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Hi, I realise this is a bit intrusive, but I really can't see anyone, not even the most talanted modelist being able to have an adequite amount of income.

what do they make, does anyone know?

From a little research, I found that it isn't much... One person said it ranged from $8k-$13k, another said more.

Apparently sculptors make a LOT more...

Either way, not much. It could be more now since minimum wage is increasing in the US... though I doubt it.

no, but 'eavy metal would mostly be UK?

I imagine they should all just set up their own Gee-dubbyahs.

Captain Solon wrote:no, but 'eavy metal would mostly be UK?

I imagine they should all just set up their own Gee-dubbyahs.

A lot of staff go off to form their own companies or work freelance. I think a lot of the painting teams move onto other things keeping minis as a hobby rather than a job.

makes sense.

Everyone at GW gets paid peanuts.

It's an in-joke amongst the employees that you can't have any hobbies outside GW as you can't afford them. They wouldn't be able to afford GW except for the staff discount.

Scott-S6 wrote:Everyone at GW gets paid peanuts.

It's an in-joke amongst the employees that you can't have any hobbies outside GW as you can't afford them. They wouldn't be able to afford GW except for the staff discount.

Actually, Rick Priestly and Jes Goodwin get paid megamoney.

Jervis is paid around the same as a middle manager for a bank.

Everyone else is on peanuts...

Some of the early founders made out well when the company went public, the rest are there for love of the game.

Maybe the top painters can make out well by selling painted models on ebay but I wonder how well that works out in a per hour basis. The kinds of paint jobs that sell for over a $100 take hours and to do.

All in all, paint because you like it, don't expect to make a fortune.

I know that the most I ever sold a painted mini on ebay for was a little over $250, and that took me about 9-10 hours to paint. That comes out to about $25 an hour, which isn't terrible money, but that's the absolute max, and you can't ever figure that up as a salary. I figure full-time ebay painting comes out to roughly $10-$15 an hour, and I don't think anyone actually does a 40-hour week of painting.

I thought they were advertising an opening as a studio painter at £12K a while back. Hopefully it would go up after a year or so as your training progresses but it's not a lot.

£12K to start?

If so, I can't imagine it getting much higher.

Though it should, as the painted figure really helps 'sell' the miniatures.

Or not, in the case of some of them!

Most of the GW staff i know work part time, i think. I bumped into one of them in a shop (can't remeber which one) once and apparently my friend saw one working in a hospital.

I think it's true about how they have a real passion for the hobby and that is what keeps them in the job, rather than they don't have the qualifications to do anything else. You certainly see the store staff in the store even when the not on duty, especially before their shifts. I've seen a guy walking round the shop, casually painting his models and chatting to everyone and the next time i look he has a GW t-shirt on and's behind the counter.

Well if you look at the GW website the store managers only start on £13k per year so I cant imagine the painters are on much more.

I always thought they mad a lot of money.

I can't see that they would make a lot of money, but these figures being tossed around is flat out insulting.

This is of course assuming it would be a full time job. If it's only part time then I suppose it's not all that bad.

If you can make that income work and actually live off of it, you have to admit, painting and playing 40K for a job would be pretty sweet. Find a nice surgar-momma; let her be the bread-winner and contribute what you can by having fun all day.

In general, artists in any field don't make very good money. Competition for paying jobs in design is fierce, and there's always someone willing to get paid less than their peers to get their foot in the door. Many are just excited that their talent can actually pay off, and don't really care that the pay is abyssmal at the time. I often see people taking advantage of this, such as asking art students to design a website for their company for free, claiming it'll pay off in the long run because it'll add to their portfolio.

I worked as an illustrator for about 15 years, and left because my kids needed to eat. There's a joke that sums up the experience for me:

"What's the difference between an artist and a large pizza?"

"A large pizza can feed a family of four."

I would love to be a "real" artist again some day, when I'm retired and living on a pension. By then my kids can afford their own damn food!

The retail staff are badly paid even by the standards of retail.

What's really appalling is the wages of the design staff. When you consider that the skills of the sculptors and game designers are responsible for the company's success (or lack thereof) they are horribly underpaid.

Mastiff wrote:In general, artists in any field don't make very good money. Competition for paying jobs in design is fierce, and there's always someone willing to get paid less than their peers to get their foot in the door.

That is only partially true. First of all, the big guns (starting with WotC and ending with big AAA dev studios) have flat rates (so people can't actually under-price themselves to get jobs) and with those flat rates comes expectations of quality (which those who undercut the prices often lack). Yes, if you're looking for work in the small town indie RPG publisher area or small dev teams with lots of passion and no funding other than pocket money you'll make peanuts, mostly because these enterprises are stretched thin already and all the need is a drawing/sculpt/design/whatever that looks only marginally better than what a talented chimpanzee could do. And they pay accordingly for it.

I imagine that the franchise owners would get whatever would be left.

say, 6 people working 27 each hours, at $20 that an output of about 3,500 a week.

income? they probably sell about 200 starter sets a week, and definatly couple 1000 box sets [easily] a month, so it'd probably work out at around 30,000 in, but about half goes to tax, and a fifth to products, [assumeing it's still 1/3 of 62 dollars for TAC] they'd make about 8000 a month though, that seems very high.

thats if it's the only one in a big city, or the only easily acessed one.

I think your estimate of sales is well off, what you've described is a thriving LGS. (you've suggested that they sell a starter set every twenty minutes and a box set every few minutes. Does your LGS keep 200 starter sets in stock? I think it's pretty unlikely.

I've known some LGS owners that would grin from ear-to-ear because someone bought a GBP50 box of card game boosters that was half the sales for the day.