Re: B-17 Wing Covering Thickness

Actually it works out to between $10 and $15 and hour for me.

What cracks me up is they think because it's my hobby that I'll do it for them cheap. They just don't grasp the idea that once I do it for money it's work and that I have to replace anything I screw up out of my pocket, which adds to my financial risk. Luckily the worst I've trashed is a couple of Trumpeter 1/350 planes.

Normal guide for pricing is ten times the retail cost of the kit and major accessories. I vary from that depending on the subject, kit and my guesstimate as to time. A Hase Me-109 done pretty much OOB with aftermarket dceals I'd probably build for $150 since I can whip one out in about 8-10 hours labor. A 1/350 Tamiya Fletcher in Measure 21 or 22 (simple paint schemes) with PE, resin main guns (the kit turrets are way underscale), probably resin 40mm's, nice hardwood base with brass pedestals on the other had would be $1200 simply because of the labor.........make it a YMW resin Fletcher class with the same kind of base and the price would drop to between $800 and $1000 because the resin kit takes much less time. I do upcharge for Measure 12mod and Measure 3X paint schemes. If contracted for at the beginning I add a plexi cover to the base at cost plus about $20 for the time to get it made and fit to the base. I'm not as fast with armor and have yet to have anyone ask for a model on commission.

In article , :

i still like them.

i have done some trades and made out. i traded a very nice mono 335 for a 500mhz laptop. it has a dvd, 10 gig drives and nic plus modem, so while it isn't this minute new, it is usefull. people trade for the damndest stuff.

which i think is fine, but many people consider minimum wage. i'm happy to use barter for builds. got a 1/2 bag of wheat pennies for a armor kit. i love wheat pennies.

my worst is a lindberg b-17. made me really mad because it's a rare kit. i wanted an aphrodite bird and got a squadron chicken. it's on my wall of shame.

Now we're getting somewhere.

I've volunteered to do two kits for our local Naval Museum...which means I'm doing it for free. And they're both 1/72...how I let myself get talked into that, I don't know. One is a Hasegawa F/A-18F, the other is the Trumpeter Bear J. Guess I had some things I wanted to try and they caught me at a weak moment.

can't wait to see the rufusized bear. that is one impressive ac. are those engines really 5k hp?

They do trade for odd stuff.......my laptop is an HP ZE5570 and is literally just a brain and hard drive for my scanner when I do research.

I usually open with, "You can pay me a flat price or by the hour, my hourly rate for that level of skill is $30."

I was referring to while building on commission....I've trashed plenty of my own stuff.

Well vets with proof of service can get me to build some things for pizza and beer.

Al Superczynski wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

When I was younger and started hearing how the Russkie civilians had to stand in line for everything and got low quality for the effort I always thoght the best trick would be to simply show the Russians pictures of our grocery supermarkets and let them know they are every thord block in big cities. I figured the real communists would have trampled flat in the stampede.

and the ALWAYS ask the flatrate.

isn't it great just scanning and going? no more copier crap or handwritten notes. i used a hand scanner at the library in college. laptop on my side, scanner in hand and off i went.

well, it wasn't commision, but it was a build for someone.

iliked vonnegut's idea of bombing them with consumer goods and food.