Working as a doctor I often find I dont have enough free time to paint as much I would like to. I do still love painting and am probably more of a painter than a gamer and have painted up 3 armies myself to a reasonable standard. The way I see it if I can pick up a few extra shifts at work and pay for a comission I am using my time more efficiently. I recently purchased a comission for around 2600 points of thousand sons with magnus as a centre piece. It was around £5,000 pounds which is no small cost but when you look at around 400+ hours of painting for the comission it works out at like 120 hours of work for me. I know im in a fortunate place to afford this but it really is a time vs money trade off.
I’m a doctor too, and I made the exact same calculation. For me, I want to be able to say I painted the models on the tabletop. But I get basically no pleasure out of assembling 100 Termagants. So I commissioned the assembly/magnetization, but did the painting myself. I thought it was the absolute best deal, though it was a little harder to find a studio who was willing to do that.
Personally I wouldn't ever pay for my models to be painted, mainly because I enjoy the modelling/painting side at least as much as I enjoy playing, but if you don't enjoy that side of the hobby then it makes sense to get someone to do that for you.
I get it cheaper doing so for forge world then buying the model my self in my country... so I get the paint and build at a huge discount since the import tax is that different.
I agree. I have a Marauder Destroyer that I'm paying one of my friends to paint. I dislike painting large models and he's a pretty good painter. He also glued the model together as I usully end up glueing myself to the table with superglue.
Some people just don’t have the time. I feel for people with kids and all sorts of responsibility, if they just can’t get an army painted up. I’d love to paint an army for somebody like that.
Im the same. regardless of how they come out, they are mine, i can see the improvement over time. I have a stormcast eternal that was painted by the Heavy Metal team, and whilst it is very nice, i don't feel nearly as much attachment as my early, splotchy painted models.
The problem with mini painting is people don't think it's worth much. Let's take the UK for example. Minimum wage here, aka. bottom of the barrel, is just under £10 an hour. Now consider that a squad of 5 Intercessors may take 10 hours to paint to a high standard. That's £100! My automatic response is that's way too much, despite being the minimum liveable wage. The numbers just don't line up.
Yep. Every time i get commissions enquiries and i tell them the price it would cost for me to be worth considering it always end up with crickets sounds responses.
Nail on the head, which means something else has to give or people have to use other methods to either justify the price (or more) or be more competitive. It's why Den of Imagination is popular and always has work - They're in Poland and the money goes much further.
Think you need to understand its a luxury. You pay rock bottom prices expect rock bottom quality. People who dont paint really dont understand what it takes. Also you arent just paying for paint and time you are also paying for talent and experience. In reality yoy are paying for much more than just a lil paint on a 28mm figure.
I don't understand. You mean to tell me you work every single day, no days off because not using every single hour to make money is just not worth it? This is a hobby, it's meant to be something that you do simply because it's pleasurable to do and something that you do in your off time. Your comment seems to me more like you just don't enjoy painting which is fine, but I don't really see the point of talking about minimal wages for something that's supposed to be a pleasurable activity.
@@drugmate9710 hes talking about making it a job mate if your getting paid to paint a model that is a job, hes not doing it for fun hes doing it for money thats what commision work is, they arent painting your models for fun, they are painting your models because they are getting paid to do it
I had a fully painted Soul Drinkers army stolen out of my car. It was heartbreaking, as it represented a full year of part-time modeling and painting. I never got it back, but I decided to replace it. I bought, built, and modified the models myself, but I didn’t have heart or time to repaint it all. I had a commission painting service paint it, and they did a great job. I’d still trade it for my original army, though.
I almost had this exact thing happen to me. I had all my models and terrain in the back of my car. Pulled up home one night and couldn't get my car into my garage, so I decided to leave it on the driveway. Came inside and a few hours later forgot that I hadn't got my models off the back seat. Went out got them and the next morning my window was smashed as someone had broken into my car and numerous others along the street. Odd thing was I don't think they took anything... Feel sorry for you though brother, I could barely imagine the rage I would have felt to losing my 2k guardsmen
I have painted one army and had another commissioned. Personally I felt so much more connected with the ones I painted and I wanted to put them on the table over the commissioned ones. They didn’t look quite as good, but they were my babies.
As someone who loved the lore and enjoys the game but doesn't have the patience to paint minis (I've tried before) I asked my friend to do it. I've bought him most of the paints he owns as payment for it (he wouldn't have asked for money I'm sure) and he's done wonderful work so far.
I spent a good 20-30 hours painting a friend's HQ for his Salamanders. I didn't have much in the way of paint for the task. Sent him a list of like 12 paints I'd want to use, and didn't have. He bought em for me as payment, and he has a kick ass captain.
In my case, he enjoys painting, but isn't highly skilled. But, he doesn't mind throwing $50 at me to build and paint a model. Which I enjoy doing as well. I don't even do commission work.
I got a quote from a very well known studio last year, I wanted to get Guilliman done at a mid tier level, I was quoted over £1,000! I was ready for it to be expensive, but that was just taking the p**s 🤯
In my Warhammer Days I had my Bretonnian army painted while I was deployed overseas. I clearly was unable to hobby while away, had extra income from the deployment, and this arrangement gave me an army to play with upon returning home. I absolutely did not, and do not regret this choice. Since then I have armies I paint and armies commissioned depending upon time and funds as I do enjoy painting but time may be limited.
I'm a commission painter and just enjoy the experience of working with people who love the hobby as much as I do, I've had no negative reviews or bad experiences so far as I work every step of the way one to one every few days and making sure it's the results they are happy with. Thanks for the video today AT .
The modelling (conversion/kitbash) side of the hobby is something I absolutely adore and I used to really loathe painting but I've come to enjoy it, it's a really fulfilling part of the hobby, I understand that someone may not be able to due to time/other constraints but even if I'm not very good at it, it's something that's very rewarding when it goes well (if it goes well)
As someone who paints models on commission a lot of this tracks with how I run things, (upfront costs, quotes, etc) but my clients tend to be those who want a nice centerpiece model instead of a whole army. So I end up working on larger single models with a lot more time investment.
Man that's the worst, being stuck with something that has to be meticulous/flawless for what amounts to a pay that's less than that of a fastfood worker... If you have the legitimate skill to do amazing work, you should (provided you don't already charge a lot) bump up your prices by a lot. Don't be scared to miss out on customers, a lot of people think everything has to be priced as efficiently as possible to be competitive, but in reality there's a ton of boutique businesses that can live comfortably because what they offer is what people are willing to pay for.
I’ve commission painted for awhile and your prices are roughly right for me. I specialize in some of the areas other folks don’t want to do. I do hordes, full armies, terrain, and just assembly for folks that want to paint their own stuff. Most work on Fiverr but gotten some everywhere (Facebook, TikTok, even LinkedIn). Biggest advice to someone getting a commission: communication, communication, communication.
I'll throw my 2 cents into this topic. I've been a commission painter for about 2.5 years now. Since covid started basically. If anyone is reading this thinking I should start, I'd recommend not. Commissions killed my motivation to paint for a good long while because what was once my hobby turned into a chore/task. Without going too down the rabbit hole, I'd recommend growing in your own painting journey before touching someone else's models. At least on a large army scale
hey, could u take a look at my paintjob and give me a rough estimate? I'm lookin to sell some minis but I don't even know how to value them. They're not perfect bit I'd say they're pretty decent. It's the first video on my channel, for some reason if you link a video, you're comment doesn't show
I don't mind painting individual models (Captains, Librarians, Knight etc) but painting squads just ends up feeling like job on a conveyor belt and saps my enthusiasm for painting. Most of my character models are actually finished whilst most of my units are either battle ready, or primed. With all that said though, I would probably feel crap if my whole army was painted by someone else, even if they did a better job than I ever could.
I recently got a quote from one of the major studios that is promoted by a bunch of the YT channels, they wanted 500gbp for an eldar autarch (excluding model cost, assembly, cleaning, or basing) at their lowest painting quality for characters. Given their quote for my 700 point force, a 2k point army would have been north of 7-8 grand.
I think I got a quote from the same studio for 60 models, most of them characters - the quote was around 20 grand. And that was not as the highest quality level. They didnt even blink so such an order was not unknown to them.
Last time I asked a commissioning studio for a quote to paint, at their LOWEST tier my Space Hulk 2014 terminators (10 models), I was quoted 3x the cost of the entire game (~£600). I personally couldn't justify spending that much for what I considered "table-top ready" quality for a hobby/game. On the flipside, that quote forced me to learn to paint them myself (thanks UA-cam), never looked back since.
I'm hoping some day to get good enough to take on a few commissions. I just love the building and painting side of this hobby so much. Moving in August and will have a full studio space to work from and start putting the hours in behind the airbrush. Very excited to learn
I don't see why anyone would have an issue with commission painting. It helps certain players who might otherwise struggle to get a properly painted force together and provides an income for a lot of talented and artistic people.
I've done both. When I was playing every week all I really cared about was how quickly I could get new models on the table. I also didn't really know how to paint. Painting tutorials were in magazines, not online back then. Now that I rarely play the game most of my time spent with GW is more about the hobby. Tutorials are everywhere and I find painting especially when there's no rush to be enjoyable.
I had all my models painted. Got a good price from a friend. I can’t paint nor do I have any desire to. He charged me half retail price unless it’s a big center piece. Great guy and could not play IRL without him.
