A Starter Buying Guide for Miniature Painting

Not everybody that plays miniature games becomes involved in the painting side of the hobby. Miniature painting is merely one side of the hobby and not necessary for enjoyment of the games involved. The inverse is also true. One does not have to play miniature games to enjoy painting. They are two separate hobbies that coexist within the same space. There are many painters out there that do quality work at a low price and some companies sell prepainted miniatures. I do not think that everybody that plays miniature games needs to learn to paint. It adds an extra barrier to the entry of the hobby for many people. I do like to see painted models. They add variety and character along with making it easier to differentiate between models from across the table. I do not however feel like everybody should have to paint their own if they do not want to or can not for any reason.

This article is to help those that would like to get in on the ground floor of miniature painting but do not know where to start. My hope is that this post will cover enough of the basics to get somebody completely new to the hobby the materials they need to begin enjoying miniature painting while keeping the initial cost down.

Picking what paints to buy can be challenging. Even a starter set of paints in many lines lacks some of what I would consider the basics. Before we get started, please keep in mind these are some of my opinions. My opinion on any given topic is likely to change as I accumulate more information. Nothing here should be taken as facts so much as they are suggestions using my current level of experience. I will be talking solely of acrylic paints designed with miniature painting in mind. There are other options out there, but these paints are probably the easiest way to get started in the hobby.

My first piece of advice is if you are looking to paint one uniform force and have no interest in painting anything outside of those models for now then pick colours to purchase based solely on the army choice. Most of the advice I will provide in this article is more directly aimed at those that want to paint a variety of models with different colour schemes. Please feel free to ignore colour suggestions from the rest of the article if going this route.

To me, the basic colours of a starting set are a strong red, blue, yellow, green, black, and white. I do not recommend desaturated versions of these colours as you can tone them down by mixing them together or simply adding a bit of black and/or white to the colour. Red, blue, and yellow are the primary colours when mixing paint. Green is a bit harder to mix a vibrant green than either purple or orange so it is the first of the secondaries I suggest buying. Green is a primary colour when mixing light and there is some evidence that suggests our eyes translate everything on a red/blue/yellow/green wavelength so it could possibly be a primary colour. For painting discussions however, it will almost always be presented as a secondary during any talk about colour theory. The only important part to take away from this for now is that mixing to a high saturation green is harder than the other secondaries.

Now, those six colour are what I consider bare minimum if looking to paint vastly different models. You can get a lot of variety by mixing just those six colours and will make mixing easier as you add to your paint collection if you keep with the hobby.

Next I would pick up a flesh tone, a rich brown, and a medium steel metallic if you want to use metallic paint. A wash or ink can also be useful. A wash is a high pigment liquid that is thinner than the paint. It is generally designed with settling into the recesses of the model, but can also be controlled to tint an area as well. Brown washes are probably the most used with black coming close behind. Expanding on these, my next picks are a purple followed by orange. Orange is so easy to make from red and yellow that it is the last suggestion I have for these purchases.

That leaves us with a twelve colour starter set if you go pick up everything suggested so far. I recommended at least getting everything except the metal and wash if you do not want to use either. Different paint brands behave in their own manner, but for now use whatever acrylic paint is available to you. You can mix different lines so picking up a colour from a different brand later will be no problem. I am working on another article that covers different acrylic brands I have experience with. You can wait for that article if you like, but to start I feel paint brand is less important than paint colours.

The one item that I consider essential to miniature painting that is not covered here is primer. You can get a can of Rustoleum for cheap. Walmart brand has a primer for around a dollar. It only comes in grae, but grae is a nice primer colour to learn on so is not a problem. The other common primer colours are black and white. Which one works for you really is a matter of experimentation. The hobby brands can be nice, but tend to be expensive for what they offer. I find the hobby brands hold more per can, but the price can be as much as four times the cost of automotive primer. Many award winning painters use sandable primer brands intended for automobile use so check car part retailers or automotive section of a local store.

Superglue and a knife of some sort are also recommended for model prep. I used a paring knife from a multi-pack at a dollar store for years. Hobby knives or XActo blades are fairly cheap and work great. Eventually you may want some files, saws, sanding paper, and putty, but a knife and some glue to assemble the models are enough to start. I recommend scratching up the surface where two pieces meet to help give the glue a better grip. Later on you may get to the point where you are using a bit of rod to reinforce joins (pinning), but for now scoring (scratching up the surface) will provide a better hold than gluing smooth surfaces together.

You will need brushes as well. I recommend synthetics for now. I love my kolinsky sables, but they are expensive and easy to burn through if used for all painting. Jabbing a brush into crevices to make certain you get into everywhere or drybrushing can both be rough on brushes that are designed primarily for watercolour use on a surface with a low tooth.

Synthetics start with great tips, but will curl before too long. You will go through quite a few of them, but they are much cheaper and more widely available. There is a lot of discussion on brushes out there and I may do an article myself at some point. The big benefits of synthetics is they are cheap, readily available, and while the point lasts are great at putting paint exactly where you want it. Natural hair brushes can be a bit more floppy, can start with worse point unless it is a really nice brush, but are better for blending and keep what tip they do have longer. That said, there are Golden Daemon winners that only use one or the other so both choices or a mix of the two are completely viable. I feel that synthetics offer the better option at lower price points which is why I recommend them when starting.

You can extend the life of either type of brush with some brush soap. I use Master's which is cheap from any art supply store. Before that I used shampoo and sometimes conditioner. It's not vital to get brush soap when starting as you can use shampoo, but it is definitely something you will want if you delve into higher end brushes.

From here I suggest playing with what you have. See what colours you can create by mixing your collection. What colours are easy to mix and what is hard? When you are ready to expand buy colours you either use a lot of, like the colour, or is a colour that you find difficult to mix from your existing colours. Once you get mixing down you will find there are a lot of colours out there that you do not require unless you want it for a time saver or you think it's pretty.

I hope this helps anybody that is interested in getting involved with the miniature painting hobby. I know this is a lot of information if you are coming at the hobby fresh. It should provide a strong base to build off of as you continue forward in the hobby however so I hope the time it takes to read this is worth it for you.