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Hello all,

I just graduated college and I have been considering trying to start doing some commission work to gain a little extra some extra $$ while I wait for responses to potential jobs etc. I have always considered myself a decent painter but I have really started to get in the groove of things recently and am consistently producing good quality work in my opinion. I am not claiming to be a god-tier painter but I tend to notice that I can create a solid looking army that is above tabletop quality, or at least the quality of what most people deem as acceptable. I get a lot of positive feedback on my miniatures in the shop and have some very well painted minis for our gaming group (actually everyone's minis are good for the most part). I am not in the market to really make tons of high-end painted models because I simply will not be able to do it fast enough right now. I know my limitations. What I want to do is provide a service to produce good, solid, tabletop quality miniatures for those who are unable to do so themselves due to time constraints or lack of skill.

I am asking this community for any advice on how to go about setting up a reasonable pricing system whether that be a per miniature system or a per hour system. Or possibly even a tiered pricing system that is on a per squad basis for example 5 Space Marines, 5 Terminators, or 10 Ork Boys etc. I am trying to grow my portfolio to show off some of my skills in all realms and effects such as weathering, metallics, skin, armor, blood splatters, freehands/decals etc.

Here are some examples of my work and the basic idea behind what I would see as a pricing/quality system. Note that these examples are models from my personal collection I have been experimenting with and that I use regularly to see how they look and perform in the "real world" not just in a super fancy lightbox or display case. I want to show what they look like in their real environment if at all possible.

Bronze Tier - The very basics.


Silver Tier - A good solid tabletop standard.


Gold Tier - A High-Quality paint job for individual models

So do you think I have what it takes to do some very basic commission work? Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Also, if anyone could PM me or even write in the comments what you think a fair price for the models would be based on the various tiers that would be greatly appreciated! Please do not include the price of the miniatures in that estimate, simply let me know what you would consider a fair price for the service. Thanks!

- VardenV2

One thing people need to keep in mind when considering this sort of work is that it isnt so much the level of skill they bring to painting, rather how they can fit that skill into the existing market.

You would probably find enough customers to pay for a very basic, clean 3 color paint job to make a living off from it, provided you were able to paint fast enough, that is.

Pricing makes a big difference, both for the number of customers you can secure and subsequently if it is financially viable. Granted, part of the pricing concern needs to be how fast you can work. If it takes you 8 hours per figure to do your top tier, it needs to be priced accordingly, otherwise you might as well get a job stocking shelves as it would be much less hassle and pay better.

Ive found that to be the biggest source of failure for commision painters (sculptors, and other designers). By the time they actually do a few jobs and work the math they are making only a few dollars an hour. This causes them to either try to take on too much at once to pay the bills (and subsequently burn out) or have to get a second and third part time job (and subsequently burn out).

In the US, $20 per hour is a pretty good target right now. Certain areas with lower costs of living can go a bit lower. If you cant paint fast enough, that would put the cost per figure pretty high. Often it is better to practice speed techniques rather than finesse techniques. A lot of sites have sections devoted to speed painting that can help there.

I wholeheartedly agree with Sean_OBrien, rather than ask what people think is a fair price for your different tiers you are better off experimenting a little.

Sit down and say "I am going to paint these 5 guys to Bronze standard" start the timer and off you go. Rinse and repeat a couple of times to be sure and then you can divide the required time with your desired hourly rate and you will have the price per model.

Then do it again for each tier after that and you should be fairly set. However, you need to also factor in material costs, paint, brushes and other consumables, if you are planing on offering assembly and minor conversion work you need to factor that in too. Assembling and cleaning models can take longer than putting the paint on them.

Then don't forget postage....

I have heard very similar pieces of advice already and they are being heavily considered. Thank you for your input it is extremely helpful.

One thing to keep in mind is that I do not wish to "make a living" doing this. I am mostly interested in doing it to pick up some money on the side in a more interesting way than working at the local fast food joint etc. I jsut graduated college so the job search in in motion. In that down time I figured "Hey, I am painting warhammer models anyway so why not make a few bucks in the process?"

I will be doing some "trial runs" this week most likely to see how fast and efficiently I can do a batch of models. Just based on times set in my head I was thinking this for pricing:

~ $3.00 per 25mm infantry model (space marine, Fire warrior, Eldar etc) painted to the silver tier [basic service]

~ $0.50 per model for basing fee for a standard sand/battlefield base applied and painted.

~ $1.00 per model for a sand/battlefield base applied + a doodad of some sort (bullet casings, helmets, dropped weapons, extra large rocks etc.)

