, Ben has created some of the most memorable pieces of miniature art over the last 10 years. 

When it comes to miniature painting, Ben will freely share all of his secrets with you. Such a nice guy! As our “Art Director Soul”, Ben is in charge of ‘everything graphic design’. 

Mati Zander, aka "Badsmile"
"I don't give a frakk!" :/

Without sculptors there would be no miniature painters. 

Our “Art Director Body”, Mati, has worked as a professional sculptor for many years. 

Equipped with endless patience and incredibly steady hands, Mati’s specialties are sharp details, beautifully sculpted miniatures and incredibly imaginative scratch-builds. 

As a man of peace, he hardly ever tries to set me on fire. Two to three times a day, max! 


Michael Bartels, aka "Zaphod Beeblebrox"
"I am not an artist!" :'( 

After 15 years of working in international management, I asked myself what he would do with his life, if money was no object. 


Spending two years in Japan helped me re-discover The Answer to the Ultimate Question about Life, the Universe and Everything. And of course it was 42. 

Equipped with a copy of Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and my trusty towel, I started a company for miniature painters, gamers and nerds alike, like only the Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox himself ever would.


What We Do


We call Paintingbuddha.com the place “where we learn to be a better painter” – an ever growing source of inspiration and instruction on how to become an awesome miniature painter! 


High Quality, Lower Prices

Insane value, starting at only 42€!
With Season 1.1 – “Target Identified” we set our own standard for future projects. 

Season 1.1 comes as a fully loaded six-DVD set, featuring two of the world’s top painters – all in a fold-out collector’s Edition DVD Box. And we even include two beautifully sculpted, detailed 54mm miniatures for you, so you can follow the DVD along step-by-step. All for 42€. We believe that you will agree that such value-for-money is unheard of. And with loads of extra goodies, a show-base, a supporter T-Shirt and a beautiful presentation box, the supporter’s box comes at only 84€. 

And, unlike other companies, we plan to lower our prices, the more successful we get. How about that?!


We Don’t Do Cheap


Side-view of our Season 1: Target Identified Collector
DVD Box in front of the painted dioramas by
Ben Komets (left) and Rafael "Volomir" García Marín.
Everything we make is produced by small and medium businesses. And with the exception of the DVD replication, everything is hand-made. We prefer more expensive Fairtrade® as well as environmentally friendly products over their cheaper alternatives wherever we can. Sure, quality has its price, but we know that only the best is good enough for you. 


By Nerds for Nerds


We make products that we ourselves could not resist buying. Only true nerds like us would add all the little things and nerdy details to our products. And only true nerds will appreciate this! Good for you!


Future Projects

We plan to release four Seasons of DVD sets each year. But in the grand scheme of things, the DVD sets are just a small part of what we have in store for you. Our next milestone will be your own Paintingbuddha community website. Follow us on paintingbuddha.com and masterminis.net to learn more about our next exciting projects! 


Y We Do It


Y we do it? Y not! Our approach to
doing business is definitely not 'normal'
We don’t really care about profits, but like any other company, we need to pay our bills. But that’s already it – we don’t need and we don’t want anything else. We just want to offer you awesome miniature related products and services that we believe in and – most importantly – have fun in the process. 

And that’s why we won’t use profits to get rich. We love miniatures. We want to grow the hobby and introduce new members to the awesome global community of miniature games and painters.

Let us show you what we have in mind for any profits we make:


42% Re-invest

We have a LOT of crazy ideas for the future – and of course most of them require some sort of funding. DVD instruction sets are not the only thing we have in mind, the next projects are already lined up. Our goal for all our projects will always be: Creative, community driven, all at top quality and all at very affordable price. Expect the unexpected by supporting us! 

42% Community

We have committed ourselves to working for you. Thus we have decided to return 42% of our profits to you, the community. This will not only be limited to the many giveaways we will continue to run on our site (who doesn’t love winning free stuff!), but we will support sculptors and painters alike by commissioning them, sponsor painting events and competitions, tabletop gaming clubs and community events. We also plan to run our own community events in the future. By supporting us, you support yourself and your community!

16% Charity

We may not care about profits, but we care about those in need. As a result, 16% of our profits will be donated to charity. 50% of that will go to “1Love” – a charitable organization by the Marley Family. Bob Marley had a dream for a better world, a united, caring and hopeful global community - we share that same dream. The remaining 50% will be donated to other causes and projects – and we will ask YOU to choose the right projects with us. Help us support others. Get involved. Make a difference!


The Bruddhahood Network


Bruddhas Unite!

We call all supporters of our Painting Revolution 'Bruddhas', a gender-less term of endearment, if you want. 

The main goal of everything we do is to further grow our beautiful hobby of miniature painting and gaming. 

Join the Painting Revolution!
The Bruddhahood Network
And what would be better than working together with independent local retailers and miniature related companies all over the world to reach this goal? 

In 2014 we will start the launch of our "Bruddhahood Network" - a network for hobbyists, independent stores, miniature related companies and everyone who loves miniatures in general. We have the ideas, the skills and the funds to make this happen and we are already in the process of implementing the first building blocks!

Having said that, we are sure that YOU have some great ideas on how we could help your business and grow the community, too. Talk to us. It's FREE. 

We set up this email-address for inquiries about the Bruddhahood Network for business owners and miniature related companies who would like to know more. 

Get an early start, join the Painting Revolution and become our Bruddha!


SHARE & ENJOY


Our business philosophy is based on the motto "Share & Enjoy". 

We thought long and hard how we could create a win-win-win-win-win situation for everyone involved in the miniature hobby. And I believe that we have succeeded in finding very cool answers for most questions. 

A company that works for 'the greater good' of the miniature painting and gaming community, supports local retailers and companies worldwide and returns most  of its profits back in the community sounds to good to be true? You need some hard facts to convince you that we are totally committed to doing this? 

OK, let me end this short introduction of our company philosophy by telling you, what I personally get out of all of this. 

As 'president' of Manabu, my yearly salary is 0€. What I get out of it all is fun and the chance to live my dream. 

What else does one want from Life, the Universe and Everything? 

42!

SHARE & ENJOY


Contact Information



8 comments:

  1. ssssssshhhhhhHHHHHHHHWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm......

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's a good read, those articles, but a bit depressing. Especially as it will not make me give up on collecting more of their miniatures.
    It would be just so much better if I have more hope, in 20 years those miniatures will still be relevant to some hobby with people still enjoying it. Not some niche hobby that died out because of someone's greed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Note to self: posting from the main page instead of in individual articles can result in embarrasment

      Delete
    2. :D Yeah, I was surprised that a post with no content gets 4 replies :D

      Delete
  4. OK, the post has now been updated. The reason why we had this blank post up for a few days is that we needed a dummy for a QR code that we put on our new business cards :)

    If you have a favorite hobby store or a favorite miniature company, why not forward them this link? Thanks, Bruddhas!

    SHARE & ENJOY!

    ReplyDelete
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