So I happen to really love Warhammer 40K. I also have chronic arthritis in my back, I do my best each day to stay fit and ahead of stubborn pain. I wanted to do everything in this hobby. Assemble, paint, game. My assembling developed into perfection over time. Then the painting portion... Just by design, I can't hold a miniature and paint without triggering back pain over time. I try to straighten my back, try different styles, positions you name it to try and get these mini's painted by my hand. Was a painful process for me no matter how I approached the painting portion of this hobby. But you see I played so, many, games with those unpainted mini's with my old friends. I've been playing since 6th edition, and I have had some of the craziest, most exciting matches that I have ever played. So much sieze the initiative, one shotting ork tanks and forgefiends with vindicaire assassin, tearing up a Trygon with a single khorne chaos lord rolling 6 for axe of blind fury attacks. Played a doubles kill point game of 4,000 points vs 4,000 points, seized the initiative and witnessed plastic ranged massacre because it was my lascannoned out space marine army and homies ad mech shooting units out in the open. So I had to get some of my minis painted. I was 23 and worked night security at a gem packaging plant, didn't have much going on, so saved over time and eventually I ended up with 2,000 points of painted Crimson Fists commissioned by Blue Table Painting and 2,000 points of painted Thousand Sons painted by a really good friend of mine. Also slow growing 2,000 points of Emperors Children army for the upcoming codex 😈 My games are much more fun and engaging with having painted miniatures in my opinion, gives me a sense of completion and they look so dang cool painted 40K is the best game ever :)
Shows how far our hobby has to go before we reach maturity in terms of competitiveness. Would be funny if people at pet shows were required to bath/hairdo or even breed the animals on their own to be allowed to compete. :D Someone should start entering tournaments with a whole team. One strategist / list writer. One coach/trainer. One player/pilot. One Concept Artist/Lore Writer. One Assembly Technician/Kitbasher. One Painter. Perform as a team, smash the competition in every aspect and win as a team :D
I had mortarion professionally painted, matt the painter did an awesome job, money well spend . I've also had the dark angels Lion from forge world professionally painted and gulliman.
@@thisismychannel607 yeah, he looked tough, that's why i got him professionally painted, the rest of my death guard was painted by me, but morty was just to tough
I pay for some of my bigger models to be painted (C'tan shard, soon to be lady olynder) but unless the model scares me with how much detail it has i attempt to tackle it on my own. Painted my first ever HQ last month so that was exciting.
Time constraints are very real for me with 2 kids, but it’s mainly that I don’t want to pay a bunch for the models only to have them look like crap if I paint them myself. I’d rather have them done right by someone who knows what they’re doing and can accomplish what I’m hoping for. That said, it was definitely an iterative process working with bad artists and eventually finding good ones.
Personally have done this for bigger projects or rush jobs that I couldn't find models for (yes forge world was sold out and no listtings on ebay or troll trader) where I needed it for a tournament. The guy I have does take a while to paint things but can rush for a price. Great paint job for the best price at a slow pace or great paint job at a decent pace (not as fast as the other big groups) at a decent price. My tau nar with all weapon options cost a total of $1000 with shipping. He built, magnetized, and painted when I couldn't get all my options online to do it my self. Each gun on top is 100ish from forge world so 300. Each hand cannon is 50 so 200. Base model 240. So total of 740... only cost me about 180 for build and paint.
Living in the south hemisphere and playing warhamer is already an expenssive hobby, right now I cant consider a comission for my armies. If I´ve had more time on my hands I would definetly paint more, it´s a good side of the hobby, takes, at least, my head off some of life´s requests... And to fix the happy mistakes that often happen is a nice thing to do... Cheers from the tropics.
@@pinoarias8601 Thats a nice friend indeed, currently in my hometown im the friend who paints for others and dont charge because I need the experience... And I usually paint one model for each friend who plays in our dnd group, so no big projects but my own...
Really interesting and instructive video. I use to propose my services on fiverr just to be able to paint other kind of minis than the ones from my personal army. But in the end it didn't work out well mostly do to the fact customer where expecting a an above tabletop standard for less than 5$. Finally i decided to paint for some friends and family and I'm happy doing so. It's less stressful and far more enjoyable.
Due to my ADHD and work load I don't have the time to paint to my level of satisfaction so I commissioned Siege Studios to do a commission of my Ultramarine sucessor army, cost around $10K USD, but in the end it was money well spent as the models look awesome, I can play whenever I want, and I view the time saved being able to focus on other things in my life be worth the large price tag.
@@sauceboss9443 I rewarded myself for acing my CPA exams and getting all my course work done to get my certificate, was a 2+ year goal and savings. Also a one time purchase really!
Good article! For me, I wouldn't get anything commission painted but that is because it is a core part of the hobby for me and I'd feel like I 'cheated' to get there but I totally understand and respect why others would do it - painting is such a grind sometimes. I decided ages ago to do a black and white Tyranid scheme that I've edge hightlight everything on - taken me from late 2018 till now to get 2500pts done but very proud of what I've achieved! I think one negative for me is if, after the commission, if you wanted to expand the army, magnetise it or have different weapon magnetisation options etc... then you'd have to re-quote for extra work that might not be from the same artist and done in exactly the same way - that'd trigger my pickyness so much 😆
I used to commission paint as a primary income a few years ago, and was reasonably successful at it. Now, I consider myself semi retired, and basically take small jobs on for models. Send 2 boxes of models, get one back assembled and painted to a reasonable standard. Anything extra, like magnetizing or such will cost extra. I usually do paint the general to a bit of a higher scale, just .... because.
What you should really keep in mind is how much money you save yourself. Brushes, paints, cleaners, airbrush, extraction system, primers. Usually there is a lot left over with the colors. Let's take Ultramarines: green for the eyes, brown for the leather, maybe white for the banners and some gold for some decorations and red for the wax seals. All the colors you "need" but only extremely little used. Depending on what you would use, that could easily be €200-500 that you don't have to spend, if not more. I will soon order a battle-ready army and then rework it myself and make the bases myself for these reasons.
Great video. On one hand, I hate playing with unpainted plastic. On the other hand, I can't see myself paying someone to paint them, I enjoy the hobbying process. On the gripping hand, it takes me forever to paint, so I never actually finish an army...
I'm a commission painter who also sells stuff on ebay, where most of my clients come from (I guess they're happy with the work). The prices you list are pretty accurate but it really depends on the minis a lot too. Newer models tend to have a ton of detail so are taking longer even with just a simple once over with a shade and single highlight. Things like edge highlights also push up the cost as it takes a lot of time, especially on Primaris minis for example. I also think you should shop around if you're going to take the plunge as it's quite the investment. Look at their work, does it gel with the style you want, ask about prices, do they have their own website etc. Studio's may be less personal vs. an independent like myself, I don't really know. I usually offer to do a test infantry mini for someone if it's for a larger commission. It's also worth considering things like build costs. Some of my clients send stuff fully built. A single character mini is no bother but if you want someone to build a whole army, drill barrels, remove lines etc, then that adds up too. Commissioned minis can take the personal attachment away but if they're done well they should also retain value too. I sometimes get asked to either re-paint or finish off minis as well, which can also reduce the cost of a final result. I'd like to think my clients are happy with their minis, usually if I'm happy with a mini, they are too. Lastly communication is vital, I hate to second guess myself in regards to colours, tone etc, so I often ask a fair few questions to make sure a client gets what they want. If I'm painting minis to fit a clients collection then I need to know the paints used, any specific method for basing etc. to tie them in as well as I can.
@@bannermare6357 I think contrast paints are great for the most part. Darker colours especially, the lighter ones less so. They're not as good on flat surfaces or armour panels imo and I don't like them for metal work (vallejo metal color is the best). I usually use them for leather or clothes which can speed things up but only where base coats are concerned. They make great alternatives to washes as well if mixed right. Ultimately I think achieving a basic result is easier than ever for anyone but contrast or speed paints only do a job to a point. You still need to add shading and layer or highlight them to get the best results from them. My point regarding detail is that compared to minis 10-20 years ago there's usually a lot more to pick out and to do it neatly takes time. Even if you use contrast paints you have to be neat and they're not much good on finer details, at least for me.
In the beginning, I wanted to do the whole spectrum myself, but ended up with armies being almost in 50 shades of grey scheme, you know grey prime, grey base, grey everything 🤪 to armies still in shrink wrap after a year due to other responsibilities. I finally have 2 fully painted armies via commissions, roughly 3-4K in pts per army so I can have different lists of the same faction. Recently I invested in a 3D Print Shop accepting only corporate orders and now have trained up 3 full time painters who assemble and paint my untouched armies in the downtime between orders. Much slower than normal commissions since I’m at the mercy of production order schedules but definitely faster than doing it myself and cheaper than normal commission painting. Let’s just say 10 Necron Warriors at TT quality cost me about US$7 while normal commissions, to local painters that WH community podcast has featured, same thing would’ve cost me $50. Best investment I’ve ever made, pays for my hobby and still have a nice amount left over.
My first army, blood angels, I mainly painted myself. Besides a few HQ center pieces. But I'm started a Tyranid army and the larger monster center pieces I'm having someone paint. All the smaller units I'll paint.
I've always flirted with the idea as I do enjoy painting and I paint well. But I really enjoying painting things I can bring to the table and making other people's games more enjoyable while generating conversation. I'd lose that if I painted for a living and shipped all those models back when I'm done. The idea of "your dudes" is real for me.
I find it pretty simple: got enough money and not enough time to do it on your own - then go and ask for commission painting. Want to develop some painting skills, enjoy the process, save money and got enough time for it - do it by yourself
Adding my two cents. I used to do commission painting as a decent chunk of my income. The biggest mistake I see painters (and customers) make is that they don’t value the time. Painters undersell their time and customers undervalue it. I have even started breaking down a “time cost” column in my invoice / cost sheet so the customer understand show fast models need to be painted. I think it shows them the value for their money. For example, something like “at this price, to pay myself $20/hr (very low for skilled artist work) that means I will have 44 minutes to paint this model from grey plastic to finished, including basing and sealing.” That puts in perspective the quality that is given to the customer, as, often, it might take them 3x as long to achieve the same look. Exactly. Which is why you (the customer) are paying me to do it. Bc you don’t have the skill or don’t have the time. I have the skill, so pay for my time. It’s really that simple.
I’m colorblind so having the right color scheme I want for my army is a little bit challenging so I’d prefer a commission painter but I may find something that can help me paint my own stuff
If you are thinking of having a army commissioned start by laying out what you are expecting and do not say “eh do whatever”. I took a commission job painting a Grey Knights army (models that have a ton of fine details to paint) and spent over a month working on it. Then the client was impressed by my results however he was surprised by the amount of time i had to sink into it and how much i was asking for (and i really did my best to not be unfair with pricing).
I've never done it but I also enjoy painting the models myself I don't care if they aren't at a super high standard, when we're 6 foot away actually playing the game it really doesnt matter if its the neatest paint job.
I do tabletop+ for 2x GW RRP. It’s good value and a good way to work out price, but I often feel I’m building the models for free. I definitely do it for love not the money.
