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Hey there guys! Im Astral and i would just like to offer you an in site into my commission painting business!

Started up about 2 months ago i decided enough was enough, i recently got completely ripped off on a price for a miniature the guy wanted FIVE TIMES the shelf price of a GW single figure for a basic tabletop standard!
so after that ordeal i decided to start an affordable business myself my prices i stick by and i have had great response on them so far, i tend to paint large army commissions but these are becoming more and more rare to find due to the shear prices of some of these guys out there, so i might as well get to it and put up my prices:

pricing and painting Standards:

1. base coat, one highlight, one wash and basic detail - £30 for one box of 20 miniatures includes postage (if more then one box price is doubled then discounted!)

2. base coat, two highlights, one wash, shadowing and above basic detail - £45 for one box of 20 miniatures includes postage (if more then one box price is doubled then discounted!)

3.base coat, three highlights, two washes, shadowing and high level of detail - £70 for one box of 20 miniatures includes postage (if more then one box price is doubled then discounted!)

Vehicles:

Tanks £7.50
planes £10 (depending on size)
cars or anything alike £5

If you have a boxset that you would like painting then it is only £15 ontop of the standard of painting you would like!

Also single heroic figures are 25% of the paint standard base price !

Assembly is free of charge on ALL standards!

And again postage is included in prices!

get in touch if you are interested!

here is my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AstralPlanesPainting

(prices are 100% fixed none of this hidden dosh!)

and just to clear things up as some people ask i do this for the gamers first the money is a bonus all i want to see is a good happy community with some good solid painted figures nothing more nothing less and i ALWAYS try to help out someone whos budget isnt quite stretching far enough!

Your pricing is unrealistic for any decent standard of work.
Seriously, you should read some of the other 'I'm starting a commission business' threads. All this has been said before and will be said again.

Including postage is stupid if you're sending abroad. Australia and SE Asia in particular are expensive to send to. And it's a substantial enough market- I'd say around 20% of my clients are in that 'fething far away' sort of region.

Blunt advice: do not attempt to operate a bulk business at these rates. You will go bust very quickly unless you only require minimal revenue from the business (ie your income comes from other sources and you're just looking to fill time).

Bring your photography up to snuff if you want to attract business. A white or gradient backdrop and a daylight lamp (which you want for painting anyway if you plan on spending serious time at it) helps with adjusting the white balance on images in Photoshop or whatever. Don't be afraid of tweaking an image to get it looking right, but don't outright edit it beyond what it should look like, if you follow what I mean. Your pictures on fb are a bit yellow-tinted from the looks of it, and I bet some contrast is lost compared to what the models look like too.

Looking at the pricing you should crank up the base cost- I'd reckon on around 60-70% of time on a tt figure going on prep to base coat stages. Base your costs on time in a batch, consumables are a running cost- it's rare you'll get a job that will use an inordinate amount of paint etc.
I find charging for bitz I don't have, but freely using what I do have, and keeping remainders works well for conversions, build ups etc. clients all seem happy enough with that too. What goes around comes around.

On the positive side, a look at that fb page, and it seems you can paint to a reasonable tabletop standard (in commercial terms, not what you see done by the kiddies). Just value your time appropriately, and quote per job, not per mini, makes life much easier.

winterdyne wrote:
Your pricing is unrealistic for any decent standard of work.
Seriously, you should read some of the other 'I'm starting a commission business' threads. All this has been said before and will be said again.

Including postage is stupid if you're sending abroad. Australia and SE Asia in particular are expensive to send to. And it's a substantial enough market- I'd say around 20% of my clients are in that 'fething far away' sort of region.

Blunt advice: do not attempt to operate a bulk business at these rates. You will go bust very quickly unless you only require minimal revenue from the business (ie your income comes from other sources and you're just looking to fill time).

Bring your photography up to snuff if you want to attract business. A white or gradient backdrop and a daylight lamp (which you want for painting anyway if you plan on spending serious time at it) helps with adjusting the white balance on images in Photoshop or whatever. Don't be afraid of tweaking an image to get it looking right, but don't outright edit it beyond what it should look like, if you follow what I mean. Your pictures on fb are a bit yellow-tinted from the looks of it, and I bet some contrast is lost compared to what the models look like too.

Looking at the pricing you should crank up the base cost- I'd reckon on around 60-70% of time on a tt figure going on prep to base coat stages. Base your costs on time in a batch, consumables are a running cost- it's rare you'll get a job that will use an inordinate amount of paint etc.
I find charging for bitz I don't have, but freely using what I do have, and keeping remainders works well for conversions, build ups etc. clients all seem happy enough with that too. What goes around comes around.

On the positive side, a look at that fb page, and it seems you can paint to a reasonable tabletop standard (in commercial terms, not what you see done by the kiddies). Just value your time appropriately, and quote per job, not per mini, makes life much easier.

I understand the concern but i have thought about this as far as money im secure, as i said before this is to give people a better valued option im not looking to make a killing off of this and charge people stupid amounts of money sometimes almost triple what they paid to buy said model in the first place.

Price im happy with, i thought these out to what i think are fair and reasonable. i must stress the word fair in that sentence.

the camera and lighting situation is already underway i have a light box and good camera on order they just haven't arrived yet.

but thank you for the advice none the less

No worries, good luck. I'd advise against taking on too much as you start.