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Hey there dakka! So I was playing a game at my FLGS and one of the guys there sai he really enjoyed my painting and asked if I would be interested in painting up his grey knight squad and GK termie librarian! I told him I would definitely consider it but would have to figure out costs first! I was just wondering what you all would charge so I can get a rough idea of what to charge!

I know cost of paint is a factor for sure, but idk should I charge per model? Maybe a standard price for the unit and a separate price for the librarian? Idk, this will be my first commissioned paint job, so I'm just looking for some advice!

depends on how good your painting is.

each model will probably take you atleast 4 hours if you do any kind of half way decent job. add up how much time you think it will take you, times that by minimum wage and use that as a starting point. if he wants to keep it cheap, then do a quick dip job or something?

never sell yourself short, never work for slave wages.

I hate to toot my own horn, but I do believe my painting is fairly good, people give me good amounts of compliments when I drop my army on the table! So I guess I could be considered a decently good painter, yeah I agree it'd probably average out to about 4 hrs per model or so, plus the cost of paint I think I could work it out that way! Thank you for the input!

You should post a pic of something you consider painted well in this thread, that will help us help you.

4 x Minimum wage per model might be a little on the heavy side, I dont know how that works out in the US but by UK standards that'd be about £25 for a model. As a first commission and as part of a squad (atleast 5 models I assume) £150 would be quite a large amount to drop on what I'd call an "untested" commission (first time painting someone elses scheme to order).

For a decent TT standard first commission I'd say about half that? Assuming you arent assembling or cleaning up the models (drilling barrells etc).

Thanks guys you can check my gallery for some pics of my current army that I have with me here on the east coast, going to upload my plague marines in a bit.

But yeah Melcavuk I thought that that seems a little much for my first commission. And yes it would just be painting I believe as I didn't really see weather or not he had properly cleaned up the mold lines etc but they looked pretty good from the glance I got of them!

I may try like $15(us dollars) per model for the squad, plus paint and maybe like $5-$10 / hour of work on the librarian depending on how successful the squad goes!

So looking through your gallery I'd say most of what you posted is high level tabletop (and that's really good).

One thing you really want to think about is time to paint at your customers level of expectation. What I mean is, is the person expecting 3 colors plus wash on the standard troops and high end hero. or everything at the highest level possible? What type of basing do they want. Are the models pre-assembled? How fast does the person want them done?

All these things are on the client side, Also look at how much time do you have per day to work on the models? How many nights is it going to take you away from family/friends/gaming ect.

Biggest.....What is your time worth?


Good luck!

Thanks a ton darefsky! I appreciate the I put it helps greatly!

I've always heard that 2X the cost of the model is normal for a decent paint job. If the model was 20$, its 40$ to have it painted. sounds fair enough to me.

FaceofChaos wrote:
I've always heard that 2X the cost of the model is normal for a decent paint job. If the model was 20$, its 40$ to have it painted. sounds fair enough to me.

This is a really bad way of figuring prices. First of all whos prices are we using? USA online discounters or australian retail?

Cheap models can have tons of detail and take tons of time to paint to a good standard. example: dark vengeance.

i could go on but you probably get the idea. doing it like that makes no sense whatsoever.

@kb305 i am in the US so this will be us dollars. and i totally agree that some cheap models can have TONS of detail and take a while.

It's a long read, but a number of folks have offered a lot of useful information in this thread.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/535574.page

I have been doing like $2 for rank and file, 4 for characters and hq and 8-10 for vehicles and large stuff. But i usually take trade instead of money and it takes me a really long time to finish stuff, plus dudes always want an entire army at the same time so it kind of forces you to take shortcuts which is kind of crappy but 9/10 your shortcut is better than their 110% effort ( not to sound like a dbag, but otherwise they wouldnt have hired someone to paint for them). I also have them assemble to models before hand but i will base them for free because i am too nice. I don't really care to charge much because all i really want is more models to paint and painting other peoples models helps me improve so i win no matter what and i am not trying to make a living off painting models. Some guys like to charge a lot and prance around like they are the shiznit, don't worry about them, keep your prices low and always shoot for maximum quality, don't lower your standards to give someone a better price, you are doing yourself a diservice, if they want half ass work refer them to someone else. Just my rant on it. good luck!

