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Hello there, my name’s Tom. A little bit of information about myself, I paint warhammer and if you’re reading this you probably know that and are wanting to hire my services. Well let me tell you how I work. I buy the model, paint it and post it to you then you receive a brand new, excellently painted model for cheaper that most other painters would be willing to charge.
I have a set price of £10 per model, or unit rounding down to the smallest number the unit can hold, (Postage is included in that price) on top of the price of the model itself.
Ie: If you want a professionally painted unit of tyranid warriors I will charge you £38.50,
That’s £28.50 for the models themselves
£10 for painting and postage
I you wanted a single character as a centerpiece I’d divide the price of the unit by the number of models within it rounding up to the nearest ten.
Ie: a unit of warrior’s would consist of three models and would cost you £38.50
A single warrior would cost you £12.90 (38.5/3 = 12.83.3333 rounded UP to the nearest ten that’s 12.9 thus £12.90).
So if you want a model, send me an email with the details of what you want and the colors in which you would like them to be painted (my email is TyranidPainter@gmail.com), I collect the model’s, paint them, send you a pic of how they look and if you’re happy with them then I send you my paypal info and when I receive payment I’ll post the model/s asap.
I paint all races apart from chaos and daemons but I can only claim to be able to paint tyranids to a high standard.
I accept payment via paypal only.

Example of my work:

as a word of advice, If you're going to advertise your services/portfolio, get a light-box set up, even if it's just construction paper stapled together, and get pictures of more than two models.

Next up, bases. That will make or break how seriously you are taken. If my eyes aren't lying to me, then I can see you have awesome freehand work, but the pictures don't do it much justice. head on over to the tutorials section on how to take pictures, and welcome to dakkadakka

 poda_t wrote:
as a word of advice, If you're going to advertise your services/portfolio, get a light-box set up, even if it's just construction paper stapled together, and get pictures of more than two models.

Next up, bases. That will make or break how seriously you are taken. If my eyes aren't lying to me, then I can see you have awesome freehand work, but the pictures don't do it much justice. head on over to the tutorials section on how to take pictures, and welcome to dakkadakka

Thank you. I very much appreciate your advice and I will take action on it. However I am just starting up this little business of mine and I am hoping that my cheap pricing is going to attract just as many customers as my quality does. I find it ridiculous how people can charge stupid amounts just for models painted to a professional standard. I hope to be the first in a long line of painters offering this quality to those who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it x x

Good luck to you mate and well done for the sensible pricing. Personally I won't be requiring your services as I'm a chaos player. Lol. Nah seriously tho good luck

TyranidPainter wrote:
Thank you. I very much appreciate your advice and I will take action on it. However I am just starting up this little business of mine and I am hoping that my cheap pricing is going to attract just as many customers as my quality does. I find it ridiculous how people can charge stupid amounts just for models painted to a professional standard. I hope to be the first in a long line of painters offering this quality to those who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it x x

There are lots of other people out there that offer what you do, a lot of them post here on Dakka.
I don't know if Silver is your real name, but me personally, if I conduct business with someone, I prefer to know their real name; not some online handle. Also, I know this will sound harsh, but those are not "professional standard" and it is best to avoid labeling yourself as that. Think back to the last episode of season 3 on Game of Thrones, when Tywin Lannister says, "Any man who must say, "I am the king" is no true king." Kind of the same thing.
Also, your payment method is sketchy as hell; look around some other commission painters websites to see how they do it.

ScootyPuffJunior
535574 5771115
6c09c6aed7756370a1364aef1163e8e3.png wrote:

TyranidPainter 535574
5771052 null wrote:Thank you. I very much appreciate your advice and I will
take action on it. However I am just starting up this little business of
mine and I am hoping that my cheap pricing is going to attract just as
many customers as my quality does. I find it ridiculous how people can
charge stupid amounts just for models painted to a professional
standard. I hope to be the first in a long line of painters offering
this quality to those who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it x
x

There are lots of other people out there that offer what you do, a lot
of them post here on Dakka.
I don't know if Silver is your real name, but me personally, if I
conduct business with someone, I prefer to know their real name; not
some online handle. Also, I know this will sound harsh, but those are
not "professional standard" and it is best to avoid labeling yourself as
that. Think back to the last episode of season 3 on Game of Thrones,
when Tywin Lannister says, "Any man who must say, "I am the king" is no
true king." Kind of the same thing.
Also, your payment method is sketchy as hell; look around some other
commission painters websites to see how they do it.

