Need some advice on charging for painting miniatures

[Onebigriver]

Hi all, my cousin has asked me to paint a box of Perry's redcoats with Perry/Empress metal heroes of Rorke's Drift (film and historical) and a couple of cannon. He's insisting on paying me for doing them but I've never considered charging before.

I'm looking at doing R & F with washes and drybrushes but obviously the heroes will require more work.

How on earth do I work out what to charge? I'm not looking at doing this beyond this commission, but would appreciate any advice.

Cheers

[Lowtardog]

If you aren`t after cash one thing to do would be to trade figure for figure e.g. each one you paint, he buys you one. A good way t get into a new period, create a force or try something out you have had a hankering for

[Onebigriver]

Oh no he was very insistent on paying me for painting them. He's far too busy to learn to paint himself & I've built a couple of 1/35 AS-90s  (he's a former gunner in the British Army) in the past for him for the pleasure of building them but this time he insists on paying me.

I like LTD's idea. I do have my eye on some 20mm PSC goodies for my foray into 20mm WW2 so I might suggest he pays for a few box sets.

Cheers.

[has.been]

Similar situation some years ago.
Friends wanted a mural painted on their children's bedroom wall. They too insisted on paying.
Having never painted anything bigger than 54mm I was at a loss what to charge,
in the end I did the painting for a piece of furniture (money would have just disappeared into weekly bills)
We still have the settle, though their children have long since grown up & the family have moved house.

If anyone is thinking of doing a mural, the thing I found hardest was the high corners. A figure you can easily
turn to get at the awkward areas, try doing that to a bedroom wall. 

[Onebigriver]

If anyone is thinking of doing a mural, the thing I found hardest was the high corners. A figure you can easily
turn to get at the awkward areas, try doing that to a bedroom wall. 

Sound advice, I'll stick to the Redcoats! 

[fusilierdan]

A friend of mine used to charge the cost of the figure times 3. A $1.00 figure cost $3.00 to paint. Another friend charges $5.00 - $7.00 per figure. Here's a link to a professional site. http://www.miniaturelovers.com/25-28MM%20Figures.html

I should think 1-2 times is fair. It seems your cousin doesn't want to take advantage of you.

[AndrewBeasley]

How about food?

Get him to pay for a take away meal and share it with him and his family.  No one needs to cook and using paper plates etc you do not need to wash up .

Has the advantage that it's fun and an excuse to get together again.

[Onebigriver]

Travel might be prohibitive - I'm in Lancashire, he's in Kent.

Think I'll stick to painting for miniatures!

[AndrewBeasley]

Travel might be prohibitive - I'm in Lancashire, he's in Kent.

Think I'll stick to painting for miniatures!

Good idea - the meal may go a bit cold

[flags_of_war]

The thing to remember is that the you must work for a fee that doesn't make you regret doing it or you'd be willing to work for in a normal day job. I know a few commision painters at various scales of the market and every now and then they get a job that they just want to see the end of. It's not always fun painting for others and they also will also set some demands. I've seen some guys charge way under what should be charged for their standard and sometime they get customers who want the world for the little fee they are actually paying.

I always break things down into hours. Say you take 1 hour to paint a figure. How much would you consider a reasonable amount to work per hour? You also have the artists fee that you offering a skill so make sure it work for you.

All the best with it and fingers crossed it works for you.

[Norm]

I think you have to have regard for the fact that this 'favour' may be asked of you again, so really, I think you need to set the right balance of reward and that would include being able to say 'no' or at least 'not at the moment' for any future requests.

There is a fine line between doing a favour and becoming a cheap painting service. I worked with two blokes, one had been a mechanic, the other owned a classic car. The classic car owner would ask the (ex)-mechanic to do work on his car, to basically save  on garage costs, and then at the end of the day, just gave the mechanic (a nice bloke) 2 packets of fags as a token thank-you. The problem came as the ex-mechanic was repeatedly put upon to work on the car and the mechanic felt obliged to do so as a friend and the car owner just kept stumping up two packs of cigarettes. They should have started off on a sensible footing that worked for both of them ..... because it developed into something else.

It strikes me that your cousin has a high regard for your time already, so perhaps he is seeing this from a more sensible perspective than you are (I don't want that to sound as rude as it does!) :-)

[Onebigriver]

Thanks guys. I'm not worried about becoming a cheap painting service and Norm you hit the nail on the head with your final (not rude at all rest assured) point that he has high regard for the time and effort that goes into the painting.

This all came about because I restored (unknown to him) his childhood wooden fort for his 40th birthday last year. We went to stay with him a couple of weeks ago and I saw his fort in pride of place in his office but looking a little bare. Knowing he loves the film Zulu I suggested getting 54mm redcoats to man the fort (we used to play with those  WW2 Airfix knock-offs in the fort). Turns out amazingly that no manufacturer makes 54mm redcoats & Zulus (for shame!!!) so we turned to 28mm, and before I know it he's ordered £70 worth of Perry & Empress miniatures & he's making me promise to charge him for painting them.

I think I'm going to stick with LTD's suggestion of painting time in exchange for miniatures. Of course, should his ex-army buddies like what they see & want some miniatures painted or an As-90 built I'll make it clear that it will cost more.

[fred]

Painting for figures has a long history - but I wonder if this equation has changed with the introduction of multipart plastic figures.

Not only are the figures cheaper than metals, there is the added time cost of assembling the figures.

[Lowtardog]

Old school plastic 54mm Zulus, you need to ask here mucka

http://plasticsoldiers.co.uk/index.php/period/zulu-wars/

[Onebigriver]

Old school plastic 54mm Zulus, you need to ask here mucka

http://plasticsoldiers.co.uk/index.php/period/zulu-wars/

Well that ship sailed, but cheers Karl. Maybe for his 50th birthday....