Bartertown.com

So, ive been trolling ebay and many various forums lately in the pursuit of finding out exactly what people consider a "Pro Painted" mini. Looking around ive come to the conclusion that what i would consider pro is way over the top compared to what i see for sale/trade on allot of sites. I see people asking hundreds of dollars for minis that looks to me like something anyone could paint. Maybe im just a perfectionist but if im going to pay more than twice retail for a painted model am i wrong to expect near studio quality? I would like to get others opinions on what you consider pro painted, maybe an experience youve had buying a pro painted mini good or bad?

"pro painted" means neither pro, nor professional, and might only partially mean painted.

This is probably mostly teens who think they're awesome, though that might just be wishful thinking.

Original price doesn't really mean anything regarding a paint job: a $3 plastic space marine sure doesn't take 1/5 as long to paint well as a $15 space marine commander, so the paint job shouldn't be worth 1/5 as much, just because the starting model was.

Another way of putting it. Let's say it takes someone half an hour to paint a space marine. Let's say that it is near studio quality. Why would they be working for $6/hour (based on your above statement of double) when they could be getting pay as a specialist for a company?

Personally, I think that there are basically two routes to go with "pro painted": buy an entire army or commission exactly what you want. If you're getting someone else to paint your minis, you're talking about an expense, in an expensive hobby.

In short, though, like most things, most of the time, the seller thinks they should get more for it than they should, and the buyer thinks the opposite.

Well I have also done the old look around and kick the tires of what people think pro painted means.

I honestly think most people out there are either blind, delusional, or both.

Pro painted to me, means that, It looks as good as the picture of the models on the front of box it came in or better.

Basically studio quality.

So do you think there should be an hourly base for a painter to try and adhere too? I only mention twice retail because thats what someone told me people ask for painted work as a good base scale to charge for my commisions. Ive been a mini painter for over 16 years at this point [Admin edit].
I live in Indiana where the possibility of getting a job painting minis for a company as a studio painter is pretty remote. So i decided to look into painting full time as a commision painter. Ive looked around and as i see painters prices they vary by such a degree im having a hard time getting a handle on what to start out charging. I have no problem with charging double retail for a tabletop army with a base and a couple highlights but the real question is what do i charge for my 10 to 12 highlight models?

You charge what you think 1-it's worth to you and 2- what people will pay, like the rest of the world. I'm not sure why this should be any different.

If you think 5 models is worth $20 for you because you're learning and it's not too taxing, fine. If you think 5 models is worth $200 to you because it takes a lot of time, and you believe you're that good, also fine.

I'll say this. I have recently had two separate people (from this site btw) do commissions for me. One was a $19 model and the painter charged me $28 plus cost of shipping to him (he paid the way back) to do a "center piece" model. I told him that it was to be as such and what colors I wanted it to be. I had looked at his work before hand and knew he did good stuff. I've yet to physically get the model but Ive seen pics and I am quite satisfied with the cost to end result ratio.

On the other end of the spectrum, after looking at his work I asked someone to paint 16 terminators and 2 land raider crusaders to a table top quality. (Approx retail value of $304) Nothing fancy, just make it look good enough to play in events and be considered fully painted. The whole shebang is gunna cost me $165. ( As I have yet to send him the models i can't say anything on the quality, but i can say that when he quoted the price, I didnt hesitate to say "lets do this".

Basically it boils down to how good you are, how much time it is going to take to do what the customer wants, and how much they are willing to pay to not do it themselves.

I see "pro-painted" as a sign that the person who did the paint job does that for a living. BUT this is in no way a guarantee for quality.
here's an example: two models painted by friends of mine: one is pro-painted, the other is not, would you be able to see the difference?





the first one was painted as part of a personal army (with contest winner in mind) but the painter is not doing any commission work at all and he does actually play with the models he paints.
the second one was painted to win a contest and sold right after by someone painting for a living.

Obviously both models are extremely well painted, but only one can be defined as 'pro-painted'

Second example:



This one also qualifies for the 'pro-painted' name....but the quality isn't really there, even using White Dward as 'above average table-top' standard, this is way under..

On the question of value of a 'pro-painted' model, and from my examples, the first one is not for sale, the second one sold for more than 800$ while the last one i don't know but it is probably around 8-10$. Would i pay those prices, yes for the speeder, absolutely not for the inquisitor... I do understand that there is a real market for table top quality or under, just by looking at the time it takes me to do 1 marine, i understand people willing to have a complete army painted in a week for fee. That market might probably even more successful that collectors' pieces...

My point is that while 'pro-painted' doesn't equal quality, you still can do well painted minis and charge what you think is right. I did some commissions once and i was charging 3 times the retail value for white dwarf quality, and i had no problem having one or two regular clients. Once you become 'pro', the difficulty is that you cannot charge 15-20$ per hour, as the first model above would not sell under 2000$....

Going 'Pro' is just a question of how many models can i produce in a 40 hours week in a decent quality and still getting a decent salary at the end of the month...

J.

hmm still leaves me with the same issue of not knowing how to judge myself, i could post pics for people all day long and people could quote me what they would be willing to pay but im the one who has to slap on the tag so to speak. I think im my own harshest critic is the problem. For example i just finished painting a cygnar journeyman as a practice model for the painting contest going on right now, i spent maybe 8 hours total working on him. I used all pp studio paints and colors and didnt take much effort. To me knowing the small amount of time i spent on the model and the msrp i have a hard time coming up with a price tag i would slap on him. Hold him up to the studio model and i dont see much of a difference (besides color placement), however i cant judge myself easily in that light because im not a "pro". So how does someone go about judging their own work without letting ego or modesty interfear? As far quantity painting im not really that kind of painter, i recently painted an entire 2500 point sisters army and working on it daily still took me six months. Im trying to learn to focus more in the single mini to small battlegroup area in size, mostly because im not that good at stopping myself at tabletop quality.

put yourself in the customers shoes. ask your self how much you would pay for junior.