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So I'm by far the best modeler/painter in my circle of friends. I'm not an expert by any means, but I do pretty solid work. Some of my friends have had me do a lot of work for them, and I haven't charged much because it's been fun to work on medels that I wouldn't otherwise do. However, between work, working out, training for mma, and growing side business, my time has become much more valuable. A friend of mine wants me to build and paint a Thunderhawk supplied by him of course, and I have no idea what kind of time frame it would take to build and paint that beast. From what I've read it's a son of a gun to put together, and painting will take a while as well to do right. Does anyone know about what any professional services would charge or have suggestions for services I could contact to find out from them? I could than base my pricing off of that. Thanks.

No matter what you charge it will cost you a friendship. Well it's not guarantee, but money and friendship seldom mix well.
That's just my personal $0.02.
There was a guy last year selling a THawk painted by Blue Table for $700 which IMO was probably a desperation sale price. As a baseline on a 500-600 model $100 is the rock bottom I would do, and more like 200 realistically; considering its for assemply and painting of a very large model that's still the friends and family rate.

I would not do it, if you mess it up he could be mad at you and it could end up costing your friendship. You said yourself your not a expert, and this is a model for a expert. Whatever you do make sure you are well prepared for what you are doing and good luck!

Do You paint with airbrush, do You own a dremel? If answer to both these questions is "no", then better don't even take this commission. The bird is really big and it will involve lots of pre-painting work, cleaning (it's resin, so must be handled outdoors), pinning etc. It will eat Your time and You won't be happy with it. If it was Your own model, then it would have been a different story, but building someone elses expensive kit, time restraints, RL challenges etc won't make up for possible financial gain.
There is one fellow dakkanaut building a Tau Manta as a commission - You might find it interesting to look to it up, just to get the overall idea where are stepping into. That guy is a serious pro, whereas You admitted that You are not an expert.

if you have little free time, dont build models for your friends. dont start charging them for the free time. if you are still active in the hobby, you can spend some time together and help him build it, while painting or building your own models to safe time by not dedicate your full attention to it

For a client, just for the build I think I'd charge around £400, just for the pre-paint build (pinned and aligned for pre-assembly paint - it would still need painted assemblies gluing together). It is a lot of work, and it's of very variable difficulty due to the nature of the kit (big chunks of resin like that warp very easily).

For a mate, don't charge for time - "mates' rates" only ever lead to argument, especially when your time becomes more valuable to you than what they've paid and you have to do other things. By all means take the project as a 'fiddle with' job, but make sure your friend knows it'll take a long while and that you can't fully commit to it. If he wants to donate hobby supplies / cash then that's a nice way of dealing with some of the expense of the project.

I'm with the others on this one: Don't just do it for him.

If you don't have unlimited time and passion to work on a FW Thunderhawk, you shoulden't be doing it, as it is just about the most serious hobby passion project you can undertake.

If you get involved in this, I would say you should let him do the most of the work, and just help him a bit with it and give him some advice, all free of charge.
Working with FW resin is difficult, and working with large resin miniatures is even more difficult.
If you promise him someting you can't keep, and don't warn him of the difficulties, he could end up dissapointed.

a well documented journey

http://taleofpainters.blogspot.com/search/label/Thunderhawk

AustonT wrote:No matter what you charge it will cost you a friendship. Well it's not guarantee, but money and friendship seldom mix well.
That's just my personal $0.02.
There was a guy last year selling a THawk painted by Blue Table for $700 which IMO was probably a desperation sale price. As a baseline on a 500-600 model $100 is the rock bottom I would do, and more like 200 realistically; considering its for assemply and painting of a very large model that's still the friends and family rate.

I started doing stuff for free. Than people offered to pay money for it. I'm very upfront about my capabilities and available time. I'm very aware of what money can do to friendships. In this case I'm not worried about it at all. We have a solid friendship and he understands that projects will get done when they get done. I've charged him much less than I would for any other project, usually just cost of materials and another kit that I want for myself.

CainTheHunter wrote:Do You paint with airbrush, do You own a dremel? If answer to both these questions is "no", then better don't even take this commission. The bird is really big and it will involve lots of pre-painting work, cleaning (it's resin, so must be handled outdoors), pinning etc. It will eat Your time and You won't be happy with it. If it was Your own model, then it would have been a different story, but building someone elses expensive kit, time restraints, RL challenges etc won't make up for possible financial gain.
There is one fellow dakkanaut building a Tau Manta as a commission - You might find it interesting to look to it up, just to get the overall idea where are stepping into. That guy is a serious pro, whereas You admitted that You are not an expert.

Yes to the dremel and the plethora of other tools I would need. An airbrush is next on my list of things to buy. I've played around with one in the past, and this project would likely not happen until the end of the year, so it would give me a lot of time to practice with. Although not a pro, I am pretty good with tools and have been modeling off and on since I was a kid.

winterdyne wrote:For a client, just for the build I think I'd charge around £400, just for the pre-paint build (pinned and aligned for pre-assembly paint - it would still need painted assemblies gluing together). It is a lot of work, and it's of very variable difficulty due to the nature of the kit (big chunks of resin like that warp very easily).

For a mate, don't charge for time - "mates' rates" only ever lead to argument, especially when your time becomes more valuable to you than what they've paid and you have to do other things. By all means take the project as a 'fiddle with' job, but make sure your friend knows it'll take a long while and that you can't fully commit to it. If he wants to donate hobby supplies / cash then that's a nice way of dealing with some of the expense of the project.

That's the kind of advice I'm looking for. A hard rate from a professional. I wouldn't feel right charging that much, and at half that I don't know that I would enjoy the project. I was already leaning towards not doing it, but this pretty much confirms it. Part of it is becaue that mdoel doesn't excite me. Now a Titan Reaver on the other hand, I would probably build for cost of materials + a couple kits for myself, just because that is a model I would enjoy building and painting.

Thanks for the input.

Thunderhawk is an ABSOLUTE pain to put together.. I don't think there is any money that is worth the aggravation and I only had to listen to it (Friends have 3 I think?)

I believe it took them a long time to put together, pin, drill, sand and then curse at it due to the molds being so old (and heavy)