 Baldsmug wrote:
I have been doing like $2 for rank and file, 4 for characters and hq and 8-10 for vehicles and large stuff. But i usually take trade instead of money and it takes me a really long time to finish stuff, plus dudes always want an entire army at the same time so it kind of forces you to take shortcuts which is kind of crappy but 9/10 your shortcut is better than their 110% effort ( not to sound like a dbag, but otherwise they wouldnt have hired someone to paint for them). I also have them assemble to models before hand but i will base them for free because i am too nice. I don't really care to charge much because all i really want is more models to paint and painting other peoples models helps me improve so i win no matter what and i am not trying to make a living off painting models. Some guys like to charge a lot and prance around like they are the shiznit, don't worry about them, keep your prices low and always shoot for maximum quality, don't lower your standards to give someone a better price, you are doing yourself a diservice, if they want half ass work refer them to someone else. Just my rant on it. good luck!

I'm fairly certain 2$ a model wouldn't cover the paint, let alone the time that went into it. I can see doing that for a friend or for some other reason (like a trade) but for a business prospect....


Automatically Appended Next Post:

kb305 wrote:

FaceofChaos wrote:
I've always heard that 2X the cost of the model is normal for a decent paint job. If the model was 20$, its 40$ to have it painted. sounds fair enough to me.

This is a really bad way of figuring prices. First of all whos prices are we using? USA online discounters or australian retail?

Cheap models can have tons of detail and take tons of time to paint to a good standard. example: dark vengeance.

i could go on but you probably get the idea. doing it like that makes no sense whatsoever.

I'm American and I'd assume that the starting point would be GW's prices. Shipping would be a factor as well, cause if I'm not mistaken, isn't the shipping rate from the US to Canada insane? I don't disagree that it is an odd way to price and some would be more difficult then others, but those would be made up for in the long run, besides, its a good starting point for negotiation. On any custom work there should be some discussion on what is wanted vs the actual end costs. The amount of detail required is a factor that would go into it.

 Drummernathan wrote:
@kb305 i am in the US so this will be us dollars. and i totally agree that some cheap models can have TONS of detail and take a while.

I understand that, im just trying to say it's muddy. what if down the road you paint for someone in a different country, do you still base it off US prices? not to mention there's alot of price variance in the US alone. are people expecting retail or discount prices? what if someone got a deep discount on used models and wants you to repaint them, do you times the price he paid by x2 for some reason? i realize people just use it as sort of a rough guide but even then I dont see any reason why the cost of the models should effect your rate of pay.

FaceofChaos wrote:
I'm fairly certain 2$ a model wouldn't cover the paint, let alone the time that went into it. I can see doing that for a friend or for some other reason (like a trade) but for a business prospect....

GW paint is 4 bucks, and I have yet to go through an entire pot of paint, no matter how hard I try. My longest living paint is an old (in the bolter round pot) Mithril Chainmail that I added some water to over a year ago, and it's by far my best GW paint atm . If you buy other brands, you will make out easily on the "price of paint". If you receive the models already assembled, then you charge x dollars for painting, basing, and clear-coating and y dollars to ship it back to the person.

I think Ifalna here on Dakka has some of the best prices I've seen for small squad painting. She's not big on painting armies and you have to do some conversion work from USD to Euroes, but I had a Malifaux crew in the works she was going to assemble, paint, and ship to me for like... 75 to 90 dollars. I didn't have the money, and she's been a busy bee with customers that could pay, so I'm waiting for the stars to align before I can get my models on her painting table .