Maybe it's a bad camera but these models (the tyranid warriors at least) are painted to a better standard to the models in their codex and are certainly better painted than what other people would call professional standard. Oh and no, my name isn't Silver. It's Tom x x

A few bits of advice

Setup a website and do a blog on painting - do guides etc
Establish a Social Media presence Facebook,twitter, Google Plus and Pinterest
Invest in a lightbox so you can show good images
Don't refer to the paint job as cheap - Cheap is a negative word use positive words life affordable

Actually work out your costs -
Once you work out cost of paint
Cost of postage
Cost of brushes
Cost of time

I don't think that there will be much profit left from £10

Also you need a portfolio to show clients and as I want to offer advice and not sugar coat it I would not buy any of the models you have shown above as the quality is not good enough when I can pay a small bit more and get much better . Eg http://www.golempaintingstudio.co.uk/pricing.htm#

Hope the advice helps
Zoxy

Dude, no. Just no.

These are not good examples to get running with commissions.

In my honest opinion you need to practice a lot, lot more.

In particular; painting 'in the lines' - the bolter on the terminator is particularly jarring. The union flag is very shoddy too - practice straight even lines.

Consistency looks thick; this can help with opacity (I often use thick coats) but it's uneven. Base rims need sanding or filing down and are great places to practice solid smooth coats.

Not quite sure what you think you're doing with the feathering on the 'nid carapaces. Done properly it should look like this:




That is 4 layers; Hormagaunt purple, 50-50 with SW grey, and pure SW grey. Shade by feathering in thin black. Thin paint, fine brush, fast strokes. The tail took about 15 minutes to highlight. You appear to be trying to use 'out of the pot' colours. Thin it, layer it on. You should leave very little paint with a stroke; you want it to be translucent and dry almost instantly. Don't try and hit a highlight in one stroke.

Now, pricing. You're being extremely unrealistic, even for a poor schoolkid. Just cleanup, assembly and priming a unit of 3 'nid warriors is likely to take in the regions of an hour and a half. Bit more if you do the basing first (I do). Postage in the UK is now mental - properly packed you're looking medium parcel (about £6.50 by the time you have a box and some packing material in the equation).

Painting to a basic tabletop level should be around 4-5 hours for the unit, if you're fast (and doing what the market dictates as a basic job).

Crunch the numbers and see if it's worth your while.

At present, I would say your standard is not good enough. A very good acid test is to ebay models. If they go for more than retail, your work has added value to them (and you stand a chance of being paid for said work). If they go for less, then your work is REMOVING value, and you're not likely to get customers, and those that do give you a try may not be happy.

I don't mean to sound harsh here, but calling these minis "professionally painted" is pretty far from the truth. The barrels aren't drilled out, I can see mold lines, the bases are completely blank, and the it looks like the paint has been applied too thick. I appreciate the effort to start a money making venture, but if these are the results of your work, your customers are going to want their money back, just sayin.....

I agree, these are not professionally painted, maybe wait a but to improve, pick up a few more techniques and practice neatness then start commission painting if you're still interested. Sorry if you've not quite got the response you had wanted...

TyranidPainter wrote:
A single warrior would cost you £12.90 (38.5/3 = 12.83.3333 rounded UP to the nearest ten that’s 12.9 thus £12.90).

