A new 3D world that you can touch. No matter what model, sculpt, or miniature you buy, print, or scratch-build… you still need to paint the model.
Whatever your mind fancies, you can make come alive when you can paint miniatures. The ability to paint a blank 3D canvas changes how you manifest that thing in your head into reality.
This is probably why model railroading has a legacy. For the miniature painter, it is the same. With our skills as painters and modelers, it does not take too much effort to capture in a tangible form the ideas, visions, or thoughts of things in our heads.
And, the 3D space of what we create feels right and good. With a few exceptions, assembling a scale model or miniature is not truly finished until it has been painted. Painting miniatures or models is slower than drawing or making a photograph, but it has a depth that is replicated in no other artistic endeavor.
More real. Painting miniatures is a huge business. Game companies are always looking for good painters. They need to keep their products looking good for the consumer. The box art and website catalogs for these companies all need miniature products painted to a high standard. Painting miniatures as a side hustle for a bit of spending money is also an opportunity if you enjoy painting and can do it well and quickly.
I even know people who paint roleplaying minis and sell them on eBay or Etsy without engaging with a client at all. They merely paint the miniatures and post them for sale.
It works! You paint quickly. You can paint single models to a very high quality, or blaze out a horde army see my article about speed painting , fully ready for battle on a war gaming tabletop. My suggestion for those who want to paint miniatures for some side money is to start small with your local community. But, for some of you, this may be fun. Miniature painting contests are a great way to exhibit your work to other painters and admirers.
Remember this, too. Not all painting competitions are for professional level painters. Some are designed specifically for the hobbyist who simply enjoys the painting activity and want to gauge how well they are doing. You can receive great, useful feedback about your work when you enter painting contests. Of course, you do need a level of resilience and grit to compete true for any contest, painting or otherwise.
Suddenly, you work is in the spotlight and judgement of your effort is a real thing. Not just in your head. I used to submit my work to a few local events, but it never became a focus or motivation of my work painting miniatures. And, the best place to meet these masters is at these contests. It also possible to enter online miniature painting competitions.
You may find online painting contests on Facebook, Instagram, or through Twitter. I have some work posted on the Cool Mini or Not website CMON , which lets other viewers anonymously rate your miniature painted work 1 thru 10; 10 being best. You can check out some of my older CMON submissions here. Or, you can check out my painting gallery.
Maybe you can barter your strengths for the strengths of other painters. This is especially true for resin models, e. In this case, I called on a good friend to help me assemble the tank.
You need to be strategic about how many pieces will go into a single package. Not many people will want to buy a package with so many pieces in it. There is however an exception to this and that is with ready to play armies. With such, selling them in full packages makes more sense than selling individual pieces.
Market Research : before listing your miniatures on maybe eBay or Etsy, you should first conduct market research to see the prices and the market for other similar products. This is especially important to help you determine the price to set for your items.
Generally, items that have low prices are likely to attract more buyers. Timing is another aspect that you need to research on. Do your research and find out what days and times most people tend to be on their computers or phones.
This will be a good insight to determine when to post and be sure that many people will come across your post. Listing : Online selling is all about image.
It is therefore best to showcase your products with good quality images that cover all dimensions. With this, the client can be able to judge the quality of the item before making a purchase. Another important aspect here is your choice of words when describing your product. Avoid using words like cheap or pro-painted.
These raise a lot of speculations about the products. Be specific about things like the material of the miniature metal or plastic , the dimensions, shipping cost, etc. Different types of miniatures tend to sell at different prices.
The price range depends on a variety of factors such as cost of raw materials, level of demand of the item, the time and effort put into the work amongst other factors. This amount might however vary depending on individual sales throughout the year.
Making money from selling painted miniatures is a tricky business. Keep in touch with your buyers -- it helps to build a good reputation. Shipping to other countries is a great way to make more money and have more bidders, but it does greatly increase the shipping hassle and it increases the risk of fraud.
Some shippers do not provide delivery confirmation outside of the US and the more stops a package makes the greater the chance of it getting lost. So ultimately you have to make the decision for yourself whether or not it is worth it to ship outside of the country.
I have started an auction before planning on only shipping to the US my country , but during the auction I was then contacted by a buyer out of the country who had a great Ebay rep who was interested in my lot. I sent him a message back saying it would be fine for him to bid on the item. He won the auction and everything went well! When you ship always get delivery confirmation. If you are paid through paypal this is the only way to protect yourself.
Again this was very clear in my adds. Always do registered delivery on big sales and overseas sales. There is no protection from eBay, PayPal or the Post Office if your shipment gets lost, if you do not have the registered delivery. Again, some shippers like the USPS do not have delivery confirmation when shipping overseas so you may well want to consider shipping with another carrier who does for any overseas shipping.
This is a touchy subject for some people. There are those who feel it is very important to only charge a very modest shipping and handling fee. However, I would respectfully disagree. Ebay allows you to add an extra surcharge to your Shipping and Handling fee.
It also includes the time and effort it takes to do all this, drive to your post office and mail out the package. When I first started selling stuff on Ebay, my shipping charge was only the cost of the materials was, but I found out very quickly that the time and effort spent along with the fees that Ebay charges you means that I was ending up getting very little actual profit.
They are aware of it and are okay buying that item knowing they will be paying that charge. So my recommendation is to use the extra shipping and handling charge feature to make sure that you're actually making some money off of Ebay. But in the end, no matter what your handling charge, if people are willing to pay that fee, there really isn't anything wrong with it. Switch Theme. Categories : Shopping. Dakka 5.
Look Before You Leap Almost nothing will sell for what you think it will. Auction Timing Consider the time of the year when selling items on ebay. Listing Your Auction Be honest about what you are selling.
Generally, I have found that either; The seller is lying. He put "propainted" in the title to garner more hits. The seller is stupid. The models are not very good or table-top standards at best. Either way, I can paint better than most "propainted" auctions I see. I am no where near a "pro. This truly is a professional-looking paintjob.
Shipping Once the stuff is sold make sure you pack it nicely and dispatch it quickly. Categories : Shopping Discussion Got Comments?
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