"Cost for sculpting 54mm Napoleonic figure?" Topic

What are people charging for sculpting 54mm figures? I'm interested in producing a range of Napoleonic figures. I'd want to have a 'green stuff' model and take it from there.

What I would really like to do is to have one figure produced, hold all rights, and get support to have my people sculpt future figures.

I'm not going to be doing this in the near future. So I'm just interested in getting an idea of cost right now.

Cool – I have no idea of the cost. I thought there was a basic £10.00 GBP a mm for working these out – but that sounds alot for a 54mm figure!

What figure are you looking to have produced?

You might have to pay more than the standard rate, because it looks like you need more than a sculpt. The "know how" that goes along with the support you need is probably more valuable than the sculpt itself!

£10.00 GBP GBP a mm sounds like a lot.

I'm thinking of collectable figures rather than wargaming figures.

I did a 54mm Roman Legionaire figure for about £225.00 GBP – that was based on man hours rather than just a flat rate.
The sandals were a bastard and the Loricae segmentata with all the brass hooks and eyes etc was time consuming.

That was a rate that made sculptor and client happy.

I've heard 10 USD per mm rather than 10 GPB, so 225 GPB for a 54mm figure sounds very reasonable.

Here in Europe I hear rates from 250 Euros upwards for single 54mm foot figures. Depends on complexity also. I would price a hussar with full attire higher than a simple figure in a overcoat. The master sculptors at Pegaso and other places surely earn more.

Maybe you should ask at Timelines and Planetfigure forums too for more accurate answers?

TNX1E6 !

tabasco2152: do you still do any sculpting, and is there a way to get in touch with you to discuss future work? Thanks.

Napoleon iii

Yes I do

Send me an email On 'tabasco2152@aol.com'

Look forward to having a chit chat.

I have been sculpting for over 20 years now.

If you are looking at collectables instead of gaming figures, £10.00 GBP per mm sounds rediculously cheap to me for a full green 54mm figure! But i've only ever built 10 to 28mm stuff. Would love to have a go at bigger stuff.

I do second clibinarium, the associated liason research and general negotiations take a lot longer than the sculpture itself! Why does everybody expect the sculptor to know everything about the range of 14th regiment of napoleons bum lickers that they have researched to the Nth degree? So if you do have a sound plan and a budget that would be more usefull in determining an accurate price I feel????

Sorry if it feels like i'm being harsh, I'm just giving a very experienced sculptors perspective. I hope it helps and I wish you luck with your project.

"sounds rediculously cheap to me"

I do find discussions of cost of sculpting entertaining.

I generally have three tiers of pricing.

Big toy company rate, $75/hr – For that I'll drop what I'm doing and make whatever you want and guarantee it is exactly as you want it, provided that's physically possible.

Hobby rate when I don't really want to do it, $35/hr – for that I'll fit you in my schedule (which is currently about a year) and do what you like provided you or your project aren't particularly annoying.

Hobby rate of projects I like for people who are easy to get along with, $20/hr – I'll get to it when I have some time.

The cost is obviously dependent on how long it takes and that depends more on quality and difficulty than size. I can make a 28mm figure in as little as four hours but I almost never do because it would be of necessity rather crude and that's not what people come to me for. Generally I take ten to twenty hours to make a 28mm sized figure, a 54mm figure would take 10 to 40 hours, it depends on clothes and finish.

My experience when I used to work alongside other sculptors is this is rather fast, half again to double anyone I've worked with.

Quality and finesse of finish is what takes time more than anything else. If you made a scale of finish quality where one was a crude, barely recognizable shape and 10 was a piece technically perfect to the naked eye then for a ‘28mm' figure:

Level/Time in hours

1 / 2

2 / 2.5

3 / 3

4 / 4

5 / 6

7 / 9

8 / 15

9 / 25

10 / 50

I usually aim at about a ‘7' or ‘8' that's what I'd call the Darksword Ice and Fire pieces I've done for example.

So you get what you pay for, if you are willing to pay.

