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I am interested in testing the waters with my local group about me offering painting services. I am an above average painter but most of the senior members of our club are very good in that aspect as well. If I start offering my services what would be a good starting point such as price,introduction, and advertising .

EDIT: Here are some of my figures.

Post some pics of your work, and then we can beging helping you out.

I'm in the process of photoing some pieces and will post them later but overall I think my painting skills are around 7.5/10 if I were to judge myself but some pieces I have worked on have been rated pretty well. I don't think I want to offer my service as pro-painting more like a service to get a pretty army on the table for players who either don't have the time or the patience to paint. Mostly I just want some variety to help break up the week.

Well, the important part isn't whether or not you think you're a 7.5/10, but whether or not other people think you are. Most importantly, people need to feel they are getting what they pay for. There's a guy here on Dakka who has sold painted minis (Inquisitor scale) for around $150-$200 a figure. Now, while I could never justify spending that much on one model, some folks can, as the paintjobs are good and that's what they want.

Never ever expect this to be a living for you. You seem to have the right idea with just wanting some variety. I do commissions because I enjoy painting and it gives me some pocket change. As for pricing, look at the cost of buying the models in the first place as a starting point. Alternately, set a price point and stick to it, probably under $5 a model but until we see some pictures nobody can really say.

SRM pretty much hit the nail on the head. The most important factor is what people are willing to pay for your work. I do some work as well, but since there are several high quality pro painters in my area, I only do table-top quality. I charge much lower prices than they do, but their work is far better quality. Some people just want a tourney legal paintjob, and some people want display pieces. It's all about finding your niche.

Added some pics to my original post.

MagosArcturus wrote:Added some pics to my original post.

Looking at them, they're pretty decent. Although, how much I'm willing to pay, depends on things like whether you can repeat such quality across more models in a decent amount of time.

I was thinking somewhere around the $3-5 per 25mm base and more for characters or vehicles,etc.

~5ish dollars seems to be about average for a decently painted infantry mini. Check out other commission services, see what they charge and the level of quality that they provide for it.

I am just wondering for the minis shown what do you guys think they are worth paint job wise if say you were to have me paint them that way.

How long does it take you paint something like that?

I finished the grand master in around 4 hours so for a squad of 10 like him would be probably 2 days depending on workload/complexity and if i was doing the bases probably around 3 days.

Maybe you should be asking the group as well, see what they think. If it's like your first picture I think you should get about $5 easy, the last one maybe $3-4. Additionally you can do stuff like offer them discounts depending if it's a squad or such, as in if you get a job for a squad of 10 maybe charge the amount you would for 8 individual. Although the prices should be more of a guideline with you negotiating it with potential clients until you get a better idea about how much people want to pay for your skill.

Good luck.