Commissions

[Bill]

Hey hey

Having just finished my first commission (an Air Familiar for TyronMagda in return for some of his lovely PVC display bases), I am wondering about doing commissions for money :twisted: TyronMagda is interested too, and wanted me to give a vague pricelist. So... at the best standard I paint (high 7s to low 8s), what do people think are reasonable rates to charge, eg. £x - £x for a single unconverted figure, £x - £x for a large monster with conversion...? Or should all prices be decided purely upon request after I have discussed what a project will entail with the client?

I\'d appreciate any advice on this, especially from people who do commissions themselves Hopefully for Christmas I will be getting this website package and will be able to set this stuff up properly!

Cheers

~Bill

 

[generulpoleaxe]

scores on cmon are not a good indication to go off.

find prices that are simular to your standards. also, think about if you want to paint a few minis or hoards.

i don\'t do budget armies any more as nocking out a full army a month was driving me insane.

hope this helps.

 

[Bill]

OK, cheers

I will advertise only for single miniatures and the occasional monster For pricing, I will have to do some snoping around to see what other folks is chargin\'... :]

Thanks for the advice!

~Bill

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

My best advice is don\'t try to compair to others.. ask for what you feel your time is worth. If it comes out that no one wants to buy your stuff then your asking to much..if you suddenly have a ton of quick commissions your probably to cheap. But in the long run its really hard to make money off painting. If you use it as a way to improve your skills and practice and get something back for it in return then your ok.

Theres a lot of people out there who think anything more than a few dollars is to much for a painted miniature..there are others who will pay what its worth. In many cases some painters get what they do in the high end because of who they are and what they have won. They have been at it a while and built a reputation and a fan following. So don\'t expect to get top painter prices out the door. Your young and new to the hobby.

Also keep in mind that if you charge pounds, the dollar to the pound totally sucks so it makes things very expensive for US consumers. I fid that what ever costs 1 USD costs one pound in the UK and thats really almost $2.00 USD right now.

 

[Thecadian]

looks good i wish you look with this.

i may do commissions but at my skill itd be about 17.5p a model!

I did sell a techpriest enginseer for £3 once though

 

[AinuLainour]

Not sure if this suggestion will help, but I would price your work for about 15 to 50 pounds.

 

[Bill]

Thanks for the advice folks!

OK, when I set this up, I\'ll say something along the lines of:

\"Nicely painted miniatures by Youngbloods winner Bill Jobling! Now available for commission.

Prices on application - we\'ll discuss cost and time spent before deciding on a final price. Expect to pay more for a big miniature or a converted one than for a smaller or unconverted one. Prices in whatever currency suits you best lol\"

Sound okay?

Cheers

~Bill

 

[hakoMike]

I\'ve been charging $30-$40 for a mini that takes about 12 hours to paint. Full armies depend on the model count, but typically a megaforce or army box goes for $200-$300, with the understanding that it\'s done fast, so not top quality on the models.

However, given my dropping scores on minis lately I may be charging less and less. lol

 

[war0827]

Bill, also remember that it takes time for you to paint these mini\'s. And there are people out there that are willing to pay for anything. Regardless if it\'s for tabltop, showcase, gift, or for their dog to chew on. You have to set prices depending on how you will paint them. This may draw a larger crowd for more business, but will definately put you on your heels since you will have alot to do in a short period of time. My suggestion is to test the waters out before setting a standard price for your mini\'s. Start off by asking people around your local hobby store. There\'s bound to be some people who would rather pay for their mini to be painted than doing it themselves. You gotta start small before going big. Like DFD said, you need to build up a reputation. That\'s how I started. I\'m doing single mini\'s for around $50+ depending on painting (tabletop, showcase, etc.) for one customer who continues to come back. I\'ve been painting for him for like 2 years now.

Start small to build your rep. then slowly go big. Just my 2 cents

 

[III I III]

I can tell you my personal experience. I started taking comissions 8 years ago when people began to ask me for. I set flat prices depending on the size of the model to be painted. At that time I remember I was paid the equivalent of 2/3 euros for a infantry trooper (from 5 to 6 of rating on cmon) and about 7/8 euros for a character. I was very slow and noticed that this pricing system wasn\'t good as it prevented me to be sure of earning a set amount of cash. So I began almost immediately to take record on a notebook of time spent on each mini and of the level of quality. Then I converted that time in money basing on the cost of an hour (which I initially set on 5 euros). After some time I improved my painting speed and I was able to increase my hour fee to 10 and then 15 euros. Other parameters that might allow you to increase your hour fee are the amount of request you receive or the prizes/contests you got. Today I still work with this system and I think is the best if you\'re going to take commissions to make extra money and not only to make practice and improve your skills

 

[Bill]

Cheers guys, a lot of great advice there! Setting a per hour price sounds like a very good idea. Lots of things to consider :] I\'ll definitely keep this thread in mind when I set up after Christmas, thanks a lot!

~Bill

PS. I am open for commission now, but on a very exclusive basis lol PM me if you really want me to paint something for you

 

[MPJ]

Originally posted by hakoMike
I\'ve been charging $30-$40 for a mini that takes about 12 hours to paint.

The unfortunate part is that at that price your making less than half of minimum wage.

As has been mentioned, unless your phenominal it\'s a bit tough to make any \'real\' money painting minis, espically singles. I typically get about the same as HakoMike but for a mini that takes 2hours ish to paint (I\'m fast with the brush). Now I can make a little painting units, but I can paint a unit of 10 in under 2 hours to a standard that would hit high 6s to low 7s here on CMoN (in fact I have a few units in my CMoN pictures). In that way at $5 to $10 each (plus mini cost) it could be a bit of a living if the volume was there, still hard to raise a family on though.

