Painter for hire

[Skull_duggery 0]

Can anyone tell me the best place to find an experienced painter interested in some freelance work? I have a number of freeware flyable planes for FS2004 and I'd like to have some new liveries for a few of them. I'd rather pay to have these made rather than learn myself since I spend far too much time already updating AI schedules and customizing airports with AFX or ADE. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[ORomaYeti 0]

I would prefer this one: http://www.fs-repaints.co.uk/. I ordered several paints there and they all were more than good but it's not cheap...

[CaptKornDog 286]

What kind of planes/repaints?

[LesPaulGuitarsRock 0]

People charge for repaints?Is there a copywrite issue here when doing real world repaints?I`ve painted many liveries for various VA`s and never charged. Maybe I should, as they are quite time consuming.Eddie

[Barnstormer1 0]

People charge for repaints?

http://www.mcphatstudios.net/ Doing one repaint should be very costly. If you are selling on the open market you can recoup your efforts threw sales. If I were to do one repaint it would be in the 100.00's to make it worth the time.

[LesPaulGuitarsRock 0]

http://www.mcphatstudios.net/Doing one repaint should be very costly. If you are selling on the open market you can recoup your efforts threw sales. If I were to do one repaint it would be in the 100.00's to make it worth the time.

Wow I`ve been too soft.Might look into this. Without beating my own drum too heavily, I think mine are better than a lot of payware skins I have come across.Eddie

[psolk 3,057]

Wow I`ve been too soft.Might look into this. Without beating my own drum too heavily, I think mine are better than a lot of payware skins I have come across.Eddie

Hey Eddie, want to make a couple of pints painting the FS9 CS757 in the new United livery ;) I keep trying but for some reason it initially looks ok in FS then immediately goes blurry beyond recognition so I gave up LOL. It is the only AC I can't seem to paint!

[turbodak 0]

Hi GuysBefore you all rush off to the bank, please bear in mind that it is in the terms and conditions of use of some freeware developers, that repaints must not be paid for. Please check these before offering/accepting payment.Some developers refuse to use some sites as they condone paying for freeware repaints.If you repaint payware aircraft then it would be in order to charge for a repaint. :good:Having, over the years, painted for some 84 different VA's and over 500 aircraft I have never charged for freeware repaints although, occasionally, I have had to charge for payware repaints to cover the cost of buying the models required.Regards to all :friends:

[wombat457 3]

Darn - after ALL these years of painting for "free" and people actually take advantage by charging for a repaint!!!!!!!As with turbodak, I have painted for VA's and done countless paints for people as well as for my own pleasure and have never NEVER charged to do them despite having been offered money on various occasion by individuals.I am in the middle of a paint and have already spent in the order of 7 hours on it, with probably another 7 to go. If you look at the base wage for the US ($7.25 ph) I could charge $101.50 for this paint (if it were commercially available) and that is minimum not taking into account electricity used, wear and tear on my system and all the "good stuff" business's seem to through in in an attempt to justify charges etc etc etc. Grief, who in their right mind is going to pay someone $100 plus dollars for a paint that can be easily found on the internet for free?It is bad enough that some payware companies (who need not be mentioned) charge for additional liveries and upgrades and updates and darn near everything else without everyone else jumping on the "who wants to be a millionaire" band wagon.I honestly believe that if a person has the choice of having a painter do work for free or charge for it - pick the free guy. Why, because his/her motivation for doing the work comes out of commitment and dedication NOT the almighty dollar!Just my 2 cents worth (for free)wombat457

[EagleSkinner 36]

My sentiments entirely Wombat. If I were to charge my real world hourly rate (the job pays very well...) then there's no way I would sell a paint ever. Especially as I seem to choose the hardest liveries to reproduce (like the Careflite livery on the Nemeth A109 that will clock up a couple of weeks and then some before I am happy to let it go - even as a "stand-off lookalike".For some liveries I'd be charging four places left of the decimal... ;) and in a higher value currency and not cowrie shells.I paint planes because it's relaxing. I get the © holder's permission first in most cases too. So anyone who charges for a paint would also have to bear in mind, that if he is making money from someone else's copyrighted livery, then the water gets very deep, very quickly. If there's anyone doing repaints for money legally, then I would dare say that only McPhat is doing it right. I would even go out on a limb and say that most painters who use photoshop are probably even on the wrong side of the line... I won't ask for an honest show of hands from painters who actually legally own their paint software or who actually have ALL the © permissions for all the trademarks and such on their paints. Even I can't manage to find all the © owners on the paints I do. Take a look at Patty Wagstaff's latest Extra livery - there's about 20 different TMs on her plane, and all the sponsor logos are protected.We painters tread on very thin ice when we provide liveries for flight simulation - do you not ever wonder why Microsoft only have a very few real world liveries in their repertoire? A few race P51's and the Kenmore Beavers. American military schemes (mostly public domain by definition - except for the digital cam pattern which is copyrighted.) There are very strong reasons why MS do not paint RW planes and ANYONE doing it for money is risking much.

