[Archive] My application to Forge World

Grimstonefire:

As I have finally received the official ‘no’ I thought I’d tell you guys about it.

Back in april I made enquiries about what would be required for an application.  I made my formal application on 28th april, and very, very long story short I finally heard today that I was not successful.

Shame really.  I respect their decision, but I certainly feel my skills are sufficient to make some money from this hobby.  So I am going to be spending a fair bit of time in the coming years making models for trollforged miniatures.

Not knowing whether I could enter any category other than Open (as a GW employee) was why I didn’t enter golden daemon this year and didn’t go to games day.

Baggronor:

but I certainly feel my skills are sufficient to make some money from this hobby. So I am going to be spending a fair bit of time in the coming years making models for trollforged miniatures.
It may well not have been as simple as just a matter of skill, which I too think you have enough of to make money from. Have you tried anywhere else?

Plenty of the other small manufacturers will buy sculpts off you too, if they are deemed suitable. Probably worth asking around Heresy and Hasslefree etc. Something I've been meaning to do; I spoke to the lady at Hasslefree (name escapes me for the minute) about a year ago and they offered to buy a few off me. Just a way of boosting your profile I guess.

If you feel like making some evil Dwarves for me too, I'll buy em off you ;)

Grimstonefire:

I am going to review my options I think. At the moment I need the money, so I will need to look into which are the best options to allow me to do this.

There are 2 things I know about the freelance sculptors who are working for warhammer forge

They all are full/part time miniature sculptors, so do a hell of a lot more sculpting than I do.

They all either have minis for sale that can be searched for, or a website showcasing their skills.

Both of these I fully intend to rectify, sculpting a model every 2 weeks if I can (though maybe not all will be for sale), and creating a website with all the best minis on to get myself known.

Thommy H:

I spoke to the lady at Hasslefree (name escapes me for the minute)
Libby. And yeah, what Baggronor said.

Grimstonefire:

If anyone is interested, I happen to know a couple of interesting things about the warhammer forge.  Firstly their budget is overspent by quite a bit.  This obviously may have impacted on my application.

Secondly that models that have already been sculpted (that we haven’t seen yet) that were described as being amongst the best models FW have done have been entirely resculpted as the work of the freelance sculptor was not deemed as good enough.

Again, this may be very important for my application, as they really are looking for the best they can get.  Which, given the serious budget situation, is extremely important.  That, or there is some issue with the cross over people like Mark Bedford who need the money and resculpt perfectly good things.

I have always known that the quality issue would be a factor, and that I’m nowhere near being up to the skills of some sculptors, but then again I don’t feel the things I submitted properly demonstrated my skills.

As an example, the first model I sculpted was the first empire human I have ever sculpted (completely).  Which all things considered probably was not up to the quality I know I could do if I had sculpted dozens of humans already.  That and I was trying to copy a model, which is infinitely harder than doing it from my imagination.





Edit.  I’ve loaded up the pics of the nurgle ogres here

http://trollsforge.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=wip&action=display&thread=1605

Willmark:

Don’t think you have anything to be upset about there Grim the empire soldier is pretty spot on in terms of detail.

Grimstonefire:

He needed some work on the eyes and some minor adjustments to hands and the rivets on his helmet. Otherwise I was very pleased with him. I was pleasantly surprised actually that I could sculpt a decent looking empire human.

Thommy H:

The sculpting is of high quality, but I think it’s an odd choice of miniature to submit. Firstly, it’s a copy of an existing figure, secondly it’s a figure that’s about 10 years old, sculpted in a style GW doesn’t really use much any more (except in their LOTR range, because that’s a Perry figure). What else did you send them?

Grimstonefire:

They asked me to sculpt a copy of an existing empire model as stage 1. ;)  Seeing as I was not going to go out and buy a model I have no real interest in collecting I just sculpted one I already had.

Stage 2 they asked me to focus on details, hands and faces.  I sculpted loads of heads of pretty much all races, all of which were quite good imo (except possibly the chaos ogre).  I did torso sculpts of a savage orc, a dwarf and a warrior priest.  Also an empire guy on an unarmoured horse.  I also included pics of all the best examples of things I’ve already sculpted.

About 3 months after this they said I had been on a list to work full time for the main studio…  Which I had never applied to, so they resubmitted my application to FW/WF and said 6 weeks.  Then when I asked it was another 3 weeks, which was about 5 weeks ago.

