Painting for commission.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I ask for a quote from blue table panting where I buy the models from them. But let them choose the list. 500 points. We will see what we get.

[kojibear]

Well, would you pay $35 for someone to paint like this, their level 5 quality?



Depends on your expectations I guess?

[Admiral-Badruck]

That is really poorly done.

[me_in_japan]

hmmn. for 35 bucks that's actually not unrealistic. Prim paid me a CSM battleforce to do one mini, and I think, given the time it took, he got a pretty dang good deal. You have to look at it in dollars per hour. These folks are looking to earn money, and if painting pays em less than flipping burgers, they're likely gonna consider that job in MacDonalds. To paint a mini like that Skarre would probably take about 3-4 hours, so you're looking at about 9-10 bucks an hour. That aint so much. In comparison, Prim's 60 pound battleforce (that's what...90 bucks, I'm guessing?) got him a paint job that took (well, aeons, but in terms of actual paint time...)60ish hours? I mean, its not like I counted, but...

Anyway, so one pound an hour aint such a great going rate. A pro could obviously turn out a mini of that quality in far less time, but even so, for a display quality mini you're looking at 20-30 hours, and if you consider that a really good painter (YellowOne, Ana, Rusto, etc.) are top of their field, you can easily pay 500-1000dollars per mini for this kind of person.

So, in that light, 35 bucks for ol' skarre there aint looking so bad.

and speaking personally...

It is not fun. It is a weight around the neck until done.

agreed, absolutely.

[Admiral-Badruck]

The skaven I did for Prim are at least as good as that any I charged him 100 yen a model.

[job]

@ Koji: ... well...um... the lightning effects are pretty nice. And he did highlight where possible. And there is paint on the whole model....

But, yeah, I'm reaching to try and find something nice about it. I agree that it is totally underwhelming. Certainly nothing to advertise yourself on.

On the other hand, I think MiJ hits the nail on the head when he points out for the number of hours needed to invest in a model, $35 can go fast. If you think a painter should get about $5-7 an hour for commission (5-7 hours of work), I think you got too little, but this is just under US minimum wage. If you expect $10 an hour for a figure, maybe that is as far as a painter gets in that time.

Anyway, I think you are right to feel unimpressed, Koji.


@ Ashmie: I like how you really want things to better for gaming in Japan. Maybe something can be done to improve gaming here in Chubu. We'll just have to keep it positive. Edit: Just like the guy from the Blue Painting company. He seemed like a nice, honest and very affable person. Probably makes the coolest of gaming opponents.

[kojibear]

Anyway, so one pound an hour aint such a great going rate. A pro could obviously turn out a mini of that quality in far less time, but even so, for a display quality mini you're looking at 20-30 hours, and if you consider that a really good painter (YellowOne, Ana, Rusto, etc.) are top of their field, you can easily pay 500-1000dollars per mini for this kind of person.

So, in that light, 35 bucks for ol' skarre there aint looking so bad.

and speaking personally...

It is not fun. It is a weight around the neck until done.

agreed, absolutely.

But you do have a lot of admiring fans Mij

I do agree with you, and job, regarding the wages needed to pay the staff and the price you would need to pay a golden daemon winner to paint a fig. Then again, I believe that the model in the picture would have probably looked better with some smooth basecoat colours, inked once and given some clean highlights. This is not what I am seeing in this example of their care and attention. It is assembly line, and I understand that is his business, but it is just not a good one when you compare the other company I mentioned. I feel this is nothing out of the ordinary but shows care.

[Admiral-Badruck]

Now this one ain't that bad.

[Spevna]

Anyway, so one pound an hour aint such a great going rate. A pro could obviously turn out a mini of that quality in far less time, but even so, for a display quality mini you're looking at 20-30 hours, and if you consider that a really good painter (YellowOne, Ana, Rusto, etc.) are top of their field, you can easily pay 500-1000dollars per mini for this kind of person.

So, in that light, 35 bucks for ol' skarre there aint looking so bad.

and speaking personally...

It is not fun. It is a weight around the neck until done.

agreed, absolutely.

But you do have a lot of admiring fans Mij

I do agree with you, and job, regarding the wages needed to pay the staff and the price you would need to pay a golden daemon winner to paint a fig. Then again, I believe that the model in the picture would have probably looked better with some smooth basecoat colours, inked once and given some clean highlights. This is not what I am seeing in this example of their care and attention. It is assembly line, and I understand that is his business, but it is just not a good one when you compare the other company I mentioned. I feel this is nothing out of the ordinary but shows care.

Big difference between this and the other pic. You can tell straight away that more care has been given.

[ashmie]

Got my quote back. For around 90 models of Empire some core some heroes it would cost me over 800 dollors, for full specifications to what I wanted on the banners and theme etc it would set me back around 110,000 en. That's without basing from what I can gather.
So there is money to be made if like them you have a team of 10 people working away all day long in a factory setting. So the key would be to employ people who were good at speed painting and accuracy. The market is clearly for time here as they can have my 90 models ready in in 20 days. If you have a tournament coming up they prioritise your order, cool. Wow.