Seeing as there's a bunch of threads full of incredible repaints lately, I just couldn't help but wonder.

What if one were to do commissions on custom ships?

How much would the pricing go, for a ship bought, painted, and then sold with all it's game cards and parts? We're talking full expansion pack with the alternate paint job.

I've been itching to have some top quality, exceedingly detailed blue A wings - Prototype pilots plus some Blue Squadron B Wings. I'd pay around 50-60 for some myself if they were as good as I'd imagine them. How about you?

Thing is, I know of a talented girl who can paint incredibly well, and she's interested in doing custom commissions, but we've no idea how to price them.

There's also been some nasty ones on ebay for example, going for 150$. I think it was a red shuttle with some ties. Sub par quality, Imo.

What do you guys think?

Personally (mostly because I suck) I would probably only charge something like 10-20% extra to fund paint costs and whatnot.

Everything I have posted on here, I've done to 50& completion: I have a real problem doing finishing touches to something when it's mine, but i'd go all out on a commission and frankly just be along for the ride, grateful for the oppurtunity to go nuts with something I wouldn't ordinarily do!

A gentleman on here was asking for someone to paint him the Krayt Fang , I must admit I was tempted!

Usually it's accoring to how much you think your time/talents are worth. I've been told I undercharge for painting commissions, and then when the odd one comes up for a full scratchbuild, I occasionally get people who recoil in sticker shock when I tell them the price includes the materials needed to build the thing.

My advice is for your friend to look around at other commission sites (like Blue Table Painting) and set her prices from there. To be competitive, she should think about undercutting them, but not so much that she screws herself out of money she deserves. By being cheaper and very good at what she does, she'l get the repeat business.

I do commission model painting full time, and have done for several years.

It's a careful balancing act of quality against time and money.

If I were personally repainting an A-Wing I'd be looking for between £30 and £65, plus the cost of the expansion pack.

My usual 'someone's looking at doing commissions' info

Do not undervalue your time. This makes things very rapidly become a chore. Charge appropriately and do NOT do 'mates rates' or discounts. If you must paint for a friend, do it as a favour or for free. Business with friends should either be business, or not. Don't mix it up.

Hmm. . Interesting.

I was thinking on something to spice up the deal, such as adding neodymium magnets to the commissioned pieces just for the added awesome. It's something I did recently to all my ships. Take out the pegs off of the ship, replace with magnets of the same width of the tube. Looks shiny and professional, you can turn them and swoosh them without the ugly peg under them, and on the B-wing it lets you rotate it to any position you want, in the base. On the Hwk, smaller magnets can make the turret underneath rotate too.

You don't even notice the magnets are there.

I'd give this a shot myself if I had time off from my own game industry art jobs.

I'm not sure it would be worth the time vs the money. Most of my conversion/ repaints took less than 30 minutes. I wouldn't feel comfortable charging more than 10$. At that point it wouldn't be worth my time

I'm not sure it would be worth the time vs the money. Most of my conversion/ repaints took less than 30 minutes. I wouldn't feel comfortable charging more than 10$. At that point it wouldn't be worth my time

As winterdyne said above, dont undervalue your time, minimum, I would say, I'd double the cost of the mini for a repaint, adding magnetes will drive pricing up. It really depends on the flexibility of the market, I have seen WWI plane repaints for wings of glory go for over $100 on ebay, and yes that is a specific market that depends on what people will pay, and it is a vicious market, but when figuring pricing, remember, your time is valuable.

I figure, I'm a half decent painter and am experienced at some aspects of remodding some of these.. 30 bucks a mini, if you send me your small based mini, I think would be where I wouod start, if I was inclined to take on commissions. And probably 50 for large base ones. That would just be painting.. no mods or anything.