You may want to revise your pricing here. If the kit it costing you 9.50 per warrior just to buy and selling at 12.90, UK second class postage you are looking at 2.60ish before boxing, wrapping etc. Which means you make 80p on the warrior to cover your time, paints, glue, boxing and packing materials. This would end up with you working at a loss

TyranidPainter wrote:
Maybe it's a bad camera but these models (the tyranid warriors at least) are painted to a better standard to the models in their codex and are certainly better painted than what other people would call professional standard. Oh and no, my name isn't Silver. It's Tom x x

I'm sorry, we really don't mean to sound harsh, but that's really not true. What you've painted isn't bad, but it's not near what most other people would call professional (not unless you mean those horrible ebay ads that say "ZOMG AWESOME PROFESSIONAL PAINTED!! " but actually sell for a fraction of what UNPAINTED models get).

As for being a higher standard than the GW models, your models aren't bad, but you have a long way to go before they're as good as this...




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Also I recommend you check out some of the competition for commission painting. Like this...

http://ifalna.webs.com/prices.htm

Gives you an idea of the sort of quality and pricing people are asking.

I appriciate all your advice, even if some of it did borderline insulting. I expected the odd one or two negative comment but to have so many in such a short space of time....way to shoot me down guys! I guess I was blinded by pride (though looking at a couple of images people have posted on here I'm not the only one). However whilst some of you are saying I'm over selling my quality others are saying I'm chargeing to little and since my work is epic, some of you have even said as much, if I were to keep the prices the same (I appriciate all your advice but I know what I'd doing) but take away the word professional, then would you agree that I'm being more than reasonable? Oh and to the previous commentor, whilst the model in that picture has superiour highlighting and feathering to mine the detail is no where near as good. GW paintes can't even add pupils to the nids eyes unless it's on the gun where there's a much bigger surface area x x


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 sub-zero wrote:
I don't mean to sound harsh here, but calling these minis "professionally painted" is pretty far from the truth. The barrels aren't drilled out, I can see mold lines, the bases are completely blank, and the it looks like the paint has been applied too thick. I appreciate the effort to start a money making venture, but if these are the results of your work, your customers are going to want their money back, just sayin.....

Rite well A: barrels arn't supposed to be drilled out and B: I'm very impressed you can see mold lines on these pic's 'cos I can't even see them on the models. So either you've got super human eyesite or I'm blind and if I'm blind that makes these models even more spectacular *rolls eyes*.

I think it's more of a choice that they don't add pupils. To y'know, make them seem less human. I'd say your work is tabletop standard. Maybe advertise it as such?

You might want to get up to Warhammer World and have a look at the pieces in the flesh. I honestly don't think you're up to par.

I spy with my super-human eye a mould line...

And 'eavy metal are very capable of painting eyes like those...

I have watched this thread since you've posted it Nid painter..and Have thought about what i wanted to say. I am a small time local and ONLY local commission painter. My guys love my work, They never stop buying models, so I don't run out of business. I am very cheap and only recently had to starting charging a bit more due to materials going up in cost. I would like to see some more of your work before you call yourself a Professional.I know what kind of work i can do (my photo skills however blow) And know i can paint Damn Good..however I will not call myself Professional until i am able to do what I see the big dogs in this hobby do.

Your replies to the posters are a bit Snippy. Honestly, I'm going to put it short and sweet. If you cannot take the negative feed back, Don't post sub par work. OR..get thicker skin. No I am by no means getting nasty, but there is a reason I as a small business have not gone On the internet for work.. I don't feel I am good enough yet. (Although my large customer base says different) Honestly, You need to get some basics down. Wash, shading..BASING..basing is almost a must..UNLESS the customer does not want to pay for it. Again please I am not basing your skill, just giving you straight criticism from a fellow painter. Your nid is ok, Although i don't like the cartoon eyes on it. The Terminator however, i would never pay for that. Yes The free hand is a good job, however, everything else is not finished on it. A little helpful hint if i may,,take ALL criticism as a learning tool, and a little bit of humility goes a very long way. I wish you the best in your Painting career



Added: Holy Christ... Your prices..for what you can do..are..wow.. Dude, I only charge 4$ per 25mm base 5.50$ based. Everything is at a High quality table top. Your charging 13.12$ American dollars Per figure ..that's..wow My hq's are my best quality and a 25$ flat fee no matter what it is...again..just wow..

