Pilot Painting Service

[AkumaZeto]

All pilots are out the door and on their way to new homes.

[Aros]

Whoo hoo!! Thanks Ben! :Cool:

[Aros]

Once again Ben knocks it out of the park. Thanks Ben! He's ready for his office to fly hopefully hundreds of missions!

[AkumaZeto]

Still recovering. Feel free to look at my latest work.....These are all before shots.

[AkumaZeto]

Hey guys. Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for the well wishes. I am still pretty borked but am making due. I can lift my arm to a keyboard now lol. I still cant hold a airbrush though and fine motor control is not back yey.

[F106DeltaDart]

Wishing you a speedy recovery man!

[Twowingtj]

Glad things are getting better Ben. Be patient brother and let the healing happen.

[AkumaZeto]

Thanks guys. It is hard VERY HARD. When you are used to doing everything and being super busy with your hands its hard to sit still and let others drive the car so to speak. :Sweating:

[Hardway]

I understand how you feel!!! It is hard to just stay still and heal... Glad you are on your way, though!!! :Cool: Blessings Bro!!!

[farmflyer]

The recovery time seems to be the hardest part. My full knee replacement seemed to take forever to heal but in the end it will be better and be worth it Keep on keeping on before you know it you will be back in the saddle again going balls to the wall again.

[AkumaZeto]

Taking clients again

[Hardway]

Excellent!!! So glad to hear it!!! If you can find a good sculpt for the Freewing 262 pilot, let me know and I will take two (2) of them!!! :Cool::Cool::Cool::Cool: Happy for you Bro!!! Jerry

[Hardway]

Checking in????? How are you doing?

[AkumaZeto]

Busy with school. Wifes car dropped a cylinder so rebuilding a engine currently

[AkumaZeto]

As most of you know I paint large very expensive models for the industry. I paint pilots and such for you guys here to help out and because I like you guys. But below is how NOT to do business with me. I wanted to post this here as well you judge. Names have been redacted. Now most people would just say ok thank you and move on and not do what this person did. I have a minimum fee and it is what it is for me. Most of you know what I build and paint movie wise. But not only did this person try to add more work but then reason why I should do it which is just insulting. Bottom line if you talk to me like this I wont ever do work for you.



Person XXXX

Hello. My name is XXXXXXXXX and I live in XXXXXX. I am trying to find someone to paint the driver figure for my 1/10 Tamiya The Hornet buggy. I want it painted to match the box art. The required colors are listed in the build manual. I ca send you a pdf of the page in the manual that shows what color goes where on the driver figure. The paint codes in the manual are for Tamiya acrylic paint. The paint job is very simple, but I would like to have a realistic detailed face with eyes, etc, on the driver figure. Paint the seat belt buckles silver,etc. Let me know if you would be willing to do it. If you are, let me know where to send the driver figure and how you would like to be paid. (Personal check, money order, PayPal, etc.) I can send payment with the figure if you would like. I would pay you up front. Not a problem. Thank you.

Kind regards, XXXXX


ME: Send PDF to XXXXXXX

I see it actually. Same figure as grasshopper lol. Love these kits. Price would be 50 including shipping back to you.



Check or money order is fine.

Person XXX

Hi Ben. My guess is that you have experience painting lexan r/c car bodies with polycarbonate spray paint on the inside of the body. If I send you the hornet lexan body and wing, would you be willing to paint it for me. It is all one color. One can of Tamiya PS-5 black polycarbonate spray paint should do the job. All that has to be masked off are three windows. All of the other details on the body are just decals (roll bar, stripes, lettering, etc). There are decals that go on the driver figure and lights as well. I want you to re-create the box art car. Paint the body and wing on the inside and mask off the windows, apply all of the decals to the outside of the body, wing, driver figure, and lights, paint the driver figure and lights, cut out the body and wing, and mount the wing, driver figure, and lights to the body. I will send you all of the parts, hardware, and decals to do this. You just have to supply the paint and painting supplies. I will send you a copy of the pages in the instruction manual that has detailed pictures for the placement of the decals (they are numbered) and a picture of the driver figure with all of the needed Tamiya color codes listed and where on the driver figure and lights those colors are used and also what and where the decals go on the driver figure and lights. You would send back a completed body ready to run along with the extra decals and parts you did not use. Let me know if you are interested in taking on the extra work and what you would charge me for everything including postage. Thank you Ben.

