Paint Models, Get Money? How To Go “Pro-Painter”

In the planning stage, we covered why painted sets were a better opportunity.  Now we’ll cover how to paint them.

How to paint them really depends on the quality of your painting and how many starter sets you are willing to commit to this.

A lot of the theory and reasonning behind the painting strategy will be covered in the selling part tomorrow.  In the meantime, focus on painting.

If you are new to the commish painting game, pick the level that seems the best for you; either what you enjoy doing or that you feel confident in doing.If you have a business already, pick the one that fits you current client base.

This is a two-prong approach, as it will make it easier to sell to your existing clients and will gather new clients that like your painting style. If you do high end starters but never paint high end commish, those clients are kinda wasted after the starter set extravaganza is over.

Our selling strategy is to stay focused on one level and quality and make the most out of it.

We are talking demo sets and tabletop quality here.

This level is perfectly fine if you are into the army painter’s approach of painting: Colored Primer, One Color everything, Quickshade, Varnish.  Wham! Bam! Donzo.

This is one of my favorite level, because it’s available for anyone, provided you don’t mind speed painting.

For this level, you want to get as many starter sets as you can bang out in a reasonable pace.  Painting 1 set might take 5 hours total, but painting 3 sets will take 6 total, so the more the merrier.

Because anyone can paint this level, you can also team up with a buddy to paint up more sets quickly ( and cut the initial starting cost in half )

 For lack of a better term, we’ll call this the Duncan quality level.  Models at the level or about of the Games Workshop stuff.

This level is great because it offers the most selling options.

In terms of quantity, the keyword here is to pick a reasonable number that you can paint.  Yes, if you can do 5 sets in the week, this is possible.

But if you are burned out and bummed after 3, the 2 others are pretty much wasted.  Or worse if you starter all 5 and can’t finish any.

So pick a reasonable number and go for it.

This level covers model that either look awesome on the table or stay in a display case.

This level is a tricky one, because the selling options are more limited.  Painting at that level is also not for everyone; if you’ve never painted a large number of high quality models, don’t assume you can.

If line painting makes you want to hang yourself, or if you truly only can afford one set, this is the place to go.

The key of this painting strategy is to know where to stop.  Painting the Captain in Gravitas Armor or Whatshisface the Plague Lord to the best of your ability makes sense.

Again, I can’t stress how important sticking to one level is here.  Don’t mix and match, don’t try a little bit of this, a little of that.  Pick one; stick with it; win big.

The goal is to paint everything in order to sell it to the best of it’s quality.

Until next time:

No excuses, hobby like a champion!