I was gonna say while I'm just getting back into the hobby it does seem like the hourly rate for painting would be terrible once you factor in the initial cost and assembly time too.
I'll save you 17 mins. The answer is it costs a lot to paint an army, hundreds of dollars if not thousands, if you want a GOOD paintjob, expect the painting to cost as much as the models if not more.
I'm more of a lore follower now, but when I was younger, I collected and played with the models I used to hate painting. My scheme for both my Tau and Imperial Guard armies were forces who specialised in night fighting i.e. all spray-painted black with minimal accents. Now I'm older I don't know why I chose armies which were so large, I think I wanted an army which wasn't Space Marines or Chaos, since that's what 75% of people at my shop had. In the year before I lost interest due to discovering beer and girls, I got the Daemonhunter codex and actually quite enjoyed painting Grey Knights. Surprisingly, I didn't just leave them unsprayed, even if that would have been lore accurate. Edit: Just looked at when the Daemonhunters and Tau codecs came out. Almost 20 years ago, bloody hell.
The main con in the commission painting scene is that most 'artists' just want to get the army done, rather than put actual effort into it, so armies will go out to the majority of customers with a myriad of amateur painting mistakes. Even 'Siege Studios' is terrible for this, especially when it comes to just how bad most commission painters are at recess painting, so you will find colour bleeding on most models. I also find that a lot of commission painters just use GW's trash take on colour theory(which is completely wrong, as, for example, you don't 'highlight' red with orange) to paint models, and that leads to an industry standard that is very underwhelming for people that just want something different.
It's because they are all competing with each other to have lower prices, the quality goes down. I do agree that they'll never put massive effort into an army. I myself love painting to a high standard and don't mind an army taking a few years to paint
I paint for friends and I am always honest, I tell them if they expect Angel Giraldez standard they should go for Angel Giraldez but if they want a decent table top standard quickly (I paint quick with no mistakes as I go through everything with a fine tooth comb so to speak and do 12 hour painting sessions at a time) and I have never had a complaint once about my quality of work. HellI love painting but when it’s other peoples minis I am more motivated than ever
@Archon - 'Siege Studios' was an example I used of how bad QA is within the commission painting scene. Bigger commission painters use content creators to showcase their work, and that's not reflective of the quality that they truly provide due to advertising being traded for the highest quality of work, which, in itself, is unrealistic to expect across an entire army if you were to actually pay for it as a normal customer, as there's zero incentive for them to match your army to an army they've painted that will be on show a lot of the time, which would ultimately be a reflection of their brand. The entire commission painting scene outside of actual box art painters, is a massive, massive con. The big commission painting companies are essentially running pyramid schemes due to there not being a golden standard of quality due to how many different artists there are, so it's impossible to know what you're going to get out of it.
If you are a beginner painter, maybe go for a silver paint scheme for your army. Add some nuln oil and another color (red, blue, green) and you can put it on the table. It will look decent and it won't take that long.
I do very much enjoy the painting and modeling aspect of Warhammer. That being said for something that’s really expensive and will be the focal point of my army on and off the table, like Primarch Sanguinius, I would have it professionally painted.
I have a couple commission models that were done for me just because I wanted an extremely cool HQ centerpiece for a few models. I do enjoy painting but I just wanted something cool to stand out in my armies.
If I have to chose between spending my time on the hobby side of the game or the gaming side of the game I would always chose the hobby side as that I find quite relaxing and well worth my time vs gaming I find takes a lot out of me in the Setup and takedown phases for less benefit than the amount of time I spend.
I found a guy in France who paints my chaos knights for 150 euros per knight and 65 euros per wardog, with all the weapons included, and it costs something like 5 euros to magnetize everything (less for wardogs). As far as quality goes, it's insanely good: between table top ++ and exposition level. I couldn't manage to find a better deal so far. If I had to do it myself, I'd have to pay for the paint, the brushes, it would take an insane amount of time yada yada plus I'm demanding when it comes to quality...so yeah, I have absolutely no regret, painting is just not for me.
Personally I feel like painting and modelling are a fundamental part of the hobby for me, but appreciate it's not the same for others. I do occasionally buy a pre-painted model off eBay but more often than not it's something I strip and repaint or something with a decent base coat job that I can touch up later. I do have a toddler to look after though so admittedly my time is currently limited and while my painting skills are surprisingly good it still takes ages to paint a whole model.
Honestly I think it's hardly worth it, weirdly box art (or higher) quality seems like the best option in my opinion - at this level it would be almost impossible to replicate for a average hobby enthusiast and for 1 model wouldn't cost you arm and leg. When it comes to whole army being painted haphazardly with 3-4 colors: why bother? Seriously, you could get an airbrush, black, white and all necessary colors cheaper and have it done faster, possibly even better.
Spoke to Siege Studios about it at UK Games Expo earlier this month. Don't think I could ever justify the price for a whole army but I really want to go for one of their custom character and paint options at some point.
A lot of people dont price their time properly especially beginner commision painters. It is not just time sitting and painting either, but all the little extras that all add up. If you break it down and are making less than 10-15 an hour than you are undervaluing yourself and your time.
As a painter who does commissions for my local meta I can say you'll lose money. Time =$ and when you spend 20+ hours on a center piece model (Glotkin for example) and only get 150usd from it, you've lost $. So these prices are pretty cheap considering the amount of work that actually goes into them. I've recently decided to stop commissions for awhile and work ony own personal backlog. Goof informative video, keep it up auspex!
I'm a new collector and wannabe player, I have some primaris infiltrators and a Tao fire team just sitting in their grey state on my table. And I'm afraid to paint them, it's real intimidating when I wanna make my first couple teams look decent at least. I think I can paint them! I've never tried though and I've some shakey hands from mining work. It really tempts me to find a local painter who can paint them for me, I know this fits well into "they can produce a better quality" but my fear is directly related to "my inability". Their job could be really good or mid-ish and I'd be happy.. but buying their service because I think I'll mess it up, as a fist unit, I wanna make them cool!
Look I've been where you are. I've even played against professionally painted armies and it made my first ones look like vomit in comparison haha. But with time, practice and patience you will get better. just last weekend, I painted a old Marnier calgar model that almost looked worthy of display at a local shop haha. Plus ¥ou can always strip the paint off the models you have and start again. Players will love an even badly painted army much more than greys. Try and do it slowly model by model. Pick a simple colour scheme to start. You will make many mistakes but thats the idea. You learn. If I can do it you certainly can!!
Great overveiw matched my research as well! Which thinking about it double the price per model is not that bad... Some hang ups not mentioned... You want a werid paint sceme like no highlights but really good "Base colors" on models that are not the main 40K/Age of sigmar armies... Pretty much comsions are not for me even if price and being a online creative myselfs pride and videos.
I've paid a game store friend to paint a few of my units over the years. I still paint most of my armies myself but the few units he's done look lovely in my army.
I am on the fence. I really like the idea of having an army from the likes of Siege Studios or Stiff Neck Studios, Den of imagination or one of the many other studios. Would be cool. You, like Many Bat rep channels can show off a cool company work and give big ups to them. Which is a part of this community. I paint and have a couple armies but it would be awesome to see another take on an army. You are supporting the community and artists as well.
I've been a commission painter with an LLC for 8 years now. It's hard but rewarding work. I've probably painted several thousand miniatures at this point for a dozen or so game systems. Shout-out to Frontline gaming for helping me get my start, almost 8 years ago!
As someone who could afford to have a nice commission done for a new army and without much free time as I'd like to complete the assembly and paint jobs... I still do it myself. Why? There's a whole layer to the hobby associated with making this stuff on your own. I have never played the tabletop game (finally about to start after collecting on and off since 3rd edition), but I love putting armies together and making lore behind them. I feel like you lose a lot of the creative side of the hobby if you don't make this stuff yourself. I would never bash someone for doing getting a commission, as my paint jobs look awful and I wouldn't mind a professional touch, but I do think you're missing out by not painting this stuff yourself.
I mostly paint the heroes for my little sister and her friend. Just finished the void dragon, and currently working on Mortarion and the silent king. But I do that for free, partly to start a portfolio to start getting in to commissions, don't feel like I'm there yet.
I often trade 3D printing services for Painting. But that's mostly D&D stuff. For 40k I have so many models it's just easier to dip everything in homemade contrast paint then pick out the details.
Personally I've stuck to a single 40k army for the 4 years I've been in the hobby. I'm a slow painter, but because I only have one army, I have a large army of miniatures that I've entirely painted. My one and only AoS army is also all my own building and painting. However if I was to get a third army, I would likely buy the models already built and paint them myself. The small premium that assembled models fetch on Ebay would be worth the tens of hours and multiple months required to build the 2000 point army for me.
I played in the Orlando Open last year and the lady who won the best painted award for Age of Sigmar didn't paint her own army. The judges knew this and gave her the award anyways. With that said, I would say that there's nothing stopping people from winning best painted with commissions.
My painting skills are basically awful due to poor eye sight and shaky hands. I commissioned a couple local guys to work on some warmachine armies for me years ago. cost for basic painting is 1 - 2x the cost of the model, and they looked fantastic! Frequently won best painted, which I always passed off directly to the painters as a tip / thanks for painting them. one of them even got his models in the cryx army book. I would absolutely pay people again to paint my 40k but now I have less disposable income
I do some commission painting, I find that the best clients are people who have done some hobby are the best to work with. People who have not painted or built models don’t realize the work required to create a good piece. In the same day I’ll have someone balk at 30 dollars for a space marine captain, then have someone say my rate is too low and go up 25 percent on my quote.
I would never tell someone to hire someone to paint, saying that I have sold character minis I've painted online for anywhere between £70-120. I don't sell them for that reason though, i just enjoy painting a mini I like the look of and then realise I have no room to keep it. Some of the rates "studios" charge are absurd given the actual cost of the work, it's a pretty dicey field tbh, people get ripped off when it comes to quality all the time and those that don't are often humongously overcharged.
In the contrary, it's massively undercharged most of the time. I think it's hard to realise how much time it takes to paint those on a good quality level. and the time it took to have that skillset. Those who paints full time are barely making a profit, it's really done by passion. Perhaps 2 painters on top of my head are doing well but mostly due to the other activities like youtube and social media.