Hehe, Mr. Meier, your "7" is already technically perfect to my naked eyes. ;P

Agreed SimonF: Even with an Optivisor I can find metal texture and parting lines but no surface imperfections at "level 7 or 8" at all.

When I say ‘imperfections' I mean no shortcuts no simplifications, nothing you could point to and say it could have been done better. Sometimes this is a matter of time sculpting, getting the dome of a breastplate perfectly arched, sometimes it's research, finding out exactly how this type of cloth folds in this position.

I very rarely make a figure without lots of compromises to save time, if I didn't I'd starve.

Just 9-15 hours for a Darksword level figure: good I'm not that easily discouraged learning to sculpt. ;) Interesting effect on that burnt face by the way.

Since you also have have 54mm Napoleonics, how much time did those take to sculpt? And did that particular style influence how much time you needed?

For those who have not seen them yet: link

On the Ice and fire figures the Nightwatch troops took about 12 hours each to make, the characters were all a lot more work Cersi, Melissandre and Jon Snow only took about 15-18 hours but the guys in armor with separate parts took longer up to 25 hours for Loras.

Yes the 54mm caricatures were a lot less work than a realistic 54mm Napoleonic would have been, about half the time maybe 12 hours for the regular infantry and something less than 20 for the guardsman.

In all this I'm talking about the time spent working not the time spent at work. I probably don't get in much more than 7 hours work in a typical 10 hour day ‘at work' what with breaks, interruptions, minor domestic emergencies et.

so 30 ish hours on a 54mm figure with an average of about $35 USD 'provided you or the project was not annoying' That equates to $905. USD A bargain in my mind for a top rate sculptor, but in evidence i rest my case £10.00 GBP per mm is rediculously cheap for a full green collectors piece!

There is cost of living difference between the US and UK of course. But there is an exchange difference. So get a US sculptor if you can the exchange rates are currently very good.

"£10.00 GBP per mm is rediculously cheap for a full green collectors piece!"

I the real world yes, I just completed two figures for a toy company at .95"(about 24mm) and .9 (about 23mm) and was paid $1,000 each or about 20GBP per mm. In price per millimeter the most I've ever made was $900 USD (about $1,300 adjusted for inflation) for a line of HO scale figures, that was more than 30GBP per mm.

But the problem is many people don't want or need a very well made figure they want a ‘4' or a ‘5' not a ‘7' or an ‘8' and so they don't want to pay, it's understandable even if a bit frustrating to sculptors who would like to have time to do a better job but can't because they'd starve.

Oh and by the way the small figures I just did for the toy company were ones which they had tried to have 3-D printed but the ‘rapid prototypes' looked like crap.

'But the problem is many people don't want or need a very well made figure they want a ‘4' or a ‘5' not a ‘7' or an ‘8' and so they don't want to pay, it's understandable even if a bit frustrating to sculptors who would like to have time to do a better job but can't because they'd starve.'

This is so very true. I think I could count on one hand the jobs i've done at a 7 or 8 but the 4 or 5s run into thousands.

Back on the original subject I still feel a sound plan and details of reference material supplied or required would give the sculptor a much better chance when giving a quote rather than a price per millimetre.

Generally prices come down when parts of the figures are pre cast and converted from others etc, quotes for full greens are, by thier very nature, expensive.

Excuse me please, but I'm glad to hear:
"they had tried to have 3-D printed but the ‘rapid prototypes' looked like crap".

"I'm glad to hear"

It was partly because of the size. The resolution of the stuff looked like it was effectively 1/100 of an inch (I'm sure it was purportedly higher, this is a BIG company and they don't pinch pennies on stuff like that) but when the head is only 9/100 of an inch you can imagine what it looked like, a head made out of building blocks.

Also the computer artist mis-estimated how several aspects of the proportions would play out in small scale.

Overall I'd say with this technology you'd have to make a figure about six inches tall before the defects of the printing weren't obvious in areas like the face.

I'll start another thread on it, I'd be interested to know what it really costs now.

I'll wait for you new thread.

hi , im a sculptor, i charge 7$ per mm on that. who ever interested contact me, trox_ventic@yahoo.com