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Hey guys i am thinking about starting to take on some painting and modeling commissions. I am just wondering about what price range is normally charged or how much people would be willing to pay for painted minies. Also would you be willing to pay for models painted by me.

I myself prefer to paint my own.
However, before anyone can give you a price range or advice we really need to see a some of your work. Prices vary with the quality and we cant really advise you if we don't know what standard you work too.

That was a really stupid oversight on my part.

I prefer to paint my own mini's, but I have commissioned some people to paint scenery for me because I hate painting scenery.



I paid about £18 for that to be painted by a UK based service (Sabre Studios) plus postage from him to me (about £8 IIRC)





Those are WiP photos of some scenery I paid I guy at my local club to do for me (About £70 for the building and the generator (there's another side to it not shown in the photos plus a small resin piece that fits in the semi-circle).

And some I've done myself:





For me, I wouldn't commission you on the basis of those photos, as I think the work I can get is of better quality at a price I'm happy to pay.

If you were to be a chunk cheaper than these guys, there would be people who'd use you I think (your stuff isn't bad at all, don't think I'm saying that), but it would be at the lower end of the scale, maybe £3 ish per mini - if you could do them to that standard fast enough to be happy with what you earned from it, then happy days

I painted these as fast as i could, about an hour each, apart from the chaos space mariene which toke about 3hrs but that was about a year ago

Then if you were looking to make a full time living at this, I don't think you'll achieve it - allowing for costs of paint etc, you'd need to charge at least £7 per model to make minimum wage.

If you're willing to do a bit here and there for £3 an hour to subsidise your hobby, then I think that's achievable.

okay i think i need to up my game then

to offset the costs (shipping and petrol and paints) and make a small profit arround 4.50 euro per model would do fine if i do tow or three at a time. This is only a part time ting anyway. Would the quality on this warlock justify the cost.

Never, ever, ever, ever,ever take on more than one job at a time. It's a sure recipe for delays, sub-par quality and just general failure and depression - making that mistake nearly killed the hobby for me.
Also, you aren't gonna get rich from commission painting. Actually, you probably won't even be able to pull minimum wage. The fact of the matter is that gamers are, in general, cheap. Once you start charging more than $8 for a single human-sized model painted to a good, clean, crisply-painted tabletop level, you lose about 50% of your potential customer base.

In case you're wondering what my credentials are, I did commissions for 4 years. I quit just a couple months ago since I decided the 6+ hours I spent painting every day would be better filled with a real job that pays minimum wage and doesn't kill my back, my eyes, my love of the hobby and my mental health.

~Tim?

P.S. Yeah, I'm a little bitter.

 Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:
Never, ever, ever, ever,ever take on more than one job at a time. It's a sure recipe for delays, sub-par quality and just general failure and depression - making that mistake nearly killed the hobby for me.
Also, you aren't gonna get rich from commission painting. Actually, you probably won't even be able to pull minimum wage. The fact of the matter is that gamers are, in general, cheap. Once you start charging more than $8 for a single human-sized model painted to a good, clean, crisply-painted tabletop level, you lose about 50% of your potential customer base.

In case you're wondering what my credentials are, I did commissions for 4 years. I quit just a couple months ago since I decided the 6+ hours I spent painting every day would be better filled with a real job that pays minimum wage and doesn't kill my back, my eyes, my love of the hobby and my mental health.

~Tim?

P.S. Yeah, I'm a little bitter.

Tim. That sucks man, Your work is awesome.

Also I do some local commission work, and I am not gonna lie, after a while it becomes a chore. I am sitting here with 15 models that I need to have painted like now and I haven't touched on of my own in about 3 months.

Commision work is not for the faint of heart. You have to have the time and more importantly the self discipline to make yourself sit down and paint even if your tired, or sore, or just worked a 24hr shift (I'm a paramedic its what we do), and the most frustrating of all is working on models you just don't like but still making it look amazing (its crazy how much my mood effects the level of painting I accomplish).

