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I've recently updated my blog with prices of my miniature painting service:

http://onfirepainting.blogspot.com/p/painting-service-painting-standard.html

http://onfirepainting.blogspot.com/p/painting-prices.html

Could you tell me if you think they are reasonable enough... I'd be working at roughly £5-6 an hour .

Thanks a lot,

Tom

I'd perhaps reduce the price on squads if they are lerger than say ten models , as if you want a really nice looking unit of 20 gaunts , it'll cost a bomb. but thats just me being tight.

'claw

I guess it depends how much you are willing to spend... I get what you mean, but I think if I go any cheaper, I wouldn't get enough for the time put in. I have painted squads of 10 models for £10 before at a basic level... at least basic for me (undercoat, basecoat, washes, 2x highlights). I might have to update the prices for things like guants which are only going to be 2 colours.

Thanks,

Tom

I understand where your coming from , but it's liek you said , all depends how much your willing to spend

I agree if you could find a way to discount squads it might get you more sales (thus more money). Personally i always do heroes and single models myself but if i could find a cheap painter to do my entire night goblin fantasy army i'd pay them in a second.

Really if your getting enough sales to keep busy your prices are good, too much work and raise them and too little go the other way. They seem reasonable to me though.

Well if it's night gobbo's or something then I'd be willing to negotiate of course as they are only tiny! I'll update my prices a bit tomorrow!

I am willing to negotiate all of my prices as it says on my blog

Personally, I think you need to bump it a bit to where you're making more like 10 pounds an hour.

No matter how much you love doing something, it becomes work at some point, and work is something you're supposed to receive reasonable compensation for.

At the rate you're quoting, you'd be better off doing almost anything else!

Maybe you can tweak the price structure to allow for easier or more sophisticated jobs.

Ultimately, the level of compensation is going to impact the point at which you're likely to "burn out".

Also, if you charge a little more and it goes well, you could hire some lackeys to do the priming and basecoating for you!

Capitalism at work!

I think I need to actually get a few more commissions before I increase prices at all... Plus I really do like painting, so it's not like it's something I don't want to do.

I think when I have more examples of actual commissions that I have done to show people it might encourage others to have me paint their models.... maybe.

I can work pretty fast though, I painted around 1500-2000 points of guard within around a month, to a gaming standard.

How would you suggest I tweak the price structure?

As you've already noted, if (for example) the Tyranids are a much simpler scheme, they'll be faster to do, so you can charge a bit less.

You could have a price structure that was X amount for priming and single-colour basecoat and then add Y amount for each level of detail colour/highlighting/washes.

Just thinking out loud...

That sounds like a good idea, but it might make things a little complicated to navigate on my site - by the way I have updated the images for BASIC although I need some other examples as those are from 4 years ago...

The prices look about right - I've tried pushing higher, and for the display level customers you can to some extent charge about £10 - £15 per hour and get away with it, but these are far from your bread and butter, especially when starting out.

I'd drop the 'basic' level though - you're better than that, and it's a pain to work to a low standard - it really kills the joy of it very very quickly. There's plenty of work at the 'premium tabletop' end of the spectrum (I have (unverified) bookings for a lot of, possibly all of next year already), especially once you have a few satisfied customers.

Also, put a charge per 10 minis, or something similar for the rank and file stuff - nobody orders these singly. Charge a bit extra for banners, champions etc, fancy work (like lots of GS or freehand work).

Tyranids, done well, are *not* simpler than guard. Feathered carapace plates see to that. Swarm nid armies (and infantry heavy IG) will also drive you mad. Do not attempt these in single runs - check with your client to stagger the schedule with another commission so you don't go insane painting the same thing week after week.

Thanks for that, I'll have a good think... I do need to add a set price for a certain amount of models for squads.