2 dollars a mini is about the lowest I could feasibly see charging someone before you're sitting there going, "I'm basically doing this for free". In an hour, I primed 20 models (10 Space wolves and 10 scouts), base coated, first armor color, and then "highlight" armor color using my airbrush, and have now spent close to 5 hours working on the details of just the grey hunters. I'm still about 4 to 5 hours away from being ready to base them and paint the rims black. Granted these are for me, and not for a client (I'm not a "professional painter"), so I can take my sweet time on them .

but this is an area I'm not an expert in

FaceofChaos wrote:

 Baldsmug wrote:
I have been doing like $2 for rank and file, 4 for characters and hq and 8-10 for vehicles and large stuff. But i usually take trade instead of money and it takes me a really long time to finish stuff, plus dudes always want an entire army at the same time so it kind of forces you to take shortcuts which is kind of crappy but 9/10 your shortcut is better than their 110% effort ( not to sound like a dbag, but otherwise they wouldnt have hired someone to paint for them). I also have them assemble to models before hand but i will base them for free because i am too nice. I don't really care to charge much because all i really want is more models to paint and painting other peoples models helps me improve so i win no matter what and i am not trying to make a living off painting models. Some guys like to charge a lot and prance around like they are the shiznit, don't worry about them, keep your prices low and always shoot for maximum quality, don't lower your standards to give someone a better price, you are doing yourself a diservice, if they want half ass work refer them to someone else. Just my rant on it. good luck!

I'm fairly certain 2$ a model wouldn't cover the paint, let alone the time that went into it. I can see doing that for a friend or for some other reason (like a trade) but for a business prospect....

ya, that post sums up everything you want to avoid unless you enjoy sweatshop factory roll playing.

kb305 wrote:

FaceofChaos wrote:

 Baldsmug wrote:
I have been doing like $2 for rank and file, 4 for characters and hq and 8-10 for vehicles and large stuff. But i usually take trade instead of money and it takes me a really long time to finish stuff, plus dudes always want an entire army at the same time so it kind of forces you to take shortcuts which is kind of crappy but 9/10 your shortcut is better than their 110% effort ( not to sound like a dbag, but otherwise they wouldnt have hired someone to paint for them). I also have them assemble to models before hand but i will base them for free because i am too nice. I don't really care to charge much because all i really want is more models to paint and painting other peoples models helps me improve so i win no matter what and i am not trying to make a living off painting models. Some guys like to charge a lot and prance around like they are the shiznit, don't worry about them, keep your prices low and always shoot for maximum quality, don't lower your standards to give someone a better price, you are doing yourself a diservice, if they want half ass work refer them to someone else. Just my rant on it. good luck!

I'm fairly certain 2$ a model wouldn't cover the paint, let alone the time that went into it. I can see doing that for a friend or for some other reason (like a trade) but for a business prospect....

ya, that post sums up everything you want to avoid unless you enjoy sweatshop factory roll playing.

LOL yeah I have no intentions of making a business out of this, I have a family to take care of so I have a real job. My way may not work for a lot of people but for me it keeps my hobby self sustaining and that is all I care about. I also work at my own pace so it will take me many months to finish a project but since I always shoot for top quality my “clients” don’t mind the wait and I even have dudes waiting in line for me to paint their armies. I refuse to trade my pleasure in the hobby for money that is why I keep it cheap, so I can do it my way and no one can complain because I gave them the best deal.
I am not really sure what the deal is with the “2 dollars doesn’t even cover the cost of paint” comment. I charge $2 for a rank and file guy and they usually come in groups of 5-10 so that’s $10-15. If you are spending more than 15 dollars on paint for 5 dudes you may want to consider switching brands. I use Vallejo and it is like $3.30 at my FLGS and one bottle lasts me about a year, a little less if it is the main color for an army.
Forcing yourself to bust out an inferior product at high speed for a little more money seems more like sweatshop “roll” playing to me.

paint, brushes, basing supplies, primer.

youll go through more washes than actual paint usually.

and yes. you are basically working for free.

I've seen this discussion here and other places and my take from it is not to undervalue your time. Estimate how long it will take you to finish the project, multiple that by a decent wage, maybe add a bit for materials and there is your quote.

From what I can gather the only way to make money from the commission game is high volume, table top quality painting. Your goal there is to take every shortcut possible while maintaining the quality your client expects. The faster you paint, the more money you make.

I'm not a commission painter myself, but I have thought of getting into it. However, every time I do I simply can't see a way in which it would work for me. On principal, I'm not working for less than minimum wage, which is $10/hour where I live in Canada. Considering it takes me 10-15 hours to paint a model, I would have to charge $100-150. But even then, I'm making the same wage as a walmart greeter for my skilled labour, which would be depressing.