I said it was a long story…  From the email it sounds like it took someone all of about 5-10 mins to actually look at my submission before deciding. A damn shame really, as they could have told me no about 3 months ago. :mad

Obsidian:

You certainly have talent alright. Not getting the job instantly is not a shame really, perseverence (sp?) is the key here I think. Just keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll get there one way or another!

Grimstonefire:

I decided at the time that it would be the one and only time I ever applied to FW. But looking at all the factors around the WF division, and that I have not had enough practice of sculpting things, I may consider having another go in a year or two.

nitroglysarine:

It could literally be a case of you are as good as everyone there, but there is no space on the team a.t.m

-i’d keep sending the CV to people, don’t be disheartened. You’ll get something, you have a talent most of us can all but aspire to.

Sjoerdo:

I spoke to the lady at Hasslefree (name escapes me for the minute)
Libby. And yeah, what Baggronor said.


Thommy H
Sally is her name actually, Libby is her miniature alter ego!

Thommy H:

Oh yeah. I really should have known that.

vulcanologist:

Your sculpting is great grim. Keep perservering I’m sure you’ll get there!

snowblizz:

About 3 months after this they said I had been on a list to work full time for the main studio...  Which I had never applied to, so they resubmitted my application to FW/WF and said 6 weeks.  Then when I asked it was another 3 weeks, which was about 5 weeks ago.

I said it was a long story...  From the email it sounds like it took someone all of about 5-10 mins to actually look at my submission before deciding. A damn shame really, as they could have told me no about 3 months ago. :mad  

Grimstonefire
Too bad. Not giving an answer in a decent period of time is a common failing though. I'd call it unprofessional but that would probably earn me a digital slap from Thommy for using the word incorrectly or something.

I think the major problem is that it is a buyer's market really. A lot more people are likely looking to make money from their hobby than before so I'd expect the competition to be pretty brutal. I see the same with paid PhD positions at my uni's "research school". They can and have insane requirements for acceptance due to financing issues.

Also GW is doing a lot of cut back programs it seems so I can see where new hires might be a hard sell.

If I'm brutally honest though, what I've seen isn't quite on par with FW stuff. Though greens have a tendency to look worse than the final cast in pics IMO. Not having sculpted Empire guys before probably let you down there. I really think it is important to be able to produce stuff "in their style", no matter how good you are it won't help if you can't do it in the style they use. After all they are looking to hire you to do "GW minis".
The Avatar of War range is a good example of that. Until GW's lawyers crawl up their backside with lawsuits anyway.

I think you are on the right track in doing your own stuff and having it cast or sold yourself or by other companies. It gives you practice, gets your name out there "in da biz" and hopefully gives you at least some return on your time invested.

Obviously the position you want to aspire to is where *they* call you up and offer commissions. Or however they do it. Or you could get a boring job with a steady pension plan. If there are any of those left anywhere anymore.:P

Thommy H:

No, unprofessional is fine in that context. The opposite of “professional” in the sense of being paid to do a job is “amateur” - unprofessional really does mean doing something in a way that is not becoming of a professional person.

Grimstonefire:

So, something interesting.  It seems I was rejected regardless of my sculpting skills as they stopped using freelance sculptors in early Nov.  There’s quite a few freelance people now (Kev & Steve that I know of) that are holding onto WIP models they will never be paid for and cannot sell (not as cast models anyway).  Not sure if it is because Kev walked out on them after Rick left.

Damnit.  I would have worked for them for considerably less than these ‘professionals’.  Why the hell they didn’t just say this in their email to me I don’t know!?. :mad

zobo1942:

Why couldn’t they finish the WIP models and sell them? If you haven’t been paid for it, then you’re the one that owns it - isn’t that right?

I know that if I were doing something for a client who turned out to be a deadbeat and decided not to pay me (games workshop in the above scenario) than I’d have no problem at all re-purposing the work to suit someone else’s requirements. And I don’t think it would even matter what you signed - as the deadbeat client has essentially ‘nulled’ the contract by deciding they don’t want the work.

Or am I wrong?

Grimstonefire:

That is what Kev has done with a pirate he was commissioned to sculpt.  They have to rework the models though to be different enough from GW IP.  Some models I imagine this would be possible, but the guy who made all the empire upgrade parts must be annoyed.

They will probably want to sell it somehow, as these guys are full time freelancers as far as I know.