Those models are not too bad, although the detail may need a little improvement in some places.
You seem to do the armour quite well but the skin needs working on.

I would probably say for you to wait a little while and improve some more before you fully get in to doing commission work, but your already a good portion of the way there and with a little practice youll be ready

Once I get home ill post some of my work to give you an example of what I would expect.

Thanks for the advice. Were you only doing painting commison's then or did you have a job also.

Some great advice here, especially Tim's advice of not over extending yourself. As a commissioner of paint work I have dealt with services that took on more work than they could handle and it ends in disaster for both the client and the painting service.

Another issue to consider is your photography. If you want to generate interest in your work, especially from non-local sources, you should have an understanding of how to photograph your models to provide clear, accurate photos of your painting. A photo box and some lighting can be obtained cheaply, especially with the many do-it-yourself tutorials on how to make photo boxes. Once you are able to get some professional looking photos your work will stand out more and potential clients will take notice.

A website or Facebook page featuring galleries of your work is also a good idea.

Have you looked at the Painting Service List in the Swap Shop forum? You can see what other commission painters are doing and some have their prices listed which could give you an idea of how to price your own work.

Yes your right I need to work on presentation. i will look into getting a light box diy created

It's debatable whether your level of painting needs work. It looks fine to me and it's likely that it will sell. There are painters painting models at all levels of quality. The issue is whether or not you will be able to paint them quickly enough to make a real profit at it. I recommend googling miniature painting services and seeing what the prices are for the various levels of quality. Then see where your minis come in. Knock a percentage off as you will probably have to charge less than established painting services. When you know how much you can charge, then divide that by the amount of time it takes to paint a figure.


As I see it though, there's one thing we need to know in order to really know what kind of advice to give.
What is the goal of your painting commissions?
If you're going to paint a few minis for your friends (locally or online) to earn a few bucks to support the hobby that's one thing. You needn't worry too much about time, etc. However, if you're looking at this as an income stream that will contribute to your household, you need to really crunch the numbers. There are folks out there painting basic line troops to a tabletop standard for 3 bucks each or less. Folks like this... http://www.paintedfigs.com/prices …are some hard competition.

From a personal perspective, I've never paid to have miniatures painted. However, a few times now I've built and painted terrain (which I enjoy) in exchange for having my friends paint minis for me (typically line troops which I get sick of painting.

Okay thanks for the advice you have all been very helpful. I think i was a bit nieve about the realities of this but am still determined to give commissions a try at least.

 reizingsun wrote:
Yes your right I need to work on presentation. i will look into getting a light box diy created

Now this looks good. You seem to have a good knack for NMM effects.

 Eilif wrote:
It's debatable whether your level of painting needs work. It looks fine to me and it's likely that it will sell. There are painters painting models at all levels of quality. The issue is whether or not you will be able to paint them quickly enough to make a real profit at it. I recommend googling miniature painting services and seeing what the prices are for the various levels of quality. Then see where your minis come in. Knock a percentage off as you will probably have to charge less than established painting services. When you know how much you can charge, then divide that by the amount of time it takes to paint a figure.


As I see it though, there's one thing we need to know in order to really know what kind of advice to give.
What is the goal of your painting commissions?
If you're going to paint a few minis for your friends (locally or online) to earn a few bucks to support the hobby that's one thing. You needn't worry too much about time, etc. However, if you're looking at this as an income stream that will contribute to your household, you need to really crunch the numbers. There are folks out there painting basic line troops to a tabletop standard for 3 bucks each or less. Folks like this... http://www.paintedfigs.com/prices …are some hard competition.

From a personal perspective, I've never paid to have miniatures painted. However, a few times now I've built and painted terrain (which I enjoy) in exchange for having my friends paint minis for me (typically line troops which I get sick of painting.

Don't model yourself after Painted Figs. They've not got a good reputation, and when it comes to quality of paintjob, well...let's just say you get what you pay for and leave it at that. Anyways, you won't be competing with them. They're competing with the likes of Blue Table or other high-volume, low-quality studios with multiple employees. You'll be in competition with other one-man studios, like I used to run.

