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What do you mean by cheap? If its something like 800$+ for a 1850pts army then Id pass. I'd rather pay full price ( I.e 1k+ for a superbly painted army then pay 3/4 of the price for a non-professional quality.

Then again I paint all my own models and have never used a commission service in my life.

A price range is still something that I would have to figure out.

it seems people in here have a rather low standard of what they want the models to look like, basecoat dip and drybrush? heavy wash?
also $6 an hour? youd have to live in america to even consider that kind of insanity, a mate of mine over their does amazing work and he charges no less than $35 an hour for him to lift a brush and for a "decent" centrepiece your looking at 15+ hours work. if you want basic work done he can knock out a marine squad in rather short time a few hours really.

i have got some commision work done by BTP as well, for one reason despite the instability they have been facing, i have seen what happens with some of the smaller studios or 1 man shops. You get a quote pay them but someone offers more money so your job goes to the back of the list and you wait stupid amounts of time to get it done, BTP could atleast do a full turn around in a reasonable time.

I while back I did a few commission jobs. I only did 500 point armies and I charged about $100 all shipped and done. I did 4 armies with varying model counts. I told my buyers I would update them weekly with photos and the more models hey sent the less detail I would put in. Long story short I got all 4 armies done in two weeks with good feedback. I spent majority of the time on the HQs. Now granted this was when I was unemployed, so now is a different story. I recently had someone do a job for me, 40 models for $120. I considered this very reasonable and the work was good, tts definitely.

I guess it all comes down to the price. I have been trying to get the starter set for 40k painted for a local store to start marketing for about three months and the cheapest I have seen is $275!

Yeah pricing seems to be the big deciding factor here.

There is a market for TTS paint jobs.

However, the OP should think long and hard before going down that path. There have been many (x2) hobbiests that have gotten over their heads by taking on too many commissions, getting way behind, or just burning out. I can't count the number of these stories from burned customers on this and other forums.

I would never take a commission, even for a single mini, because I paint for myself or my buddies as presents. There is no way I could put a price on my extremely limited hobby time that anyone in their right mind would pay.

Best of luck to you, but stick to your gaming group. Charge by the hour. $20 for painting a box of tactical marines is insanely low. Insanely.

I can see being swamped, especially since I still have a full time job. Definitely something to think about.

 l0k1 wrote:
I can see being swamped, especially since I still have a full time job. Definitely something to think about.

For someone who has a full time job, taking on enough commission work to make it a real income stream is a big commitment. You've got to be willing to dedicate significant amount of your free time and be a very fast painter.