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Hi! A friend of mine who loves the game but hates the painting, so he's contracting me to paint his Crimson Fist army.
He has:
Lysander
Pedro Kantor
Thunderfire Cannon w/ Techmarine
3 ten man Sternguard Squads
5 vangaurd
20 space marine scouts
2 razorbacks
2 five man dev squads
3 ten man legion of the damned squads

Everything is metal, except for the plastic scouts, devs and razorback. I would include the cost of paints in the total cost. I was thinking somewhere around $300, but I don't want to rip my friend off.
What would be a fair price?

You can come at it from a few different ways.

1. What's your time worth? How long do you reasonably think it will take x the wage you want per hour at the standard your friend is expecting.

2. Your doing this as a favor to a friend and you want to charge enough to maybe pick up a new unit or two.

 darefsky wrote:
You can come at it from a few different ways.

1. What's your time worth? How long do you reasonably think it will take x the wage you want per hour at the standard your friend is expecting.

2. Your doing this as a favor to a friend and you want to charge enough to maybe pick up a new unit or two.

^this^ but i can't point out enough that you need to factor in what paint job the friend is expecting:

>A quick bulk job of 3 colors on each model to make it tabletop legal?
>A commission worthy display army with time and care on each model?

There are many factors that can change the outcome such as time, materials etc... (better paintjobs take longer and require more paints/shades etc..).

Just make sure you are both on the same page, you don't want to be doing paintjob A when he was expecting paintjob B and end up with an issue.

 Dmyze wrote:

 darefsky wrote:
You can come at it from a few different ways.

1. What's your time worth? How long do you reasonably think it will take x the wage you want per hour at the standard your friend is expecting.

2. Your doing this as a favor to a friend and you want to charge enough to maybe pick up a new unit or two.

^this^ but i can't point out enough that you need to factor in what paint job the friend is expecting:

>A quick bulk job of 3 colors on each model to make it tabletop legal?
>A commission worthy display army with time and care on each model?

There are many factors that can change the outcome such as time, materials etc... (better paintjobs take longer and require more paints/shades etc..).

Just make sure you are both on the same page, you don't want to be doing paintjob A when he was expecting paintjob B and end up with an issue.

He wants an army that looks good, definitely not a rush job. Like I said, I will be including the cost of the paints, and I will most likely be getting fresh pots for every color I will need. I plan on making them look good as possible. Since the majority of his army is metal I will probably also need a pot or two of lamean medium to coat it all.

Normally I'm a pretty fast painter, and since it's a space marine army I should be able to get at least 3 or 4 models done a day, more on the weekends.

I'd say conservatively at a slightly above tabletop standard your looking at 100 - 120 hours, if you are looking at highest standard with highlights, blending OSL and battle damage id say triple to quadruple that estimate. That;s a ton of work for nights and weekends.

If your looking at replacing all the paints, primers, varnish, basing supplies ect its gonna get up there in cost quickly, add your time in at a rate that makes it worth giving up your time and see if that will work for your friend.

This is very, very good advice for someone looking at doing commission painting.

Have you asked him how much he expects to pay?

$300 is not a lot for all that work really but if you are good friends and he is short on cash then as a favour it can work.

I have started doing a model for a friend of mine who wanted something special as a centrepiece. It will not be award winning but will be better than what he can achieve. It is a StormEagle from Forgeworld and including build, clean-up and painting I am charging him £90 at mates rates. I don't do commission as a business and only do friends models. This one I am mainly doing as it is an interesting model and I fancied a go. This price includes the fact there is no deadline so I can take my time and paint my own stuff too.

I'm still working on my first commission army (it's not great, but the buyer knew I would be learning on his army, and he paid me accordingly. Also, he knows I'm not fast.), and I've decided that any further commission work will only be for friends, and I prefer payment in minis, usually in a similar value. If I'm painting a box of Kabalite Warriors, I want a box of Kabalite Warriors (or something similar in points or dollar amount) as payment.

Yes, I'm probably getting short changed in it, but people tend to be more okay paying in minis than in cash, and it means I end up with more minis for my armies that I didn't have to budget for, instead of having more cash that I just funnel into my budget.

That video from Les was really informative
Definatly answered some of my own questions. As its something I've wanted to work towards for a while now, just didnt know a great deal about, I'm not particularly fast at painting.. but working on it
Got lots to practise on for a while and build up portfolio before thinking seriously about it ofcourse

$300 doesnt sound like a lot for all those mini's.. i suppose it depends how fast, what standard, how much you value the time its going to take you for a mate I would certainly paint his model for just cost of paint and supplies. As its valued experience for me right now. But if its not something that I can use as learning experience because I was passed that point, then i suppose charging more is the way to go.