Also, make sure you give a reasonable time frame for turn around, know your limits and make sure you dont have an angry customer emailing you every other day. Make sure you have the time to begin with.. some one single, might have more free time than a married guy that has a honey-do list for the weekend, or evenings.. even though it brings in money, the wife is smart enough to know the money will probably find its way back into the hobby, either in paint supplies or new toys for daddy.. lol a lot could depend on her generous nature, or her own love of all things geeky.. some guys are lucky, others.... just have incredible wives with no geek gene.. haha

Just how I see this situation. Also a good dialogue with the customer to get an idea of what is expected, you dont want them to be asking what the heck you sent them when you're done.. and also be wary of .. "oh, just use your imagination, anything works" issue.. lol.. anything doesn't always work, and sometimes what you think is cool is not how others see it..

In my signature you find a guy who painted my fleet. About 8-10 euro's per model, and this is his medium quality.

Could you post a link to his youtube channel... your link goes to your repaint thread... but there is no link to his other works or youtube..

The thing with most repaints I see here is that the colours used are often saturated to the point of being an eyesore next to other ships. Too intense to look like they belong with the rest.

This is one of the main reasons that have kept me from asking for custom jobs.

I'm not sure it would be worth the time vs the money. Most of my conversion/ repaints took less than 30 minutes. I wouldn't feel comfortable charging more than 10$. At that point it wouldn't be worth my time

As winterdyne said above, dont undervalue your time, minimum, I would say, I'd double the cost of the mini for a repaint, adding magnetes will drive pricing up. It really depends on the flexibility of the market, I have seen WWI plane repaints for wings of glory go for over $100 on ebay, and yes that is a specific market that depends on what people will pay, and it is a vicious market, but when figuring pricing, remember, your time is valuable.

I figure, I'm a half decent painter and am experienced at some aspects of remodding some of these.. 30 bucks a mini, if you send me your small based mini, I think would be where I wouod start, if I was inclined to take on commissions. And probably 50 for large base ones. That would just be painting.. no mods or anything.

Also, make sure you give a reasonable time frame for turn around, know your limits and make sure you dont have an angry customer emailing you every other day. Make sure you have the time to begin with.. some one single, might have more free time than a married guy that has a honey-do list for the weekend, or evenings.. even though it brings in money, the wife is smart enough to know the money will probably find its way back into the hobby, either in paint supplies or new toys for daddy.. lol a lot could depend on her generous nature, or her own love of all things geeky.. some guys are lucky, others.... just have incredible wives with no geek gene.. haha

Just how I see this situation. Also a good dialogue with the customer to get an idea of what is expected, you dont want them to be asking what the heck you sent them when you're done.. and also be wary of .. "oh, just use your imagination, anything works" issue.. lol.. anything doesn't always work, and sometimes what you think is cool is not how others see it..

Heh, yeah, I understand, being a freelance artist myself.

About the lady I spoke of, she's my girlfriend and fellow nomad who travels alongside me. We found X wing worthy of our -backpack space- after finding about it somewhere in Oslo and now we play it on the go, worldwide. It's like an off-grid videogame to us, that we can deploy in the mountains or on that hostel room in Morocco.. Basically any place without a wifi to dull our minds.

But since only one of us is earning pay, even though it's enough to sustain us both, she wanted something to put time and get money out of, and the answer was right in front of us in yesterday's game.

...It could be tempting however to see all those nice painted ships getting dished out like that, and resist the strong urge to keep them all myself..

I uh.. Hmm. We'll see.

Any ideas for the initial investment to try the brush on? (And airbrush)

B-wing, Hwk, Core set?

It has to be significantly better than one could do by oneself at a price that makes you not want to just do it yourself. Very fine line.

Any ideas for the initial investment to try the brush on? (And airbrush)

B-wing, Hwk, Core set?

I'd recomment the core set.. the TIEs are easy to do, if you want to change the panels or give them the more blue look the interceptors have, and you can alwaus do the x wing in a different color.

After that I sat whatever suits your fancy.. I have done my B wings, some A wings, just did a Wedge X wing and soon to do Biggs and Luke.

I've done a little on all my TIEs, from lns to bombers, advanced and ins.. even shuttles, and am doing a firespray repaint too.. its a fun hobby, and better if you can make money at it too.. I would do commisions, but I start and stop as the whim hits me. If I was pushed to do it I wouldn't look at it as fun any more, lol as a job I may not enjoy it so much.

