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i know a lot of people like this hobby for assembling their models but it is my least favorite aspect. I have very little free time ( and other time consuming hobbies) and when i do get time and try to put together some models i always end up destroying parts of the model with my xacto knife. Its incredibly frustrating.

So I'm thinking of commissioning a friend to just put my guys together. I dislike playing with unpainted models but at least they are playable and i do enjoy painting. So what do you think a fair price would be?

I know to many this thread is heresy, but trust me when i have the dexterity of a cross eyed sloth performing brain surgery.

Just clipping, trimming and assembling? Is that even a cash transaction? A six pack per unit?

Preparing and building models takes a fair amount of time to do properly. If it were just plastics, I'd say its about an hours work for a tactical squad to go from frames to the sub-assemblies.
Vehicles depend on the age of the kit and resin kits can take days to build to a proper standard.
Remember that gaps need filling, mould lines need removing, poses need to be coherent and poly cement doesn't dry instantly.

I'd take your tasks for a crate of beer or £5 an hour for FW resins.

I think it depends on the level of work. Building it quickly and haphazardly? You can build a squad pretty quickly, with more time spent waiting for glue drying than anything else.

Trimming mold lines, filling gaps, handling sprue... that can take a while. Putting together two Dark Imperium primaris halves took me hours, and I work quickly.

Understand.

Love to play and paint. Loath assembling.

I enjoy assembling but its the cleaning up process I hate (removing the mold lines) so I understand that element.

This is not really a skilled job like commission painting is, so really you are just needing to pay for someone's time to do this work. I think that's priobably up to them. You'd need to ask them what they'd want for that kind of work and strike up a deal. If you want them to do things like filling gaps or drilling barrels out then that will obviously take longer so I guess be prepared to pay for that length. It takes me a decent chunk of time to go from sprue to sub-assembly to assembled model.

Yeah I'm not even going to be picky when it comes to mold lines really. If you get them hey that's great if not then not a problem.

I keep seeing ads for a painting company so i checked their rates. They would charge $2-3 per SM sized model and this is just for assembly. I think that might be a little high since most paint companies charge a standard of 1.5 or 2X the model cost.


Idk I'm going to be asking a friend and fellow wargammer to do this so i want to be fair. Lets say a box of necron warriors or chaos marines for example: what would a fair price be in your opinion?

You could also just ask the person you want to assemble them what they want...

A trouble is going to be professional painting services aren't going to want to do menial work that they don't see to completion.

It takes me about 10 minutes to trim, clean and assemble a guardsman. So multiply what you think is a fair hourly wage for doing the job by 1/6 and that's about what I'd expect to pay for someone to clean and assemble models.

I hate cleaning models, if someone doesn't mind the menial work and wants to make some money, PM me and I'll hook you up

Yeah, this is a job for somebody eith a lot of time that wouldn't mind some side work. My wife is laid up with a broken leg, and I gave her my tub of 80+ Mantic Plague Zombies and some files. I'm not sure how many she'll get through, but I'm trying to be nice to her so she will do a job I really, really don't want to do!

I hate assembly. On a large commission it can mean 20 hours of sprue cutting, assembly and clean up, and one day my daughter will be an apprentice in the family business and she will do all of that.

too bad you don't live anywhere close to me. I love assembling models. I'd probably do it for free. Or in exchange for you painting my stuff

And I don't do a crap job either. Full works (gap filling, filing trimming, etc).

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
too bad you don't live anywhere close to me. I love assembling models. I'd probably do it for free. Or in exchange for you painting my stuff

And I don't do a crap job either. Full works (gap filling, filing trimming, etc).

seconds on that, in exchange for painting and and or some spare bits for later convertions.

 Zach wrote:
I hate assembly. On a large commission it can mean 20 hours of sprue cutting, assembly and clean up, and one day my daughter will be an apprentice in the family business and she will do all of that.

one day.... and the following day she stabs you in your sleep for making her do that


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
too bad you don't live anywhere close to me. I love assembling models. I'd probably do it for free. Or in exchange for you painting my stuff

And I don't do a crap job either. Full works (gap filling, filing trimming, etc).

If you're ever in Australia look me up, I have a pile of sprues you'd love

For some kits (such as Khorne Berzerkers) I'd be substantially worried that the models may be returned in some pretty poor poses.

A lot of kits seem to be quite hard at creating convincing kinesthics with. As per the 'Slips, Trips and Falls for the Health & Safety God' marines mentioned above.

I'm with you I hate assembling especially resin and I have shaky hands and lack of tools and equipment and space, but do like to paint. Getting forgeworld models professionally assembled for me is something I would consider paying for.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Zach wrote:
I hate assembly. On a large commission it can mean 20 hours of sprue cutting, assembly and clean up, and one day my daughter will be an apprentice in the family business and she will do all of that.

one day.... and the following day she stabs you in your sleep for making her do that

More accurately, she'll trim your sprue

Recently, I got my son to assemble a 7E Dark Imperium set, and he modded all the marines to be Chaos versions for his army (I'll be doing the painting). If I were to have paid for the work, I'd probably given about $10-$20 for the time it took him.