@@jeancouscous Not really sure how you work that out, even if you use an expensive airbrush for more advanced techniques the long tail costs for it are minimal. Paints aren't that expensive when you manage how much you use. I have personally made back the cost of all my painting kit; compressor, 3 airbrushes, about 150 paints, all my brushes and other miscellaneous gear over the sale of about 8 character minis. I let mine go for auction at cheap prices, I don't even put a minimum bid in. My work is middle of the road compared to most studios, better than their low end not as good as their high end but I tend to make about 30% the amount they do at that level of art so unless they have severe logistics/management issues I can't see how they aren't making money. No idea who you are thinking of, but everyone I personally know who paints and sells makes enough to pay for not only their time, but their tools and a lot of their personal collections.
Possibly the worst rule in 40K. I can't imagine telling someone they'd lost in a close game because their army wasn't painted to a specific level. Purely a way for GW to force people to buy their overpriced paint.
I am a terrible painter and have tried for years to get it down but it just doesn’t click for me, luckily I have a friend who does commissions so I paid him for the work. I can see how others may not do it like that but it works for me.
Since starting in 2018, I painted virtually the entirety of my first army with a little help of my wife over the course of a year, around 3000 points of Imperial Guard. Honestly, getting through what I did, I'm not sure I'll paint much again. I hate painting, don't have the patience for it, and to make matters worse I've got weird circulatory issues with my hands to where I can't feel my fingertips, my joints hurt, and my hands shake whenever I hold anything. Painting anything as time's gone by is truly an exercise in misery. When I got to assembling my World Eaters army a couple years ago, I've so far gotten the entire force commission-painted, well over 4000 points by now. Yeah, it's cost me money, but the simple fact is that that money spent saved me time and extreme frustration, and to boot the paint job's miles ahead of whatever I'd be able to do. Full credit to anyone willing to build and paint all their stuff, it's just not for me. I got into the game to play.
When my buddy and I started the hobby he paid me to paint his army along with mine as he has no time to paint. I charged 80$ for painting the necron half of indomitus plus a box of Lychguard, half a recruit box, a Canoptek Spyder and Illuminor Szeras. Charging him 60$ for painting his DDA and Doomscythe. Of course I am not a pro, but I've learned so much doing his necrons that I'd lile to think they look better than my own marines.
I'm a 40k player that you could describe as a "trained artist". It seems like the main factor with commission painting is speed. With me, you can have it good or you could have it fast, just not both. I don't think I'd wanna be responsible for someone else's entire army. I know my own standard of work, but giving someone a quote and a time estimate would be really difficult.
I’ve sent my miniatures away for commission as I want beautiful display piece as I don’t have much time to actually game but I’m currently ticking over with a person project of a knight house
My partner and I met playing Star Trek online (hear me out) and over the time we discovered our mutual passion for 40k. Years later, we moved in together. We both enjoyed playing and building our models , but neither of us liked the aspect of painting, nor did we want to commit to the time required to learn how. Over the years we've been together, we both collect at a steady pace and as various holidays or birthdays or anniversaries have passed, we've commissioned painters in our local area to paint our armies. Thousand Sons, 3 full 2k Imperial Guard infantry armies, ranging from Valhallans to an entire custom female Guard regiment. Knights, both Chaos and Imperial and my latest sent off to my buddy Gene is my Ork army. 9 Deff Dreads, 6 Killa Kans, 1 Deffkilla Wartrike, 2 Dakka Jets. I paid $520 Canadian for the listed Ork models, to be painted to a table top standard. I also paid $87.11 for ALL his paints required, bases, highlight and layer paints, aswell as the washes and 2 brushes. Just over 600 dollars total. The time is estimated at less than a month for everything.
This is not an advertisement of what I am doing. Just an explanation of how I see this. So I am buying the Age of Darkness box, gonna paint it up as Emperor's Children. It will be for sale, however if it does not sell then oh well I have an extra army to play either 40k (as a custom chapter) with or in HH, like I don't really expect it to sell but I see either way it goes as a win because I get to do an enjoyable part of my hobby and I get a nice distraction from painting my Wolves. I am by no means a pro painter, so I'm kinda selling towards people who just want models that are "parade ready" as GW puts it but not overly done to the point it costs an insane amount for my potential customer.
Depends on skill of the artist. I'm still new so I wouldn't pay much. That guy who made the lava Tyranids? He did me a model for £30s and it was well worth it.
I paint some of my armies, and I farm others out to contract professionals. I probably paint 50% of my armies myself, and have professionals paint the other armies. Finding a painter you are satisfied with for the right price is the really difficult part. Most of the time if having someone else do the painting I assemble the entire army myself and then ship it out to be painted. I do all my terrain myself - assembling, painting, etc. Even 3D printing terrain as desired or needed. Best advice I have when hiring someone to paint your army, or parts of your army: Give them one unit to assemble and paint. If you like the results, hire them to the rest or do more. If you are not satisfied, since it was one unit you can most likely fix it yourself, painting it up to where you are happy. Then just move on and try a different painter. The other piece of advice is to be very detailed and explicit in what you want in terms of unit assembly options and what you want in painting, including what kind of basing on the models you want. If you want your armies painted and are limited on time, paying someone else to do it is a good way to go, or so I have found.
I actually paint and sell GW stuff. This is not commission, but I buy the new stuff that just came out, since it is new, no one has it and so the demand for that kit is the highest it will ever be. I put them on ebay for around 2 times sticker price, sometimes more sometimes less depending on the kit. The new stuff almost always sells at high prices. I turned the shadow throne box into over $600 in sales. As for commissions which I rarely take since it is tedious, I pretty much charge the same minus the model cost cause usually I didn't have to buy the models for my commissions. I also agree to the price and scope of the kit before anything is shipped anywhere. However I do know that my prices are cheaper, alot of other guys do it for so much more. For me I like painting and it pays for my hobby. This isn't and advertisement, but just what I do and maybe it gives some insight.
I'm one of those that truly hate painting and have looked at commissions. The. Big problem is finding a reliable painter. Someone that won't just disappear with your models since they got "tired" of it or will charge for a crappy job. When I was looking up options I did try Siege studios a big one in the industry. For about 2k of Maggotkin AOS the quote was over 6k USD. One big character was over 1k USD alone. Way too expensive for me. Right now I've only had 1 army commissioned painting table top standard and that is my 1k Sons. Due to cost I honestly dont think I'll do it for another army. Guess I'll continue with most armies staying only primed
I have used commission painting services quite a lot. For me it is the time constraints that have sent me down that route. I have found in my personal experience Instagram is a fantastic way of finding independent commission painters. It is a great way to see the standard of painting you can expect. Often they are much cheaper than larger painting studios. The top Studios I have used are Seige, blasingbrush and den of imagination. I have used them several times each. Both for big and small project and have never been disappointed! I have had only had one bad experience with a painting studio and that was BTP. The models were badly built and poorly painted. As a result I have never used them again. Annoyingly they weren't much cheaper then the vastly superior alternatives mentioned above. Nice to have a discussion on a different topic of the hobby. Keep up the good work!!
@@WardenOfTerra That is a very good point! Touch wood I have never had anything lost or damaged in the post! It is well worth taking into account though.
7:00 regarding the section about snide comments from hobbyists; I can't even imagine interacting with someone like that, and I hope I never have to. My FLGS is a very relaxed and chill space but I would 1,000% lose it on someone who gave another hobbyist shit for having commission-painted models. I've painted 99.9% of models I own but a few of the well-to-do fellows at my shop who, as AT described in the video, are super busy and they have little time to play let alone paint. They are great people and their armies look awesome and inspiring. Anyone giving them shit for getting commissions would just be very uncalled for.
I painted around 500 points of Sisters of Battle infanty and 5 of the tanks for a friend of mine who started collecting them last year just so he would have almost fully painted army to play with. (I really don't like playing against a fully non-painted armies for some reason) I now feel kinda like a doofus since I didn't get paid basically anything except a few paint cans and a case of beer for the trouble. Anyways I enjoyed the good practice the project offered and the friend was pleased with the results too.
I'm probably going to commission my primarch for Horus Heresy, I'm not blowing 100+ on a centerpiece model to have it look just meh, other than that I like putting in the time to improve my skills
I enjoy both sides of the hobby but am time poor and slow at painting. I’ve had several commission painters do work for me, the standard does vary and as always you get what you pay (and wait) for. Mostly I get troops painted. It’s expensive using someone like Siege, but the standard is excellent and very consistent. My own painting is at a similar standard just much much slower.
Working as a doctor I often find I dont have enough free time to paint as much I would like to. I do still love painting and am probably more of a painter than a gamer and have painted up 3 armies myself to a reasonable standard.
The way I see it if I can pick up a few extra shifts at work and pay for a comission I am using my time more efficiently. I recently purchased a comission for around 2600 points of thousand sons with magnus as a centre piece. It was around £5,000 pounds which is no small cost but when you look at around 400+ hours of painting for the comission it works out at like 120 hours of work for me. I know im in a fortunate place to afford this but it really is a time vs money trade off.
I’m a doctor too, and I made the exact same calculation. For me, I want to be able to say I painted the models on the tabletop. But I get basically no pleasure out of assembling 100 Termagants. So I commissioned the assembly/magnetization, but did the painting myself. I thought it was the absolute best deal, though it was a little harder to find a studio who was willing to do that.
Would love to see it, bet it's beautiful, make a quick army showcase video and link it in this thread
Not to be sarcastic but that's about what it takes to afford a fully commissioned army, be a doctor lol.
@@thisismychannel607 the company showcased it themselves here ua-cam.com/video/stBhtqXHfZg/v-deo.html
Another doctor here, and I made the EXACT same decision when I ordered my Custodes and Grey Knights
Personally I wouldn't ever pay for my models to be painted, mainly because I enjoy the modelling/painting side at least as much as I enjoy playing, but if you don't enjoy that side of the hobby then it makes sense to get someone to do that for you.
I get it cheaper doing so for forge world then buying the model my self in my country... so I get the paint and build at a huge discount since the import tax is that different.
I agree. I have a Marauder Destroyer that I'm paying one of my friends to paint. I dislike painting large models and he's a pretty good painter. He also glued the model together as I usully end up glueing myself to the table with superglue.
