i just had a thought pop into my...financial times are pretty tough right now with 9.2% unemployment...i am unemployed and trying to come up with ways I can earn some extra cash...

Could you ever see yourself buying a built unpainted/unweathered kit so you can go right to the funnest part of modeling...painting and weathering. For example, if i were to build a 1/35 dragon panther g that costs me 40$, could you see yourself paying extra if its already assembled (expertly built) where you just take care of the painting/weathering process. You could even use it for practice. If you would be interested in something like that how much could you see yourself paying for such a service?

Michael;

Uhhh... Well, as I personally love the building part, I cannot say as I'd pay much, but, objectively speaking, there may be some market for well-built "naked" models.

There are, for example, many built (usually painted) kits that show up on eBay- a way to gauge the market and potential return, I think. And there have been some threads here and on other sites concerning similar questions.

But unless you are pretty fast at the building....

If I was going to try this, I'd find myself making maybe $0.25 / hour or so , as it takes me lots of hours to build anything to my satisfaction... Now, if I could sell PAINTING other's naked builds... I might be able to make a much better wage, seeing as it usually takes me only a few hours of actual painting time to complete the coloring phase!

But, knowing my own insecurities and penchant for perfectionism, that could blow up badly... what would have been a maybe 5-hour paint-it-put-it-on-the-shelf and admire gig for my own thing would probably turn into a month-long fiddle-and-tweak-and-redo ordeal when done for someone else! Move over, minimum wage!

Bob

I wouldn't be interested in buying pre made but not painted models because I enjoy the building process.

Honestly I don't think one could make money at it. You would be asking for the price of the kit (plus glue) pluis postage plus the building fee and how would calculate that? The complexity of the kit multiplied by the time taken to build it. there are people who do commisions of fully built and painted kits and there finished kits on ebay but i don't know how much of a market there is for them- the recession is hitting everyone

^^DITTO^^

No interest at all. I am a model builder, not just a painter. Why would I pay someone else to build it when I can do it myself, exactly how I want it? And probably better.

I think your market is 1 of 2 things.

Either you're trying to sell completed (painted and weathered) models to collectors..... OR

You're selling unassembled kits.

If you have $40 or $50 to blow on new models, I would be scouring local shows for good deals that you can then sell on Ebay or on forums or whatever. But you'll have to get a good feel for what kits sell for what, and wait for deals.

To me the whole point of it is to have a complete work of art that you did entirely on your own save for a few things like Mini Art buildings, which by the way can and should be modified by scratch building for that one of a kind display. I have never heard of an artist or musician who finished up on someone elses work and took credit for it. Save for Milly Vanilly

I woke up today and realized how incredibly stupid my idea was...lol

Hey Mike your idea is not all that far fetched. There are modelers including on this site who sell their fully built, painted and weathered models. However model site wouldn’t be the best place to sell them. Look into Ebay…there are many buyers out there. Also try word of mouth, place a few adds here and there. You never know.

This old timer once told me…”there’s an ass for every seat” and it’s a true statement.

Stuff sells, everything sells, it won’t hurt to try. At most you’ll have a bunch of unpainted models to finish off, and even then you could sell them on Ebay. Look into it…do a search on Ebay, type in “Built 1/35th or 1/48th models”

Happy Modeling,
Joe

people will buy models, most times that are already built and paited, just for show. they would buy them just as they would be home decorations, painting, etc.
its not uncommon. there is a guy known for collecting models made by other people on the finescale modeler site.
the market is made by demand. is there huge demand for it, probably not. but, if you posted them for sale on a website or sold at a flea market, you would at least sell a couple. you wont get rich doing it. but, someone would buy.
you see this type of thing happen every day on this site. resin kits are sold, unmade kits are sold and traded around

I'd buy a built-but-unpainted model for the right price. Having a crash test dummy would come in handy when trying something new or tricky. For example, I just picked up Dragon's Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. J. I like the white wash options, but I'm not likely to dive in with the hair spray method and risk ruining 2-3 months of work. But I might if I had a dummy model to experiment on first.

Having said that, it would an occasional thing and would never replace building and completing my own models. Price-wise, I wouldn't pay a lot. I can't see that this would generate a great deal of revenue for the builder / seller, but it might work as a simple symbiotic relationship where money isn't the point (i.e. you enjoy building but never finish anything, I build slowly and take models off your hands from time to time to increase my finishing opportunities).