Ummm ok... how do commissioning work?

[DreamKnight]

So I'm at a meeting from a referral of a current client. I meet up with this company's board and we go through the same stuff about their business, getting it on the web and it got to the part where I explain to them about Social Networking and viral adverts and showed them a couple of YT channels I have going for other clients and I showed them my YT channel for Scale Modeling.

After the meeting I'm talking with the big dog boss and apparently, his grandfather flew a P-51 in he war. So we got talking about my little hobby here and he asked me if I could build him a P-51. So I explain to him this and that and he plops down $250 for me to get the stuff to do this and said he'll pay the rest for my time when I'm done.

How the hell do you charge for this? I certainly can't go by the hourly rate I charge for my work, that's a bit much. How do you value the work it takes to build a model for someone?

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

First off......what scale, and how much detail does he want for the kit.

Custom decals, photo-etch, big enough for his desk? Hang from the ceiling, or just big enough for him to run around the room with it making propeller noises?

That will really determine how and what to charge.

Obviously a 1/72 or 1/48 kit is going to build much faster than say a 1/32 or 1/24 one will.

I am assuming that $250 up front that he gave you, he wants something fairly substantial. In the end, it is whatever you think your time and effort is worth. Lots of guys that do commission work make $1000's on a kit, because they do charge for their time.

I would say, that if he gave you $250 up front to buy the materials, if I am inside his head, I would think he would/should be prepared to pay at least that much more, possibly double that for your time and patients to build it....again, depends on scale and detail.

I know I was involved with a guy in the US that had a network of builders, that would build the a kit OOB, no paint, just assembly. He would then sell the built, unpainted kit to someone to finish.....apparently there is a market of people out there that don't like building the kits, but do like painting them. Our payment was a free kit for building it, and sending the built kit back in the mail. Sounds like an OK deal, but then when you realize that he is buying the kits at cost (as he ran an online store), then your hard work building the kit was now worth about $25-$30. Still a free kit in some people's eyes, but after I built 2 Tamiya T-55s out of the box, and then paid the postage to send the built kits back, I essentially built the kits for about $10 each (yes I got a free kit in return, but had to fight to get them, but that is a story for another day), and he had strict deadlines he wanted you to meet, which made it impossible to get any of your own modeling done.

In the end, he is still a cranky old man, still ripping people off at his online store, as I can attest to, and point you to threads where people complain about his service, and paying for items and not getting them sometimes for months, if at all. He will remain nameless here, if you really want to know who it is, PM, or e-mail me, as I won't put it out on an open forum. He used to be in the Phoenix area, I assume he still is.

Anyway, sorry I got off on a tangent! Whooo.....must have been the beer I just had going to my head! LOL

 

[DreamKnight]

First off......what scale, and how much detail does he want for the kit.

Custom decals, photo-etch, big enough for his desk? Hang from the ceiling, or just big enough for him to run around the room with it making propeller noises?

That will really determine how and what to charge.

Obviously a 1/72 or 1/48 kit is going to build much faster than say a 1/32 or 1/24 one will.

I am assuming that $250 up front that he gave you, he wants something fairly substantial. In the end, it is whatever you think your time and effort is worth. Lots of guys that do commission work make $1000's on a kit, because they do charge for their time.

I would say, that if he gave you $250 up front to buy the materials, if I am inside his head, I would think he would/should be prepared to pay at least that much more, possibly double that for your time and patients to build it....again, depends on scale and detail.

He showed me where he'll put it in his office on a shelf. It'll be on a nice display so 1/48 probably. I don't think a 1/32 will fit on that shelf. I doubt I'll charge him that much though. They just approved the project so $1000 is just an after thought compared to what I'll make of this project in the next 2 months.

I just talked to him on the phone and I asked him more details for what he wanted. His exact words, "I trust you, just build it like you build the other ones I saw and make it like it's gone though hell." Told me to take my time (probably cause he knows I'll be busy with the project coming up lol).

So I guess I have to look around a bit and see what P-51 models are good. From what I know of him already he'll probably forget he asked me to do this after a month. Most of the clients I work for are so busy they forget things like this. lol

Got one you can suggest that's in your inventory ECHScott?

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

I actually don't have any P-51s in at the moment, not a huge seller, and although used by the RCAF, most people gravitate to the British aircraft we flew in the war, Spits, Hurrcs, Lancs, etc.

I am not "up" on what is the best P-51 out there, however you probably can't go wrong with either Tamiya or Hasegawa

And I am assuming he wants a P-51D.....

Hasegawa 1/48 P51D Mustang Aircraft - $38.50 CDN

Hasegawa 1/48 P51D Mustang Pacific Pinup Girl WWII USAAF Fighter - $53.00 CDN (no idea why this is any different that the above kit, should only be the markings, but who knows)

Tamiya 1/48 North American P51D Mustang Aircraft - $33.00 CDN

And that is about it....Tamiya does have a 1/48 P-51B, same price as the D model, but I assume he would want a D.

