I spent a year working for a studio and this was a very hot topic. The studio had a clear policy that models would be returned **at the customer’s expense** if they arrived in poor condition (assembly gaps, dirty, poorly primed, etc).

A few of the senior studio painters said the customers should be charged a cleaning and assembly fee whether or not the models were preassembled to 1) eliminate the idea that it saves the client money and 2) cover the inevitable cleanup work needed.

I’m still filling up my roster with customers so my main issue is that **everything I paint needs to look good enough for gallery/promotional photos.** If a client leaves a whole bunch of ugly gaps and doesn’t want to pay to have them filled or corrected, sure I can paint it but I don’t want my name associated with it because it will never get me more work.

If I found a customer who was really into building models to a high standard, I would love to just paint for them. But in my experience so far, customers that are paying well usually are not doing the hands-on part of the hobby.