making a living painting miniatures; possible?
Eve Forward
"Knights of the Dinner Table"; he is a character who, it is said,
"earns a modest living painting miniatures and running a local BBS".
I doubt anyone could make a living doing either! Is there anyone out
there who "makes a living", or even comes *close*, painting minis? Seems
to me, what with the time required, it would be less than minimum wage
per hour...
Star Ranger
Ask on the rec.games.miniatures.historical. In some of the discussions on
painting that went on several months ago, there were a couple who made a
living this way.
Dean
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Shadowmage
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Star Wars
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic
Republic. The taxation of trade routes to
outlying star systems is in dispute.
Hoping to resolve the matter with the
blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy
Trade Federation has stopped all shipping
to the small planet of Naboo.
While the Congress of the Republic endlessly
debates this alarming chain of events, the
Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched
two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace,
to settle the conflict..."
Star Ranger wrote in message <7atat8$el5$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
Miniwars
If you have a house ,wife ,and some rugrats add in your bills the ansewer is no
not enough to take care of all that and still have play money,unless you are so
in demand that hobbiers and FX people are calling you.
But if you live alone or are a newly wed to a not so demanding and material
type girl than yes why not.
I know guy's who make about 20 G's a year doing mini's and other modeling
projects.
As far as for myself I do it for #1) I love doing it. and #2)It is extra money
for little things,such as figs.,splurging at a convention and so on.
JoeD
JWirth4702
I have been painting professionally 12ish years. Over the last four years we
now manufacture wargame bases, produce our own line of paints & have published
a few games. The buisness has grown to include 4 employees (two are painters).
The painting side of RI still is a good chunk of buisness.
If everything ended tomarrow I could do figs alone and make ok money (average
$12ish hour net).
I have seen many painting companies over the years come and go. People do not
realize it is work. The first couple years is difficult (you may even need a
second job).
Maintain the quality, Experience will increase your output - Customer service
will bring'em back.
And you just might have some fun...
Jay Wirth
Renaissance Ink
Jay Wirth
Renaissance Ink
Member GPA
WGNetwork
a family or household. We all know each other and we all know what it takes to
do this full time. It is not easy at all. Most painting services start up to
support their hobby and end up going out of business because they get too busy
and no longer enjoy painting. I don't game anymore but have new hobbies to fill
the voids. I don't advertise either because I am swamped with painting orders
and have been for almost 5 years.
Gary Leitzell
Sharky2604
>I doubt anyone could make a living doing either! Is there anyone out
>there who "makes a living", or even comes *close*, painting minis?
Lets see, Ive been painting since 1985, and selling my painted peices thru
stores since 1988 and been going to conventions as a dealer since 1990. With an
average yearly take home of $2000- $2500 (and thats only part-time painting 5-8
hrs a week) I'm sure that there are several people out there that do it for
30-40 hrs a week that make alot more. I pay myself $8/hr on average. with an
average of 1/hr per mini (Some people take more time, a few yrs ago I learned
some speed painting techniques that allowed my to increase speed but not
decrease quality.
Check out my website to see examples of peices done with relative speed and
still maintian quality.
Independant Microscale Artists
miniature painters for hire
check out new web site at http://members.aol.com/sharky2604
Freelance Artists for RAL PARTHA's BATTLESTORM game
Caine's Devoted Slaves
Eve Forward wrote in message <7asr5p$nh4$1...@halcyon.com>...
>Our local group got in a discussion at one point regarding "Brian" from
>"Knights of the Dinner Table"; he is a character who, it is said,
>"earns a modest living painting miniatures and running a local BBS".
>I doubt anyone could make a living doing either! Is there anyone out
>there who "makes a living", or even comes *close*, painting minis? Seems
>to me, what with the time required, it would be less than minimum wage
>per hour...
I don't make a living at it but I've painted enough minis to finance my GW
habit. I've got 2 large folding tables, terrain, and 10 GW fantasy armies of
various sizes (decent chaos/3000pts to too damned many undead/8000+pts).
Painting for Stores and over the internet for older gamers with careers( as
opposed to jobs) but little time on their hands has paid for all that.
-Allan
Andy O'Neill
writes
>Is there anyone out
>there who "makes a living", or even comes *close*, painting minis? Seems
>to me, what with the time required, it would be less than minimum wage
>per hour...
Miniature Wargames.
Some are colour 1/4 page.
For example, Keith Warren of Realistic painting
Http://www.kentweb.co.uk/realistic_modelling
I used to be semi-pro, and have recently been considering doing this
again.
Once you get the techniques sorted out, the limiting factor is finding
clients.
OK you're not going to be getting rich, but a reasonable living is quite
possible.
Andy O'Neill
www.l-25.demon.co.uk/index.htm
Liverpool Wargames Association
www.l-25.demon.co.uk/LWA.htm
Thane
I can imagine several ways of being able to make a living off of it; it seems
to me that people usually don't want to pay a lot for the service, so you
have to get good results fast. I've painted for cash several times, but now
I've got too much of my own stufff to do.