TyranidPainter wrote:
I appriciate all your advice, even if some of it did borderline insulting. I expected the odd one or two negative comment but to have so many in such a short space of time....way to shoot me down guys! I guess I was blinded by pride (though looking at a couple of images people have posted on here I'm not the only one). However whilst some of you are saying I'm over selling my quality others are saying I'm chargeing to little and since my work is epic, some of you have even said as much, if I were to keep the prices the same (I appriciate all your advice but I know what I'd doing) but take away the word professional, then would you agree that I'm being more than reasonable? Oh and to the previous commentor, whilst the model in that picture has superiour highlighting and feathering to mine the detail is no where near as good. GW paintes can't even add pupils to the nids eyes unless it's on the gun where there's a much bigger surface area x x


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 sub-zero wrote:
I don't mean to sound harsh here, but calling these minis "professionally painted" is pretty far from the truth. The barrels aren't drilled out, I can see mold lines, the bases are completely blank, and the it looks like the paint has been applied too thick. I appreciate the effort to start a money making venture, but if these are the results of your work, your customers are going to want their money back, just sayin.....

Rite well A: barrels arn't supposed to be drilled out and B: I'm very impressed you can see mold lines on these pic's 'cos I can't even see them on the models. So either you've got super human eyesite or I'm blind and if I'm blind that makes these models even more spectacular *rolls eyes*.

Winterdyne's Tyranids are wonderful... that carnifex is part of a Tyranid vs. Imperial Guard Titan that is nothing short amazing, go look in his CoolMiniOrNot gallery and see for yourself. Just because you can put a dot on a tyranid eye doesn't mean you can paint better than the "Eavy Metal team (and while they are talented, there are lots of other painters our there that a much better). Most people (myself included) don't give tyranids pupils because there is no indication in any official artwork that they have them; they're alien bug-monsters, why would they have pupils? The biomorphs have Eye of Sauron-like reptilian eyes just so they look unnerving, again going back to the alien bug-monster theme.

Also, if you want to be taken seriously as a businessman, going on a defensive rant full of bad grammar and misspelled words because people (including an actual professional commission painter) gave you honest advice is not the way to do it. If you want to be treated as a professional, try acting like a professional.

Lastly, bolter barrels should drilled out; every studio picture GW has of a gun has the barrel drilled out. Superhuman eyes are not needed to see the mold lines on those models. The tyranid in the first picture has a nasty one running the the left arm holding the biomorph and one on top of the tail. The space marine has one on the lightening claw running from the thumb all the way up the arm and another one on the storm bolter muzzle and the piece under it.

TyranidPainter wrote:
I appriciate all your advice, even if some of it did borderline insulting. I expected the odd one or two negative comment but to have so many in such a short space of time....way to shoot me down guys! I guess I was blinded by pride (though looking at a couple of images people have posted on here I'm not the only one). However whilst some of you are saying I'm over selling my quality others are saying I'm chargeing to little and since my work is epic, some of you have even said as much, if I were to keep the prices the same (I appriciate all your advice but I know what I'd doing) but take away the word professional, then would you agree that I'm being more than reasonable? Oh and to the previous commentor, whilst the model in that picture has superiour highlighting and feathering to mine the detail is no where near as good. GW paintes can't even add pupils to the nids eyes unless it's on the gun where there's a much bigger surface area x x


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 sub-zero wrote:
I don't mean to sound harsh here, but calling these minis "professionally painted" is pretty far from the truth. The barrels aren't drilled out, I can see mold lines, the bases are completely blank, and the it looks like the paint has been applied too thick. I appreciate the effort to start a money making venture, but if these are the results of your work, your customers are going to want their money back, just sayin.....

Rite well A: barrels arn't supposed to be drilled out and B: I'm very impressed you can see mold lines on these pic's 'cos I can't even see them on the models. So either you've got super human eyesite or I'm blind and if I'm blind that makes these models even more spectacular *rolls eyes*.