Some people just don’t have the time. I feel for people with kids and all sorts of responsibility, if they just can’t get an army painted up. I’d love to paint an army for somebody like that.
Im the same.
regardless of how they come out, they are mine, i can see the improvement over time.
I have a stormcast eternal that was painted by the Heavy Metal team, and whilst it is very nice, i don't feel nearly as much attachment as my early, splotchy painted models.
The problem with mini painting is people don't think it's worth much. Let's take the UK for example. Minimum wage here, aka. bottom of the barrel, is just under £10 an hour. Now consider that a squad of 5 Intercessors may take 10 hours to paint to a high standard. That's £100! My automatic response is that's way too much, despite being the minimum liveable wage. The numbers just don't line up.
Yep. Every time i get commissions enquiries and i tell them the price it would cost for me to be worth considering it always end up with crickets sounds responses.
Nail on the head, which means something else has to give or people have to use other methods to either justify the price (or more) or be more competitive.
It's why Den of Imagination is popular and always has work - They're in Poland and the money goes much further.
Think you need to understand its a luxury. You pay rock bottom prices expect rock bottom quality. People who dont paint really dont understand what it takes. Also you arent just paying for paint and time you are also paying for talent and experience. In reality yoy are paying for much more than just a lil paint on a 28mm figure.
I don't understand. You mean to tell me you work every single day, no days off because not using every single hour to make money is just not worth it? This is a hobby, it's meant to be something that you do simply because it's pleasurable to do and something that you do in your off time. Your comment seems to me more like you just don't enjoy painting which is fine, but I don't really see the point of talking about minimal wages for something that's supposed to be a pleasurable activity.
@@drugmate9710 hes talking about making it a job mate
if your getting paid to paint a model that is a job, hes not doing it for fun hes doing it for money
thats what commision work is, they arent painting your models for fun, they are painting your models because they are getting paid to do it
I had a fully painted Soul Drinkers army stolen out of my car. It was heartbreaking, as it represented a full year of part-time modeling and painting. I never got it back, but I decided to replace it. I bought, built, and modified the models myself, but I didn’t have heart or time to repaint it all.
I had a commission painting service paint it, and they did a great job. I’d still trade it for my original army, though.
The Inquisition finally discovered them
That's a shame. I hope the thieves would step on a the rim side of a blood bowl coin every day.
I almost had this exact thing happen to me. I had all my models and terrain in the back of my car. Pulled up home one night and couldn't get my car into my garage, so I decided to leave it on the driveway. Came inside and a few hours later forgot that I hadn't got my models off the back seat. Went out got them and the next morning my window was smashed as someone had broken into my car and numerous others along the street. Odd thing was I don't think they took anything...
Feel sorry for you though brother, I could barely imagine the rage I would have felt to losing my 2k guardsmen
That’s low to steal someone’s miniature collection
I have painted one army and had another commissioned. Personally I felt so much more connected with the ones I painted and I wanted to put them on the table over the commissioned ones. They didn’t look quite as good, but they were my babies.
As someone who loved the lore and enjoys the game but doesn't have the patience to paint minis (I've tried before) I asked my friend to do it. I've bought him most of the paints he owns as payment for it (he wouldn't have asked for money I'm sure) and he's done wonderful work so far.
In all fairness I would happily do this for a friend and not expect payment for it, sounds fun!
I spent a good 20-30 hours painting a friend's HQ for his Salamanders. I didn't have much in the way of paint for the task. Sent him a list of like 12 paints I'd want to use, and didn't have. He bought em for me as payment, and he has a kick ass captain.
It's a pretty bad payment I think, unless they really don't care about money, do they?
In my case, he enjoys painting, but isn't highly skilled. But, he doesn't mind throwing $50 at me to build and paint a model. Which I enjoy doing as well. I don't even do commission work.
Pro - It looks good and I want them
Con - I have no money... I collect 40K
I got a quote from a very well known studio last year, I wanted to get Guilliman done at a mid tier level, I was quoted over £1,000! I was ready for it to be expensive, but that was just taking the p**s 🤯
In my Warhammer Days I had my Bretonnian army painted while I was deployed overseas. I clearly was unable to hobby while away, had extra income from the deployment, and this arrangement gave me an army to play with upon returning home. I absolutely did not, and do not regret this choice.
Since then I have armies I paint and armies commissioned depending upon time and funds as I do enjoy painting but time may be limited.
I'm a commission painter and just enjoy the experience of working with people who love the hobby as much as I do, I've had no negative reviews or bad experiences so far as I work every step of the way one to one every few days and making sure it's the results they are happy with.
Thanks for the video today AT .
A superb, level headed look at commission painting, and squares with my experience as a commission painter. Great job as always, Mr. Tactics!
The modelling (conversion/kitbash) side of the hobby is something I absolutely adore and I used to really loathe painting but I've come to enjoy it, it's a really fulfilling part of the hobby, I understand that someone may not be able to due to time/other constraints but even if I'm not very good at it, it's something that's very rewarding when it goes well (if it goes well)
As someone who paints models on commission a lot of this tracks with how I run things, (upfront costs, quotes, etc) but my clients tend to be those who want a nice centerpiece model instead of a whole army. So I end up working on larger single models with a lot more time investment.
Man that's the worst, being stuck with something that has to be meticulous/flawless for what amounts to a pay that's less than that of a fastfood worker...
If you have the legitimate skill to do amazing work, you should (provided you don't already charge a lot) bump up your prices by a lot. Don't be scared to miss out on customers, a lot of people think everything has to be priced as efficiently as possible to be competitive, but in reality there's a ton of boutique businesses that can live comfortably because what they offer is what people are willing to pay for.
I had a warhound titan painted and it was the best decision I could have ever made for that. It came out so amazing and it’s far above my level.
I’ve commission painted for awhile and your prices are roughly right for me. I specialize in some of the areas other folks don’t want to do. I do hordes, full armies, terrain, and just assembly for folks that want to paint their own stuff. Most work on Fiverr but gotten some everywhere (Facebook, TikTok, even LinkedIn).
Biggest advice to someone getting a commission: communication, communication, communication.
I'll throw my 2 cents into this topic. I've been a commission painter for about 2.5 years now. Since covid started basically. If anyone is reading this thinking I should start, I'd recommend not. Commissions killed my motivation to paint for a good long while because what was once my hobby turned into a chore/task. Without going too down the rabbit hole, I'd recommend growing in your own painting journey before touching someone else's models. At least on a large army scale
hey, could u take a look at my paintjob and give me a rough estimate? I'm lookin to sell some minis but I don't even know how to value them. They're not perfect bit I'd say they're pretty decent. It's the first video on my channel, for some reason if you link a video, you're comment doesn't show
I don't mind painting individual models (Captains, Librarians, Knight etc) but painting squads just ends up feeling like job on a conveyor belt and saps my enthusiasm for painting. Most of my character models are actually finished whilst most of my units are either battle ready, or primed. With all that said though, I would probably feel crap if my whole army was painted by someone else, even if they did a better job than I ever could.
I recently got a quote from one of the major studios that is promoted by a bunch of the YT channels, they wanted 500gbp for an eldar autarch (excluding model cost, assembly, cleaning, or basing) at their lowest painting quality for characters. Given their quote for my 700 point force, a 2k point army would have been north of 7-8 grand.
I think I got a quote from the same studio for 60 models, most of them characters - the quote was around 20 grand. And that was not as the highest quality level. They didnt even blink so such an order was not unknown to them.
Last time I asked a commissioning studio for a quote to paint, at their LOWEST tier my Space Hulk 2014 terminators (10 models), I was quoted 3x the cost of the entire game (~£600). I personally couldn't justify spending that much for what I considered "table-top ready" quality for a hobby/game. On the flipside, that quote forced me to learn to paint them myself (thanks UA-cam), never looked back since.
Our man Auspex on the dot as usual - I have been literally researching this over the last few days.
I'm hoping some day to get good enough to take on a few commissions. I just love the building and painting side of this hobby so much.
Moving in August and will have a full studio space to work from and start putting the hours in behind the airbrush. Very excited to learn
I don't see why anyone would have an issue with commission painting. It helps certain players who might otherwise struggle to get a properly painted force together and provides an income for a lot of talented and artistic people.
The only people with issue are gatekeeping the hobby and don't deserve to be taken seriously.
I've done both. When I was playing every week all I really cared about was how quickly I could get new models on the table. I also didn't really know how to paint. Painting tutorials were in magazines, not online back then. Now that I rarely play the game most of my time spent with GW is more about the hobby. Tutorials are everywhere and I find painting especially when there's no rush to be enjoyable.
I had all my models painted. Got a good price from a friend. I can’t paint nor do I have any desire to. He charged me half retail price unless it’s a big center piece. Great guy and could not play IRL without him.
So I happen to really love Warhammer 40K.
I also have chronic arthritis in my back, I do my best each day to stay fit and ahead of stubborn pain.
I wanted to do everything in this hobby. Assemble, paint, game. My assembling developed into perfection over time. Then the painting portion...
Just by design, I can't hold a miniature and paint without triggering back pain over time. I try to straighten my back, try different styles, positions you name it to try and get these mini's painted by my hand.
Was a painful process for me no matter how I approached the painting portion of this hobby.
But you see I played so, many, games with those unpainted mini's with my old friends.
I've been playing since 6th edition, and I have had some of the craziest, most exciting matches that I have ever played.
So much sieze the initiative, one shotting ork tanks and forgefiends with vindicaire assassin, tearing up a Trygon with a single khorne chaos lord rolling 6 for axe of blind fury attacks.
Played a doubles kill point game of 4,000 points vs 4,000 points, seized the initiative and witnessed plastic ranged massacre because it was my lascannoned out space marine army and homies ad mech shooting units out in the open.
So I had to get some of my minis painted. I was 23 and worked night security at a gem packaging plant, didn't have much going on, so saved over time and eventually I ended up with 2,000 points of painted Crimson Fists commissioned by Blue Table Painting and 2,000 points of painted Thousand Sons painted by a really good friend of mine.
