Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Even if it's something you do for fun instead of money, I think you need to put a decent price on it do avoid it turning in to painful drag on your time. One of my mate's builds car engines on the weekends for fun, he doesn't NEED to do it for money, he enjoys it, he has a day job that pays well, but he still puts a reasonable price on his time when it comes to the engine building. Even though he might do work for free for friends (or cost of parts), he still has a price on his time that is reasonable.

Personally I enjoy my day job, quite happy doing it, but if my wage was cut down to below minimum wage it'd seriously affect my enjoyment.

If you do want to just paint for the fun of it, a better way might be just to paint for friends rather than online commission painting. That way you can be more relaxed on deadlines, you don't have people breathing down your neck, projects piling up and a cramping brush hand all the while you are getting paid less than the local burger flipper to do it.

I'll chip in some advice from someone who is kind of in the same boat.

Do I have a "business", per se? No. No fancy name. Everybody that hits me up for commissions just knows my name from the FLGS. I have a Facebook page (undergoing reconstruction though), and really that's it. It's not a full time job. I have a day job, and like Skink said above, I'm quite happy at it (I even get to paint at work on weekends). There is something to be said for making your time and effort worthwhile, don't get me wrong. Everybody above stating that you should charge more to keep you from getting burnt out are absolutely correct. However, I also understand the factor of trying to help the people.

I say this in the sense that, I myself could never afford an actual, professional-quality commission. It's just not feasible. And that's just the way life is right now. It happens, but you know what? I can paint my own guys whenever I want to a standard I'm semi-happy with, so there's no huge loss. When I started doing commissions a little while ago, my entire premise was that I don't claim to paint anything over (maybe) high tabletop standard. I've had people claim I do higher quality work than that, but while I appreciate the compliments and all, I can't in good conscience claim that to anyone or myself. So I charge cheap mid-high tabletop standard prices (the general consensus of customers was to charge more, so I did). Hell, the FLGS owner is one of my biggest customers.

But to the helping part....

I see these kids come into the store, who have barely picked up a brush, let alone painted a full squad, and they've saved up their money from whatever fast food chain they are working at, to get the shiny new model that comes out. Or the single father who spends all his money on his child to make sure they have what they need, and finally has enough change cashed in to get a new squad for the army he's been slowly building for years, but he can't find the time to paint (anyone with kids knows that it's damn near impossible when they're awake, and afterward, you're too tired to care). I see these people and, yes, while I have a family and a job, I spend a lot of my free time painting. My miniatures aren't going anywhere, and I saw an opportunity to help these fellow hobbyists and gamers while making a little money on the side. Do I make minimum wage? Nah. But when I finish a commission, it's a nice little bonus. As mentioned though, I also have a family life, so I have to accept commissions with the caveat that I honestly have no idea how long it will take to finish. I can guess, but there's so many variables...

For example: I'm working on an Imperial Knight Titan for the FLGS owner's son. It's needed by May 26 for a joust. It's getting mostly done now, but still has a bit to go. I built it, magnetized all the options, based it with some minor custom stuff, and fully painted it in a base-shade-layer-highlight-small details-decals system. That's a lot of time and effort. But I've also been working on it for over a month. And there's 5 commissions backed up behind that.

And I promise I will get ridiculed and possible stoned to death for the price I'm charging.

70$. It was 60$, but the FLGS owner said I didn't charge enough. But do you know why it's so damn cheap for so much effort? Because that's a model for a 14 year old who just wants a decent looking model to be able to play a fun game. No regular-world parent will drop 200 dollars on a paintjob for a model for their kid, and there's few gamer parents that would, as well.

What I'm getting at is that I understand where you're coming from with the low prices to help people out. I've gotten crap for it before on here. It happens. Everybody is entitled to their opinion and that's okay. They're probably right! But still. If it makes you happy, man, then go for it.

(That being said, whenever I reach the point of being able to consider myself at least semi-professional, I would LOVE to make 15$ an hour just building and painting (it's what I make at my day job). Painting full time would be AMAZING.)

PossumCraft wrote:

We all understand it can seem expensive when you look at the prices commission services charge. It's an expensive hobby.

No, not really. You're not rich enough to have expensive hobbies if you think that's true.

But seriously, even at GW prices, wargaming isn't that expensive a hobby. A $50 box of Marines probably takes 5-10 hours to clean/prep/paint (add $5 for expenses of paint/glue/brushes/varnishes, so we're up to 55) and you'll get dozens of hours of play time with them. On a per hour basis, it gets inexpensive very quickly.

tneva82 wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
It's not just the prices, it's your mindset of "I'm not doing this to make money, I'm doing it to help people". If you don't think of this as a for-profit business then you aren't going to succeed.

Also, your prices are still laughably cheap. Like many "I'll do this for cheap" commission painters you seem to have a very limited understanding of just how much time and effort goes into painting at the highest levels of quality.

Then again if he isn't in it to make big profitable business financing him with it alone...

As weird as it might be some people don't think only about hourly rate. We don't know for example his income. Money is not something that you double your income you double your life quality. It's reducing curve.

I have a relatively high income and I could finance this business with just that. as I said, I'm doing for fun and for others, not as much for profit.

as for where my name comes from, it is the name of a videogame design company I created (another hobby of mine) and part of my income comes from that and part of it from my day job as a manager for a real-estate company up here in Canada.

 John Prins wrote:
(add $5 for expenses of paint/glue/brushes/varnishes, so we're up to 55) and you'll get dozens of hours of play time with them.

If you're only using $5 to paint a squad of marines you're not putting enough layers on them

PossumCraft wrote:

 John Prins wrote:
(add $5 for expenses of paint/glue/brushes/varnishes, so we're up to 55) and you'll get dozens of hours of play time with them.

If you're only using $5 to paint a squad of marines you're not putting enough layers on them

Airbrushes save you on paint. I've been working on a Salamanders army, and I bought 1 pot of Waaaagh Green (undercoat) and Warpstone (topcoat). 16 infantry, 1 drop pod and 1 skimmer later, plus some unfinished centurions, and I've still got 1/3rd to 1/2 the paint left in each.

"I don't paint my models to a very high standard"

But if some one pays you, you will paint to a high standard.

How do you know you can paint to a high standard?

 Megaknob wrote:
"I don't paint my models to a very high standard"

But if some one pays you, you will paint to a high standard.

How do you know you can paint to a high standard?

Because I've painted others models before and they are my best work. I just feel like I personally need the best painted army on the table. So if someone pays me, yes I will paint to the highest standard I can offer.