Beyond that, there is a whole slew of aftermarket for them, Aires, Quickboost, Verlinden, Eduard....depends on how much he wants into it. As well there are a slew of different markings, unless he doesn't care and just wants a P-51 for his desk, and not necessarily the one his Grandfather flew, and of course no guarantee that markings exists for it anyway, but the P-51 is one of the most popular aircraft kits in the US for good reason, so likely there is markings for it, unless it is some obscure group.

 

[DreamKnight]

Thanks! I'm gonna look around. The referring client laughed when I told him and said he probably was sucking up to me so I'd take their project. Kinda made sense. I was surprised they actually took the first quote I gave them.

Gonna talk to him again next week. He said he's going trying to find old photos.

 

[Dano1945]

Hey check with Ken aka ScaleModelMadman. I think he does commission work. One piece of advice. When a client gives you an open ended project like this. Do a great job but do it as soon as possible. If you let it drag on it will hang over your head every time you meet or talk to him. Also send him photo's of the work in progress. As far as what to charge. You have to look at it like salary work. Ideally you are doing this type of work because you like it. Definitely cover the material cost and charge a reasonable amount for your skill. Do you need a new airbrush, set of shelves or a set of Vallejo paints? Charge him the cost of one of those. You can always look back and say "Hey I paid for that with a P-51".

Good Luck

 

[Jeep]

When I was painting 40K models and battle tech minis I usually charged the cost of the figure again in labor and time, (keep in mind that is a small figure) for larger conversions and scratch builds I went about $12. and hour. more than that if you wanted it airbrushed. Honestly it is really easy to put more time and money into a project than you are getting paid for and it starts to be to much like a job, especially with a dead line. I know several painters, converters that would charge much more for there services, but I consider them better painters, some of those 40K tourney armies sold for upwards of $3000.

 

[Junkie]

I know alot of contractors around here charge the equivalent of the material costs for labor. So 60K in material is 60K in labor. Make sure to buy a $500 kit. LOL.

I have no clue what to charge for a build. Make sure you can sleep at night after you're done.

 

[ScaleModelMadman]

ECH,

know of the RAT you speak of, I initially signed up for that building thing when he started it all those years ago but after a few of my friends had to fight tooth and nail to get their payment kit, (which like you said wasn't free, but actually the cost of the postage on the outgoing kit) I dropped him like a bad habit.

DK,

pricing commission builds can be tough, some people are willing to spend uber money for their particular dream kit to display, others think fifty bucks is fair.

For a 1/48 aircraft, (obviously not something big like a B17) I think I would be very happy getting $350.00/$400.00. IMO, it's really not that big of a kit, or too hard of a project, unless you are throwing in tons of aftermarket resin and PE ... Look at it this way, if you charge him too much, he'll probably never ask you again, give him a good job for a good deal and you may get more work out of it. What's better, one $600.00 score, or five more $350.00 jobs?

There was a time when I could sell my built armor models on ebay for $500.00 easy and if it was some really popular, gnarly looking German Panther or something, there might end up being a bidding war that drove it up close to the $1200.00 mark.

Those days are long gone now, I've seen quality built models sit on ebay and even get re listed again and again until maybe selling for $200.00. If you have a customer willing to drop $250.00 for a down payment, you may be on to something, I'd keep that relationship in good standing and basically clear my bench for him until I was done.

I have a couple regulars that contact me from time to time build something for them who are more than willing to pay what it's worth but most people go into shock over anything higher than $50.00. Heck, sometimes the base kit alone is more than $50.00.

 

[ScaleModelMadman]

I know alot of contractors around here charge the equivalent of the material costs for labor. So 60K in material is 60K in labor.

I have to move to Canada...



here, most stuff is easily/accurately priced by the square foot. For instance hardwood flooring, if I am installing oak, or mahogany, the labor per square foot price doesn't change even though the overall price does drastically.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

ECH,

know of the RAT you speak of, I initially signed up for that building thing when he started it all those years ago but after a few of my friends had to fight tooth and nail to get their payment kit, (which like you said wasn't free, but actually the cost of the postage on the outgoing kit) I dropped him like a bad habit.

That would be the one!!!

 

[DreamKnight]

He freaking forgot about it. ROFL! I emailed him a pic of the box of the Hagasawa I just got in (Squadron had it on an august special) and asked him if that's what his grandfather flew and he emailed me back and said, "What's this for again?". I replied back with, "Dude, the $250 you laid down for me to build a model for you." which he replied and say, "OH RIGHT. That's fine." then commenced the rest of the email about when we're going out to play some golf with the other guys and about his new clubs and blah blah blah.

I guess I'll just build it like I would my own and just give it to him. It's just odd but my other client warned me! lol

 

[Junkie]

Ken - don't quote me on that. LOL. I build websites for a living. Framers get around $6/sq' around here. Not really sure about anything other than that. Just talking out of my as soon as I find out I'll let you know. But I'm not looking into it.