Also slow growing 2,000 points of Emperors Children army for the upcoming codex 😈
My games are much more fun and engaging with having painted miniatures in my opinion, gives me a sense of completion and they look so dang cool painted 40K is the best game ever :)
Shows how far our hobby has to go before we reach maturity in terms of competitiveness.
Would be funny if people at pet shows were required to bath/hairdo or even breed the animals on their own to be allowed to compete. :D
Someone should start entering tournaments with a whole team.
One strategist / list writer.
One coach/trainer.
One player/pilot.
One Concept Artist/Lore Writer.
One Assembly Technician/Kitbasher.
One Painter.
Perform as a team, smash the competition in every aspect and win as a team :D
I had mortarion professionally painted, matt the painter did an awesome job, money well spend . I've also had the dark angels Lion from forge world professionally painted and gulliman.
That mortarion model looks like the hardest to paint considering size/detail.
@@thisismychannel607 yeah, he looked tough, that's why i got him professionally painted, the rest of my death guard was painted by me, but morty was just to tough
I pay for some of my bigger models to be painted (C'tan shard, soon to be lady olynder) but unless the model scares me with how much detail it has i attempt to tackle it on my own. Painted my first ever HQ last month so that was exciting.
I've started doing this to fund my Warhammer hobby and I've been quite successful. Offering 3d printing services helps too.
Time constraints are very real for me with 2 kids, but it’s mainly that I don’t want to pay a bunch for the models only to have them look like crap if I paint them myself. I’d rather have them done right by someone who knows what they’re doing and can accomplish what I’m hoping for. That said, it was definitely an iterative process working with bad artists and eventually finding good ones.
Personally have done this for bigger projects or rush jobs that I couldn't find models for (yes forge world was sold out and no listtings on ebay or troll trader) where I needed it for a tournament. The guy I have does take a while to paint things but can rush for a price. Great paint job for the best price at a slow pace or great paint job at a decent pace (not as fast as the other big groups) at a decent price. My tau nar with all weapon options cost a total of $1000 with shipping. He built, magnetized, and painted when I couldn't get all my options online to do it my self. Each gun on top is 100ish from forge world so 300. Each hand cannon is 50 so 200. Base model 240. So total of 740... only cost me about 180 for build and paint.
Heads up made some mistake on the prices as it was cheaper lol or prices have changed 😅
Living in the south hemisphere and playing warhamer is already an expenssive hobby, right now I cant consider a comission for my armies. If I´ve had more time on my hands I would definetly paint more, it´s a good side of the hobby, takes, at least, my head off some of life´s requests... And to fix the happy mistakes that often happen is a nice thing to do... Cheers from the tropics.
Maybe you can comission a frien who won't charge a lot, it's what my buddy did with me.
We're from Ecuador btw
@@pinoarias8601 Thats a nice friend indeed, currently in my hometown im the friend who paints for others and dont charge because I need the experience... And I usually paint one model for each friend who plays in our dnd group, so no big projects but my own...
Really interesting and instructive video. I use to propose my services on fiverr just to be able to paint other kind of minis than the ones from my personal army. But in the end it didn't work out well mostly do to the fact customer where expecting a an above tabletop standard for less than 5$.
Finally i decided to paint for some friends and family and I'm happy doing so. It's less stressful and far more enjoyable.
Due to my ADHD and work load I don't have the time to paint to my level of satisfaction so I commissioned Siege Studios to do a commission of my Ultramarine sucessor army, cost around $10K USD, but in the end it was money well spent as the models look awesome, I can play whenever I want, and I view the time saved being able to focus on other things in my life be worth the large price tag.
What are you working as that you can spend 10k on a commission painted army?!
@@sauceboss9443 I rewarded myself for acing my CPA exams and getting all my course work done to get my certificate, was a 2+ year goal and savings. Also a one time purchase really!
@@matthewwhalen7296 good for you 👍 enjoy that army. What's the color scheme with them being ultramarine successors?
@@sauceboss9443 I went with Void Tridents and Nemesis marine paint schemes, super cool results!
Good article! For me, I wouldn't get anything commission painted but that is because it is a core part of the hobby for me and I'd feel like I 'cheated' to get there but I totally understand and respect why others would do it - painting is such a grind sometimes.
I decided ages ago to do a black and white Tyranid scheme that I've edge hightlight everything on - taken me from late 2018 till now to get 2500pts done but very proud of what I've achieved!
I think one negative for me is if, after the commission, if you wanted to expand the army, magnetise it or have different weapon magnetisation options etc... then you'd have to re-quote for extra work that might not be from the same artist and done in exactly the same way - that'd trigger my pickyness so much 😆
I used to commission paint as a primary income a few years ago, and was reasonably successful at it. Now, I consider myself semi retired, and basically take small jobs on for models. Send 2 boxes of models, get one back assembled and painted to a reasonable standard. Anything extra, like magnetizing or such will cost extra. I usually do paint the general to a bit of a higher scale, just .... because.
What you should really keep in mind is how much money you save yourself.
Brushes, paints, cleaners, airbrush, extraction system, primers.
Usually there is a lot left over with the colors. Let's take Ultramarines: green for the eyes, brown for the leather, maybe white for the banners and some gold for some decorations and red for the wax seals. All the colors you "need" but only extremely little used.
Depending on what you would use, that could easily be €200-500 that you don't have to spend, if not more.
I will soon order a battle-ready army and then rework it myself and make the bases myself for these reasons.
This gave me motivation to paint another batch of my grey heap
Great video. On one hand, I hate playing with unpainted plastic. On the other hand, I can't see myself paying someone to paint them, I enjoy the hobbying process. On the gripping hand, it takes me forever to paint, so I never actually finish an army...
I'm a commission painter who also sells stuff on ebay, where most of my clients come from (I guess they're happy with the work). The prices you list are pretty accurate but it really depends on the minis a lot too. Newer models tend to have a ton of detail so are taking longer even with just a simple once over with a shade and single highlight. Things like edge highlights also push up the cost as it takes a lot of time, especially on Primaris minis for example. I also think you should shop around if you're going to take the plunge as it's quite the investment. Look at their work, does it gel with the style you want, ask about prices, do they have their own website etc. Studio's may be less personal vs. an independent like myself, I don't really know. I usually offer to do a test infantry mini for someone if it's for a larger commission. It's also worth considering things like build costs. Some of my clients send stuff fully built. A single character mini is no bother but if you want someone to build a whole army, drill barrels, remove lines etc, then that adds up too. Commissioned minis can take the personal attachment away but if they're done well they should also retain value too. I sometimes get asked to either re-paint or finish off minis as well, which can also reduce the cost of a final result. I'd like to think my clients are happy with their minis, usually if I'm happy with a mini, they are too. Lastly communication is vital, I hate to second guess myself in regards to colours, tone etc, so I often ask a fair few questions to make sure a client gets what they want. If I'm painting minis to fit a clients collection then I need to know the paints used, any specific method for basing etc. to tie them in as well as I can.
@@bannermare6357 I think contrast paints are great for the most part. Darker colours especially, the lighter ones less so. They're not as good on flat surfaces or armour panels imo and I don't like them for metal work (vallejo metal color is the best). I usually use them for leather or clothes which can speed things up but only where base coats are concerned. They make great alternatives to washes as well if mixed right. Ultimately I think achieving a basic result is easier than ever for anyone but contrast or speed paints only do a job to a point. You still need to add shading and layer or highlight them to get the best results from them. My point regarding detail is that compared to minis 10-20 years ago there's usually a lot more to pick out and to do it neatly takes time. Even if you use contrast paints you have to be neat and they're not much good on finer details, at least for me.
In the beginning, I wanted to do the whole spectrum myself, but ended up with armies being almost in 50 shades of grey scheme, you know grey prime, grey base, grey everything 🤪 to armies still in shrink wrap after a year due to other responsibilities. I finally have 2 fully painted armies via commissions, roughly 3-4K in pts per army so I can have different lists of the same faction. Recently I invested in a 3D Print Shop accepting only corporate orders and now have trained up 3 full time painters who assemble and paint my untouched armies in the downtime between orders. Much slower than normal commissions since I’m at the mercy of production order schedules but definitely faster than doing it myself and cheaper than normal commission painting. Let’s just say 10 Necron Warriors at TT quality cost me about US$7 while normal commissions, to local painters that WH community podcast has featured, same thing would’ve cost me $50. Best investment I’ve ever made, pays for my hobby and still have a nice amount left over.
My first army, blood angels, I mainly painted myself. Besides a few HQ center pieces. But I'm started a Tyranid army and the larger monster center pieces I'm having someone paint. All the smaller units I'll paint.
I've always flirted with the idea as I do enjoy painting and I paint well. But I really enjoying painting things I can bring to the table and making other people's games more enjoyable while generating conversation. I'd lose that if I painted for a living and shipped all those models back when I'm done. The idea of "your dudes" is real for me.
I find it pretty simple: got enough money and not enough time to do it on your own - then go and ask for commission painting. Want to develop some painting skills, enjoy the process, save money and got enough time for it - do it by yourself
Adding my two cents. I used to do commission painting as a decent chunk of my income. The biggest mistake I see painters (and customers) make is that they don’t value the time. Painters undersell their time and customers undervalue it. I have even started breaking down a “time cost” column in my invoice / cost sheet so the customer understand show fast models need to be painted. I think it shows them the value for their money.
For example, something like “at this price, to pay myself $20/hr (very low for skilled artist work) that means I will have 44 minutes to paint this model from grey plastic to finished, including basing and sealing.” That puts in perspective the quality that is given to the customer, as, often, it might take them 3x as long to achieve the same look. Exactly. Which is why you (the customer) are paying me to do it. Bc you don’t have the skill or don’t have the time. I have the skill, so pay for my time. It’s really that simple.
I’m colorblind so having the right color scheme I want for my army is a little bit challenging so I’d prefer a commission painter but I may find something that can help me paint my own stuff
If you are thinking of having a army commissioned start by laying out what you are expecting and do not say “eh do whatever”. I took a commission job painting a Grey Knights army (models that have a ton of fine details to paint) and spent over a month working on it. Then the client was impressed by my results however he was surprised by the amount of time i had to sink into it and how much i was asking for (and i really did my best to not be unfair with pricing).
I've never done it but I also enjoy painting the models myself I don't care if they aren't at a super high standard, when we're 6 foot away actually playing the game it really doesnt matter if its the neatest paint job.