Do you ever watch ramsay's kitchen nightmares? What you are doing now is really similar to what the owners and chefs on that show do. You're in denial and you aren't listening to perfectly good advice that people are giving you. You're already lashing out and attacking people who are critical of your work.

This is a huge no-no. You don't have to take their advice, but you do have to accept it. You're making yourself a product with this endeavor and you need to do so with some grace and humility. This kind of reaction and anger towards your ostensible customers is a hallmark of all of the sketchiest internet businesses. This is not the image you want.

That is hardly professionally painted stuff OP. Look at the face of the SM, it isn't even shaded or layered or anything. Come to think of it, nothing looks like it is, it's all just flat. They aren't even based, technically my local GW wouldn't even let you field the models in their store for a pick-up game, LOL.

Those models are in the preliminary stages of development, they aren't anything near to what I'd even decide is my basic tabletop standard for my own miniatures. You have a mountain to climb in terms of skill, and any discerning customer will recognize this immediately.

You may think the criticism coming from myself and others in this thread to be harsh, but as potential customers whom you are pitching your business to, we have the right to say what we see.

ME personally would have started with something like this...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/441778.page

I started by getting others on here to look at my work.. I was (and still am) painting models for others ,call it commission work, by no stretch of the word Professionally Painted..

.Dude regarding molding lines... Oh i must have missed that one, would have been alitte better, not ... PROVE IT ...SHOW ME (which is the sort of feeling I got from your reply)

and yes Some people will not like your work, others will love it, get thick skined.. Thank them for there feedback even if you don't agree with them.(not directed at you Brother Chaplain Kage)

I hope you have learnt for this,
as a side note... my current project... painting Marneus Calgar, the hours i've spent so far works out to about $2 per hour... Can't live of that sort of wage...

Kind regards Daniel

Take another like at your models…
Frist pic
Looking straight at it.
Mold lines. On tail plus what looks like left over sprue attachment .
Left upper arm, right lower arm mold lines.
Barrel of gun, what looks like left over sprue attachment.
2nd pic, assuming it’s the same model.
3rd pic. Both left and right upper arms , mold lines around bottom finger/claw.
Left lower arm , mold lines down arm. (+ tail if this is same model)
5th pic both tail and gun, what looks like left over sprue attachment .
.
Nope you’re not bitching, sarcasm like pornography is subjective. And what one thinks another doesn't.. (( stop rolling eyes and look) this is sarcasm)

TyranidPainter wrote:
I appriciate all your advice, even if some of it did borderline insulting. I expected the odd one or two negative comment but to have so many in such a short space of time....way to shoot me down guys!

While criticism can be hard to take, commission painting is a tough gig to get into, and it's well worth taking the comments on board before trying to push yourself out there.

However whilst some of you are saying I'm over selling my quality others are saying I'm chargeing to little

The two aren't mutually exclusive ideas. Aside from the lack of basing and the undrilled storm bolter barrels, your models look an ok table-top standard... and people can see that in the pictures. Trying to build them up to be better than 'eavy Metal standard just isn't going to fly.

But regardless of the quality, charging too little for your work isn't actually a good thing. Anyone who has been around this hobby for any length of time has seen any number of businesses that were set up by people who thought they might just make some cash in their spare time and aimed to undercut everyone else in the market, only to find that working for that little return was just unsustainable... and if you charge too little, that can actually put customers off. Low prices udnercut the perception of quality.

Oh and to the previous commentor, whilst the model in that picture has superiour highlighting and feathering to mine the detail is no where near as good. GW paintes can't even add pupils to the nids eyes unless it's on the gun where there's a much bigger surface area x x

Don't confuse 'don't' with 'can't'... An alien creature not having pupils is hardly a sign of a low-quality paintjob.

A: barrels arn't supposed to be drilled out and B: I'm very impressed you can see mold lines on these pic's 'cos I can't even see them on the models. So either you've got super human eyesite or I'm blind and if I'm blind that makes these models even more spectacular *rolls eyes*.

There's certainly no 'rule' that says that barrels should be drilled... but it's a little detail that makes a huge difference to the finished piece, and on commercially painted minis most customers will expect it.

