Just wondering, who is the lucky person that gets to build all the new models before they come out? It would be pretty cool to do that and have the model you built on the sides of 1,000's of boxes. Iam sure its not just one person that bulds all of these, but how do the companies pick a person to build a model or do they hire the same person for one subject armor, aircraft, cars, etc.? And have any of you ever built a model for a company?

Mike

I have to presume, Mike, that the major model manufacturers have a small staff dedicated to doing that job. After all, they need to have the prototype parts built into a finished model to make sure that things generally fit and to do the doumentation for the assembly directions. Yeah, we all complain about fit issues but I think that we are also more critical than most. And beyond that, a pretty version with the chosen paint scheme and decals must be done for the box art. I would surmise that these people are part of the kit engineering team that does the masters for the parts and sprue layouts. Send a resume to the likes of Revell/Monogram and see what they say; unless moving to Japan (Tamiya) or Shanghai (DML) is your cup of tea. The closest I have come to commercial work was making a four by four foot simple diorama for a yacht dealer about a dozen years ago. They were buiding a new boat storage facility, and wanted a model to show the existing structure, the new one to be built, and the relationship to the river. Pretty simple, really; made it about HO scale out of lots of Evergreen styrene, model railroad ballast, and a resin pour for the river. Well, except for the chemistry problems but that's another story....

Greg

A couple of guys that paint figures for the box art on some of Warriors and Jaguars figures com into the shop i work at alot. They are well known figure builders and they go to the main shows alot. I myself has painted a few resin kits for a local sculpter who used them for his box art and show display kits.

What are those, Pete? Can you show us the stuff?

Mario M.

I seem to recall folks like Steve Zaloga saying they sometimes got pre shipment kits from the manufacturers. I guess its two fold,one keep the guys who'lll probably do reviews happyand two Get the most experienced to critique your kit before public opinion does

yes this would be really cool tobuild be fore any body else does i would love to work for the model comapnys and build the tanks that are on the boxes

I guess if we were good enough we could get these models to review for free from the companies, just like the pros.
If you had your own popular site this would be cheap advertising for the bigger companies to do that.
If Jim was sent items to review, it would be available to an appropriate audience and if he got keeping them it would make great prizes for competitions.
I wonder what Andrew Dextas does with all the items he reviews in Missing Links?

Maki,
Here is the web sight . http://ravenstarstudios.com
I painted the Rebel on Taun Taun, Boba Fett on Bird and a couple of the Federation ships.

Nice work, Pete. That Taun Taun must have been a tough one.. So, how does it really work? You get a free model from a company and then you build it for them, or you build your own model but send some pics to the company they could use for promotion of the model?

Mario M.

I'm not sure how it works for the major manufacturers, but as with me. Chris always comes into the shop i work at. I always display my work in the display case so that if any customes looks at me like Im feeding them a bunch of bull, I can show them that all the info I give them comes form experience. Anyways, Chris came in one day and asked if I would be interested in painting some stuff for him and in trade I would get a kit. Well it turned out that I just liked painting the stuf for him and all i asked in return was the credit. Like I mentioned earlier, Arthur Berning, Rick Rutter, and Doug Cohen also comes into my shop. There names has been on several Warriors and Jaguar figure boxes. I guess the may have gottenapproched at one of the big contest that they always attend. National and other big time shows where the manufacturers are there, would be a big start. As far as figures are concerened inthe lines of fantasy and sci-fi, Wonderfest would be a start for that.

Hola,
Epi, why dont you get Doug Cohens email for me

Ive also painted figures for Collectors Choice (Dave Bighia - Yank miniatures) ANd usually you get a kit of the one you painted and or money, I think going rate is around $100 for a box art 54mm figure.

Anders,
I'll try for you, but I'll be leaving for two weeks, so it will be a while.

Earlier in my career I did some catalog/dio work for big "T" and currently as a side I consult design & develop masters for different companies. If your thinking about making a career out of modeling all you really have to do is contact the companies your interested in by sending them your resume and pictures of your work. Beware do not do this if your not ready to work 16 or more hrs to make a deadline. Also once you enter the world of the professional modeling artist you may at times find the projects uninspiring, my advice to you is to push back from what your working on and refocus. Hopfully this helps!

Cheers
:-)

I agree,
When you are pressed to finish, or know you HAVE to be done by a certain date, it kind of brings the fun out of it. Makes it a chore instead of a a hobby.

Well, you are getting paid for it.