~Tim?

 reizingsun wrote:
I painted these as fast as i could, about an hour each, apart from the chaos space mariene which toke about 3hrs but that was about a year ago

You want a selection of good quality images of recent work - done at a pace and quality that you feel comfortable enough to keep up for a certain price. Ideally a good variety of figures as well. from a range of 40k and WFB armies.

Tim is right, get a job. I don't think you will make very much. Or just do painting on the side.

And remember that paypal takes 3% and then another 3% if you convert currency. If you sell on ebay it's even worse, 12% or more. Buy it now for the price that you want is the best ebay option in my opinion. For me, someone eventually buys it but it can take 2 or more months some times. Starting at 99 cent auction and seeing what happens never worked very well for me and Ive seen many other good painters get very low prices when trying that method because no one bids. It can happen on even really nice minis where the person has obviously spent a very long time. It's lose lose when using ebay.

Then paint and brushes also adds up. I probably spend $150 a year just on paint and brushes. Even more actually because I replaced some parts for my airbrush and bought some basing materials.

 Azazelx wrote:

 reizingsun wrote:
I painted these as fast as i could, about an hour each, apart from the chaos space mariene which toke about 3hrs but that was about a year ago

You want a selection of good quality images of recent work - done at a pace and quality that you feel comfortable enough to keep up for a certain price. Ideally a good variety of figures as well. from a range of 40k and WFB armies.

this is my most recent work. Completed this week.

The going rate seems to be about the cost of the relevant miniature - I commission all the pieces I want to actually look good (rather than the mess I make) and pay this - either in models or cash with 3 separate painters - I am happy and they seem so to.

In the last few months commissioned
2 Imperial Knights, 1 Hydra, 1 Falcon, 1 Dark Eldar Fighter, 1 Raider, 2 boxes of LOTR Wood Elves, 1 box of Wood Elf cavalry, and some other bits and pieces.



Your work is pretty good but tbh the ones I commission from are quite a bit better.....

 Maxlvlpainting wrote:
Tim is right, get a job. I don't think you will make very much. Or just do painting on the side.

And remember that paypal takes 3% and then another 3% if you convert currency. If you sell on ebay it's even worse, 12% or more. Buy it now for the price that you want is the best ebay option in my opinion. For me, someone eventually buys it but it can take 2 or more months some times. Starting at 99 cent auction and seeing what happens never worked very well for me and Ive seen many other good painters get very low prices when trying that method because no one bids. It can happen on even really nice minis where the person has obviously spent a very long time. It's lose lose when using ebay.

Then paint and brushes also adds up. I probably spend $150 a year just on paint and brushes. Even more actually because I replaced some parts for my airbrush and bought some basing materials.

This is just painting on the side. I am not planning on making my living from painting models. Paint and supplies is no problem for me as i do not spend that much on it. I am a diy cheapskate. For baseing flock i use painted sawdust

 Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:
Never, ever, ever, ever,ever take on more than one job at a time. It's a sure recipe for delays, sub-par quality and just general failure and depression - making that mistake nearly killed the hobby for me.
Also, you aren't gonna get rich from commission painting. Actually, you probably won't even be able to pull minimum wage. The fact of the matter is that gamers are, in general, cheap. Once you start charging more than $8 for a single human-sized model painted to a good, clean, crisply-painted tabletop level, you lose about 50% of your potential customer base.

In case you're wondering what my credentials are, I did commissions for 4 years. I quit just a couple months ago since I decided the 6+ hours I spent painting every day would be better filled with a real job that pays minimum wage and doesn't kill my back, my eyes, my love of the hobby and my mental health.

~Tim?

P.S. Yeah, I'm a little bitter.

A few Six months ago my girlfriend told me that I had to pay as much attention to my own miniatures as I was to those that I was painting for commission - for three years I had been painting ten miniatures for other people to every one that I kept.

She told me to alternate. One for commission, one for me - and to learn how to turn folks down!

