"How much for commission sculpting" Topic

How much should a sculptor charge per mm, i wondered how much tom meier makes for a 28mm.

Whats the going rate for a 28mm from a starter sculptor?

Tom discusses his rates on on this thread:
TMP link

Regards, the Gorb

Whats the going rate for a 28mm from a starter sculptor?

$300 USD

I'm guessing that is based on Tom's rate of approx $35/hr for about 10 hours work – hobby rate.

But I doubt many get that.

£15-25 ($30-50) for a 15mm figure seems to be pretty standard from the several we are in touch with.

I'd heard the price range for sculpting a 28mm figure was $300 USD to $500 USD – but if anyone wants to share actual prices they pay or charge…

If I was a sculptor I'd keep my yap shut and let Tom set the benchmark!

I'd heard the price range for sculpting a 28mm figure was $300.00 USD USD to $500.00 USD USD – but if anyone wants to share actual prices they pay or charge…

I've never felt so cheap :)

From what I can see there is quite a difference in rates for SciFi and Fantasy figures and historical stuff. GeoffQRF is quoting for historical I think. Fantasy would be about five times that much depending on design.

$300 USD is a common rate for 30mm fantasy to start calculating with (more or less depending on design, size, conditions etc.). As a starter without reputation (which is part of what you sell) you'd probably get less. Professionals with a good standing and reputation get much more of course.

Among other things, prices depend on subject matter, experience of the sculptor and if the sculptor has references or must use his or her imagination and industry.

Obviously sculpting for the mass market industry where tens of thousands of units are sold versus one or two hundred are able to support different sculpting rates.

$300 USD for a starter? Not on your life.

Fantasy would be about five times that much depending on design.

Now I could argue the reverse. Historical has to be right, whereas fantasy just has to be an elf (or whatever) as who is to say what's 'right'?

£15-25 for a 15mm sculpt; that sounds pretty low! Maybe that is the going rate, but say thats 2-3 hours work, can a decent sculpt be turned out in that time?
What sort of quality of work does this relate too? Is 15mm the bottom?
Cheers.

I had a quote this year from a very accomplished sculptor of £80.00 GBP per 25mm master – and considerably less if simply variants of a single dolly. This man is a professional sculptor, in that he works for the model, toy and collectable market too. It's truly bizarre that specialist wargame sculptors can charge a lot more for vastly inferior work.

£15-25 for a 15mm sculpt; that sounds pretty low! Maybe that is the going rate, but say thats 2-3 hours work, can a decent sculpt be turned out in that time?

It is low, and no, it's not worth the time :-)

I had a quote this year from a very accomplished sculptor of £80.00 GBP GBP per 25mm master

Sounds about right.

> Fantasy would be about five times that much depending on design.
> Now I could argue the reverse.

Actually, I think you're misreading what I wrote. What's I'm saying is that I some of the rates which I've seen offered for 15mm fantasy were least five times what you mentioned. But it's been a while since I last heard of that. 15mm fantasy seems to be less popular nowadays.

> Historical has to be right, whereas fantasy just has to be an elf (or whatever) as who is to say what's 'right'?
Common misconception. Short reply as I don't want this thread to derail from the rates question. The lack of references means that the reply: "the art director and the people who will or will not buy the figure". And believe me, that can be a tough crowd to please! Very subjective which means that as a sculptor you are the one who is going to have to figure out what the hell they really want (and not just what is in the brief or on the sketch). If it comes to that, sculpting a well documented Star Wars stormtrooper, even with a multi layered stringent quality control and large fan base/lynch crowd, can be a lot easier than a brief "axe wielding barbarian but one which really stands out from the rest". For sf/f you can end up doing quite a bit of extra design work and risk of having to rework bits is very much present. Can be the fun bit but it's also time consuming.
By the way, I think that the rates for sf/f and historical are more from the way it grew in the history of miniatures than such logic.

Back on the rates. It has already been pointed out indirectly: the amounts you see here are not set prices. Sculpting is not "off the shelf" but very variable. The rates you often see are starting point some people use to calculate what they will actually charge. And these depend on all Brigadegames mentioned and more (number of figures, detail level, extra work, deadline, etc.). There can even be very subjective things like "the fun" factor ("Oh cool design, can I pretty, pretty please sculpt it?") and indirect ones like "how much exposure will this give me" or "can this be my way into this company", etc., etc.

Rates are important for sculptor and miniatures maker/seller and getting the right rate is a balancing job between the two. For the miniature maker/seller it's important masters are as cheap as possible as he has to make a living with whatever is left over of sales after all the costs. For the sculptor it's important that what he earns is worth his effort. For a hobby sculptor this can be "is this enough to do instead of what I'd sculpt just for fun" and for a professional sculptor it is "if I divide it by the number of hours spend on it, is the hourly rate enough to make a living or should I be flipping burgers instead".

The $300 USD rate is a guideline often mentioned for a professional sf/f sculpt by a sculptor of average reputation. From that point it goes up or down depending on everything mentioned before. Reputation and experience have a lot of influence. As Brigadegames say, it's very unlikely you'd get that as a starter. But there are exceptions. There have been a couple of sculptors whose first work were already of such a quality level that they immediatly got such a following (long live internet exposure :) ) that before any sculpt of them was bought they were already worth that rate. PR can do a lot of good there. But it's rare.

Sorry for the typing errors. – It's getting late.

So I'm being told $100 USD to $150 USD is more likely for a "starter," but that it ought to be $700 USD if the sculptor wants to make a living at it.

Yep, and £5/$10 figures should be selling for £10/$20

For a 15mm the £30.00 GBP is about right but for say a 28mm you can wait for an £80.00 GBP commission or you can do several while your waiting for £40.00 GBP or £50.00 GBP

First there is a huge gap, at least double between work for major toy companies and hobby work. Giftware and jewelry work is in-between. For toy work I have been paid anything from $1,200 to $2,500 for what would be a ‘28mm' figure.

Then it all depends on the degree of finish.

To illustrate how much this alters the equation and to what effect, some years ago, when I was making the Renaissance line for Ral Partha I was sculpting them at the rate of about 2 ½ a week. We were at the time importing the Citadel fantasy range which were different in style from the standard Ral Partha figures. I was asked how hard it would be to sculpt in that style and I said, "easy I could do twice or maybe three times as many figures in the same amount of time".

So a challenge was issued and I was to work under supervision for one week then the results were to be cast and mixed with Citadel figures to see if anyone could tell the difference.

They couldn't and I made ten.

But the real moral of the story is, some people liked them better than the stuff that took much longer to make. Three times as much work does not mean three times as many sales.

I generally charge $500 USD to $800 USD for a ‘28mm' figure, but for that price I only do things that interest me and I've got about a years worth of work to do. If I were making an historical line with a lot of conversions that would drop considerably, 30-50%.