I had one idea for the Tie/in. Basically a rebel insignia in the wings, in a very stylistic fashion.

Then there's the blue tint to it, and that's about it.

The rebels however allows you to customize ships however you want. It just doesn't look as out place/lore as custom imperials.

Maybe we'll start with the Falcon- Oops, just bought one. Falcon it is!

**** you Amazon

Also oneway, I can completely relate. Thing about jobs is that you have to keep at it all the time. It may make you feel bored of doing what you enjoy.

However on the plus side, most of the times it doesn't even feel like a job at all. A fair trade off, I say.

I'll be designing the patterns and paint jobs, it seems. It's like my speciality. She might make some of her own alongside my designs as well.

Prototype Pilot and Blue Squadron Pilot are a must of course.. Must.. Not keep..

I'm not sure it would be worth the time vs the money. Most of my conversion/ repaints took less than 30 minutes. I wouldn't feel comfortable charging more than 10$. At that point it wouldn't be worth my time

As winterdyne said above, dont undervalue your time, minimum, I would say, I'd double the cost of the mini for a repaint, adding magnetes will drive pricing up. It really depends on the flexibility of the market, I have seen WWI plane repaints for wings of glory go for over $100 on ebay, and yes that is a specific market that depends on what people will pay, and it is a vicious market, but when figuring pricing, remember, your time is valuable.I figure, I'm a half decent painter and am experienced at some aspects of remodding some of these.. 30 bucks a mini, if you send me your small based mini, I think would be where I wouod start, if I was inclined to take on commissions. And probably 50 for large base ones. That would just be painting.. no mods or anything.Also, make sure you give a reasonable time frame for turn around, know your limits and make sure you dont have an angry customer emailing you every other day. Make sure you have the time to begin with.. some one single, might have more free time than a married guy that has a honey-do list for the weekend, or evenings.. even though it brings in money, the wife is smart enough to know the money will probably find its way back into the hobby, either in paint supplies or new toys for daddy.. lol a lot could depend on her generous nature, or her own love of all things geeky.. some guys are lucky, others.... just have incredible wives with no geek gene.. hahaJust how I see this situation. Also a good dialogue with the customer to get an idea of what is expected, you dont want them to be asking what the heck you sent them when you're done.. and also be wary of .. "oh, just use your imagination, anything works" issue.. lol.. anything doesn't always work, and sometimes what you think is cool is not how others see it..

Well how much do you all think this would worth?

http://postimg.org/image/57unm4app/

I'll be honest.

Two to five bucks plus the original price of the ship, I'd say. If it is indeed just a red brush paint over. Pretty basic stuff if you ask me, could do in five minutes.

Also the red is too pinkish for my taste, and saturated. It's a no go for me.

Doesn't have any washes, or weathering. No decals, or added insignias for uniqueness and history. Not to mention the paint looks like acrylics just slapped over the original. Design wise, it's simple as well. Nothing special there or particularly impressive.

Bring it to a tournament and you'll get a.. ''Oh'' at the most.

This can work if you want your fleet to look different, but it's not what I'm aiming to do with Leah, quality wise. What we'll have is something like what PS10 posted. It just needs to look awesome and epic, or it simply just won't sell.

Have any of you guys seen Rodent Mastermind's work, coincidentially?

Haha.. yeah, Rodent is my personal hero, he does outstanding work. I wish I was as good. I just need more brush time and to work out a few more rebuilds and such... practice make perfect right..

Well if you would like anything like the quality that rodent did that I saw on his A-wings... that will be pretty expensive, probably worth it if you have the money though. But if not, then just leave it be.

As other posters have commented do not underestimate the price of getting your models painted. Especially if you want it to be exactly to your taste.

Well, I'm a decent painter, and I've been doing it since the early 80s.. for minis.. models and such since the 70s... I do alright for myself. I know enough tricks of the trade to get the job done. The only thing I would consider having done professionally is imp symbols on the TIE fighter wing panels.. lol.. when Rodet started doing those I was totally jealous... lol

Anything else I can get a handle on, might not be professional grade, but will work for me. That's pretty much what's important though, what looks good to the viewer.