Ok well I'm not offended by people comments on my painting and I don't know where people would have got that from as I havn't bitched or moanf at all and I have certainly been accepting peoples critisizm. I am however offended by people surgesting that I'm bitching and moaning. WHERE! I don't appriciate people making me out to be a, for lack of a better word, whimp!

I am not a "professional" by any means, I don't do commission work, I just paint for the love of painting, but this is the level of painting I would expect from an up and coming commission painter: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/365132-Angel%205.html

Yes, that's from my own gallery, so I know a thing or two about painting.

Ok well I'm not offended by people comments on my painting and I don't know where people would have got that from as I havn't bitched or moanf at all and I have certainly been accepting peoples critisizm. I am however offended by people surgesting that I'm bitching and moaning. WHERE! I don't appriciate people making me out to be a, for lack of a better word, whimp!

A word of advice, 'Nid painter: Leave this thread to die. You obviously cannot handle critical feedback, and you're getting very snippy/rude. That isn't a good thing. This is the internet, and you need to build up a good reputation if you want to get commissions. Getting down-and-dirty and arguing with people won't do this. With every angry response you put on here, you lose a lot of credibility. What if potential customers come across this thread?

And to add to what everyone else is saying, you really need to do some hard and thorough research of the competition, you need to invest in a good photography setup, you need to improve your painting skills, and you need to make a very careful analysis of how much profit you can expect to make. Mini painting on commission isn't easy, and frankly isn't all that fun, so you need to be getting good reimbursement for your time.

If you have any questions, PM me.

~Tim?

You may want to include where you post to. As I understand it, if I were to buy an emperors champion painted from you, it would probably end up costing you more in postage fees to send it here than the £10 covers.

For the record, I like your paintwork. I don't know if it's professional or not but it's certainly much better than I am capable of at the moment.

After fully reading the entire thread, there's some really sound advice being said, and it's good to know you are taking it on board. You could make some money if you were to adapt some of the suggestions being put forward.

This is better than my paint jobs, but only just. Nowhere near the 'Eavy metal or professional painting level.

You are coming off rather arrogant and insecure though I am sure this is not your intention.

You paint well, but you should probably take on board some of the constructive crititique in this thread.

MerkQT wrote:
You may want to include where you post to. As I understand it, if I were to buy an emperors champion painted from you, it would probably end up costing you more in postage fees to send it here than the £10 covers.

For the record, I like your paintwork. I don't know if it's professional or not but it's certainly much better than I am capable of at the moment.

After fully reading the entire thread, there's some really sound advice being said, and it's good to know you are taking it on board. You could make some money if you were to adapt some of the suggestions being put forward.

Thank you. It's refreshing to hear some sound advice that isn't worded in a judgemental....errm....style. We need more people like you over here. Why did you ever leave our empire. We're lost without you :( x x


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 ImotekhTheStormlord wrote:
This is better than my paint jobs, but only just. Nowhere near the 'Eavy metal or professional painting level.

You are coming off rather arrogant and insecure though I am sure this is not your intention.

You paint well, but you should probably take on board some of the constructive crititique in this thread.

Thank you. I will take their messages on board but it just came as a shock that they were being so hostile when so many local people have complimented me so much. Though I take full blame for allowing it to escalate so much. There is one person in particular I hope I havn't offended. I'll pm him. Thanks again x x

TyranidPainter wrote:
Thank you. I will take their messages on board but it just came as a shock that they were being so hostile when so many local people have complimented me so much.

Welcome to the internet. You're not the first to be caught out by that.

Not the hostility... for the most part, poeple weren't being hostile at all, just offering criticism. But when someone's hobby exposure has mostly been a local community where their work is better than those around them, it can come as a rude shock to step out into the world and discover that they're suddenly just a very small fish in a very big pond. I went through a similar thing myself, many, many years ago, thinking my work was all that, and then moved to a larger city where all of a sudden I was just average...

The trick is just to take that as a push to improve, rather than be put off by it.