What's The Going Rate?

[sleep when Im lead]

I have found myself with some time on my hands and a need for money. My painting skill has been good enough for me to sell my work in the past but only on a small scale. So I am thinking about painting minis semi-professionally. No laughter please.

What do people think is a reasonable rate? My Google-fu is telling me that about £4-£5 is about the right rate in the UK. This does not include prep time. It's not too bad for metal minis but some plastic kits can take an age to put together and I haven't even thought about basing or anything that might be considered frills. I can churn figures out that would make that price about right but I would not be making a stellar living at that rate. That means about £10 per hour and I can get that doing almost anything let alone anything that involves some skill. £8 was being quoted for a basic character figure which against seems a little on the low side. When I have been working I have been earning way more than that.

Is it possible to make a living?

[Cubs]

If you can make £10 an hour, then you're doing better than most! I charge £30 per model as a flat fee and on average probably make around £6-£8 as an hourly rate for the actual painting. Prep time, varnishing, photographing and packing is extra time spent for no extra money. I do this in my spare time to get some extra pocket money because I can fit it around my life and don't have any expenses travelling to work or buying lunch, etc.. I painted full time for a few years and never achieved minimum wage.

The people who can make a serious living from it (ie. the sort of money that actually pays real bills and such) are either the ones who can charge big money for single exhibition pieces, or those who can churn out dozens of models per day at tabletop quality. Artmaster Studio, for example, charge between £6 (tabletop) and £15 (museum display) for a standard 28mm model.

It's not the sort of gig you get rich from, or even comfortably well off. The appeal is in doing something you love that you can wear your dressing gown for and you choose your own hours.

[grant]

I take commissions that I really want to paint. If I'm not interested, I just turn them down. I paint to fill my time. I'm definitely charging less than minimum wage ... I'm also nowhere the painter that Cubs is!

[sleep when Im lead]

It's not the sort of gig you get rich from, or even comfortably well off. The appeal is in doing something you love that you can wear your dressing gown for and you choose your own hours.

I am not expecting to get rich quick. I wish. That said, I am not looking to live in poverty either. Not sure I own a dressing gown but I get your point. 

[robh]

Are you limiting yourself to 28mm figures and are you painting armies, warbands, gangs/teams or single characters?

When I was taking commissions the smaller scales, 15mm and below, yielded a greater return per hour as you can"assembly line" most of the work, but does run the risk of being presented with the tedium of 500 near identical Napoleonic Prussian Infantry in Dark Blue, Dark Grey and Black.

As for pricing, you have to look at the Asian companies (Fernando et al) or someone like OldGuard in Kiev to see what the market rate is. Registered shipping and PayPal buyer protection makes this no more risky than looking anywhere else now so they tend to be the baseline.

Most people who commission work tend to be financially comfortable but time or skill limited and are looking for a passable* job that allows them to get their figures on the table and play games, they are not the kind of "one off" collectors who patronize the CMoN fraternity.

*Passable being very subjective depending on style and compatibility.

[sleep when Im lead]

To be honest I am not trying to limit myself to anything. I need the money. When I started blogging I was mostly doing 15mm. I guess with Flames of War it is pretty easy to churn them out. I sold about 200 WW2 15mm Russians a few years ago and made some good money doing it. The thought of doing 500 prussians scares me, even in 6mm.

My work is "passable" but the more passable it get gets, the longer it takes. I think of myself as a craftsman not an artizan.

[SABOT]

It might be an idea to paint  up a couple of units and put them m out there for sale? You only need one or two repeat orders to fill your days. It’s not an easy career choice and controlling the flow of delivering on time isn’t easy.

[LawnRanger]

   YOU need to find a good Wargames club or even a few smaller clubs then its a GREAT START...
     
   I am very lucky my club has a good 50 members and we always get a good turn out. As soon as members know that you paint and can see your stuff on the table then . they will b happy to part with the cash.

A Few pointers start slow.. .

     If you can paint fast and clean  thats great .
 I Find that players would rather have 2-3 units painted in a week than 1 good unit that takes 3 weeks to turn out.. and a wargamer would rather pay £60 for 3 unit than  1 unit.
     They will hand over more units for you to do ..you watch there little faces light up when you give them back to them..
Lets face it how many of us wargamers have armies to paint up ..And if they see you doing a good job for one member then others will follow .Dont over price yourself start cheap then work your way up slowly .. its better to have some work than not have ANY..
            You need to put your face round the club and be friendly to all as it going to be your job after all once people see that you do a good clean FAST job .. your made  Never be late for a dead line .. that way they can rely on you and they keep the money flowing in.

to paint a 28mm For £10 /£15 you need to paint him to a good standard with at least 2-3 shades on them and lets face it you aint going to do that day in day out ! for 40hrs + a week .GO Small scale is the way ..
and large units of 28mm figs for £80+ dont work look at ebay !

   I find that the smaller scale is best 10mm-15mm is great 
     They are fast to paint i can paint around 30 in 2hours  @ £1 each that £15 an hour
you never get 1-2 figs the customer will always give you a batch 20+ figs  (He does not mind  giving you £20 every week  get 5 members like that and thats £100 at least.
  You can do a whole army in 2 weeks which is more money ..
 They are dress nearly always the same or very close , easyer for you to paint.
   
I find it will be a good start if you can get into a club you will never be short of work.. plus you dont have the pain or time wasting of p&P ect ..  you will get your cash on time. It always nice to see your work on the Clubs wargames table if it was not for you they would still be in the box..++ all round

    Good luck with the job I know i could never do it full time(i could not sit down for 40+hrs a week ) i manage to paint around 6-15hrs a week on average in the evenings , last year i painted up over 2100 + figs  which payed from my hobby and a holiday with the family .. 

Happy gaming dave.v
     

   




   

[Hammers]

If you can make £10 an hour, then you're doing better than most! I charge £30 per model as a flat fee and on average probably make around £6-£8 as an hourly rate for the actual painting. Prep time, varnishing, photographing and packing is extra time spent for no extra money. I do this in my spare time to get some extra pocket money because I can fit it around my life and don't have any expenses travelling to work or buying lunch, etc.. I painted full time for a few years and never achieved minimum wage.

The people who can make a serious living from it (ie. the sort of money that actually pays real bills and such) are either the ones who can charge big money for single exhibition pieces, or those who can churn out dozens of models per day at tabletop quality. Artmaster Studio, for example, charge between £6 (tabletop) and £15 (museum display) for a standard 28mm model.

It's not the sort of gig you get rich from, or even comfortably well off. The appeal is in doing something you love that you can wear your dressing gown for and you choose your own hours.

A valuable shared experience. Thanks!

[mcfonz]

Cubs is bang on.

I would also say that in reality, there are some specific time periods and genre's that will earn you more than others. So may be worth a bit of research.

When I started Uni I had these grand ideas that I would be able to paint around my Uni hours and it'd be fun because I would get all sorts of different requests and it be varied.

I was wrong. I got bored and chucked it in. It can be very monotonous. Which isn't an issue for everyone. In fact, if you can do that then things like Napoleonics and repeated plain uniforms like early WW2 Germans in field grey is the way to go.

Like I say, have a look at what it is you want to get out of it and what you would be happy doing paint wise and maybe specialise a bit if you are looking to maximise the money coming in.

Word of warning, it put me off gaming for quite a long time!!