I would find it interesting to learn how much time was put into some of the higher priced (multiple hundreds) minis I\'ve seen go on eBay, to see if there is any real money being made. I understand many of the better artists spend 40+ hours on a mini and unless they are consistantly selling those for $500+ then there isn\'t really a living to be had there.

In all I think for most it\'s more of a way to make pocket cash while doing something you love or a way to keep you in your hobby, sorta like the reason I put in an application at the local GW store to work part time... for the discount. In fact I probablly make more than the entire staff combined, but hey it could be fun and dang they get a good discount.

 

[EPStudios]

I think I have what you could expect from your miniatures given the different CMON scores they receive on my commission page. I\'ve been commission painting for something like 6 years now so I make around $15 per hour, however I do not believe that it is a great full time job... Just a good opportunity to get compensation for your time spent in trying to improve your skills.

 

[Bill]

Thanks for the advice!

Originally posted by EPStudios
I think I have what you could expect from your miniatures given the different CMON scores they receive on my commission page. I\'ve been commission painting for something like 6 years now so I make around $15 per hour, however I do not believe that it is a great full time job... Just a good opportunity to get compensation for your time spent in trying to improve your skills.

Yeah, not a good living in itself - but I\'m 13 and don\'t have to work (yay! :beer: ), so this is time to take advantage of my free time and painting skills to make a bit of cash here and there :]

Cheers

~Bill

 

[TaintedBrush]

If you are doing commissions here and there, set a fair price that covers your cost and makes you a little extra.

As a warning, dont take it too seriously, unless you know what you are getting in to. I do contracts as a full time job, and after doing them full time for 4 years, I pretty much despise painting now. (painting converted abbadons is a different story )
If you are going to do them full time, make sure you are earning a decent hourly average. (Once I did the math, I found out I was earning around $3 and hour for certain quality levels of painting, so I quickly raised my prices and speed, and the customers never complained) $10-$15 per hour is what you should shoot for, just work the math out according to your speed/quality level. (For example, for a \"industry standard\" level 3 character model (a 7.5 to 8 roughly on CMON) would be $80-$100, and I would put roughly 8 hours of painting into the model. (Speed picks up dramatically after doing commissions for such a long time)

Speed is almost always important. If you are doing single mini\'s, theres a bit of wiggling room there. Armies for the average wargamer are a different story. Nearly all wargamers want stuff in their hands before they finish ordering it (I am this way too) so getting large armies done quickly is essential to keeping dedicated customers.

Good luck with it all, and hope you can understand me clearly ,

TB

 

[hakoMike]

Originally posted by MPJ

Originally posted by hakoMike
I\'ve been charging $30-$40 for a mini that takes about 12 hours to paint.

The unfortunate part is that at that price your making less than half of minimum wage.

Don\'t I know it! lol Good thing I enjoy it, and it is externally financed practice. But yeah, I haven\'t worked for this rate since I was 16. lol

 

[MathewBaich]

When someone buys a mini from me, i usually settle for around $25 to $30 with a little negotiation too. but it has taken me a good long while to paint for some reason lately and i can\'t punch out mini\'s in a timely fashion compared to how long it takes.

 

[Onis Lair]

Really i can\'t say too much as i\'m not much more then a table top level painter with a few local contest wins. However i tend to charge a paltry $20 for a standard 30mm single figure, Mounted up to 55mm and singles up to 54mm are $35 with anthing over 54mm starting at $45 and going up. Of course mind you almost all my commissions come form local gamers who think paying $5 for an unpainted miniature is too much so wringing money for painting is like getting blood from a stone.

 

[OrkyDave]

I was just curious about Commission painting, and this thread has raised some questions I hope you all may be able to answer

(sorry Bill, this isn\'t a hijack as I am not doing commissions, just a curiosity, and I hope you find these useful too!)

1. PURCHASES AND ASSEMBLY

Who pays for this? does the customer say \'I want this squad ect\' , the painter goes and pays for it out of their own pocket, and gets re-imbursed when the job is done? What if you buy the mini\'s paint the commission and the buyer backs out? Do you need some sort of formal contract before hand?

Does the painter or client assemble the models? sometimes it can take ages to clean up and glue together certain mini\'s (my GW giant and components for it took me 14 hours of scraping and sticking!!) Are you taking this time and expense into your hourly rate?

2. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND POSTAGE

What, if for some reason, the customer is not satisfied with the level of painting, and do not believe they are receiving value for money? Do they have the right to back out? leaving you out of pocket left with minis with hours of work put in that you do not want?

Do you take postage and packaging costs when giving the client their initial quote or add it on at the end? This obviously is going to pust up the cost of the model, unit, army etc. And may put it over what the client is happy to pay?

just things I was curious about, if anyone can help answer these I would be greatful!

@ Bill- I think it would be a safer bet to paint up stuff you know will be in demand and flog it on Ebay. You can set a price you will be happy for it to sell for and the customer can see exactly what they are bidding on.

This seems like a cool way to earn some extra pocket money though and sure beats a paper round! When I was your age I stacked shelves at the local corner shop. 15 Hours a week for £10.00 (And I thought Child labour was abolished with the chimney sweeps!)

Good luck mate, let us know how you get on, you f***ng little freak!lol