So, if say, someone were to order a ten-man tactical squad, with standard sanded bases it would be $35+ any shipping and model fees. If they did 5 regular bases and 5 doodad bases it would be $40. I think that this is probably a fair price, as I can see myself getting 10 models primed, airbrushed and detailed in about 4 hours at the longest (so that's $10/hour). It may not seem like that much money, but I don't think that charging more money will make it viable to get customers. I want to make it fast, cheap, solid work for the price. Plus, adding in little things like basing fees or doodad fees is actually a good amount of additional money for minimal work. It's just those little touches that make the model seem right.

This also goes along with the vein of thought that a tabletop painting service should charge roughly what the cost of the models are. I figured ~$35.00 was average for a ten-man squad. marines are $40.00 for ten but are fast to paint, whereas Imperial Guard are around $30 for ten guys, but have more varies color schemes, camo effects etc. So the extra price bump would equate for this extra effort and time. Does that make sense? I think I could charge a bit more but I just really don't know. Still working out prices for vehicles and 28mm etc like terminators. Same with fantasy pricing. I am a lot less familiar with fantasy than 40k so I will need to do some investigating.

What are the thoughts on this method?

- VardenV2

If you are looking to pick up a little extra revenue on the side then you have the freedom to charge as you like. That's the beauty of it as a part time job.

However, please make sure to include in your costings your paint costs, maintenance of equipment (airbrush cleaning and anything that is required for that), brushes, hobby supplies etc. etc. It can all be too easily overlooked at charging for just your time.

Keep in mind though that you have the freedom to adjust your prices accordingly (for future commissions) , if you find that you have under-costed, future quotes can be more, it isn't set in stone once you start the endeavor. However, never try to change the price during a commission.

Also note that you need to be careful with overloading your schedule. Don't take on too much at once (especially if looking for full-time employment) as nothing kills a reputation faster than slow service. Keep in touch with your customers, offer photo updates as you go (remember though that these take time and you may need to bump up your prices to reflect the extra effort, nothing is free these days) and good luck with it all.

 Archer wrote:
If you are looking to pick up a little extra revenue on the side then you have the freedom to charge as you like. That's the beauty of it as a part time job.

However, please make sure to include in your costings your paint costs, maintenance of equipment (airbrush cleaning and anything that is required for that), brushes, hobby supplies etc. etc. It can all be too easily overlooked at charging for just your time.

Keep in mind though that you have the freedom to adjust your prices accordingly (for future commissions) , if you find that you have under-costed, future quotes can be more, it isn't set in stone once you start the endeavor. However, never try to change the price during a commission.

Also note that you need to be careful with overloading your schedule. Don't take on too much at once (especially if looking for full-time employment) as nothing kills a reputation faster than slow service. Keep in touch with your customers, offer photo updates as you go (remember though that these take time and you may need to bump up your prices to reflect the extra effort, nothing is free these days) and good luck with it all.

Thanks a lot for the advice. Luckily I already may have one interested customer who is a friend of mine I occasionally play at my local GW. This will be a good "first run" so to speak to figure out if the quality was good for the price etc. as I can be honest with him and work to figure things out on a more personal level and stay in touch easily etc. Also, he can be brutally honest with me about it and let me know what's up if it's wrong or right etc. and it won't be awkward or annoying. Even if he feels I should be charging more and it won't be awkward when I up the prices the next time (or lower them) as he was part of the decision.

I think that communicating with the customer is a great piece of advice too. My dad is actually trying to get a house built and it seems there is nothing more frustrating than having decisions be made without his consent on the matter only to find out they were done poorly or not how it was meant to be done etc. I definitely agree about not changing the price etc during the order. That would just be a very bad move in my opinion.

One last question. What do you think is a good way to advertise my services. I usually play at a local GW shop so I can certainly talk to the guys there but I do not think that GW is allowed to accept any outside transactions going on on their premises. It means that I cannot directly talk about my services or offer them to people while in the store, or post fliers or business cards in the store. There s also a local game store that I might be able to post some fliers or business cards at to scoop up some business. Do you think that's a valid tactic? I would love to eventually get some models on the table at various locations so that when people play with them, they advertise themselves. It's like "Wow those look really good did you paint them?" 'No, this guy did. Check it out, he was fast and efficient and delivered solid work you can see!" (ideally!) haha.

I want to grow my portfolio too. I'll probably make a quick site to plop some model pics on and as a way to contact me for orders etc. Sound plan?

- VardenV2

Well you can use Dakka Dakka and make a painting and modelling blog that you can direct people to.

Look up local games clubs and gaming stores and request to either put up notices. If you get on really well with said games club/store you could ask to have a permanent display in one corner advertising the various levels of your work, but that may be in the future.

I think lean on your mates a little to pass the word around, your regular hobby opponents as well can help. I don't think there is any harm in talking to opponents in GW about your services, as long as you do it quietly and don't conduct any transactions in the store you should be fine.