Ye gods and little fishies! You have no idea how much of a difference that two changes made!

One of the effects has been that people are more likely to ask me to paint large miniatures now, not small ones. (For reasons that escape me, I have painted six of the Reaper Bones Wyrmgear since it came out... one of them mine.)

Another change has been my enjoyment of painting miniatures has been coming back.

For me, taking commissions was just a way to subsidize my gaming addiction. But I had gotten to the point where almost none of the miniatures that I was painting were for me.

Now I am keeping almost exactly half of the miniatures that I am painting.

But because I am painting mostly dragons, ogres, and giants... the actual amount of money has dropped a good deal less than 50%.

And almost all of this is either local business or commissions from folks that I know. (The exceptions are folks that know folks that I know.) (Another exception was a painting commission that I got while painting miniatures at Burger King... one of those Wyrmgears that I mentioned above.)

So - Hell, yeah - do not paint so many commissions that your joy in the hobby burns out!

The Auld Grump

Where would be good places to advertise apart from the dakka swap shop

Well, if you're determined to go down the patch of the Commission Painter, getting together a good Facebook page is a strong first step. Be sure to update it regularly with pictures of whatever you're working on.

~Tim?

I am seriously thinking about stopping commissions altogether next year - having time to paint my own stuff for my own self is making me feel a whole lot better about the world.

Plus... if I am going to paint minis for somebody else, my girlfriend games... so I can have the pleasure of painting miniatures, and then facing them across the table.

Honestly, I have to admit that taking commissions is mostly for the bragging rights, and right now I have better things to do with my time than paint somebody else's orks.... (My latest commission... a box of GW orks with heads from Kromlech.... I really, really like those heads.)

The Auld Grump

reizingsun wrote: and make a small profit arround 4.50

Good luck with that.

The problem that up-and-coming commission painters have is that they have to compete with more established ones. More established ones have airbrushes and lots of experience with them, which allows them to fill HUGE orders at razor thin margins, and make up the loss on volume.

At least at the moment, you're not doing that. The only way to make any real money on low volume is to be an insanely good painter. Go and win a golden demon, then perhaps you can put up a shingle.

Otherwise, it's going to be small peas. I've done commission work before, but it's just been from friends at my FLGS, and I've been largely paid in bitz. Enough to feel proud of, but not enough to run a serious business off of.

If you're really serious about doing commissions, I'd write a polite email to the guy who runs GMM studios and ask him some advice about getting started. It can be done (and he is proof), but it's going to take some investment in equipment and a lot of time beefing up your skills before you can get to the point where you're making more than spare change.

 Ailaros wrote:

reizingsun wrote: and make a small profit arround 4.50

Good luck with that.

The problem that up-and-coming commission painters have is that they have to compete with more established ones. More established ones have airbrushes and lots of experience with them, which allows them to fill HUGE orders at razor thin margins, and make up the loss on volume.

At least at the moment, you're not doing that. The only way to make any real money on low volume is to be an insanely good painter. Go and win a golden demon, then perhaps you can put up a shingle.

Otherwise, it's going to be small peas. I've done commission work before, but it's just been from friends at my FLGS, and I've been largely paid in bitz. Enough to feel proud of, but not enough to run a serious business off of.

If you're really serious about doing commissions, I'd write a polite email to the guy who runs GMM studios and ask him some advice about getting started. It can be done (and he is proof), but it's going to take some investment in equipment and a lot of time beefing up your skills before you can get to the point where you're making more than spare change.

I meant charge 4.50 for the model , but that was bad wording on my part. GMM is awesome. Skill beefing is underway as you speak. Thanks for the advice I have taken note of everything you all have said.

A piece of advice I heard a while ago that I thought was useful was to get a bunch of models together for sale and post them all up on eBay or similar. See how well they sell and it should give you an idea of demand.

You could even keep that up after (fingers crossed) you start getting commissions to hopefully subsidize your income as every now and then someone could pick up a model off eBay.