Bexley

Wow, how a single comment sparket such discussion:tongue2: Anyway, when I said "studio" I just meant two or more people painting for eBay and sharing the profit's

Squig

If it was a now and then thing, that'd be fine- but I'm hoping to do it part time as an extra source of income. Which makes sharing profit difficult, since it means employees or independent contractors and all kinds of headaches.

Though, something more along the lines of an internet version of a traditional artists' co-op (ugh- the hardcore free-market capitalist in me just punched the rest of me in the face for using the term "co-op") might be much more manageable. Essentially, it'd be a central location for each of the "members" to post their recent works and auction links, and ocntact info for commissions. Each person would be responsible for their own auctions, record-keeping, et cetera.

I have a good question for some of you- how do you pack your figures for shipping?

Not to mention, a tax ID allows you to buy from some wholesale distributors at a pretty significant discount, and it allows you to avoid sales tax (in the US, at least) on some of your supplies. You might even be able to buy at net 30, which might come in handy for commissions.

But I agree- I'd rather be legit from the get-go than get hit with a big penalty five years later.

I wonder how much oversight PayPal has- I would assume that PP assets wouldn't be FDIC insured.

Though, since most people just use it as a money transfer service and not an actual bank, that may be irrelevant.

And now, the ShoutBox falls silent.

Anyway, I started this thread to address both eBay questions/experiences, as well as the general business aspects of selling figures and commission work. I'm not entirely familliar with Wyrd's ToS on this, but I'm just going to go ahead anyway and put a "NO POSTING EBAY AUCTION LINKS OR USING THIS THREAD TO BUY/SELL MINIATURES" disclaimer here.

<demonherald> @bexley That's the thing ..I believe the IRS checks paypal activity now??? may be wrong there but it's just too big a thing for them not to get there greedy mitts on...

I hadn't heard that. It wouldn't surprise me, though, as it's essentially a bank. I wonder how much oversight PayPal has- I would assume that PP assets wouldn't be FDIC insured. I know there have been attempts to get eBay to give up transaction information, but eBay has so far escaped attempts to force them to do so by stating that they are simply providing a place for buyers and sellers to do business, much like a shopping mall does for brick and mortar stores, and shopping malls aren't required to hand over detailed financial information on how much business the stores that rent space from them are doing.

I think people mostly do it to get around a "miniatures must be mounted on their actual gaming bases" rule for contests. Which always seemed to me like a cheat, especially in single figure categories.

Well, now that Rackham is being distributed by the fine fine folk at Fantasy Flight Games, you should go to your LGS and demand they begin to carry it again!

And Wyrd, while you're at it, of course. I've been working on my LGS in that respect. I think I've about convinced him.

Yeah, it'd help if were in a blister so you could examine it before buying.

Sadly, I did not get a chance to. Though, he only spoke just enough English to get by, and I don't speak French at all, so it ended up being tough to pick his brain for tips. I did see that he was using a combination of Rackham paints, and two other brands which were completely foreign- not any of the well known paint lines. I'm not even sure if they were hobby paints or artist's paints. They were in largeish bottles, about halfway between the size of a Rackham paint bottle and a Liquitex paint bottle. The labels on one were in French, and I wasn't even sure about the other one. It seemed to be some sort of Slavic language.

The first one. I still want to paint it myself, though- I just won't be using it in a vignette with the Lioness.

I think I will ditch the Master of Carnage. For as much time (and aggravation) as the Lioness has cost me, I think I'd rather display her on her own rather than as part of a larger scene.

Duende: Yeah, I thought the sword was a lousy fit on mine, too. Then when I got my replacement due to the broken horse leg, I discovered that the sword was actually broken off, and not a separate component.

Yeah. If I hadn't lost the previous weekend when the horse's leg broke (I couldn't just focus on the Lioness, as I needed to leave her alone to exchange the set the following Monday) I'd have maybe had a shot.

Of course, had she been the "Blue Lioness," I might not have had my heart set on painting her for this round.

Some pictures:

Only the filigree on her left shoulder is "done," the rest is going to be repainted.

I don't have pictures yet, but I didn't want to keep blathering about it in the IP thread.

I messed around a bit lat last night, and discovered that mixing paint and Golden Glaze Medium 1:1, and then thinning that mixture about 10:1 mix/water, I got paint that flowed very nicely off the brush but was still thick enough to not run all over without drying bumpy and globby.

Also, Beezlebrush's technique of painting water along the edge of the filigree, then touching a brush with black paint on it to the edge and letting capillary action pull the black paint around the filigree worked beautifully for any slight msitakes I made.

Still, knowing this wouldn't have helped me to finish on time, as it's still really time consuming. Actually, I suppose knowing that would have helped, in that I'd have known how long it was going to take me and would have switched to a rapidly painte Khorne Berzerker early Sunday morning.

Anyway. I'll take a few pictures tonight and put 'em up. The stupid thing is actually looking pretty good right now.

Oh, for Rotten Harvest. I thought you were DQ'd from Iron Painter.

I see it now. I was thinking Heartfire was an orange (like, a really orangey orange) and not a yellow. My mistake.

Also- are you disqualified or is the entry disqualified? If you've got the weekend free, you could do another entry if that's possible.

What mix did you use for the nmm? I'm trying to see in my head how you got yellows out of those colors, and it's not happening. I'm sure it's possible, I'm just trying to make it work in my head and I'm not seeing it.

(Also, I'd like to point out that they just launched a paint line, and will soon be adding brushes and such to the line. Hardly the actions of a company about to stop making the figures they intend you to use those items on.)

As for collectibility... it really really appeals to a lot of people. It's a different type of game with a different type of market. The people who love it look at how much time and money we spend on painting minis and think we're insane. Certainly, the money I've spent in paint and styrene and brass rod and brushes is comparable to what a collector spends on a CCG/CMG.

Diversification is a big concept which gaming companies are finally learning. When you produce one type of game, and that game is selling, everything is awesome. When that type of game inevitably loses popularity, gaming companies that only sell that kind of game lose money and eventually go out of business. If a company has multiple product lines, games that might disappear off of store shelves can stay much longer than they might otherwise, as sales slack can be picked up by more popular games.

CMGs seem like an utterly foreign concept here, because we're the hardcore hobbyists, and prepainted figures go against everything that attracted (many of) us to the hobby.

Game publication is an expensive business, and metal minis even more so. It costs a lot to produce product, and the market is small. And few games can sustain their popularity over long periods of time. GW has managed it, but even they are slowly phasing out metal figures.

Hard as it may be to accept, the market is much larger for games which are playable right out of the box than it is for games like Warmachine or Warhammer, and the number of people willing to continue paying larger and larger amounts for this hobby is always shrinking.

And coincidentally, I just got a some Wyrd stuff recently. (And the green candies included with my order were a nice touch!)

Thankfully the minis aren't as boring as the books.