Person XXX

Hi Ben. In all honesty, I think painting the driver figure and the little lights that mount on the front of the car is more like a $40 job. Shipping will cost each of us $5-$7. That makes my total investment $45-$47 including shipping, and you will be left with $33-$35 after paying for shipping back to me. Add in painting the body and wing and applying the decals and assembly of the body, that makes it a $70 job in my eyes. Shipping costs go up to $10-$12. That makes my total investment $80-$82 including shipping. After paying for shipping back to me, that leaves you with $58-$60, which I think is about right. I just can’t justify spending $50 for just painting the driver figure and lights. I can justify spending $70 for doing the whole body. I can’t justify spending more than $82, which will be my cost with shipping. Any higher than that wouldn’t be worth it for me. Let me know what you think. Thank you.


Person XXX

And cutting out the body and wing.

Person XXX

I’m sorry I keep bothering you, Ben. I just want you ti know how I came up with the pricing. The driver figure is not near as involved and intricate as say a fighter pilot figure and is not near as much work. His driving suit is painted another shade of white than the white the plastic is molded in. The seat belts are black, and I want you to paint the buckles silver. His helmet is solid blue and the trim on the helmet and the padding around his face is black. His face is flesh colored, and I want his eyes blue with the whites of his eyes painted and brown eyebrows. That is pretty much it for the driver figure. The lights are black with the light covers painted a different white than the plastic. I would like the driver figure and the lights sprayed with a gloss polyurethane sealer to protect the paintwork. The paint job on the body and wing is multiple coats of solid black polycarbonate paint with window masking done to keep them clear. No complex masking or multiple colors. Pretty simple. That is as complex as the body and wing painting gets. The most complex and time consuming thing that has to be done on the body and wing is applying the decals correctly. Assembly of everything is easy. That is how I came up with the pricing that I did.

ME:

Sounds like you know what you want get to it. I'll pass Thanks!

Person XXX

I found a place called RSC Scale Models in Essex, United Kingdom that will completely finish out the body, driver figure, etc. like the box art for $92.00. $48.00 of that cost is shipping both ways. So basically they are only charging me $44.00 to do everything. They said that it is a very easy job that won’t take long at all. That is why they don’t charge a lot to do it. It is only costing me $10.00 more to send it all the way to the UK to have it done and then ship it back to me than paying you $70.00 to do it and shipping to you costing me $11.20. Are you charging me too much to do such a simple job for someone with experience doing it, I would think so.

ME: Wow just wow


Glad you found someone to oblige you. I am not obligated to paint anything. I gave you a price then you went on a rant about how you think pricing should be. I do it to help people out not to deal with stuff like this.



Now this is not to stir up crap. Its just a reminder how NOT TO DO BUSINESS WITH ME!


Can a mod please pm me and tell me how to block my first ever person on this forum.

[AkumaZeto]

Person xxxx


If you really want to help people, charge them a fair price for the work to be done. A driver figure, especially the paint scheme I wanted done, is very simple and would not take someone with your experience long to complete. An hour max. For you to make $43.00 an hour is not really helping someone out.. $35.00 an hour is still good money for the job that needed to be done. Charge people based on the difficulty and complexity of a job. Every job is different. I have seen some figures that you have painted that looked like they took a while to paint and required a lot of skill and effort based on the complexity and attention to detail. I can understand charging more for that job. $50.00 would definitely be fair for that job. All I am asking is for you to charge based on the difficulty and time it will take you to do a job. That would really help people out. A very good body shell painter that I use does bad ass complex multi-colored airbrushed paint jobs that sometime require a lot of masking and take quite a bit of time to complete. He mostly paints large, 1/8 scale nitro buggy bodies. No matter what kind of paint job you ask for, he charges a flat rate of $60.00 to paint it. If you want to tip him, and most people do, he really appreciates it. A lot of painters charge $80.00 to $100.00 and people are dumb enough to pay it. He just wants to make enough money to live comfortably. It is what he does for a living. He has a lot of repeat business and stays busy and does quite well, even charging only $60.00. That is helping people out for sure..

[AkumaZeto]

The nerve of this guy man what the hell is wrong with people. Telling me how to run my business

[AkumaZeto]

Aros

[Hardway]

[Dirty Dee]

Interesting how people also don't consider the time it takes to:
prepare work area
clean-up
package/print shipping label/ mail out.

If its such a simple job, shouldn't be an issue for him to do it himself and save some money