Commission Work

[Andym]

This is more a topic for people who commission terrain pieces or those who do terrain commissions…..I would love to get into doing some stuff for people to try and make a bit of money on the side to help with my own hobby.

To the guys that do commission work….how do you advertise your services? Have people just come to you in the past because of previous work? Have you ever just sold stuff on eBay/etsy/LAF? Any guidance would be great?

To the guys who hire people or buy single finished terrain pieces….where is the best place to buy stuff? Have you commissioned pieces in the past? How did the experience go?

Thanks for any help in advance! I got literally NO idea how to make a start doing this!

[Tom Dulski]

 I've bought many 3d printed pieces of terrain on eBay and Etsy. I never purchased something that I could make myself.

[Rabbitz]

Facebook groups which allow sales threads and forums are a good place to start.   Not used eBay in years now so can’t comment on that.  It’s hard to get started as you find most people want something for nothing and don’t understand the amount of time sone things can take.   

Build up some terrain pieces and post them up so people get an idea of your work and if you find one or two good customers, look after them, as they are harder to find than you’d think. 

I like to chuck in free samples of stuff that I think my customers would like to hopefully open up future terrain projects. 

If you can come up with something reasonably generic and quick to reproduce that also helps. 

[boneio]

I've purchased a few bits and often snap up 2nd-hand terrain when it comes up for sale on the forum. I can make most things to an OK standard myself but time is a problem... and energy for that matter 

Have a look at TwoShedsFred on ebay - they do a fairly 'set' range of bits which are generic enough to fit most games and are done to a good standard. For me they are a good balance of price and quality.

There are a few sellers on Etsy but they're harder to find and the quality seems pretty varied.

From the handful of commission-based terrain makers I follow on Facebook they seem to have a pretty regular set of customers as they never seem to advertise for work, they're just steadily making things. As a result I've never directly commissioned anything since I've no idea what they cost! I understand that most won't quote without a chat as each commission is very varied but as a customer that tends to imply "better have deep pockets" 

Again that's not unreasonable, it's got to be worth the time & materials cost i.e. not be below minimum wage or why bother?

There's also Adrian's Walls who builds and paints up existing MDF kits as a sort of premium service. From memory I think it costs 2-3x the retail price of the kit (plus cost of kit, naturally). He's often found at wargame shows. I've never purchased as it's just that bit outside my price range really, though again I don't think it's overpriced, just more than I can justify

From time to time I discover a seller on ebay who seems to enjoy making and selling things speculatively but they usually only last a few months or a couple of years before they run out of steam (or get enough regular work to drop the ebay listings perhaps?). They are typically selling at a price I'm happy to pay but which probably doesn't actually reflect the time that went into the work i.e. it's not really about earning for them and more about enjoying the build process and then not clogging the house with the result 

All the above is UK-centric in case that's relevant.

Hope this is vaguely helpful!

[boneio]

Just had a look at your threads - I don't think you'll have a problem finding an audience with quality like that 

(Also amusingly spotted someone I know in a convention thread from 2018, small world  )