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Make my hobby my living


Coloradobluesguy

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Best of luck and I hope it works out for you. But a word of caution that was passed on to me when I turned a passion (photography) into a business - there is a risk that doing this may make you money but  kill your passion. I found a fair bit of truth in this - deadlines, having to work to a cost etc. etc. can make something that used to relax you become a major source of stress.

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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Good luck to you.

 

I've looked at turning my hobby into a living also, and come to the conclusion that, especially as I live in the UK, it's not worth the risk vs effort unless you are a) very good at making the models, b) already "in the "industry" in some form", and most importantly c) you have significant money stashed away so that you are already comfortably well off and don't really need to worry if it all goes pear shaped (in which case why bother in the first place?!)...

 

I think the days of a prolific amount of people being able to do physical model making as a profession, are long gone and what "market" there is left is saturated already with youtubers and whatnot trying to make a living out of models...

Edited by RobL
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I turned a hobby into a business over 30 years ago when I started selling surplus plants from my carnivorous plant collection .My passion and enthusiasm enabled it to expand and thrive.  It funded my mortgage and cost of bringing up two  children. Got 7 Chelsea gold medals along the way.

I now look forward to end of this year when I sell the business and I don't have to think about carnivorous plants again.....ever ,

Making my models has been my passion for the past 20years and when in Bath its a model magazine I look at not a book on plants .

Would be more than happy to move to a house with no garden.

I know many people who have turned their hobby into their work and I always feel admiration for those that manage to keep their passion. They are few and far between ,

.Cheers Alistair

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At the moment, when I build a model, it's because it's one that I wanted to build. I chose it. I once had someone ask me if I would build a model for them. It wasn't in a scale that I usually build in, it wasn't from a time period that I'm familiar with, and worst of all, it wasn't a subject which appealed to me. I hated it and vowed that I would never do a commission build again. Plus, when you tell someone how much it will cost, the immediate response is, "HOW MUCH?" They have no idea of the costs involved with the materials, and least of all, your time. So think long and hard before you turn something which at this moment in time, you enjoy, into something that you've got to do.

 

John.

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23 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Good luck, but be aware of the old saying - 'how do I make a small fortune from...(insert passion)....?  Start with a large fortune.'

 

12 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Old Adage: Nothing will take the fun and enjoyment out of something quicker than making it work.

 

 

 

 

Chris

Never truer words said (in jest, or possibly not).

 

I can imagine that making models for commission would involve making subjects you might not necessarily have any interest in while dealing with customers who have the potential to suck what little fun you might find right out of each build depending on how demanding they are (and trust me, customers can be very demanding). The hours spent building will never be paid back at a decent hourly rate which is fine if you are financially secure and don't need the money but that then leads to the question why would you want to put yourself through that if you don't need the money? If you want to build models that you don't want to keep you'd be better off selling your completions on the likes of eBay etc. That way you get to build what subjects you want without being harassed by the whims of a commissioner. I would suggest that selling on eBay would be the first thing to try anyway so you can judge the market, work out the costs v the returns and generally get a feel for the whole process without making too much of a life change.

 

If you do decide to go for it I wish you all the best of luck.

 

Duncan B

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I'll put a good word in for commission building. I have fun myself - because I only pick subjects I want to make. This has allowed me to enjoy many 1/32 models I otherwise could not justify.

 

However I have lovely customers and am financially secure - my builds are just a little extra in the pocket to finance my stash.

 

I also sell models on eBay but I find this can take time and the models may not sell for as much as you could make on commission. eBay audiences seem to want to pay for the typical Battle of Britain subjects but the market is much smaller for anything more unusual.

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