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A random question that hopefully someone will be knowledgeable on.

What is a reasonable rate do you think to be paid for commissioned freelance sculpting? I'm not talking about small companies here, looking at the big guys like PP, Rackham, Forge World etc?

I'm asking as a friend and I were discussing this and it would help to get some more opinions. It's not exactly something people tend to discuss if they are in the job.

Here's a forum where lots of sculptors hang out
http://www.frothersunite.co.uk/phpBB2/index.php

Prices will vary a lot depending on who does it. Most good sculptors will charge like $300 - $450 per mini for GW sized figures. Some a little more, some a little less. If you have a few models you want to get sculpted at once most folks will usually give you a discount.

If you're just starting out with a line of minis I think it's a good idea to have the same guy do all of the initial sculpts and then you can use his as a reference for other sculptors just so that size & look & proportions will always be around the same. Thats what I'm planning to do for my game anyway.

That is interesting. I take it the amount paid would vary according to the level of detail? So 2 infantry models exactly the same size, one rank and file one a lord would have different rates?

What aobut things like ogres and war machines?

Not sure, I've only ever asked about regular figures. But yeah I think rank & file stuff would be a little cheaper, but a lot of the cost is the level of detail and the size. One guy quoted me at $10 per mm once. Pretty much everyone I talked to had different prices and methods of figuring out what to charge.

Grimstonefire wrote:That is interesting. I take it the amount paid would vary according to the level of detail? So 2 infantry models exactly the same size, one rank and file one a lord would have different rates?

What aobut things like ogres and war machines?

Most professional sculptors will use basic dollies for a figure's under structure. This will make rank and file significantly cheaper as they only need to do original work for 30-40% of the mini. Characters will generally be sculpted head to toe - hence the higher price.


This is an example of rank and file from Musketeer Miniatures upcoming Gothic release.


In contract, a character is much more heavily sculpted.