I do tabletop+ for 2x GW RRP. It’s good value and a good way to work out price, but I often feel I’m building the models for free. I definitely do it for love not the money.
Can you send me your website/contact info?
I was gonna say while I'm just getting back into the hobby it does seem like the hourly rate for painting would be terrible once you factor in the initial cost and assembly time too.
@@sonicwingnut it absolutely is not a job you do for the money that's for sure.
I got my Synthwave eldar army painted by Neonforge studios. Was very happy with the results
I'll save you 17 mins. The answer is it costs a lot to paint an army, hundreds of dollars if not thousands, if you want a GOOD paintjob, expect the painting to cost as much as the models if not more.
I'm more of a lore follower now, but when I was younger, I collected and played with the models I used to hate painting. My scheme for both my Tau and Imperial Guard armies were forces who specialised in night fighting i.e. all spray-painted black with minimal accents. Now I'm older I don't know why I chose armies which were so large, I think I wanted an army which wasn't Space Marines or Chaos, since that's what 75% of people at my shop had. In the year before I lost interest due to discovering beer and girls, I got the Daemonhunter codex and actually quite enjoyed painting Grey Knights. Surprisingly, I didn't just leave them unsprayed, even if that would have been lore accurate.
Edit: Just looked at when the Daemonhunters and Tau codecs came out. Almost 20 years ago, bloody hell.
The main con in the commission painting scene is that most 'artists' just want to get the army done, rather than put actual effort into it, so armies will go out to the majority of customers with a myriad of amateur painting mistakes. Even 'Siege Studios' is terrible for this, especially when it comes to just how bad most commission painters are at recess painting, so you will find colour bleeding on most models. I also find that a lot of commission painters just use GW's trash take on colour theory(which is completely wrong, as, for example, you don't 'highlight' red with orange) to paint models, and that leads to an industry standard that is very underwhelming for people that just want something different.
It's because they are all competing with each other to have lower prices, the quality goes down. I do agree that they'll never put massive effort into an army. I myself love painting to a high standard and don't mind an army taking a few years to paint
I paint for friends and I am always honest, I tell them if they expect Angel Giraldez standard they should go for Angel Giraldez but if they want a decent table top standard quickly (I paint quick with no mistakes as I go through everything with a fine tooth comb so to speak and do 12 hour painting sessions at a time) and I have never had a complaint once about my quality of work. HellI love painting but when it’s other peoples minis I am more motivated than ever
Siege Studio is daylight robbery for what it is unfortunately.
I'm not a huge fan of the airbrush glowing eyes or lights on everything
Looks really crap
@Archon - 'Siege Studios' was an example I used of how bad QA is within the commission painting scene. Bigger commission painters use content creators to showcase their work, and that's not reflective of the quality that they truly provide due to advertising being traded for the highest quality of work, which, in itself, is unrealistic to expect across an entire army if you were to actually pay for it as a normal customer, as there's zero incentive for them to match your army to an army they've painted that will be on show a lot of the time, which would ultimately be a reflection of their brand. The entire commission painting scene outside of actual box art painters, is a massive, massive con. The big commission painting companies are essentially running pyramid schemes due to there not being a golden standard of quality due to how many different artists there are, so it's impossible to know what you're going to get out of it.
If you are a beginner painter, maybe go for a silver paint scheme for your army. Add some nuln oil and another color (red, blue, green) and you can put it on the table. It will look decent and it won't take that long.
I do very much enjoy the painting and modeling aspect of Warhammer. That being said for something that’s really expensive and will be the focal point of my army on and off the table, like Primarch Sanguinius, I would have it professionally painted.
I have a couple commission models that were done for me just because I wanted an extremely cool HQ centerpiece for a few models. I do enjoy painting but I just wanted something cool to stand out in my armies.
If I have to chose between spending my time on the hobby side of the game or the gaming side of the game I would always chose the hobby side as that I find quite relaxing and well worth my time vs gaming I find takes a lot out of me in the Setup and takedown phases for less benefit than the amount of time I spend.
I found a guy in France who paints my chaos knights for 150 euros per knight and 65 euros per wardog, with all the weapons included, and it costs something like 5 euros to magnetize everything (less for wardogs). As far as quality goes, it's insanely good: between table top ++ and exposition level. I couldn't manage to find a better deal so far.
If I had to do it myself, I'd have to pay for the paint, the brushes, it would take an insane amount of time yada yada plus I'm demanding when it comes to quality...so yeah, I have absolutely no regret, painting is just not for me.
What's his name?
@@wraithface4410 He's a local painter in a town in the "Alpilles", he only takes local orders
So you're paying more for the paint job than the actual Knight😳
Great deal
@@matjov you'd pay MUCH more than that usually, I can assure you.
Personally I feel like painting and modelling are a fundamental part of the hobby for me, but appreciate it's not the same for others. I do occasionally buy a pre-painted model off eBay but more often than not it's something I strip and repaint or something with a decent base coat job that I can touch up later.
I do have a toddler to look after though so admittedly my time is currently limited and while my painting skills are surprisingly good it still takes ages to paint a whole model.
The „Basic Tabletop standard“ stuff i can do myself and im not ready to pay 50 bucks for a character that i have spend 30 bucks on for something fancy
👍 for using the word snazzy alone.
Honestly I think it's hardly worth it, weirdly box art (or higher) quality seems like the best option in my opinion - at this level it would be almost impossible to replicate for a average hobby enthusiast and for 1 model wouldn't cost you arm and leg.
When it comes to whole army being painted haphazardly with 3-4 colors: why bother? Seriously, you could get an airbrush, black, white and all necessary colors cheaper and have it done faster, possibly even better.
Spoke to Siege Studios about it at UK Games Expo earlier this month. Don't think I could ever justify the price for a whole army but I really want to go for one of their custom character and paint options at some point.
I like making the models but I find painting time consuming and I struggle with it! If I had the money I’d pay someone to do it!
A lot of people dont price their time properly especially beginner commision painters. It is not just time sitting and painting either, but all the little extras that all add up. If you break it down and are making less than 10-15 an hour than you are undervaluing yourself and your time.
As a painter who does commissions for my local meta I can say you'll lose money. Time =$ and when you spend 20+ hours on a center piece model (Glotkin for example) and only get 150usd from it, you've lost $. So these prices are pretty cheap considering the amount of work that actually goes into them. I've recently decided to stop commissions for awhile and work ony own personal backlog. Goof informative video, keep it up auspex!
I'm a new collector and wannabe player, I have some primaris infiltrators and a Tao fire team just sitting in their grey state on my table.
And I'm afraid to paint them, it's real intimidating when I wanna make my first couple teams look decent at least. I think I can paint them! I've never tried though and I've some shakey hands from mining work.
It really tempts me to find a local painter who can paint them for me, I know this fits well into "they can produce a better quality" but my fear is directly related to "my inability". Their job could be really good or mid-ish and I'd be happy.. but buying their service because I think I'll mess it up, as a fist unit, I wanna make them cool!
Look I've been where you are. I've even played against professionally painted armies and it made my first ones look like vomit in comparison haha. But with time, practice and patience you will get better. just last weekend, I painted a old Marnier calgar model that almost looked worthy of display at a local shop haha. Plus ¥ou can always strip the paint off the models you have and start again. Players will love an even badly painted army much more than greys. Try and do it slowly model by model. Pick a simple colour scheme to start. You will make many mistakes but thats the idea. You learn. If I can do it you certainly can!!
Great overveiw matched my research as well! Which thinking about it double the price per model is not that bad... Some hang ups not mentioned... You want a werid paint sceme like no highlights but really good "Base colors" on models that are not the main 40K/Age of sigmar armies... Pretty much comsions are not for me even if price and being a online creative myselfs pride and videos.
I've paid a game store friend to paint a few of my units over the years. I still paint most of my armies myself but the few units he's done look lovely in my army.
I am on the fence. I really like the idea of having an army from the likes of Siege Studios or Stiff Neck Studios, Den of imagination or one of the many other studios. Would be cool. You, like Many Bat rep channels can show off a cool company work and give big ups to them. Which is a part of this community. I paint and have a couple armies but it would be awesome to see another take on an army. You are supporting the community and artists as well.
I've been a commission painter with an LLC for 8 years now. It's hard but rewarding work. I've probably painted several thousand miniatures at this point for a dozen or so game systems. Shout-out to Frontline gaming for helping me get my start, almost 8 years ago!
I paint for them now, great people!
@@foxtayle683 definitely great people to work with!
As someone who could afford to have a nice commission done for a new army and without much free time as I'd like to complete the assembly and paint jobs... I still do it myself. Why? There's a whole layer to the hobby associated with making this stuff on your own. I have never played the tabletop game (finally about to start after collecting on and off since 3rd edition), but I love putting armies together and making lore behind them. I feel like you lose a lot of the creative side of the hobby if you don't make this stuff yourself. I would never bash someone for doing getting a commission, as my paint jobs look awful and I wouldn't mind a professional touch, but I do think you're missing out by not painting this stuff yourself.
I mostly paint the heroes for my little sister and her friend. Just finished the void dragon, and currently working on Mortarion and the silent king. But I do that for free, partly to start a portfolio to start getting in to commissions, don't feel like I'm there yet.
I often trade 3D printing services for Painting. But that's mostly D&D stuff. For 40k I have so many models it's just easier to dip everything in homemade contrast paint then pick out the details.
Personally I've stuck to a single 40k army for the 4 years I've been in the hobby. I'm a slow painter, but because I only have one army, I have a large army of miniatures that I've entirely painted.
My one and only AoS army is also all my own building and painting. However if I was to get a third army, I would likely buy the models already built and paint them myself. The small premium that assembled models fetch on Ebay would be worth the tens of hours and multiple months required to build the 2000 point army for me.
I played in the Orlando Open last year and the lady who won the best painted award for Age of Sigmar didn't paint her own army. The judges knew this and gave her the award anyways. With that said, I would say that there's nothing stopping people from winning best painted with commissions.
