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| Instead of the normal 24 figure unit I painted 28 - that way I can do another 24 man unit plus command unit giving 2 units - or miss one of the command units to give a 49 strong unit. |
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| As usual I painted the armour as a linen corselet rather than as scale armour - mainly time, painting on the individual scales takes longer than plain white (or whatever) and doesn't really add anything to the figure. |
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| Went for a more geometric pattern than usual. Originally thought about a horse head - next one? |
One thing I think is worth putting in somewhere - costs of the figures I keep producing...
Commercial figures are expensive and cost a lot of money. If I was paying over £1 a figure and possibly £2-3 I certainly wouldn't be able to produce as many as I do. So what does it cost me?
A commercial figure includes a number of costings: Getting the masters designed and made, paying for a mould/s, cost of metal, cost of electricity/power, paying the caster, admin costs, etc. For the figures here: Figures already there, any new ones I convert myself. Until very recently, no moulds bought for 5 years - so moulds already paid for whether I use them or not. Cost of metal - G3 weighs about 8g, at Tiranti metal costs, that's about 125 figures per kilo, buy metal in 5k lots represents about 18p per figure (but drops to about 13p per figure when I get the 25k ordered elsewhere). Hobby, so I don't need to pay myself. Total cost for a 24 figure unit is a bit over £3! - not bad as I can normally paint about this number in a week.
I normally allocate about 25p per figure as a nominal contribution to the cost of a mould, that would total 38p, but that assumes 'reasonable' sales - at £80 per mould it represents selling 320 for 25p to break even. Not going to happen on any of my new and projected moulds! If I allow a more likely 200 figures to break even, would be 40p per figure on the cost! Which would give a commercial cost per figure of 53p. No idea what the electricity costs. As far as commercial time costs, if I were to look at £15 an hour, can do 12 spins an hour and (based on most figures on mould not wanted plus not all come out properly) say 3 figures average per spin that would add about 42p to the cost! - so my 13p figure goes up to 80p-95p per figure as a commercial price.
Which means that, if I were 'buying' these figures, a 24 man unit would cost me £19- £23 - the difference representing what are virtually fixed/already paid costs - and the more figures I make, the cheaper they become in terms of unit cost.
Actually, in getting the figures on the table it costs as much for paint, bases and filler...
I try hard not to think of how much one of my 54mm home cast figures cost vs just buying castings and parts.
ReplyDeleteTrying to cast more doesn't help because I have neither space nor time for more than what I'm doing. Some get used much more than others but it averages out since one wants officers etc anyway. Oddly the homemade moulds aren't much cheaper than commercial but they contain my own masters so no comparison. Equipment, some of the moulds and more metal than I'm likely to use are sunk costs since they were bought 15 or more years ago when I was hoping to mske and sell painted toy soldiers, something which got derailed by life before it got very far.
Once it becomes a hobby, cost only matters as to whether it is bearable within budget and returning sufficient pleasure!
Costwise casting your own isn't cost effective - the Zinnfiguren moulds I bought cost way more than just buying figures would. But casting your own figures is so much more satisfying than just buying figures isn't it?
DeleteI always loved the Garrison ancients range Rob. Inaccurate but wonderful.
ReplyDeleteActually that inaccurate... depends on how you look at it. When they were made the 'best' pictorial reference was Funcken - and a lot of the figures are taken straight from there. So, on their day, pretty accurate.
DeleteI greatly admire your ability to focus! It's hard to work out the cost of an individual figure even for a commercial company - I notice that Hinds sell the old Hinchliffe infantry at 90p and east Riding sell the old Lamming at £1.20 (not including shields and weapons, which are separate). The Miniature Figurines ancient ranges are £1.35 - but these are the slightly larger late 70s figures rather than the 'proper' 'S' ranges and PB figures (which are not available afaik). Jacklex (20mm) 50P. Spencer Smiths 60p. Tradition (Stadden) £1.10. Just for comparison.
ReplyDeletePaul Ashton sold Garrison at 85p when I took over - I reduced it to 65p on average which is posibly why I sold a lot more than he said was possible! Minifigs at the time were £1.10, Spencer Smith sold AWI range at 40p - I aqtually owned more moulds than he did at the time but didn't put them out because no way was it commercially viable to match that figure!
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