A decent selection of brushes is important; you don't want to waste any brush
strokes at all. I'm thinking that a small airbrush could really lay down base
coats quickly, though I've never personally done it. Might be able to
highlight/drybrush with it as well. Knowing your paints would really help too;
you can't blow time experimenting with stuff.
I'm always trying to paint faster. I can do 24 15mm goblins in about 6 hours,
and 12 cavalry in about 8. That is still way to slow; my experience is that
people don't want to pay more than $5 an infantry figure at 25mm, or $1 per
infantry figure at 15mm. Naturally they will pay more for bigger figures like
dragons, but their is definately a limit for lesser figures, no matter how
nice they turn out.
I've also considered selling just one or two types of painted figures, so I
could get really good and fast at them. Something like GW's Forest Dragon, or
a griffon or other such generic beast.
Most people are in the hobby because they like the painting; their are a few
exceptions, but most who only care about the game are quite happy to throw
primed figures on the table or even raw metal. Some even want to use cardboard
chits! I would bet that most people who use the high quality painting services
are store owners wanting displays, really avid collectors of a particular
period, or people with way more money than time.
I met a person who claimed to paint figures professionally. He had a medieval
or viking human army of about 200 15mm figures from irregular, which are
poorly detailed; he made them look awesome. He claimed he did them in 24
hours. I was too respectful to call bullshit, and maybe he was that good. He
said he had been doing it for about 20 years, and I felt my meager 5 years of
experience was not enough of a basis to really doubt him.
In summary, I'd say you can do it, but you have to be REALLY REALLY FAST, and
give good quality at the same time.
Thane Morgan
Thane's Games
www.thanesgames.com
Ed Lizak
>> possible.
>>
>> Andy O'Neill
>> www.l-25.demon.co.uk/index.htm
>> Liverpool Wargames Association
>> www.l-25.demon.co.uk/LWA.htm
>>
>
>
>give good quality at the same time.
>
>Thane Morgan
>Thane's Games
>www.thanesgames.com
>
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What's a reasonable living? If you start to factor in insurance and
other benefits that you can get working for someone else, I find it
hard to believe that painters really make a decent wage. I'll accept
the argument that they can make less because they are doing something
they love (except most of them complain about how much they hate
painting now that it's work).
What's the average wage for an adult male in the U.S. and how does
this compare with what a person can make painting?
-EJL
Carl Parlagreco
>What's a reasonable living? If you start to factor in insurance and
>other benefits that you can get working for someone else, I find it
>hard to believe that painters really make a decent wage. I'll accept
>the argument that they can make less because they are doing something
>they love (except most of them complain about how much they hate
>painting now that it's work).
>
>What's the average wage for an adult male in the U.S. and how does
>this compare with what a person can make painting?
>
>-EJL
himself and his wife for years with a painting service. When they had
a baby, however, it wasn't acceptable. He got a 'real' job that had
benefits--most importantly, family health insurance!
Andy O'Neill
<e...@one.net.remove> writes
>What's a reasonable living? If you start to factor in insurance and
>other benefits that you can get working for someone else, I find it
>hard to believe that painters really make a decent wage.
Stick to working for someone else then.
Ed Lizak
that I understand doing something you love is important but I'm really
amazed that someone can make enough to support a family being a
professional figure painter. That's why I want to know what people
consider a decent living.
I've been involved in the retail side of the hobby and I can tell you
there is not a lot of money floating around compared to almost any
other mainstream industry. So my point is that someone with the same
amount of hardwork and talent should be able to make considerably more
working in an area that actually has a target market larger than
10,000 people.
Why be such a jerk about the response? Sure, I'll continue working
for someone else, doing something I like (computers), working 40 hours
a week and about the year 2001 I should crack the 100k mark. I live
in a nice house and will be able to send my kids to a decent college.
Yes, I have a boss and have to work sometimes when I would rather stay
home and play but it seems like an OK trade-off to me.
Maybe I shouldn't ask the profesional painters if they make a decent
living. Maybe I should ask the wives of professional painters if they
think they make a decent living.
-EJL
WGNetwork
year. If you work hard that is....very hard.
Gary Leitzell
Richard
>"Knights of the Dinner Table"; he is a character who, it is said,
>"earns a modest living painting miniatures and running a local BBS".
>to me, what with the time required, it would be less than minimum wage
>per hour...
>
>
It is not easy. Some companies offer model painting services, although
my impression is you have to be pretty fast and efficient to do it. It
is possible if you are hired by a company, especially GW, to paint their
show models. Apart from that, its not something I'd like to try.
Personally the idea of painting models for a living is rather a
horrifying one- it would change what is a fun past time into a normal
job, a normal job that doesn't pay well.
see ya,
Ranger
Tactical Strike is a free Science Fiction wargame.
You can find a download as well as see the Enigma website at:
http://www.zoomnet.net/~alice/enigma/index.html
YNosdod
Who are the members???
Is there a web site???