My painting skills are basically awful due to poor eye sight and shaky hands. I commissioned a couple local guys to work on some warmachine armies for me years ago. cost for basic painting is 1 - 2x the cost of the model, and they looked fantastic! Frequently won best painted, which I always passed off directly to the painters as a tip / thanks for painting them. one of them even got his models in the cryx army book. I would absolutely pay people again to paint my 40k but now I have less disposable income
I do some commission painting, I find that the best clients are people who have done some hobby are the best to work with. People who have not painted or built models don’t realize the work required to create a good piece. In the same day I’ll have someone balk at 30 dollars for a space marine captain, then have someone say my rate is too low and go up 25 percent on my quote.
I would never tell someone to hire someone to paint, saying that I have sold character minis I've painted online for anywhere between £70-120.
I don't sell them for that reason though, i just enjoy painting a mini I like the look of and then realise I have no room to keep it.
Some of the rates "studios" charge are absurd given the actual cost of the work, it's a pretty dicey field tbh, people get ripped off when it comes to quality all the time and those that don't are often humongously overcharged.
In the contrary, it's massively undercharged most of the time. I think it's hard to realise how much time it takes to paint those on a good quality level. and the time it took to have that skillset. Those who paints full time are barely making a profit, it's really done by passion. Perhaps 2 painters on top of my head are doing well but mostly due to the other activities like youtube and social media.
@@jeancouscous Not really sure how you work that out, even if you use an expensive airbrush for more advanced techniques the long tail costs for it are minimal.
Paints aren't that expensive when you manage how much you use.
I have personally made back the cost of all my painting kit; compressor, 3 airbrushes, about 150 paints, all my brushes and other miscellaneous gear over the sale of about 8 character minis.
I let mine go for auction at cheap prices, I don't even put a minimum bid in. My work is middle of the road compared to most studios, better than their low end not as good as their high end but I tend to make about 30% the amount they do at that level of art so unless they have severe logistics/management issues I can't see how they aren't making money.
No idea who you are thinking of, but everyone I personally know who paints and sells makes enough to pay for not only their time, but their tools and a lot of their personal collections.
That's what I'm doing since I suck at painting and don't enjoy it enough to put in the time to get better.
I would love to see a video on a death guard army using 3 carnivore war dogs or 1 knight and 2 war dogs. :)
I guess it is covered under tactics if you get bonus VPs for a painted army
Possibly the worst rule in 40K. I can't imagine telling someone they'd lost in a close game because their army wasn't painted to a specific level. Purely a way for GW to force people to buy their overpriced paint.
I am a terrible painter and have tried for years to get it down but it just doesn’t click for me, luckily I have a friend who does commissions so I paid him for the work. I can see how others may not do it like that but it works for me.
Since starting in 2018, I painted virtually the entirety of my first army with a little help of my wife over the course of a year, around 3000 points of Imperial Guard. Honestly, getting through what I did, I'm not sure I'll paint much again. I hate painting, don't have the patience for it, and to make matters worse I've got weird circulatory issues with my hands to where I can't feel my fingertips, my joints hurt, and my hands shake whenever I hold anything. Painting anything as time's gone by is truly an exercise in misery. When I got to assembling my World Eaters army a couple years ago, I've so far gotten the entire force commission-painted, well over 4000 points by now. Yeah, it's cost me money, but the simple fact is that that money spent saved me time and extreme frustration, and to boot the paint job's miles ahead of whatever I'd be able to do. Full credit to anyone willing to build and paint all their stuff, it's just not for me. I got into the game to play.
When my buddy and I started the hobby he paid me to paint his army along with mine as he has no time to paint.
I charged 80$ for painting the necron half of indomitus plus a box of Lychguard, half a recruit box, a Canoptek Spyder and Illuminor Szeras.
Charging him 60$ for painting his DDA and Doomscythe.
Of course I am not a pro, but I've learned so much doing his necrons that I'd lile to think they look better than my own marines.
I'm a 40k player that you could describe as a "trained artist". It seems like the main factor with commission painting is speed. With me, you can have it good or you could have it fast, just not both. I don't think I'd wanna be responsible for someone else's entire army. I know my own standard of work, but giving someone a quote and a time estimate would be really difficult.
I’ve sent my miniatures away for commission as I want beautiful display piece as I don’t have much time to actually game but I’m currently ticking over with a person project of a knight house
My partner and I met playing Star Trek online (hear me out) and over the time we discovered our mutual passion for 40k. Years later, we moved in together. We both enjoyed playing and building our models , but neither of us liked the aspect of painting, nor did we want to commit to the time required to learn how. Over the years we've been together, we both collect at a steady pace and as various holidays or birthdays or anniversaries have passed, we've commissioned painters in our local area to paint our armies. Thousand Sons, 3 full 2k Imperial Guard infantry armies, ranging from Valhallans to an entire custom female Guard regiment. Knights, both Chaos and Imperial and my latest sent off to my buddy Gene is my Ork army. 9 Deff Dreads, 6 Killa Kans, 1 Deffkilla Wartrike, 2 Dakka Jets. I paid $520 Canadian for the listed Ork models, to be painted to a table top standard. I also paid $87.11 for ALL his paints required, bases, highlight and layer paints, aswell as the washes and 2 brushes. Just over 600 dollars total. The time is estimated at less than a month for everything.
i love doing commisions. i both get money and don't have to store the models after i painted them witch is my favorite part
This is not an advertisement of what I am doing. Just an explanation of how I see this.
So I am buying the Age of Darkness box, gonna paint it up as Emperor's Children. It will be for sale, however if it does not sell then oh well I have an extra army to play either 40k (as a custom chapter) with or in HH, like I don't really expect it to sell but I see either way it goes as a win because I get to do an enjoyable part of my hobby and I get a nice distraction from painting my Wolves. I am by no means a pro painter, so I'm kinda selling towards people who just want models that are "parade ready" as GW puts it but not overly done to the point it costs an insane amount for my potential customer.
Depends on skill of the artist.
I'm still new so I wouldn't pay much.
That guy who made the lava Tyranids? He did me a model for £30s and it was well worth it.
I paint some of my armies, and I farm others out to contract professionals. I probably paint 50% of my armies myself, and have professionals paint the other armies. Finding a painter you are satisfied with for the right price is the really difficult part. Most of the time if having someone else do the painting I assemble the entire army myself and then ship it out to be painted. I do all my terrain myself - assembling, painting, etc. Even 3D printing terrain as desired or needed. Best advice I have when hiring someone to paint your army, or parts of your army: Give them one unit to assemble and paint. If you like the results, hire them to the rest or do more. If you are not satisfied, since it was one unit you can most likely fix it yourself, painting it up to where you are happy. Then just move on and try a different painter. The other piece of advice is to be very detailed and explicit in what you want in terms of unit assembly options and what you want in painting, including what kind of basing on the models you want. If you want your armies painted and are limited on time, paying someone else to do it is a good way to go, or so I have found.
I actually paint and sell GW stuff. This is not commission, but I buy the new stuff that just came out, since it is new, no one has it and so the demand for that kit is the highest it will ever be. I put them on ebay for around 2 times sticker price, sometimes more sometimes less depending on the kit. The new stuff almost always sells at high prices. I turned the shadow throne box into over $600 in sales.
As for commissions which I rarely take since it is tedious, I pretty much charge the same minus the model cost cause usually I didn't have to buy the models for my commissions. I also agree to the price and scope of the kit before anything is shipped anywhere.
However I do know that my prices are cheaper, alot of other guys do it for so much more. For me I like painting and it pays for my hobby.
This isn't and advertisement, but just what I do and maybe it gives some insight.
I'm one of those that truly hate painting and have looked at commissions. The. Big problem is finding a reliable painter. Someone that won't just disappear with your models since they got "tired" of it or will charge for a crappy job.
When I was looking up options I did try Siege studios a big one in the industry. For about 2k of Maggotkin AOS the quote was over 6k USD. One big character was over 1k USD alone. Way too expensive for me.
Right now I've only had 1 army commissioned painting table top standard and that is my 1k Sons. Due to cost I honestly dont think I'll do it for another army. Guess I'll continue with most armies staying only primed
Prepainted models would definitely get my brother to finally have a fully painted army.
I have used commission painting services quite a lot.
For me it is the time constraints that have sent me down that route.
I have found in my personal experience Instagram is a fantastic way of finding independent commission painters. It is a great way to see the standard of painting you can expect.
Often they are much cheaper than larger painting studios.
The top Studios I have used are Seige, blasingbrush and den of imagination. I have used them several times each. Both for big and small project and have never been disappointed!
I have had only had one bad experience with a painting studio and that was BTP. The models were badly built and poorly painted. As a result I have never used them again. Annoyingly they weren't much cheaper then the vastly superior alternatives mentioned above.
Nice to have a discussion on a different topic of the hobby.
Keep up the good work!!
Actual companies have insurance. If your product gets damaged in the mail, then an independent commission painter isn't going to refund you.
@@WardenOfTerra That is a very good point!
Touch wood I have never had anything lost or damaged in the post!
It is well worth taking into account though.
7:00 regarding the section about snide comments from hobbyists; I can't even imagine interacting with someone like that, and I hope I never have to. My FLGS is a very relaxed and chill space but I would 1,000% lose it on someone who gave another hobbyist shit for having commission-painted models.
I've painted 99.9% of models I own but a few of the well-to-do fellows at my shop who, as AT described in the video, are super busy and they have little time to play let alone paint. They are great people and their armies look awesome and inspiring. Anyone giving them shit for getting commissions would just be very uncalled for.
I painted around 500 points of Sisters of Battle infanty and 5 of the tanks for a friend of mine who started collecting them last year just so he would have almost fully painted army to play with. (I really don't like playing against a fully non-painted armies for some reason) I now feel kinda like a doofus since I didn't get paid basically anything except a few paint cans and a case of beer for the trouble. Anyways I enjoyed the good practice the project offered and the friend was pleased with the results too.
I'm probably going to commission my primarch for Horus Heresy, I'm not blowing 100+ on a centerpiece model to have it look just meh, other than that I like putting in the time to improve my skills
I enjoy both sides of the hobby but am time poor and slow at painting. I’ve had several commission painters do work for me, the standard does vary and as always you get what you pay (and wait) for. Mostly I get troops painted. It’s expensive using someone like Siege, but the standard is excellent and very consistent. My own painting is at a similar standard just much much slower.