[CaptKornDog 286]

Obeying all copyrights and terms, I have no problem with people who repaint for compensation. Supply and demand of a skill that is not necessarily too predominant in the community. And if some are skilled enough in this craft to be offered compensation for their time (for instance making a fictional VA repaint), more power to them for being recognized perhaps as masters of the trade. Conversely, we must all be appreciative who share their work and time with the community for free.I have done all of the above. I have accepted some compensation for a few fictional VA repaints (ALL terms and copyrights followed), I have taken repaint requests for free, and I have repainted simply because I wanted to see a particular livery. Some of these are not publicly available, but most are right here on AVSIM (search for Kyle Weber) to share with others, over 50 of them.My two cents. (Apologies for the thread hijack).

[wombat457 3]

stormpup and CaptKornDog,Stormpup, we obviously share similar opinions on the rather dubious practice of charging for repaints, and while I cannot say for sure, I honestly doubt that anyone has total legal rights to paint anything OTHER than Fictional Liveries.Like most people, I use photos from Airliners.net (in my case) as reference points for my paints only. I don't believe in Photo realistic paints (aka copy and paste) as that to me is not painting. We have mentioned copy right breaches and I believe they are well known and accepted by most companies, although there are some who actually do not permit their livery to be painted by us painters. Plagiarism is another issue though - and yes this is possibly taking things to extremes; however, for all those who do use photo's from Airliners.net for the purpose of creating their Photorealistic work and then passing that work of as their own is actually plagiarizing the work of the photographer, perhaps something that is never considered. I seriously doubt if any photographer would "complain" about his or her photo's being used, unless, of course, those paints were being sold. Just something to think about I guess.Some companies, such as those in the UK (for instance) lay claim that they are NOT selling the paint work but selling the painters time????? If you can wrap your head around that logic then so be it, but I can't. A rose is a rose by any name.In short, every commercial airline knows (or can be reasonably expected to know) that we painters do replicate their liveries which they pay out the butt for, but they don't care as money does not change hands, and so long as that remains true there is little they can do. Essentially, we who paint for fun, relaxation, as a service to the flight sim community are not a threat to those companies in any way and, perhaps, act as an advertisement for them. Those who charge, on the other hand, are as said treading a very fine line and a line drawn in very VERY deep water.I also agree with you though CaptKornDog, if you do a paint for someone and that some then "offers you" some form of compensation for your effort, that to me is acceptable and is vastly different to advertising a charge for the work. Albeit, I still wouldn't take money for something that I love doing and that provides me with as much satisfaction as I trust the end result provides the recipient/s.Cheers and also, apologize for the slight hi jack of the post.

[EagleSkinner 36]

As far as © holders refusing a livery - I have had three so far: Breitling for a fictional and Pirelli refused me permission to repaint the yellow Pirelli Do27 and another aircraft I am not at liberty or willing to discuss. Breitling because of the fictional and Pirelli because they do not make or market the tyre that was depicted on the aircraft.I also had one "How dare you!?" when I had the aircraft owner's permission to reproduce a livery. The very odd thing here was that although he owned the plane, he didn't own the livery - and the previous owner of that plane still did - he proved it with a copy of the copyright statement too... I did get permission after I explained though, and I now have a reasonable relationship with the guy.Which does bring up a very important point - "relationships"! By asking and getting permission to recreate liveries you actually end up making new friends and some turn into fun, long-term friendships or at least acquaintanceships. I even have the owner of one airline on my personal contacts list - and his dog! That part of researching liveries is actually one of the most rewarding.OK, sometimes you can't find the owner, or you do not get an answer. I agree I have a few liveries that are technically illegal - James Cameron never got back to me about the Avatar twin rotor liveries I did :Thinking: and nore did one or two others. But the pleasing thing is that occasionally even some of these now shows have discovered Eagleskinner liveries of their planes and sent me thank you letters too.So don't give up on painting...

[Leemazz 0]

You cannot make money from other companies logos check the airline websites before you sell a repaint , they generally say you cannot use their logos for profit .Lee Marrow