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Hello Fellow Dakka-ites!

I'm in talks with a gaming miniature producing company about doing the paint jobs for the catalog (similar to the 'eavy metal shots, I gather). It sounds fun as long as I can manage to not lose money (more time than pay) or, *gasp*, make a profit. It's far smaller than GW, so they're probably not going to be able to match their budget. I think the first project is just going to be a few rank and file types with medium detail but quite crisp faces, but they would be nicely done. Any idea what rates some people get for this kind of work?

thanks!

~Paul

Are they paying hourly, or per mini?

It seems they're leaving that up to me.

I suspect you'll find that's somewhat of a 'How long is a piece of string?' type question.

GW supposedly doesn't pay particularly well... Some companies don't pay at all, but just make it up in free lead.

I would think your best bet really is to ask for whatever you think your work is worth, and leave it at that. There's no real industry standard on miniature work, because so much of it is so subjective.

If you'd like to compare, I'd head on over to the Painting thread, and see what people pay on average for commission.

Try timing yourelf on similar qulaity and size of miniatures and make it so you should make about $10 an hour by miniature when your going at a good speed, that way if you work faster you make more than $10 an hour.

Hope that helps!

Twould be amazing to get paid for that sort of thing!

Congratulations for getting the opportunity!

If you consider your painting 'a work of art', then charge them for the work of art!

Too often are we artistic folk underpaid.

Id charge them a grand and hour. lol

Thanks for the input, guys! I'll see if they go for $1k/hr

I'd probably go on a "Per-Piece" basis - just seems more managable. No idea what I'd charge if I were a professional (Which I am not by any stretch of the imagination).

Takes me about 4-8 hours to do a half-way nice piece, but a good chunk of that is waiting for inks/washes/glue to dry. The first one probably takes longer while I think about what scheme I want and how to achieve the effect I want, subsequent stuff tends to go faster. It's fun, but I'd have to charge something stupid to make it worth my time - probably $50-$100 a model conservatively. Obviously this isn't a career for me.

You could probably get a great deal of free product, or have a product/pay mix. $20 a piece plus some freebies I would think to be reasonable, depending on what exactly it is you're doing.

I always felt a bit funny charging per hour (even with the illustration), especially when it comes to things that are creative. And some people work quicker or slower and at varying degrees of quality.

But I think it's helpful to use it as some sort of starting point for discussion. I agree, I feel better about the per-piece.

thanks!

Seconding the idea of piece-per-piece cost! That way, you're also not penalized for being efficient... if you can get the mini to a high standard in less time than someone else, you shouldn't be paid less for being efficient about it

You could give them an estimate of the amount of time it will take you, if you thought it would help... or just give them the number per figure straight up.

I've had a number of things painted for me, and prices / quality vary a LOT... some people charge less for better stuff, and vice versa!

Let us know how it works out

I think the thing to be careful with is the competition. You know, alot of the established European miniature painters are quite accessible for Joe Public, I know you can approach the likes of Angel Giraldez to get work done, and I can imagine it will cost a pretty penny as well....however, the point I'm making is this, could it be that those painters who do manage to get work with the bigger companies use that media exposure to generate private customer commissions!

So maybe they charge relatively little for the work, knowing they'll get more back in terms of advertising.

Don't forget they can write off paying you and they still have the minis which is an asset in their books. Put your price high per piece and then negotiate with them. If you go in with you hat in your hands and say I'll do it for free lead or you low-ball yourself at $6/mini say, you'll regret it and they'll take advantage of that. Push the fact that you rule at painting and that you want to make their minis look so uber that every nerd within kooey will want these figs whether they can paint or not. Maybe give them examples of your work i.e. This knock off will run you $15. This squad leader guy is $35. This piece of art is going to cost you $75.etc

The going rate I remember for catalog work in the late 90s when I did some pieces for Old Gory was $9/fig - cleaned, primed, shade base colour, highlight, base. You should break down the costs with all the labour involved i.e. $1 to clean a mini, $1.5 for priming (time/space/ventilation), etc. Wear and tear on brushes, paper towels (one paper towel per mini - factor it into the price). Of course, the most important thing is delivering the goods.

Good luck, bro.