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.

I'm wondering what falls thinks about doing this. I was recently made an offer for someone to buy figures, under the condition that I paint and then sell them online, hopefully for a profit which would then be split. I know that it could be hit or miss, but it might be worth it. And, if I do go ahead and do this, then what does falls think would be a profitable army to start with? Some form of power armor?

It's better to post a fixed price auction for units or armies, then paint to order when someone buys one.
Here is an example.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15mm-Napoleonic-British-Army-/350337158497?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item5191b8cd61

Naturally you need some stock in trade to prove your credentials for quality. I would do a few units of Ultramarines or another popular SM because someone somewhere will always want SMs.

It depends on your skill, and (critically) how fast you can paint

Unless stuff is very well painted you'll tend to get less than retail back for them on ebay

And the larger the group of figures you sell the LESS profit you'll tend to generate

(1000s of folk can afford a painted ork, 100s can afford a Slugga Blob with Nob, only 1 or 2 will be in the market for an entire horde)

so if you're intrested I'd suggest starting small eg paint a marine tac squad or similar and see what you can get for it, then calculate how much it's paid you per hour (remember you'll need to take of a bit for paints etc)

The issue is when you build the army, paint the army to a scheme and then sell it, people buying it may not want that configuration or scheme.

People who want high-end paintjobs also sometimes want specific units and schemes.

If you sell a whole army, often people want a deal. I don't think you will consistently make a large profit.

Now in this situation... Someone will buy the models (at a discounters price?) then have you paint them then 'split it' which means for him to break even, he needs them to sell for DOUBLE his purchase price. That doesn't sound realistic at all to me.

The only way there is profit is if you are buying second-hand figures for dirt cheap, re-habbing them and selling them and then youa re turning your elbowgrease into money... Or if you bought and painted it to play with and played with the army for a year and then sold it.

I have to say, I have had good luck buying broken and busted Ork models, stripping them, fixing and converting them and then painting them in a super-generic paint scheme where the entire model is basically an ork in generic weathered metal vehicle with generic black/brown clothes. An ork player can buy them and with almost no skill or effort, slap some primary color on the armor and make them a goff, badmoon, deffskull or whatever. It works because I am basically buying lots of cheap broken models, Getting 'what I want' out of them, and sending the rest as functional models to a new orky home.

I would start small before you think you can begin selling 200$ of models for 800$ easily.

Having just moved out of commission painting, I can promise that it is a very difficult way to make money. You need to prioritize rapid painting techniques and be able to production-line your processes.

When it comes to painting or selling painted models, it is a great way to divest yourself of unused items from which you already extract amusement value through painting them and playing with them. But painting to order or painting for sale is a very poor way to make a living and, even as a way to just subsidize your hobby, consumes a lot of your hobby time that you ought to be spending painting your own stuff.

That said, if you can paint (very) fast, and don't mind painting in production-line style, and if you don't mind mostly painting historical miniatures (where the money really is, as a lot of historical gamers are really not into the hobby side of things) - especially Napoleonics - then go for it.

R.

Define 'profitable' in terms of how many hours are actually going to be spent getting the painting done. Just at first blush, this strikes me as an endeavor that is going to make very little money overall.

Thanks for the replies guys. I suppose that I should clear up some things with what everyone is saying. It's not my intention to turn this into a primary income source, but rather something that I can make a little extra cash with from time to time. I enjoy the painting aspect of the hobby more and more lately, I find that it's a good way of relaxing, so that was more the aim.

My father was actually the one who suggested, and offered to go in In on it with me, so we'll see how that goes. And the thought was to keep it as small lots at first, say a tactical squad and transport. In regards to squad load outs, I don't see much issue in magnetizing special, or heavy weapons.

You're hourly rate will likely be less than nearly any odd job you could pick up on the side.

If you're time has essentially no value, than you might make a little pocket money, but even then you're probably better off taking small scale commissions locally.

If you enjoy the Zen of painting,

and this is intended to just give you a bit of extra pocket money from something you'd be doing anyway it could work out after all

(local commissions would give you more cash, but then you'd have to paint what they wanted, but worth considering too)

good luck

Honestly, I wouldn't bother. You won't be doing this frequently enough to get really good at assembly line mass production techniques for painting, and unless you're one of the top-tier professional painters you're probably going to end up selling most of your models below retail price. The sad truth is that 90% of the time "painted" means "deduct 50% from retail price for the trouble of having to strip the paint before I can use it", and buying models with the specific intent of painting them and selling them is a great way to end up losing money.

To be honest, the idea of buying someone elses paint scheme is just not right.

The only thing I would ever do would be paint to order, and would rarely pay more than 10-15% over the retail of a force.

If this was any other hobby, I'd say go for it. But GWs prices are absurd. Maybe if you were making your own models and then painting them or something, you'd make some money. Your overhead is just going to be far too high. If you just really love painting, though, go for it. The recycling idea is based on how easy it is for you to get the damaged goods. We recycle jewelry and sell it with a very low overhead and do alright. I can't imagine that finding broken plastic soldiers is easier than finding broken old watches, though

There are things that you can do that will help bring down production costs - One is to buy Mantic zombies instead of GW. Less expensive, look better, and can be used for unofficial Warhammer games without modification.

They also paint up very quickly - I did three hundred of the buggers in a bit more than a week.

Army Painter colored primers helped a lot. One batch was primed using Necrotic Flesh, one was done with Barbarian Flesh, one was done with Skeleton Bone, and one was done with Wolf Grey.

You are likely to do better painting and selling units than armies.

The Auld Grump

As the old joke goes:

Q.) How do you make a thousand dollars painting minis and selling them on Ebay?
A.) First, start with two thousand dollars....